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Long Lenses for Flowers
hen taking pictures of flowers, most photographers understandably think of using a macro lens. After all, that makes sense. Most flowers are small. Next time you shoot flowers, though, try another approach. Use a telephoto lens with a minimum focal length of 300mm. The pictures in this article were all taken with a 100400mm Canon zoom set to between 300mm and 400mm. The unique look created by a long lens does two
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things. For example, the tulips in the image below appear much closer than they actually are to the purple flowers in the background. The longer the lens, the more compression. Second, the amount of bokeh -- i.e. blur -- increases significantly especially in conjunction with a large lens aperture and close proximity to the foreground flowers. The increase in bokeh (which is the same as an increase in shallow depth of field) isolates the foreground subjects and makes them stand out dramatically. To fill the frame with a single flower or a small group of flowers, you can add extension
