Nature Photography How To

If you're ready for an impressive burst of color, look no further than this comprehensive tutorial from a very notable British pro who demonstrates his secrets for capturing the ephemeral beauty of wildflowers—subjects that expert Tony Howell refers to as "nature's tiny masterpieces."

Howell is a highly acclaimed photographer, author, and educator whose spectacular works has been featured on television, in countless magazines and books, along with calendars, billboards, greeting cards, and elsewhere. His extensive client list includes National Geographic the BBC, Penguin Books, England's National Trust, and other highly respected outlets.

Today's behind-the-scenes episode take you along for a jaunt to a spectacular location in Cornwall on a headland near the beach that's full of colorful orchids, delicate poppies and a  variety of other blooms. Howell reveals the gear he prefers, his favorite shooting techniques, and the camera settings he recommends. Along the way you'll learn how his composes wildflower photographs for maximum impact.

His favorite technique is to get his tripod really low and shoot with a long lens like his 100-400mm telephotos zoom. He begins at the long end of the lens at f/5.6 and demonstrates how he often "shoots through things" with a very shallow depth of field so that foreground flowers are out of focus and his sharp subject stands out against a soft, pleasing background.

Howell likes to travel as light as possible and his 100-400mm focuses pretty close, so he opts for a simple set of extension tubes instead of a dedicated macro lens offering 1:1 reproduction at the expense of more reach. You'll also see how a compact, affordable reflector can really help fill in shadows and control the light falling on the subject.

The foregoing is just a small taste of everything you'll learn in the next 14 minutes that will get set you on the right path for making breathtaking wildflower photos the next time you head out in the field. You can find a wide assortment of eye-opening how-to videos by visiting Howell's very interesting YouTube channel.

We also recommend watching the earlier tutorial we shared with a post-processing specialist who demonstrates how to batch-edit multiple photographs in a series with three different techniques in Lightroom and Lightroom Classic.