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Picture Perfect Flowers
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Our experience of designing hundreds of arrangements and bouquets for
national floral selection guides, books and magazines as well as tens of
thousands for clients gives us unique insight
into the creation of photogenic floral designs. Below are some helpful ideas to
assist you with your quest for picture perfect flowers.
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Color is Everything!
More important
than variety, style or even design, color most affects the overall appearance of
your wedding. Color preference is uniquely personal. When you ‘like’ or
‘dislike’ a bouquet or design, you are usually reacting to the color first.
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By Time of Day. The ambient or
available light greatly effects the perception of color. More intense
light allows bright, vivid colors to show brilliantly. It also allows colors
from the ‘cool’ side of the color spectrum to be seen more easily –
hues of blue, purple, lavender and green. For daytime ceremonies and
receptions (providing they are outdoors or there are windows at the location)
the only limit to color is your imagination! Do keep in mind that
polychromatic (mixed) color schemes, especially those that include intense
yellows, can give your wedding pictures a more ‘busy’ look. Yellows,
especially, have the character of color to dominate any design into which they
are placed, no matter how small the blossoms.
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For evening ceremonies and receptions or dark churches and synagogues,
there will be less ambient light. Showing best are whites, ivories and colors
from the ‘warm’ side of the color spectrum – hues of reds, pinks,
yellows, peaches and oranges. The ‘cool’ colors recede with low light and can
be very difficult to see and/or photograph. Dark blues and purples look black,
light blues and lavenders fade to grey. (Think of how dresses in these colors
appear at night.) Designs with ‘cool’ colors can be lightened with the
introduction of flowers in chartreuse, ivory or white or the addition of
metallic accents in gold, platinum or copper. In low light, we suggest you
avoid dense statements of ‘cool’ colors unless your budget permits for
pin-spotting individual areas and dining tables.
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By Color Value. The intensity of colors
also greatly effects the overall perception of your designs. Bouquets of one
type of flowers (monofloral) matching your gowns and settings give a simple,
clean appearance. Intensely colored bouquets juxtaposed with pale colored
gowns or settings provide dramatic looks for maximum contrast. When choosing
personal flowers (bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres) always be mindful that
they will be photographed in the context of people with fashions -
not just by themselves.
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Bouquets that contain highly contrasting colors within themselves can
provide a challenge to photographers. Values far apart – such as red and white
– can appear polka-dot- like – especially of the blossoms are all similarly
sized. To reduce this effect, we suggest you consider blossoms of varying
sizes (allowing one color to dominate) and/or the introduction of additional,
related color or colors. To red and white, you might add pinks (the color
achieved by mixing red and white.)
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Textures Matter. The textures of
your flowers, foliages and accessories will have an important impact on the
overall appearance of your photographs. As with color, choosing textures that
match or are closely related to those of your gowns and settings will give a
coordinated, unified look. Do keep in mind, however, that too much of a match
can make the bouquets blend into the fashions, making photography a challenge. |
High sheen gowns (polished silks, satins) coordinate well with flowers and
styles that have a cleaner, more polished appearance. Theses fabrics have a
visual complexity due to their reflective qualities. Consider choosing medium
to large-size blossoms and limit the quantity of busier, smaller flowers for
an elegant, uncluttered look.
Clean, simple gowns provide an incredible palette onto which artistic,
highly detailed and texturally complex bouquets can be featured.
Avante Gardens generally recommends you avoid flowers and foliages with a
high gloss – unless you wish to create a contemporary, avant garde
feel. The gloss reflects light and can distort the color of the materials -
turning foliages shades darker in the photographs.
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Fascinating Rhythms.
Rhythm is defined as the relationship of flowers and
foliages - their correlated intervals - to one another in a
particular design and to each other in a group of designs. Traditional bouquets
consist of steady rhythmic patterns. Contemporary bouquets use more
‘syncopated,’ asymmetric rhythms to create interest. Regardless of the rhythm of
your chosen style, the designs should always be rhythmically
consistent.
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Too much space between flowers in a traditional bouquet gives an
empty, incomplete appearance that will be magnified in the photographs. Too much
space between individual flower arrangements can also create an empty,
incomplete look. Try decreasing the overall size of a design for a more
rhythmically consistent appearance or consider grouping designs more closely
together to give a stronger visual impact. Please inform your professional consultant of any particular photo areas or
settings we can help make more photogenic and memorable.
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| Avante Gardens' consultants
can share lots of advice with you on flowers, colors and styles that will
photograph well for your specific wedding or event. To truly ensure perfect
pictures, make certain to choose an experienced, professional photographer and let him or her
know what kinds and styles of wedding photos are most important to you...For
links to some terrific photographers
click here.
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