ASK JIM
Every month, Jim will answer a question from his online students, from people who participate in his tours and workshops, or from subscribers to this magazine. If you have a question you’d like Jim to answer, please drop him a note at photos@jimzuckerman.com.
Q:
Jim . . .I photographed these orchids in Newfoundland, and I don’t like the shot. The background is very busy and distracting. My lens aperture was f/14, so should I have used a larger aperture to blur the background or a smaller one to make it more in focus? Any suggestion you can offer would be helpful. Thanks. Karen Waters, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
A: The problem here is the orchids were too close to the background reeds. That’s why they are too de-
fined. If you used a larger aperture, such as f/2.8, the background would be more out of focus as you suggest. The downside, though, is that the flowers themselves would probably lose sharpness, too. A small aperture would make the background sharper, but not totally sharp, and I think it would still be distracting. Of the two choices, I think the larger aperture would be better. Wildflower photography has many challenges, and distracting backgrounds is one of them. The solution is to carry with you a mounted print of out of focus foliage at least 16 x 20 inches. Place that behind the subject flowers, and now you’ll have a complementary background wherever you go and wherever the flowers might be growing. It works beautifully. §
© Karen Waters
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