Learn To Photograph Trees
I like trees. A lot. Some of my favorite objects in the real world are trees. Think I can reliably take a good photograph of a tree? No way.
Why is it hard?
Humans know what trees should look like. They generally have a strong 3D presence but are actually quite similar to each other and parts of themselves. If you take any random snapshot of tree, you generally get something unrecognizable as tree or something that is generic and powerless.
Why is it hard?
Humans know what trees should look like. They generally have a strong 3D presence but are actually quite similar to each other and parts of themselves. If you take any random snapshot of tree, you generally get something unrecognizable as tree or something that is generic and powerless.
Take this example. There are 4 trees. They are different ages (and so different width trunks). The lighting is good (as good as you generally get in a forest - side lit, orange). Which tree is closest? Do you get a sense of scale? Majesty? These are big trees - do you feel dwarfed?
This fails the self similar problem (big trunks far away look the same as smaller trunks closer up). |
Was there something I could have done to save these shots? Is there some f-stop on a camera that does a fantastic job? Some place to stand? I haven't found it. Below are some of the pictures of trees I have taken that I like. This covers less than 2% of the photographic situations I've been in where I wanted to take a picture of a tree.
Individual Trees
Strategy 1: Separate Tree From Background
It's a rare opportunity, but if you can separate the tree from the other trees you might have an honest chance at getting a good picture. Almost never works in dense west coast forests.
Individual Trees
Strategy 1: Separate Tree From Background
It's a rare opportunity, but if you can separate the tree from the other trees you might have an honest chance at getting a good picture. Almost never works in dense west coast forests.
Palm trees seem to be a good special case of this rule. Most people know what the top looks like and it separates well from the rest of the tree. Go to the tropics, shoot lots, it's one of the few places that trees are easy to shoot.
Sadly, half measures don't work well here. How about this shot?
Sadly, half measures don't work well here. How about this shot?
Strategy 2: Put a Human in there
Just adding a human isn't enough - you need to have a human and some way to separate the tree from everything else. If you are extraordinarily lucky, a tree can be lit (add a human) an voila - a passable picture.
Just adding a human isn't enough - you need to have a human and some way to separate the tree from everything else. If you are extraordinarily lucky, a tree can be lit (add a human) an voila - a passable picture.
Strategy 3: People know what trees look like. Show them something new
Sometimes just an element of a tree is interesting enough to let the viewer fill in the rest. Trees are supringly hetrogenous - the berries don't look anything like the branches. Some parts of tree are there for show, some parts are just trying to be ignored.
Forests
Even more trouble. That self similar thing makes your life miserable. There are two formulas - either the dappled light clearing or the hazy view.
Strategy 1: The Dappled Light Clearing
The formula is easy to follow: Wide angle (often the wider the better) with a rare clearing in the forest with dappled light falling on the ground. The dappled light allows you to figure out the scale of the forest floor and with that, you get a sense of camera angle and depth. Once your eye understand the perspective, it is willing to construct the trees from what it knows. Missing the clearing or the dappled light? Don't bother taking the photo.
What you are looking for is the ground to provide enough detail for your brain to grab scale, enough differences in lighting for your brain to reconstruct depth and finally enough to make it interesting.
Strategy 2: Atmospheric Depth Queuing
Again, trying to get over the self similar problem. If the atmosphere provide depth queuing (the further back it is, the thicker the fog/haze/smoke) the observer can reconstruct the 3D scene, you have a picture that conveys the space and trees. The problem is getting that depth queuing medium inside of forest. One can't go around setting forests on fire in order to take photos of them.