The Recipe for Getting This Type of Shot

SCOTT KELBY

Characteristics of this type of shot: soft, natural light; shot on a black background, very close to the subject. This type of shot is easier than it looks.

1. You need a black background behind your flowers. These were sitting in a vase, with black poster board placed about 3 feet behind them. You can use black velvet (which works even better than what was used here) that you buy from the local fabric store.

2. You have to set up your tripod's height so it's level with the flowers. You don't want to shoot down on themyou want to shoot them at eye level, so put the vase on a table so they're up high enough, then position your tripod at the same height.

3. Use natural light. These were positioned about 4 feet from an open window that wasn't getting direct light. Don't shoot straight into the window, shoot from the side so your flowers are getting side lighting.

4. Use a macro or close-up lens to get this close to the flowers. When you use a macro (or close-up lens), the depth of field is very shallow automatically, so the flower(s) in the background will already be blurry, and that's what you want.

5. The f-stop was f/5.6, which again gives you maximum sharpness on the object closest to the camera, and everything behind will be blurry. It was shot in aperture priority mode (which is an ideal mode for controlling your depth of field). When shooting with a macro lens, the depth of field is much more shallow.

6. To get super sharp, you need to be super still; use the mirror lock-up trick in Chapter 1.