Chasing the light for spring wildflowers, using diffuse light to highlight color.

Spring is the season for those delicate ephemeral wildflowers and one of the most spectacular things about this time of the year is the bright colors the flowers bring to life.  How do you emphasize these colors?  The answer is to photograph using the correct type of light.  In previous posts I have discussed the use and manipulation of spectacular light and this time I will cover the soft, even, mellow light we call diffuse light that occurs before sunrise or after sunset, in the shade or on overcast days.  Think of it this way, spectacular light comes from a light bulb and we use a shade over the light bulb to even out the harshness and shadows and evenly light the entire area.  I often use this analogy about using light for flowers.  When you want to feature textures and strong bold features we use and manipulate spectacular light which we often do when photographing men (think Marlboro Man here).  However, when photographing women (and flowers are often given feminine stature) we do not want to emphasize those strong features and use diffuse light, bounced light, or something that reduces contrast, shadows and allows for the natural beauty to shine through.  This type of light also intensifies the color saturation with less contrast.  There are several ways to access this type of light and one of those is to get up early or stay up late or shoot when the sun disappears behind a cloud.  Or perhaps shooting on a cloudy, overcast day or in the fog.  You can create your own shade but using the same deflector used to bounce spectacular light or you can carry an old white or muslin cloth and drape it over the area on a bright sunny day to diffuse the light.  Other than strong color saturation the other reason to consider using this light is to make better use of colors that blend together and produce nice soft color harmonies.

Notice how the light pink azalea flowers blend and harmonize with the light lavender of the iris with low contrast of the browns and greens, which are neutral colors?  In the next image, which is a soft focus of hepatica unfolding, notice how the light blue and green blend nicely and how the background is a bit deeper shade of the hepatica and serves to highlight the hepatica flowers?  This was accomplished by a double exposure whereby I opened up and didn't focus on any particular part of the image but just the color and then did a second exposure over the top of the individual flowers to achieve this nice color harmony because the background was a dreary blackish, brownish color which took away from the delicate flower blooms.

 As you head into the field this spring to photograph wildflowers, keep this light information in the back of your mind and unleash the creativity within you and experiment with exposures, light, and even composition. You might even end up with something spectacular.