Pictures of Roses
It's All in the Light!

To create stunning pictures of roses, you have to cultivate your creative eye, patiently wait for the perfect bloom, then apply some technical photography rules. Study a few basic flower photography tips to perfect your rose photographs.

Photographers aren't born, their skill comes with study and .....practice, practice, practice!

Light is your new best friend now that you're a photographer. Get to know it early in the morning, in the day and the evening. Then your pictures of roses will get the "Wow, you took that photo!" response when you show them off to your friends and family!

Here's a time saving tip -- Check the plant's name tag when you're taking your rose photographs. Jot down the names in your notebook. Remember the Scouts' motto - always be prepared! If you don't record the name, you'll regret it. Just ask me!

This picture was taken early in the morning on a lightly overcast day, perfect filtered light...and the perfect yellow roses for a note card! This fragile, creamy-yellow Rose Elina lives at Van Dusen's Botanical Gardens in Vancouver, Canada.

My photography instructors pointed out that they could tell right away that this photograph was mine. I've developed a style! That's a good thing... many of my flower photographs have a bloom and a bud that's out of focus in the background.

I love this light! I waited a little while for a cloud to cover the sun. Patience is a virtue when you're a photographer! Don't rush anything, hang on and get the best flower rose photographs you can.

This flawless Hannah Gordon bloom is in sharp focus and the background is blurred. But even though its focused, it still looks soft and dainty.

Nothing steals your eye from the impressive rose bloom because of the lighting and it fills the frame. Hannah Gordon lives in VanDusen Botanical Garden's formal rose garden.

The colors are delicate and the light is soft! The flower is so perfect, it's almost ethereal. Always photograph newly opened blooms when they have no spots.

Once a rose blooms, it doesn't stay perfect for long. It starts to wilt or looks a bit tired, gets some brown spots. You know what I mean! Take your pictures of roses while the flowers are new so you won't have to do much photo editing.

This rose and several others on this page, were taken at VanDusen Botanical Garden in the Formal Rose Garden.

I bet you thought it was too cold in Anchorage, Alaska to get gorgeous pictures of roses! You're wrong. This city is “flower power” in the summer. Take a long walk downtown and then explore the residential streets. The gardens are gorgeous and abundant!

If you're familiar with the Midnight Sun, you know that the summer days are so long they just run together. I loved the nearly 24 hour daylight when I was there.

Well, for the first week, that is. Then the exhaustion set in. Couldn't fool my body, it knew that the sun was still up and I didn't want to waste a minute of it. Was it ever difficult to sleep!

But that run-on sun is why the flowers do so well in Anchorage. Short growing season but very long days.

This is a wonderful blossom! A surprise find in Anchorage, Alaska. I was wandering around between downtown and the Tony Knowle's Coastal Trail and came across some small community gardens. This one was a rose garden beside a small playground.

This tri-colored rose was huge... didn't measure it but I'd guess six inches round.

Explore areas of your own neighborhood. Discover something new every day, flowers or other treasures. There's so much of nature all around us - even in an empty lot.

Here's a "china-pink" tea rose with a bud ready to take over for it when it fades. The petals seem to have a slightly blue tone to them.

Shot on a bright but cloudy day. It is a scanned 35 mm slide.

This bloom reminds me of an icing rose on the top of a birthday or wedding cake. It almost looks delicious!

The rose bud isn't blurred here because its on the same plain as the flower. So they're both completely in focus.

My sister's garden attracts all kinds of birds and little animals in the summer. She plants flowers that attract lots of garden friends. Try to catch some in your pictures of roses. Maybe a butterfly will land on one at an opportune time!

Its so much better to wake up to birds singing their little hearts out in the morning, than a shrill alarm clock!

And early morning is the best time to visit the flowers with a camera. So quiet. Once the Manitoba Peace Rose starts to bloom I get up early to catch the dew on the petals. Remember, catch rose blooms on camera when they're fresh. Don't let them get old and spotty.

This bush is intriguing. It's a miniature with various colors of blooms, light yellow, peach, and light to dark pink. This one bush gave me several great pictures of roses.

Its on the seawall on False Creek right near the bridge across to Granville Island.

Most photographers carry a smaller camera with them at all times, just a fixed lens camera so they can grab pictures of flowers, or anything else that catches their fancy. Its not always possible to carry all your photo gear or an SLR with you for lots of different reasons.

Make sure you have some means of taking photos... your iphone for instance... all the time, or you'll be complaining about the shot that got away!

Before you press the shutter-release;

This shows what you can do by using a colored matte board, maybe cardboard or foam board as a background for a flower. I usually use a neutral color to emphasize the colors in the flower. But sometimes its nice to experiment.

Think of all the ways you can use these pictures!

Turn them into wallpaper for your computer monitor. Have you looked at my flower wallpapers? Or use your pictures as a screensaver.

If you'd like to share my monthly wallpapers, its easy to sign up for a new one every month, they're free and there's no obligation. Here they are.

They would be good for stock photography since many of the people who buy images want lots of copy space... a place to put their printed message.

Photos on plain backgrounds are also great for note cards - for the same reason... you can put your own message on them. Just use your photo editing software.

On Mothers Day, I sent off some gorgeous floral note cards for gifts. A present with a personal touch!

This is the same beautiful rose! I sure got lots of use out of it. It makes a great floral note card.

Practice taking pictures of roses on white or neutral backgrounds.

Leave lots of space and then open the file in your photo editing program and print in your message.

I used bright pink cardboard to match the pink in the rose. When you pick your background material, don't use a shiny surface. I made that mistake the first time and so many of those pictures of roses were throw-aways.

Shiny surfaces reflect light and you'll have different shades of color in the background. Use a flat finish like matte cardboard and you'll be much happier with the result.

If you're shooting pictures of roses for stock photography, its best to use a white or a black background.

The first pink floribunda rose photo was taken just after a light rain... the raindrops sprinkled this floribunda rose beside False Creek. I love the gentle light and raindrops dripping from the top petals.

If you want your flowers decorated with raindrops but there's no rain in sight, make your own. Carry a small spray bottle of water with you! Water makes the color of petals and leaves richer.

But remember, rain and humidity aren't your camera's best friends! Have a rainproof backpack or other camera bag, a tripod for your camera and an umbrella to hold over them. Tripods don't like moisture either, so dry it out at home before putting it away.

The second shot - the Manitoba Peace Rose is gorgeous and very hardy. This rose was bred in Morden, Manitoba - you'd have to be hardy, too! The wild roses withstand much colder temperatures than roses we usually cut for the house.

Manitoba has harsh, cold winters... but the colder the day, the bluer the sky. Perhaps God's way of making up for the cold.

To have such a beautiful rose like this in your garden is really special! This Peace Rose is thriving in my sister's garden near Toronto where the winter can also be challenging. Its lasted several years without over-winter problems and it looks just great each spring.

If you take pictures at dawn or dusk, you'll see that the light has a warm golden color. So the time of day will affect the light which will have a big influence on your pictures of roses.

I could have filtered the blue tone out of the picture in Photoshop but... I wanted to show you how your photos are affected by color temperatures at different times of the day.

If you want to change the color temperature, you can do that in Adobe Camera Raw or another editing program. But you don't always want to adjust the color temperature a lot. Think of the hot colors of a sunset and you wouldn't want to make those neutral!

Befriend a local florist! Let her know you're a “budding” flower photographer. If you visit often, she'll be picking out the best blooms for you.

Ask if she needs some pictures of roses, or other flowers in her shop for advertising. You may find a customer for your flower pictures!

You could offer her a print of your photos to put up in her shop. And give her your business card for when admirers ask who the photographer was.

Maybe she'd sell your floral note cards for you, too! If it looks like this venture might make some real money for you, buy a card stand to display them at their best.

The first shot below is another gigantic yellow bloom in a neighborhood rose garden in Anchorage -- near Tony Knowle's Coastal trail. Wow- when I stumbled on this small community rose garden in full bloom... What a treat!

The yellow color in the petals is so clear and pure -- just like sunshine. I like these lemon yellow shades. This is another huge bloom but there were several smaller species in this garden.

At the time I only had my film camera with me and these pictures of roses are all 35 mm slide film. They're scanned on a Nikon Cool Scan and only a few minor adjustments in Photoshop.

Take the best pictures of roses you can right from the start. Don't think you'll fix it up in your photo editor. The old saying, garbage-in, garbage-out, remains true in photography. A bad photo can't be fixed... its still a bad photo even if you edit it!

The second picture... When I was studying photography, I had an apartment in a Vancouver home. This rose bush was in the back yard. It gave me lots of practice and some great pictures while it bloomed.

I used a fabulous old Olympus camera at that time. Olympus is an excellent choice for a camera, great lenses as well. But when my Olympus gave out, my choice was Nikon. Now that all my lenses are Nikon, I wouldn't change to any other brand. Not because they aren't as good but because lenses are too expensive to buy all over again!

It doesn't matter what brand of camera you have. Its the photographer -- and not the camera -- responsible for getting fantastic pictures of roses.