Find your focal point.
Depending on the plants you’re photographing, it might be a challenge to know what you want to focus on. Choose a specific aspect of the plant you’d like to feature or look for ways to build plant life into other photo compositions.
Think ahead about colour.
Flowerless plants might not seem as colourful and interesting as flowering plants at first, but it’s all in the approach. If you’re looking to capture deep emerald greens, think about how you can make those colours pop in your composition. Or, if you’re capturing the muted greens of desert plant life, play up the dusty, unsaturated tones.
Look for the details.
Focus on unusual and interesting details in the plants you’re photographing and frame your shot accordingly. For example, if you want to capture the silhouette of a cactus, shoot from a distance. Or, if you’re photographing a fiddle leaf fern, consider doing a close-up or macro shot.
Highlight patterns and textures.
Sometimes the most captivating part of the plant isn’t the shape — it’s the surface of the leaves, stems or bark. Look for the multi-layered whorl patterns in eucalyptus bark or the unique stripes on a snake plant, for example and highlight that.
Embrace the close-up.
With your camera’s aperture wide open and a shallow depth of field, you’ll capture your plant in sharp focus against the out-of-focus background. Don’t be afraid to play with this and take close-up or macro shots, which can transform your subject from an everyday image of a plant to an intriguing abstract photograph.