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Photography of Gardens
If you can't use a tripod, make sure to pack relatively fast lenses
(f/2.8 or faster) and ISO 400 film. Among the ISO 400 films, my
favorites are professional color negative films, intended for
weddings. These have less color saturation and contrast than
consumer films and therefore will render distinct green tones more
distinctly. Check the photo.net film page for our latest
recommendations in professional ISO 400 negative film. Most of
the images on this page were taken with Fuji NPH or Kodak Portra
400NC film; click on the thumbnails for technical details. If you
are using a tripod, you can indulge in the luxury of slide film. Again, pick one with a painterly palette
and good separation among green tones.
A 50mm lens on a 35mm SLR camera can be ideal for garden photography. It can focus close enough to
isolate a plant. The normal perspective gives a viewer an accurate idea of what the garden will feel like.
A 50/1.4 lens is fast enough to permit good photography without a tripod, assuming extensive depth of
field is not required.
You can do some fun things with a wide angle lens. It is useful for exaggerating the structure of a formal
European garden or getting a frame-filling picture of a sculpture while still including a lot of
background. Here are a couple of examples taken with a 20-35mm zoom lens:
A telephoto lens is good for compressing perspective and is particularly good in European gardens with
their lanes of trees. Here are a couple of snapshots from Giardino Giusti in Verona (sadly they are
miscaptioned as being from the Boboli garden in Florence):
http://www.photo.net/architectural/gardens (10 of 13)7/3/2005 2:17:06 AM