10 Tips for Forest Photography

After publishing a post about what makes forests so magical to photograph, I thought I'd give you 10 tips on how to photograph in a forest.

1. Go On Overcast Days

You wake up and notice a bright sunny day beginning to warm the earth. Grab your camera and head to the beach. But if you get a day with a little to a lot of cloud cover, take your camera to the forest. As sunlight streams through the trees, dark shadows cast next to bright highlights. This can be very difficult to capture in one exposure. It can be done, but generally with quite a bit of post processing involved. And if you've clipped your highlights and/or darks on your histogram you might be out of luck pulling details out of those areas. Diffused light is so much better at capturing the colors and textures of the trees and under-story of the forest. Without the harsh highlights and shadows, the wonderful details of the forest come to life. Clouds are nature's diffusers and make for less headaches in light metering and post processing. Added tip: Foggy days add a sense of mystery.

2. Bring Your Tripod

Since you're going out on cloudy days, you will most likely be using a slower shutter speed on your camera. Do yourself a favor and bring a tripod. I can't tell you how many times I've been disappointed when I got home because I thought "Ah, it's bright enough. I don't need a tripod." No, I needed a tripod. The light may seem bright enough, but often it's not - not in the trees at least. Even with higher quality sensors that can be boosted to capturing good images at high ISO's, you might find you want to keep your ISO lower to reduce noise. And if you throw a polarizing filter on your lens (tip #4), your shutter speed will become even slower with the added density of the filter. There have been times that I've found the tripod useful as a trekking pole too.

3. Bring A Variety Of Lenses

When hiking, I generally head out with 2 lenses to help cut down on extra weight in my pack - an 18mm-75mm zoom and a 75mm-300mm zoom. I've found that this lens combination helps me capture pretty much everything. You will also want to pack along a macro lens to capture those close-up details. I personally use a diopter filter for macro - again a decision to help cut down on pack weight plus I do not mind that there is focus fall-off with the diopter because of my style of photography. You might decide differently. But the point here is to bring lenses and play with them. A slow walk in the forest encourages you to experiment and find out what you, your camera and your lenses can do. Having a wide angle lens gives you sweeping forest views with ferns or flowers in the foreground. A longer lens lets you focus on the far-away leaf glittering in the light against the dark.

4. Bring Your Polarizer

Oh my gosh, I can not extol the virtues of having a polarizing filter for forest photography enough. A polarizer helps to cut the glare and reflections on such things as windows, water, and leaves. Even on cloudy days, you can end up with light reflections or glare on the leaves of your subject. Adding a circular polarizer and rotating it will cut down the glare. Test it, see what happens - with the live-view viewfinders, you will see the difference it makes. They cut the glare and all of a sudden your greens are greener, reds are redder and everything around you looks rich and alive. The trees begin to talk and the ferns start showing off. You can feel yourself fall into the wondrous land just like Alice.

5. Watch Where You're Looking (up, down, behind)

As we walk through the world, we tend to look down to watch where we step.  While this is very important in the forest - we don't want to trip over roots and rocks - we also want to make sure we're not missing the beauty surrounding us. Look up:  see how the trees come together in the sky. Look for branches stretching across the trees. Is the sun peaking through? Can you get a sun star or better yet, sunbeams? So much of the forest is above our eyes, so make sure you search the life above. Look down, but for more than where to put your next step. Does the trail offer a beautiful curve through the tree? Are there mushrooms, flowers, or details along the edge of the trail that are talking to you? Look over your shoulder. Is the light hitting that hanging moss differently once you get around to the other side? Or is the grouping of trees offering a different texture? What does the forest look like if you stand on that rock over there? What about if you lay down in the trail? Change your perspective and the forest will tell you another story.

6. Seasons Change

One of my favorite aspects of telling the forest story, is that it doesn't matter what time of the year you go. In fact the more often you go, the better the story. Winter displays of bare limbs open the under-story to wider views. Mists cling to evergreen bows like sparkling jeweled drops or snow fall gently through the trees. Spring wakens with bright green growth of young leaves on bushes and trees - the air seems to glow with life. Ferns unfurl their fronds as flowers open upward to the sky. When summer arrives, head to cooler forests for wonderful textures in the trees. While in tip #1 the idea is to go with cloudy day, why not head out with the sun spotting the forest floor and play with the details of light and dark. My favorite season is autumn, when the leaves begin to tarnish with season's end. While in spring you walk through air glowing green, in autumn the air vibrates with gold.

7. Go Slow and Stop Often

My friends know that when I invite them on a forest walk and pull out my tripod at the trailhead, we're going slow. Sometimes it's as slow as a mile an hour. Luckily they know this and bring plenty of layers and snacks. But it is also a time for them to slow down and really look at the forest details. I often see them hunched over some lichen or wildflower, their cameras out capturing a texture or splash of color. Don't be afraid to stop if something catches your eye - even if you're not sure what it was. Stop, go back, study, move, adjust until you see what initially caught your attention. If you're not seeing it, move on. You're taking a walk in the woods; you're not on a death march. Take your time, communicate with the forest, listen to what it's telling you, then photograph that message.

8. Play With Your Camera Settings

Just like using different lenses to create different effects or bring attention to different aspects of the forest, playing with your camera settings can help to fully tell your story of the forest. First, play with your aperture. A wide open aperture will highlight an element like a wildflower while throwing the rest of the scene into a soft frame. Close down the aperture to show the depth of detail and texture of the forest. Next try adjusting your shutter speed. A fast shutter speed will quickly capture a fleeting moment in time, like a deer peaking through the brush or a flowing bouncing in the wind. A slower shutter speed adds the effect of movement - the bouncing flower becomes a study in motion. Or try panning to highlight the splashes of color. Get to know your camera and the creative possibilities it will help you discover.

9. Add Humanity

I like hiking with my friends, don't you? Why not add human perspective into your images? People are not an other in the wilderness but are grown from it. Our experiences in the woods help form who we are and our relationship with the natural world. Adding a human element helps to tell the story of this relationship. It shows the grandeur of the forest and the awe we feel as we walk in the presence of nature.

10. Have Fun

Finally, Have Fun! If you walk into a forest with an happy attitude, the forest will respond in kind. It will begin to show you its secrets. It will show you its soul. You can't help but be happy trying to capture the story of the forest. Play with your lenses, your settings, your viewpoint. Take you time to get to know the place your in and you can't help but leave with a smile on your face. Photographing in a forest is a time to play and laugh. Look at the forest as a child would, with eyes of wonder and exploration. I guarantee that if you have fun, you're images will show that fun and wonder.