What flowers are blooming at your house?

This week's Photo Challenge theme is "Flowers". The photos can be of a single flower, a group of flowers, cut flowers, flowers in the garden, wildflowers or any kind of photo of flowers.

The Peoples' Choice prize is a $10 Amazon.com Gift card and the Instructors' Choice prize is a $20 Learn to Take Photos coupon. The upload deadline is: 05-10-2009 11:59 pm

Click here for recent winners and to rate and upload for challenges.

Our photo challenges are for our students. If you are not yet a student, why not try a class? We offer free short courses each month for new students. Coupon codes are available on the course detail pages. We have courses starting May 6 and 20th.

Tips for better flower photos

Soft indirect light is best for flowers. You want to avoid bright sun because it creates overly bright highlights and hot spots on your flowers. Try using a diffuser to make the light softer. If you don't have a diffuser you can use a piece of sheer white fabric like a bed sheet for the purpose.

Use your telephoto lens to isolate a single flower. Set your aperture to wide open like f/2.8 or f/4 and zoom out to your longest focal length like 200mm.

Try your wide angle lens for fields of flowers. Set your aperture to f/22 and use a wide focal length like 24mm. Get a very low camera position and focus about 1/3 of the way into the scene. You'll be amazed at the dramatic effect.

Early morning or just after a rain is a great time to shoot flowers in the garden. The light is soft and the flowers have dewdrops.

Window light works great for cut flowers. You can set your flower up in any window without direct sunlight. The most ideal is a north-facing window but any window getting non-direct sunlight will work. Use your tripod for window light setups.

Try a spray bottle to mist your flowers and create your own dew drops if you are setting up a shot.

Happy Shooting!

Christina & Laura