Archive for category Competition Tips
Plant Material in all it’s forms
Posted by Flowerclub in Competition Tips on November 4, 2020
PLANT MATERIAL IN ALL ITS FORMS
(Issued by NAFAS 2016)
Artefacts made of Wood
Beads, Boards, Bowls, Boxes, Spoons
Buttons
Candlesticks
Carved flowers, fruit, vegetables, fungi, etc
Figurines
Flowers made of wood shavings or similar
Kyogi
Veneer
Wood shavings
Artefacts made of Cotton
Balls of cotton yarn
Knitted items – fabrics, clothing, textiles, etc
Paper/Card
Ribbon
Woven items – fabrics, home textiles, clothing, etc
Artefacts made of Jute
Bags
Balls
Burlap
Canvas
Espadrilles
Fabrics
Fishing nets / Netting
Hessian and Scrim
Home Textiles
Macrame
Mats & carpets
Sacking
String and Rope
Yarn
Artefacts made of Straw / Hay / Grass Bird’s Nest
Corn Dollies
Paper
Spheres
String & Rope
Artefacts made of Cork
Bottle stoppers
Mats / Matting
Artefacts made of Cane
Baskets
Mats
Spheres
Paper of fibres from Agave
(Agave bagasse paper)
Bamboo
Banana
Cotton or cotton rags
Daphne (Lokta paper)
Fig (Bark cloth)
Flax Rice
Grass (Chhapri paper)
Hemp
Jute (Gunny paper)
Maize
Mango
Mitsumata
Mulberry (Washi/Rakusui and others)
Nettle (Ramie paper)
Papyrus Sugar cane (Bagasse paper)
Sugar cane (Bagasse paper)
Rice
Mixed organic fibres
(eg coconut, water hyacinth, gampi, mulberry)
Artefacts made of card / paper
Boxes
Cut, moulded, glued, shredded, woven items, etc
Egg boxes
Flowers, leaves, vegetables, fungi, etc
Origami items
Additional items not mentioned above
Cereals
Coconut fibre
Hapene
Loofah
Midelino (Rattan)
Pasta
Plant fibres/’tops’ such as soya and bamboo
Seaweed (Nori, Gim, Wakami, etc)
Sisal
Takenokawa (bamboo culm sheath)
Ting-ting
Waxed fruit and vegetables
Tips for Photographing Floral Art – with thanks to Chrissie Harten, NAFAS
· Try to photograph the exhibit against a plain or un-fussy background. (You could use a drape behind the exhibit to help cut out any unwanted objects, but be sure to iron it first to remove any creases.)
· Try to photograph in natural light, which produces the best colour balance. Different light sources will produce different colour effects. If your camera lens has the ability, choose a setting which matches your light source (e.g. tungsten, fluorescent, etc.)
· Use a tripod if possible for the sharpest image, but if you don’t have one, the back of a chair or something similar will help to support and keep your camera steady.
· Observe closely what is behind or next to the exhibit and be sure to remove any objects which detract from it.
· Remove any debris from the base of the exhibit such as fallen leaves or petals.
· Don’t photograph against a strong light source (such as a window) as this will make your photo too dark unless your camera has the ability to change your settings to compensate.
· Try not to use a flash. This creates strong shadows and a colour change which detracts from the exhibit. If your camera is set on auto flash and you don’t have a choice, hold a white card just below the flash to deflect it upwards and soften the light, or tape some tissue paper over it.
· Stand directly in front of the exhibit and bend slightly so that your lens is level with the centre of the exhibit and you can clearly see most of the container. Don’t take the photo from above (unless it is obviously meant to be viewed from above e.g. aerial photograph)
· Zoom in to the exhibit to cut out as much background as possible, whilst still leaving a reasonable amount of space around it. (Make sure that you don’t zoom in too much and cut off part of the exhibit.)
· Be sure you are focusing on the exhibit, and not the background.
· View the photograph when you have taken it and crop any unwanted parts. Most modern computers, tablets and phones have a photo app already installed with a crop feature.
· If you are taking your photograph for an online competition, make sure you are emailing it at full size. Many email applications will automatically send at small size and lower resolution to make it quicker and use less data, but this will affect the quality of your photo so select “full size” or “original size”.