Which lens to carry for Botanical Garden photography?

Hi I would like to know which lens is good for taking pictures in the Botanical Garden. I will be going this afternoon. I don't want to carry all my lens. Do I need to carry the flash?
Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

robienyshe wrote in post #15818316
Hi I would like to know which lens is good for taking pictures in the Botanical Garden. I will be going this afternoon. I don't want to carry all my lens. Do I need to carry the flash?
Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

I think you'll be okay with just the 18-55 and flash. The 18-55 will focus close enough for the relatively gaudy flowers you'll see there, but it's also wide enough to capture a larger scenic if you need it.

Preeb wrote in post #15818370
I think you'll be okay with just the 18-55 and flash. The 18-55 will focus close enough for the relatively gaudy flowers you'll see there, but it's also wide enough to capture a larger scenic if you need it.

Hi Do you suggest any settings? I am newbie.

With my 15-85, I use the AV setting on the dial mode. I use the lower f stop numbers for close ups like flowers. In AV mode, as you adjust the f stop number, it will stop when you hit the limits of your lens. In other words, your lens will only open up so far. The low f stop numbers mean a bigger aperture/opening in the lens, letting in more light. You'll have to choose your ISO, so during the daytime, in nice sunshine, you should be able to use 100 or so which will end up giving you a high enough shutter speed so you won't have to worry so much about holding your camera perfectly still. That takes quite a bit of practice.

Now, when you shoot scenery, you'll select an f stop with a larger number, somewhere between 8 and 11, if it's a nice day.

This is a simple starting place since you are going out tomorrow. If you don't already, you'd do well to buy the latest edition of Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson: www.amazon.com/Underst​anding-Exposure-3rd-Photographs-Camera/dp/0817439390/

To be honest, I should have just posted this: https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=414088

It will get you started. It's better written than my short instructions.

Mandatory: kneepads

What about the actual safety of bringing it in such palces? Would you not need to put in a sealed bag, to get up to temperature, before taking out, in order to avoid humidity getting into camera?

Reno_LV wrote in post #15818979
What about the actual safety of bringing it in such palces? Would you not need to put in a sealed bag, to get up to temperature, before taking out, in order to avoid humidity getting into camera?

I've gone on long winter hikes up north and traditionally what I do is choose my 1 lens in advance (for hikes it's usually 70-200 2.8).

I wear a bulky coat and put my camera around my neck pointing down inside my jacket. I have always had enough room even with grip installed.

I haven't had any issues as of yet .......

Of course when you come back inside leave your camera out with lens cover off so it can warm up slowly as it will condensate at first.

Battery life is reduced huge in the cold.

We live in Florida so..... I guess you could say we live in a huge botanical garden. We actually love the gardens down here. I don't do anything special with my gear when I'm out shooting, even if we are going in and out of greenhouses. When we get home, the AC is usually on (esp in the warm, more humid months) and I keep the camera and lenses out to let the humidity hmmmm normalize. I do keep desiccant driers in my camera bags as an added precaution.

An L macro.

If I had to carry one lens it would be the Canon 100 2.8 L IS which works great with an off camera flash if you want to do macro work. Carry some zip lock bags as well to avoid fogging your lens.

I'd also suggest a 50mm or 100mm macro, but it doesn't look like that's in your current repertoire, so I'd probably go with whichever lens focuses close enough to get you as near as possible to a 1:1 ratio. Another option is to buy a set of extension tubes to use with your 50mm, and then you'll have true macro capability.

As for settings, I have to disagree slightly with Phoenix. For the close up shots, you'll probably want to use a smaller aperture to get the depth of field you want, especially if you're using a macro lens or a standard lens with extension tubes. Use the DoF preview on your camera to help you out. For macro or near macro work, your DoF with wide open apertures can be just fractions of an inch, so you'll want to stop down to get everything you really want in focus. . .which often times isn't the entire flower, but often times even to get a few petals in focus, you're down around f/8 or higher.

IslandCrow is correct.

I wasn't very clear. When using my 15-85, the largest aperture available is f/3.5 so a flower can be fully in focus depending on how large the flower is. I do try a variety of apertures for each shot if I'm not sure which will end up being better.

When shooting with my 100L macro lens, I do as Islandcrow suggests: start out at f/8 and experiment from there.

Edit: Around here, the landscapes in the botanical gardens tend to be amazing. For that reason, I wouldn't restrict myself to only a macro lens unless I knew I was only going to shoot macro. For me, that would only be the case if the garden or other area was close-by and I could get there often.