Common Floral Photography Mistakes

Capturing flowers and floral designs on camera can be challenging. What you see in real life does not always easily translate to a photograph.

Some of the common mistakes I see include:

-Floral designs featured in photos with cluttered backgrounds.

-Photos taken inside with overhead lights on or busy living spaces in the background.

-Too many close-ups in a floral portfolio so that we don’t actually see the compositions of the designer to understand their work and talent.

-Using a phone or wide angle lens for a close up photo.

-Not styling flowers for the camera.

-Snapshots of events that are not well composed or professional.

-Photos that don’t feel aspirational.

-Un-styled, snapshot photos that don’t feel professional

-Cheap vases used in floral compositions that don’t add value to your designs.

I’d love to guide you into capturing your floral designs on camera in a professional way that inspires your clients to hire you for your floral designs and/or expresses the true beauty of your floral designs!

Join me this summer for the FLORAL PORTFOLIO BUILDER!

FLOWER PORTFOLIO BUILDER: A 4 week Course
to Build your Floral Portfolio

🌿Get constructive feedback on your portfolio and flower photos.

🌿Learn how to curate a portfolio to best showcase the products you sell.

🌿Actually get your floral portfolio created instead of dreaming about it.

🌿Present your floral designs in the best light to attract the clients or employers you want to work with.

🌿Get live coaching and feedback from Chelsea.

🌿Live sessions for accountability.

🌿Recordings so you can go back and review

🌿 Walk away with 10-15 images for your floral portfolio!

Prerequisite: You need to have a solid understanding of floral design principles and have practiced floral design as a hobby or professionally. You should understand basic mechanics and conditioning.

If you are new to floral design, we recommend that you complete FLOWER ARRANGING 101 before beginning this course. You can bundle it with THE PORTFOLIO BUILDER for savings and complete 101 before our first session starts July 22nd. You need to have a phone or a camera to complete this course.

BOOK YOUR SPOT HERE!

Floral Foundations, A Career with Flowers, and The Career Bundle students enter this class automatically and free of charge.

-Chelsea



Portfolio Builder Course

Introducing: FLOWER PORTFOLIO BUILDER: A 4 week Course
Build your Floral Portfolio

🌿Get constructive feedback on your portfolio and flower photos.

🌿Learn how to curate a portfolio to best showcase the products you sell.

🌿Actually get your floral portfolio created instead of dreaming about it. 

🌿Present your floral designs in the best light to attract the clients or employers you want to work with.

🌿Get live coaching and feedback from Chelsea.

🌿Live sessions for accountability.

🌿Recordings so you can go back and review.

Prerequisite: You need to have a solid understanding of floral design principles and have practiced floral design as a hobby or professionally. You should understand basic mechanics and conditioning. If you are new to floral design, we recommend that you complete Flower Arranging 101 before beginning this course. You can bundle it with this class for savings and complete 101 before our first session starts July 22nd. You need to have a phone or a camera to complete this course.

Book your spot here!

Floral Foundations, A Career with Flowers, and The Career Bundle students enter this class automatically and free of charge.


How to Style Flowers for Camera

Once you have floral mechanics down, and you’ve gained work experience or enough experience on your own to feel confident in creating floral designs, it might be time to start sharing your work through photos, either to attract clients, or just for friends and family.

Styling flowers for camera is different than styling flowers for real life.

-Be sure to include flowers at different stages. As a general rule, styling flowers for camera will involve older flowers that are more open. You never want all of your flowers in an arrangement to be in bud form. This will create a more dynamic and interesting composition. It also fills more space and has more impact on camera.

-The difference in height and depth on a floral composition need to be exaggerated on camera because even if they look correct in real life, they won’t translate on camera without added height. Typically this looks like adding in some taller stems or longer vines to add this effect for camera.

-Make sure your floral arrangement is the focus point of your photograph. This means that it should look larger than anything else in your photo and should stand out. That can look like keeping props to a minimum or avoiding them all together. Instead, focus on the relationship between your vase, your background, and the flowers.

-Test things on camera and check them, and then adjust accordingly!

-Stiff flowers like sunflowers, gerbera daisies, and lilies are generally not going to give you a soft, ethereal feel in photographs. this is a matter of personal taste and dependent on the brand and feel you are trying to convey.

I hope this helps as you seek to capture your floral work on camera, whether for professional reasons or just for fun!

To learn more about creating floral photos and creating your floral portfolio, sign up for our flower portfolio builder workshop!

Using Format