Danielle Smith Photography

Last week I spent a couple of hours having a 1-2-1 with the lovely Danielle from Danielle Smith Photography to learn how to use my camera and how to take decent photos of my flowers. She took me through some of the key terms like ISO, aperture, shutter speed and depth of field, and I can now gladly say that I know what they all mean! I told her I wanted to take light, soft, dreamy photos of my flowers and this is exactly what she showed me. I'm sure we only covered basics (I'm not looking to be a photographer after all!) but it wasn't anywhere near as complicated as I thought it was going to be. We also touched on composition and social media, and I've definitely picked up some really helpful tips. 

​I got some flowers in and put together a bouquet in my signature style - loose, natural, pretty and romantic. This gave us a subject for the photographs. I've always been reluctant to take photos inside my workshop as it's so busy and I've always thought the lighting was a bit rubbish. However, Danielle showed me how to take advantage of the lighting available to me and with my new 50mm lens I was able to take photos with a shallow depth of field. AKA give the photos a blurry background so the flowers in the foreground are the only thing in focus. She also took me through some basic editing but explained that if my camera is set up correctly then I shouldn't need to edit too much. 

Take a look at some of the photographs I took below. All of these are straight from the camera with no editing, no filters - I'm amazed!

To any florists out there looking to improve their photography skills I would highly recommend booking in some time with a photographer local to you whose work you admire. And if you're in Essex then Danielle is your woman! 

Danielle has also blogged about our day and you can read her post here.