Impossible bouquets

James Paterson crafts a towering, beautiful, flower arrangement

- James Paterson

THE MISSION

Create a bouquet of flowers with a mix of shooting and editing techniques

Time needed Two hours

Skill level Advanced

Kit needed

• Tripod

• Vase

• Flowers

• Home studio lighting kit

• Dark backdrop

• Wireless shutter release

In the 17th century Holland a trend emerged for larger-than-life still-life paintings of flowers. Galvanized by the fledgling disciplines of botany and horticulture at the time, Dutch artists like Jan Brueghel the Elder, Ambrosius Bosschaert, and Roelandt Savery painted bulging bouquets brimming with allegory. Impossibly overblown arrangements full of tangling stems and masses of overlapping blooms were typical of the work of the time. These works of art would go on to influence both painting and flower arrangement for centuries.

We’ll take inspiration from the Dutch masters in this project to craft our own impossible flower arrangement. By holding our flowers in various positions over a series of frames we can elevate the bouquet to a height that defies the laws of physics. Of course, this also means we can re-use the same flowers over and again in several places, so we don’t have to spend hundreds at the florists. We can simply place the camera on a tripod then hold the flowers in place, firing off a series of shots until we have a variety of blooms.

Once done, we can bring our shots together in Photoshop. This is easier than it might look – we make selections of the flowers using the Magic Wand tool to knock out the backdrop, then combine our blooms. We’ll show you how to get set up then build your own incredible bouquets.

PROJECT 1