[Oncatography]

Good evening, all. Hard on the heels of last month's flower photo contest, I have been granted the opportunity, in a professional capacity, to shoot photos of flowers. These photos will be used for artwork, marketing, and other graphics in support of a budding (pun intended) flower farm. I am really looking forward to trying this out. My usual work (and hobby) is real estate photos, architecture, and natural world subjects. I have enjoyed shooting flowers almost exclusively as a sidebar to my other pursuits.

I typically use a K3 or K20D for digital work, and a K1000 or Pentax ME Super for film work. I'll be shooting in sun, shade, and artificial light for a variety of purposes. Distances will range primarily from tight close-ups, to bouquet "still lifes", to medium range field shots. Most of my work will be digital, with a little bit of film. Some of the kit lenses I have might do, but my typical wide angle lenses won't be of much help.

To up my flower game, may I please get some recommendations for lenses that you have found to be particularly suited for flower "portraiture"?

[hcc]

While I do not shoot flowers intentionally, I would recommend the FA77mmm Ltd and FA31 mm Ltd, based upon my experience with landscape shots. Both FA77mm and FA31mm can give you superb colour rendering, especially the FA77mm IMHO. Both are also very capable (of not more) in difficult lighting conditions. If I had to recommend one lens, it would be the FA77mm Ltd. But the focal length might not suit you and the FA31 mm Ltd would be my second recommendation.
I appreciate that the recommendation might not fit the budget, but the FA77mm Ltd is really special and worth all the talk.
Hope that the comment may help.

[UncleVanya]

The DFA 100 works very well but might be a tad long for some shots. The DFA 50 is another excellent choice as is the DA 35 Macro. All of these are going to render colors well and also give you a good flat field with no added distortion from the lens. I love the FA 77 and FA 31 but I would probably lean towards the DFA 100/50 and DA 35 giving you a range of options. If you can only get one - which fits into your current lenses best?

DFA 100:


(I don't own the DFA 50 or DA 35 macro)

F 100 (similar to the DFA 100, same optical formula. My copy had element separation which made it more like an f4 lens or an f2.8 with a touch of softness):




And a few more with the DFA 100:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskuEBrPk

[Broadside]

(HD) 35mm f/2.8 Macro (Limited), but it won't really work on full frame / film.

A normal focal length on APS-C, that should do what you're asking for:
tight close-ups - oh yes, minimum focusing distance 14cm, less than 6 inches; means you can get real close. Being wider than portrait lenses means greater depth of acceptable sharpness - it doesn't have such a fast drop off from sharp to blurry as longer lenses.
bouquet "still lifes" - sensible focal length means you can work at a comfortable distance, and not from the next room
medium range field shots - probably the weakest aspect, but I think it can work; just so long as you're not expecting to isolate a single plant in focus with the rest a blur - rows of colourful plants in focus with a decent depth of field would be the best bet.

To capture reds on digital, I'd advise the K-3 in Pixel Shift mode

[selfnoise]

If you had to pick one lens I would go with the DA 35 Macro Limited for the flexible focal length, macro capability, and overall image quality.

[DWS1]

Afraid I can't offer much advice, but I sincerely wish you the best with this new opportunity.

[UncleVanya]

The dfa 35 isn’t a good fit on film. I missed that need. On the dfa 100 make sure it isn’t the WR version since you need lenses with aperture rings for the k1000/ME Super. The F and FA 100 and 50 macro lenses also fit the brief.

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Last edited by UncleVanya; 06-29-2021 at 09:45 PM.

[clickclick]

If it weren't for the need of aperture control on the film side, I'd say take a look at the Sigma Art 35. It may still be worth a gander though. Nice bokeh, focuses close, and sharp. I also like my 43 LTD, but it's not as close focusing as you might want.

[ToddK]

My favorite for flowers is the FA 50mm f2.8 macro. It renders the colors beautifully, and is super sharp and easy to focus.

[pentaxus]

I like the 100mm macro since it is hard to get your shadow in the picture but I also use the 50 sometimes. It partly depends on the size of the flowers and if you need to get the whole plant.

[biz-engineer]

I've found the D-FA 150-450 to be ideal for flowers, at using it at 350mm / 400 mm to keep enough distance from the flower to avoid butterflies and bees to fly away. And it nicely blurs the backgrounds into soft creamy bokeh.

[othar]

I like to use the SMC M 50mm 1:4 Macro lens for those occasions.
It is small, ligth and sharp and works for all your cameras (film and digital) if you don't mind using M (or X) mode with green button metering on your DSLRs

[Billking]

Fa 77

[vijaykishan]

If you can find a Carl-Zeiss 100mm Makro Planar F2.0 - that would be your ultimate ticket (IMHO), The smc 50mm Macro is Lovely as well. For wide-angle flower short the 31mm Ltd would be wonderful or even the 20mm Voigtlander color scopar which has an incredible close-focus ability and a pleasing bokeh.


Here is the Pentax 50mm Macro in action

[vijaykishan]

I like to use the SMC M 50mm 1:4 Macro lens for those occasions.
It is small, ligth and sharp and works for all your cameras (film and digital) if you don't mind using M (or X) mode with green button metering on your DSLRs

This ! and a large aperture wide angle lens will do.