If you have a chance, plan your photography for early morning when the wind is quiet, flowers are fresh, and the light is sweet.

Red Large Flowered Climbing Rose (Rosa ) 'Altissimo' flower backlit against blue sky

Try to stay away from working in the middle of the day; though backlight can become magical as seen in the red ‘Altissimo’ rose above.

Strong hot sunlight is very contrasty, but for flower photography a few simple tricks will allow anyone to work in any light.

Twin yellow roses, hot light and diffused light, before and after

While it is impossible to control the light in a wide garden scene, a flower is small.  Take advantage of the small area of a flower composition.

Twin yellow roses, hot light and diffused light, before and after

Here I used a simple scrim to often the light of these ‘Gold Medal’ roses.  See how to use a scrim in this post “Harsh Light on Lilies“.

Learn more tips the soon to be released ebook, Photographing Roses from which these photos were taken.

Learning how to read the quality of light is the single most important skill in good garden photography. Even a good composition will fail if the light is bad.