Alstroemeria flowers

Shadow Play

Posted on by Ann Mackay

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When I photograph a garden that I’m visiting, I obviously have little control over the light. On a sunny day, the contrast between the highlights and the shadows can be huge. Sometimes I can find a position where the shaded areas in the image won’t matter. Occasionally, for a close-up of a plant, I may use a small folding reflector, or a piece of white card or paper, to reflect more light into the shadows. (I don’t carry a flash because I try to carry as little weight as possible, apart from the camera.)

The alstroemerias in the photograph above were growing by trees that shaded them at times, including the time I was there. Different visits would possibly give the opportunity to photograph them without the shadows, but I like the rather ‘jungly’ feel that they give. (I think it suits the look of the flowers.) Those shadows also tell the viewer a little bit about the environs of the plant.

Henstead Exotic Garden

There was a lot more shade to deal with in my attempts to photograph Henstead Exotic Garden. The massive amount of foliage of all the palms, bamboos, tree ferns and other unusual trees and shrubs made it dark below. That meant it was difficult to get good results when photographing some of the plants at ground level. Instead, it was much easier to turn the camera upwards to capture the pattern of light and shade through the leaves.

autumn crocuses (Colchicum)

Another patch of deep shade (photo above) made photographing these autumn crocuses come down to luck. Like the alstroemerias, a visit at a different time of day could have moved the shadows away from them. As it was, fortune smiled and there was just enough light to catch this shadowy pair against a dark background. (With a photograph in these conditions, I often find that I have to adjust the highlights downwards when making the RAW conversion. The range of contrast can be too much for the camera to capture otherwise.)

Pink rhododendron flowers

I had similar conditions to deal with when photographing the rhododendron above. It’s a shrub that is happy growing in the shade of taller trees, often where there will be bright sunlight falling through deep shadow…again a time when I have to rescue the highlights during RAW processing. (So much easier than during my days of using slide film!)

The bright green of the gunnera (below) attracted my attention, with the dark veins blocking the light that was coming through the huge leaves. For this image, I wanted the shadows to be dark so that they would contrast with the well-lit areas of the leaves. I’d like to come back to this spot on another sunny day and experiment a bit further…playing with shadows can be fun!

light and shadows on gunnera leaves
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Published by Ann Mackay

Photographer, mixed-media art adventurer and completely daft about plants.......

14 thoughts on “Shadow Play”

  1. You obviously put a lot of thought into your lovely photos. I sometimes get frustrated with my inability to capture satisfying shots. I need you with me as my official photographer. It is a special talent.

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  2. It’s good to hear you take your pictures in raw mode. As you said, it gives you a lot of flexibility to adjust highlights and shadows and to make photographs more appealing in other ways as well. Who would ever want to go back to the limitations of film?

    Your crocuses are reminiscent of our rain lilies (Zephyranthes spp.)

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    1. Digital makes life so much easier and RAW is almost like being in the darkroom, but without the chemicals. (Though I still have film cameras which I haven’t yet been able to bring myself to part with.)

      Your rain lilies are beautiful – I’ve seen some gorgeous photographs of them.

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    1. Thanks Jude! 🙂 I love using a camera and haven’t really got to grips with using a phone instead…I’ve been using a camera for so long that it feels simpler!

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  6. The photos are lovely. The rhododendron surprised me; I thought they were azaleas when I saw them. You’ve nudged me again about shooting in RAW. My camera has the ability to shoot in that mode, but I haven’t figured out how to process the photos. I have an early stand-alone version of Lightroom that I’ve never figured out, and I just can’t bring myself to shell out the money for a subscription for the current versions. I need to explore the free options that are out there, including Canon’s free processing program that’s suitable for my camera.

    I might need to drag out the reflector I have in a drawer as well!

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    1. Thanks Linda! It’s easier to tell rhododendrons and azaleas apart if you see them often, which we did in Scotland (we had some in our garden and often saw those in Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden). Rhodies tend to be much bigger and the flowers are a bit different, with more stamens than the azaleas. (But technically they’re both part of the Rhododendron genus.)

      I don’t use Lightroom, nor do I have a Photoshop subscription. Instead I do the RAW processing in Canon’s DPP and the do the rest in an old non-subscription version of Photoshop on my older PC. Eventually I’ll have to start using Affinity Photo which I have on a newer PC and I think it will do everything that I need…finding time to learn about it is an issue! (You can now get a free version of Affinity Photo which does everything and is worth looking at.)

      I need to remember to actually take a reflector with me too… 🙂

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      1. Well, I now have Affinity downloaded. When I get some time — perhaps the next rainy day — I’ll watch the tutorial and give it a whirl. I just found quite a collection of instructional videos on YouTube as well, so away we go!

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