Transparent Flowers & Flat Lays with Celia Henderson

We're so very pleased to welcome Celia back to share one of her passions on Camversation - this time, it's all about achieving beautiful flower images using techniques we have enjoyed seeing so much on the community.

About the workshop, from Celia:

The art of placing ‘collections’ on a white background or lightbox is therapeutic, mindful as well as technically challenging, but when you get it right, beautiful images are created. This workshop will look at layout suggestions, working with natural light and exposure stacking. In order to create ‘transparent or translucent petals’ a bit of trickery is required – which of course I will show you.

Transparent Flowers

How do you make petals (or anything) appear translucent?

To show translucency there has to be a light source in the background. I’ll be using a Lightbox

And to really trick the brain into thinking petals are translucent, we’ll use Photoshop tools to ‘see through’ to the overlapping item underneath

Flat Lay Photography

Flat lay photographs are taken from a bird’s-eye view or usually at 90o looking down on the scene with the lens perpendicular

The background in any flat lay is really key to the success or failure of the image. Unlike photography where we are holding camera to our eye and photographing scene in front of us, we can choose to throw the background out of focus by our use of depth of field. With flat lay the scene is set out below the camera and the entire scene including the background will be in focus

About Celia:

Celia Henderson is a wonderfully talented flower photographer who blends her artistic skills with a background in teaching and IT. She is a qualified lecturer and an IT trainer, specialising in Adobe and Microsoft software. This love for teaching extends to her photography, where she runs popular workshops for the RPS and Camversation, where she is incredibly well respected and loved for her down to Earth style of teaching, which is both accessible and fun.

• LRPS: She holds the Licentiate distinction from the Royal Photographic Society.

• RHS Finalist: Celia is a finalist in the prestigious 2025 RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show, with her work to be displayed at London's Saatchi Gallery.

• Sony Advocate: From 2009 to 2013, she worked with Sony, leading workshops at major events.

• Exhibited Artist: Her photography has been featured in various galleries, commissioned for home designs, and has even appeared on TV.

Celia is known for her creative "See, Take, Make" workflow, inspiring others to see the artistic potential in flower photography, from capturing the image to transforming it with editing magic.

This workshop will be recorded and available for viewing one month after the session ends.