Forest Photography

Forests can be difficult to photograph with harsh light streaming through the trees creating harsh shadows against brilliant highlights. Chaos reigns over simplicity where branches intersect, and textures vie for attention. They are busy places where the eye can find little rest. If the eye has difficulty finding rest, your camera lens as an extension of your eye will not find it. Finding a way to simplify your forest scenes becomes the task in forest photography.

Our brains like simplicity. When we look at an image, our brains like to be able to discern easily the subject and story the photographer finds important. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you walk through a park woodland to help you find and compose an image filled with story without the clutter.

Who is your story about? In forest photography, it isn’t simply about finding a nice composition, it’s about finding the main character of your image. It could be a gnarly tree, or a fern resting in the roots of a cedar, or flowers along the path, or even how the sun lights the moss clinging to a branch. Find the character you want to feature in your image then look for compositional elements to highlight the character.

How’s the light? Look around you. Is the sun shining brightly casting dark shadows through the forest? Is it an overcast day where shadows and highlights are softer? Is it a dull day with barely any light seeping through the foliage? Each of these lighting situations bring with it their own challenges and rewards. Harsh shadows give your images a graphic quality that you can further accentuate by converting your image into black and white. Turn your back to the sun to find a composition that is completely lit from the front yet the background falls into shadow. These images are great to emphasize shapes and textures of branches and leaves. Even better, look for plants that are backlit and the background falls into shadow as they make beautiful and dramatic images. Bright overcast days make photographing forests easier as everything in the woodland density is more evenly lit. You still have shadows and highlights but not as dramatic. This lighting lends itself well to images of the personality of the forest; wider landscapes filled with trees and the ferns and bushes that fill the understory. The darkest days lend themselves well to small little vignettes of the shapes and textures of life. Find the little bright areas of leaves and flowers to focus on. Don’t stay home in the rain either. Throw on your macro lens or extension tubes to capture rain drops on leaves. Or capture the ethereal nature of rain in the forest as the air around you seems to moisten and soften. If you are lucky enough to have a foggy day in the forest, you will find other worldly images and subjects happily separated from the busy-ness of the background.

Will a different lens help? Different focal lengths of your lenses will give you flexibility in your compositions. As discussed earlier, landscape photographers rely on the holy trinity of zoom lenses – the ultra-wide angle, the mid-range, and the tele-photo. With these lenses you can capture all the moods of the forest. With the ultra-wide angle, you can capture environmental details and play with the curvature of the lens distortion. Try getting in close to a flower and have the forest in the background. With your mid-range lens you can capture all the scenes and details close to the trail. Your tele-photo zoom can isolate features and details farther away. Change out your lens to see if that helps you create the image you want.

What happens to the image if you open or close the aperture? The aperture, while regulating how much light reaches the sensor, will also determine how sharp the elements in front or behind your subject are. The aperture determines how thick your plane of focus us. The wider the aperture, the narrower your plane of focus and more elements behind and in front of the subject will be out of focus. The narrower the aperture, the thicker your plane of focus and more elements around your subject will be in focus. Try making several images each with a different aperture to see how that changes the mood of your image.

Is the shutter speed helping you capture or stop motion? In forest photography you might think that you’d want to show trees as steadfast and solid. Trees don’t move – they stay in one place from sapling to collapse. And that may just be the story you want to tell. But is it the only story? Watch trees and you will see them sway in the breeze, bobbing their heads to an unheard beat. So, play with the dichotomy of solid trees that shiver with the slightest caress of a breeze by slowing down your shutter speed and let tittering trees become the focus. Another fun exercise with slower shutter speeds is to use intentional camera movement to create abstract images of the forest.

Did you remember to bring your tripod and polarizing filter? Two indispensable accessories not to leave behind are your tripod and polarizing filter. I darker forests, when your shutter speed is slow, you will want your tripod to reduce camera shake. Avoid the disappointment of having spent the day in the forest photographing verdant beauty to get home to see unintentionally blurry photos. Use a tripod. The other accessory, the polarizing filter, comes in very handy in the forest to help reduce the glare of reflected light off leaves. Using a polarizer can help bring richer, more saturated color to your image by reducing the reflective glare.

Did you perform border patrol? Your final act before releasing the shutter is to perform border patrol. This is one of those tasks to undertake in all landscape photography. Border patrol is to check the edges of your image to make sure there are no distracting elements coming into the frame. This was once far more important in film photography since you can easily clone out distractions in your editing software. But it is a good habit to get into. Sometimes a gentle shift of camera position can take out the distraction without disturbing your composition eliminating the need to fix it in post. Also, fixing those distraction in forest photography can be cumbersome with different branches and leaves that may not clone out as well.

With practice, forest photography turns into joy and meditation. Spend time exploring the forest.

Thinking in Black and White

Way back in the mists of yesteryear as a young student in the world of photography, when we used film and processed our images in a wet darkroom, my first year was spent looking at the world devoid of color. My lessons revolved around black and white film, black and white paper, and black and white processes. The concept behind this learning process to look at the world through a colorless lens taught me to see a scene reduced to its base elements of light and shadow, shape and form, texture and emotion. The ever-present Zone System created by the king of Black & White photography Ansel Adams taught an awareness of light on the land and its effects on film and print. The monochromatic world became so ingrained in my psyche that when I excitedly processed my first color images, they appeared garish and unnatural. And the lessons I learned during those initial courses were forgotten for a short time as I explored a new color-filled world. I lost my black and white base as I transitioned into color – thinking the two ways of recording light had very little to do with each other.

I was wrong. Oh, how I was wrong.

The lessons I learned in those first classes had everything to do with color photography. Was there any wonder why my first images in color lacked the compositional qualities and emotion that I had been trained to search out? There shouldn’t have been. I was like a beginning crafter left unsupervised in Hobby Lobby. I ran through film creating colorful junk. The colors were pretty, but there was nothing I wanted to show others and far too many boring sunsets. It took me a while before I included first year lessons with second year projects. I had to go back to thinking in black and white to create images that would help me pass my classes.

They are lessons I will not forget and find useful from time to time when photographing for black and white and looking at scenes to photograph in color.

SIMPLIFIES THE SCENE

Strip the color from your image and you are left with only tones of grey. There are no distracting colors that direct your viewer’s eye from the subject. You end up relying primarily on the shape, texture and contrast to captivate your viewer. You strip your image down to its barest elements. Composition skills are brought to bear in black and white photography – you need to create compelling compositions in your images to help bring them to life or they become a mass of grey no matter how much contrast you add.

SHAPES YOUR SUBJECT

Photography is about recording light onto media – film, paper, or digital sensor. When you remove the color, all you really have left is light and shadow to shape the subject in your compositions. Our brains understand how light falls into shadow on curved objects and blocked objects and can discern between balls and bricks just by how light falls across them. You can use light and shadow to emphasize the shape and the shape then becomes as important to the subject as the subject itself. Also, you can simplify the scene to highlight only the shapes within the image.

ADDS DRAMA

Finally, you can highlight the mood, emotion, or texture of your subject. With no other distractions, your viewer can gain a greater sense of the ideas behind the image. Think of some of the most powerful portraits from the past. I always think if the images captured by Dorothea Lange during the depression. She was able to capture raw emotion in the simplest of images. “Migrant Mother” just is not the same image if I imagine it in color. Try it. Think of an image then imagine it in color. Does it feel the same? When you strip an image of color, you simplify the image to its basic shapes and its basic emotions.

TIMELESSNESS

There is also a timeless quality to black and white images. A quality that stretches back to the earliest days of photography and far into the future. Fads happen in color photography. We may not notice it much, but take a look at an image from the 70’s or 80’s. Not only do we know what decade it comes from because of the color palette of the day (avocado green and harvest gold anyone?) but there is a tonality to the image – a faded low contrast haze. But look at a black and white image from the 70’s and you may not recognize that it is from the 70’s – unless dad’s horn-rimmed glasses give it away. Because of this timeless quality, many photographers find that black and white photography lends itself well to fine art prints.

However, not every image translates well to B&W. Look for scenes that have a subject that conversion to black and white will help emphasize the subject. These are often subject that have a different color palette, texture, or lighting. Where the subject won’t get lost in grey. We are lucky in the digital age that we can convert an image to black and white to test it out and if we don’t like it – we can delete those layers. Converting to black and white will not save an image that is not exposed correctly or composed well. In fact, those flaws can be highlighted in black and white imagery

How to create your black and white image:

In camera: A lucky few of us have the ability to record only the reflected intensity with our digital cameras. Some cameras will record both a color version and a monochrome version. This helps when you are having difficulty determining if an image would look good in black and white. I personally like to make my conversions in Photoshop (or Lightroom).

In Computer: You can convert your images to black and white with any photo editing software. In the Adobe world (Photoshop and Lightroom) several companies also have plug-ins that will convert the image for you in different monochrome styles. Simple on-line tutorials will show you how to convert and adjust your image for any software you use.

Ideas for black and white images:

While not every image translates well to black and white, you can photograph everything in black and white.  Keep your eyes open for strong contrasts that highlight shapes. Making everyday objects into abstract images of light and shadow is a fun way to experiment and practice your techniques. Try long exposures or Intentional Camera Movement (where you purposefully move the camera during the exposure) for interesting abstract images. Photograph subjects with a lot of texture and highlight that texture with strong contrast. Find scenes that you want to simplify or highlight a particular subject.

Ideas of Composition: Part 3

Welcome back to my blog series on composition. We are now on Part 3. Part 1 explored Rule of Thirds, Symmetry and Balance, and Leading Lines. Part 2 explored Curves, Rhythm and Pattern, and Framing. So many ideas to help make your images better. But wait! There's more! In Part 3 we will explore the ideas of  Foreground, Midground and Background, Shapes, and Filling the Frame.

Again, these are ideas to build upon. The ideas in the previous blogs work well in exploring these ideas

FOREGROUND, MIDGROUND, and BACKGROUND

Photographs are two-dimensional representations of our three-dimensional world. How do we compose images that help translate that three-dimensionality onto a two-dimension medium? Through our compositions, we create the illusion that the two-dimensional image is three dimensions with the use of foreground, midground, and background. Adding these elements helps to create the appearance  of depth by giving the viewer elements through the image to focus on - just as we would have elements close to us, between us and the distance and into the horizon in the world around us. Let's look at these one by one.

Foreground brings the viewer into the image and creates interest to investigate further. This is usually a detail closer to the photographer that is interesting and will make the viewer pause to admire it's interesting lines and details. It often helps set the stage for the rest of the image. A colorful bush in the fall or a patch of flowers in the spring tell the viewer the season. A country road leading the eye further or a ramshackle fence tell the viewer we are no longer in the city. Take your time in finding an interesting foreground - your midground might change but your background will likely be far enough away to change hardly at all. A viewer can tell whether or not you took your time here - throwing in a foreground just because you want a foreground will do the exact opposite of what you want. It could look haphazard and the viewer will walk away. Foreground can be the base of the rest of your image and when done right will direct the viewer to the rest of the image.

Midground helps draw the viewer in further, and is often a resting place for the viewer's eyes. The midground should be free of distractions or elements that either block the viewer from continuing on into the image or distractions that draw them away from the image such as a fence that reaches from edge to edge where a viewer feels blocked out of the image or a road that continues out of the frame and the viewer's eye goes with it. Sometimes this is where we find our subject. Think of an environmental portrait where your subject has an interesting foreground that possibly frames you subject and the subject with a background as a backdrop. Often your midground is your most versatile area in your photograph and should never be neglected.

Background is often the culmination of the journey in the photograph - the fulfillment of the viewer's interest. It can be the subject such as a magnificent mountain in grand landscapes where the viewer feels as if they have been on a grand adventure. Most often though, as the name implies, it becomes the backdrop to what is in the midground or foreground. When used as a backdrop, you'll need to take care of not including distracting elements such as a branch impaling your subject's head or bright highlights that lead the eye away from your subject. A good background keeps your viewer's attention in your photo for as long as possible.

Can you create interesting and compelling images without all three of these? Of course you can. This is another way to create compelling images that draw your viewer into the story your trying to tell.

SHAPES

We're going back to geometry class here for a minute and combining it with a bit of psychology. Sounds fun doesn't it?

Our brains need to organize the world in categories to help it make sense of the world. It becomes a sort of shorthand for the mind. We see a door and we know two things immediately - it is an egress and it is a rectangle. From there we build on the style of door, where it is located, and all sorts of things. But our immediate lizard-brain response is rectangle and escape.

Using shape is one of many ways we organize the world to help our lizard-brains understand what is going on around us. We see parallel lines on the ground and without having to think much we know that it is a pathway - the beginning of a journey (probably why I love leading lines so much in my images). We can strip our images down to the most elemental and create images based on shapes. We can look for triangles and curves/circles to add a sense of motion for our lizard-brains. Rectangles and squares add stability and safety.

How does this apply to composition? Well, think of the base elements of the story you're trying to tell. Is it a story of action? Then you will want to avoid creating and photographing squares and rectangles, instead you'll want to look for rectangles and curves in your elements. Do you want to tell the story of safety and security? Now would be the time to look for rectangles and squares.

So what's up with the image above that includes curves and squares? Let me explain it this way - our history is who we are, it is the foundation of our present, but time forever moves and builds upon our foundation.

FILL THE FRAME

Filling the Frame is a concept I heard often in my college days of studying photography. Back then, we used a substance called film and often could not crop our images especially if we were using transparency or slide film. So we needed to find the essential elements withing our composition and fill the frame with those elements and only those elements. We needed to conduct "border patrol" - checking the edges of your images to make sure you weren't cutting off anything essential and/or allowing anything distracting to encroach on your image. If there was, you'd need to re-compose. It is still a very good idea to conduct "border patrol" before releasing the shutter so that you aren't including distractions or excluding storytelling elements. Using film required us to analyze our composition and the story we were trying to tell and not include anything that was extraneous.

Filling the Frame was usually where I had the most difficulty in school. I often took the idea too literally and would fill my frame with the subject and only the subject often leaving out the most important element of the image - the storytelling quality that brilliant photographers understand. It about what story there is to be told and how you tell the story. So, filling the frame does not necessarily mean to fill the frame with your subject, but to fill it with the story, the feeling, the idea.

In the image of the ballerina, I was looking at a contemplative moment of the dancer resting between moves and poses. A quiet moment with her in her thoughts and studio. If I had moved closer to her, to fill my frame with the ballerina, it would not convey the same story - a story of quiet respite.

As you compose your images, think about the story to be told. Once you understand the story, fill your frame with only the elements that tell the story - nothing more and nothing less.

Ideas of Composition: Part 2

When last we met, you learned about 3 basic tools to include in your composition toolbox: Rule of Thirds, Symmetry and Balance, and Leading Lines. If you need a refresher, check out the article here.

Today we will be discussing how to use Curves, Rhythm and Pattern, and Framing to add impact to your images. These ideas often will make the viewer stop a little longer to study your image by showing motion and design elements that interest and intrigue. And isn't that what we want? To have our audience entranced by our images so that they will stay and interact with them for as long as possible?

Just like all composition ideas, these can be used in photos individually or in combination with others. Sometimes using two or more ideas together can create a higher interest or viewer impact. When you find your focal point or subject, play with the composition - look for leading lines that lead the eye to it especially if you place the subject using the rule of thirds. And how special will it look if those leading lines are also curving lines? So let's take a look at Curves, Rhythm and Pattern, and Framing.

CURVES

Similar to leading lines, using curves in your images help the viewer navigate the different elements of your images and leads them further into your photo. unlike leading lines,  curves add a sense of the dynamic - they suggest motion. Where a straight line appears static, a curve appears to glide through the scene in with grace and beauty. They can be the subject or lead the viewer to the subject or center of interest. Also similar to leading lines, curves can be apparent such at the curve in the above image that leads the viewer towards the brightly lit towers. Or they can be implied by the placement of objects within the frame.

Curves can also be the subject of your image. A simple arch of a tree branch or a series of arches leading you down a hallway. A bend of the river can lead you to the distant horizon or can invite you to sit on the bank to watch the water drift by. A Ferris Wheel or Merry-Go-Round captured with a slow shutter speed at night becomes curves and circles that embody the joys of childhood laughter. Ok, I'm waxing poetic here so let's move on.

When looking for curves to add to your images think of all the types of curves and you will begin to see them in your surroundings and compositions. One of the first you may think of is the C-curve which looks exactly like the letter C. Now rotate it 90 degrees either up or down. Now what do you have? An arch or a bowl. Can you think of scenes in your everyday life where you might find any of these? S-curves can be the most exciting as they lead you in and out of different scenic elements. Rivers bending through the landscape are great at showing us S-curves. And we can't forget about the simple circle or oval. A bit more static than an open curve, the circle or oval can help sort and order elements in your image as well as frame your subject. (more on that later)

RHYTHM & PATTERN

Rhythm and Pattern walk hand in hand with texture in photographs. Rhythm refers to how the eye moves through the image - how long it rests on an element before moving onto the next element. The elements are repetitive in nature yet not always the same size, shape, or color. Think of notes in a piece of music. Each note is distinct yet are similar especially when played by the same instrument. When strung together at different counts (length the note is held), they create rhythm and the basis of a piece of music. The same can be said with a photograph except now the eye has become the instrument and the elements of the image become the notes.

Enough visual notes and you begin to see a pattern which in music would become the final arrangement. In photography, they become the image. Many repeated patterns throughout the image and you begin to see texture. Abstract images play heavily with rhythm, pattern, and texture. The image above has a pattern that draws the eye through the scene. Although there isn't a defined subject, there is still interest in the play between gold and green, light and dark, reflected and real. Let your eye wander through the scene being mindful of the pauses and movement as your gaze takes you from break to break.

FRAMING

When we "frame up" an image, we tend to talk about laying out the elements of our scene within the borders of the image. We have a natural frame of what the camera will record on the sensor and write onto your SD card. But add a frame within that frame and you will find a way to direct your viewer to see almost exactly what you saw while in that moment. The frame itself can be the subject, but an even stronger use is to frame your subject. Making the viewer aware of the vast importance of your subject. When you frame an image and hang it on your wall, you are telling the world the importance of that photograph in your life - whether it's a photo of your children, a beloved pet, or a pretty scene from your last vacation - these photos that we put on display have the emphasis of being framed and are therefore important. The same can be said when you add a frame within your images - you are telling the viewer to "Look here. This is important."

A  frame can be quite literal such as a window or doorway. Or implied such as certain elements surrounding the subject. An arch of a tree branch embracing one side of your image can be a frame that directs the viewer's eye to reflect on the moss-covered rocks beyond. Billowing laundry hanging on a line can frame the laundress hanging a batch of freshly laundered linens. Look around you and see how much of the world you can see through windows and doors. Look through crowds of people and flowers to see beyond them, to something enticing, to something more.

You know have explored six composition rules. Your homework once again is to go out and play with each of these and combine them into something more. Don't worry about the test at the end of the day, as long as you go out and play, you'll pass.

Ideas of Composition: Part 1

We can talk about rules and guidelines, but when it comes to composition I like to talk about ideas. Thoughts on how to interpret a scene to help tell your story about the place. For landscape photographers, composition helps you to create a sense of order out of a chaotic world. Composition is the avenue the viewer uses to access the story you want to tell by identifying the elements of the story - the subject, the scene, and characters - in an easily accessible sequence within the frame of your camera. Ultimately we want viewers to stop and interact with our images, to feel at ease, to want to know more, to find a sense of understanding. The importance of composition can become overwhelming and is one of the concepts many photo students struggle with, but once you are well-acquainted with the ideas, they easier they are to see, work with, and master.

In this 3-part series, I will chat about 9 different ideas of composition. Each of these can stand alone in the image but are often combined. It is up to you as the photographer to figure out how best to use these ideas to convey your story. But play with each, learn how they work, how they interact, and how they look in your viewfinder. Give yourself assignments to look for and compose images using each of these ideas. Today we'll look at Subject Placement, Symmetry & Balance, and Leading Lines.

SUBJECT PLACEMENT or Rule of Thirds:

The Rules of Thirds is the most basic tool of composition. It's the tool that I tell my students to start out with when they see a subject because it breaks you of placing a subject smack dab in the middle of the image and it is a pleasing way for a viewer to read an image. It also adds a sense of motion or vitality even in a stagnant subject. You place the subject in the frame that allows the mind to give your subject room to move.

Think of your viewfinder. Now imagine a tic-tac-toe grid overlaid on it (some cameras actually have a function where you can display this).  When you line up your image, place the subject at or near one of the intersecting corners or if you have lines (horizon line or trees), place your dominant line along one of the grid-lines.

In the image above, the woman's glasses/eyes are in one of the grid intersections. Since I am photographing a person, her eyes are the primary point of interest even though you don't really see them here. That is a side note - when photographing humans or animals, their eyes are the most important element of the image - and one I will discuss in another blog. But back to the image above. Her eyes are located near a junction. Now look at her ear and shoulder - they are close to the left vertical grid-line. Her elbow and forearm are along the bottom horizontal line. Even though she is sitting, relaxing in an alpine meadow, she has room to move throughout the image. She looks as if she can get up and move about. The Rule of Thirds helps your mind give her this allowance.

So, when you arrive at a scene and are having trouble figuring out your composition, try the Rule of Thirds. It's a great starting point for both the scene and your mind. Once your brain is in the composition mode, other composition elements will begin to percolate. Maybe the Rule of Thirds is nice, but it just doesn't give you the feel you're experiencing. How about breaking the rule and trying Symmetry & Balance?

SYMMETRY and BALANCE

OK. Now that we have Rule of Thirds tucked away, let's throw it out the window. Not permanently, but Symmetry & Balance doesn't rely on the rule. They do work nicely together though. We all know that symmetry means that something looks the same either top to bottom or side to side. A mirror image so to speak. In fact reflections are great representations of symmetry. You could fold an image down the middle and it will look the same on either side of the fold. Reflections of mountains in lakes are a perfect example of symmetry.

Balance is where one side of the image is not a mirror reflection of the other side but the elements of one side are visually weighted the same as the other side. Think of your laptop - you can fold your laptop in half but one side is not a mirror reflection of the other side. One side is a screen the other side a keyboard, but visually they are the same size. If you are photographing a group of trees and there is one very large tree, try putting the tree in the middle of the frame. Then try putting it nearer one of the edges with a grouping of smaller trees on the other side of the frame. You can do this with any grouping of objects - one of my favorite images showing balance is looking down on a formal Victorian place setting with the plates, cups, and silver lined up. Those Victorians knew all about balance.

In the owl image, the image is mostly symmetrical. You could fold it vertically down the middle and the right side of the image would reflect the left side of the image. It is considered symmetrical in that regard. (Also notice the eyes are located along the upper horizontal line of our Rule of Thirds.) Now technically the left eye is slightly larger than the right but the right is in shadow which adds a visual weight. They look like they're the same size even though they really aren't.

LEADING LINES

Leading Lines is a favorite composition idea for almost every photographer I've talked to. Give someone a path into your image and they will gladly follow it. Leading lines is just that - a distinct line that leads your viewer into the image and takes them on a journey to the subject and story. Think of a path in the forest and how the curious will wonder where the path goes and what adventures it might hold. I can be as obvious as a roadway to the mountains, or implied by the gaze of a child looking in wonder at a bug on a flower. Our thought, as a viewer, is to follow.

You can find leading lines everywhere: roads, trails, fences, people standing in line, a pointing finger, rows of tulips. The list goes on as does the line in your image. Look around you, are there any lines your eye follows? That, my friend is a leading line. Test it out - how many leading lines can you find in the next couple of minutes?

While walking in the madrone forest of Miller Peninsula State Park property, I was fascinated by how the trees towered over my head. I wanted an image that would help the viewer feel the massive trees as they twisted into the sky.  Each trunk, the darkest at the bottom being the most prominent, all lead your eye to the same place - the treetops, their crown shyness, and the sky beyond.

Practice using these three ideas in the coming days, then return to find a few more composition ideas to play with.