Photography Tip: Avoid The Basic Zoom Kit Lens

If you´re just starting out with photography, chances are you might be shooting with the kit lens that came with the camera you bought. A kit lens is a zoom lens that helps you zoom in and out on your subject. But these lenses are not always the best lenses for beginners wanting to do creative photography.

If you just want to take everyday photos, a kit lens is perfectly fine, but if you are a creative soul who wants to be playful, make magic and perhaps even grow a career in photography – you must diss the kit-lens.

And when I say magic, I´m thinking of the type of photos that have a creative vibe. You know when a part of the image is super sharp and some of it is all soft and blurry. When you blur out the background and focus attention on your main subject.

So for example when you take a portrait you can have the person in focus and blur out the background noise. This is very practical in many situations, and it´s always nice to have your subject stand out to make an impact.

And to help you create magic your best tool is a prime lens – and the one I recommend is the 50mm lens. I think it is the perfect lens for creatives because it helps you take amazing and very professional-looking photos even though you are a beginner.

A 50mm prime lens is not a zoom lens. You need to zoom with your feet, not your lens. So to zoom in you have to walk closer to your subject. But that´s something you will get used to super fast.

I believe the 50mm is a must-have piece of equipment for anyone starting out in photography. It’s versatile, affordable and great for shooting all types of photos. No matter if you want to photograph portraits, landscape, interior, flowers or food this lens is absolutely wonderful.

What I love the most about this lens is that it helps you when you shoot in low light conditions. So if you´re into the bright and airy photography style this lens is a winner.

In fact, a 50mm lens allows about five times the amount of light into the camera’s sensor than many zoom lenses. This allows you to take super sharp images even in conditions where you don´t have optimal daylight available.

Many of the leading camera manufacturers have different types of 50mm lenses, but the one I recommend is the basic 50mm F1.8 lens. This lens is properly one of the cheapest high-quality lenses available on the market. It cost about $125. The only negative thing to say about this particular lens is that it feels a bit like a toy lens.

If you want to step it up and get a lens built in better quality I would go for the big brother, which is the 50mm F1.4 lens. This is the one that I shoot with and it´s still a very affordable lens. It cost around $350.

You will not really notice any difference in image quality, so it is more a matter of the type of quality you want in your equipment and what your wallet allows you to invest in.

Another thing I love about the 50mm lens is that it is small, light and easy to carry. This makes it ideal for travel photography. And you can fit it into a medium sized lady bag and bring it with you when you are out and about with the kids. Also if you have a teenager that are into photography this is the best lens to give them – you can help them get creative without breaking the bank.

Okay, I feel like I´m starting to sound like a commercial add for this lens, but really I don´t get anything out of recommending it, I just like it a lot and I know from experience that it´s the best all around lens. If you have that lens, you really can do almost all types of photography without having to invest in more lenses. And that´s a great thing if you are on a budget.

How I Store My Photography Props: DIY Vintage Cabinet

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I like my props where I can see them, so I can be inspired by their colors, shapes and textures. Therefore, I decided to get a glass vitrine cabinet. By coincident I found this old vintage cabinet while shopping at a secondhand store with my daughter.

My first thought was; “ohh, not very pretty…” when I saw it in the shop. But I could see the potential in it and I honestly felt drawn to the cabinet….like we belonged together. So I decided to give it a chance.

I knew I wanted to paint it and I was going for a blue washed vintage mood – kind of like old Swedish style.

I mixed two colors; a dark blue and a purple and painted the cabinet. Then I took some white paint and used it for the inside. I cannot tell you HOW many hours it took me – but it was a lot! It was hard work but in the end I think it was worth it.

I played with different painting techniques to get the look I wanted and also used different types of wax to create the patina.

I´m very pleased with the result. It´s going to be beautiful and very practical to have in my studio. I hope you like it too.

PS. I forgot to put the last two handles on the drawer before I took these photos…as I said I´m slowly getting there…haha…

Photographing Flowers: How To Make The Most Of Supermarket Flowers

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One of the biggest frustrations I hear when it comes to photographing flowers, is that flowers are expensive to buy. So if you don´t have the luxury of owning your own beautiful garden full of flowers, then you can simply pick up some cut flowers in the supermarket.

Many grocery shops have good offers and I often like to grab these flower bundles for when I want to do floral photography. The supermarket flowers may look pretty uninspiring, but with a little planning and creative fun, you can actually get several beautiful floral photos from just a cheap bunch of supermarket flowers.

When you pick your flowers, go for a limited color palette to avoid color overload. I like to go for just one or two colors or make sure the colors are within the same color tones.

Ideally, you should plan ahead and buy the flowers 2-3 days before you want to photograph them. The more open the flowers are the more beautiful they look in the final photos.

For the first series of photos, I like to always start with a styled bouquet. I pick a vase that I would like to use and then cut the flowers into the perfect seize measuring the flowers against the vase. Arrange the flowers so that you have a good distribution of the different flowers and colours and try to avoid gaps between flowers.

If you want the flowers to open up more quickly because you are eager to get started, then make sure to put the flowers in warm water for a few hours. Some flowers can be opened gently with your fingers. To do this gently ruffle the petals to open them. This is useful if some of the flowers are not yet opened and you want to photograph them that day.

The flowers should be as close to each other as possible – something that can be a bit of a challenge if you just make a loose bouquet like I normally do. If you tie the flowers together you can better control their placement in the bouquet.

One of my favourite things to do for making cheap supermarket flowers look more extravagant and interesting is adding a bit of wild to the bouquet. It is the easiest way to completely transform it from boring supermarket flowers to something special.

Twigs, green leaves and branches are an effortless and cheap way to add height, volume and drama to a bouquet and create an unfinished, wild look.

When I´m finished styling the bouquet, I photograph it from many different angles and in various settings. I will experiment with placing the flowers in a bright and airy setting and also in a dark and moody scene. It´s all about creating variety and testing several options until you find what you like.

I will also put some effort into styling different scenes. But I try not to overdo it, because I want the flowers to be my main subject. I don´t want any other objects in my frame that will compete for attention.

The props I choose, should compliment the flowers, the settings and the mood I´m going for – the props should never take focus away from the flowers.

I also like to vary how much or how little of the scene I allow into my frame. In some photos I move in close, perhaps with a macro lens. And in other photos I move backwards to get more in my frame – by doing so I can create more negative space in the image. Negative space is good for calming the eyes and draw attention to your subject.

When I´m done with photographing my bouquet I like to move on to doing Flatlays styling. To get variety in my photos I will aim to capture some pictures of the flowers alone, as the only object. As well as some pictures of the flowers together with other objects.

After I´m finished with the Flatlays, I will begin to be more playful with the flowers and I might cut the flower heads off in order to photograph them in new ways. Like in the photo below, where I placed the flower heads on black paper and then photographed them close up. This really creates such an artistic look – it´s an intense story of the structure, texture and curves of the flowers.

Below, to the left, you can see the RAW file of the flower photo. I wanted to create a moody desaturated atmosphere and you can see how it turned out after I edited it. This is of course a technique I teach in my upcoming photography course in March.

If I have had more time I might have done a flower crown or a wreath for the wall with the flower leftovers, or placed the flower heads in a milk bath, or perhaps left them to dry. Dried flowers makes beautiful props for still life photography.

That´s it. I hope you are excited to grab some cheap flowers next time you go to the supermarket. Challenge yourself to see how many different types of photos you can create with those same flowers. You might not be happy with all of the images, but remember not to go for perfection – go for learning. And if you´re lucky you might even get ONE great photo fit for your portfolio!