Finding Your Landscape Photographs
A second trip to the Peaks saw Dav and I in Padley Gorge - I keep on getting fascinated by the colour of the mosses down there and the way the ambient light seems to make them glow (especially when you use a polarising filter). This time I'd found a branch that obviously had a little navigational problems. A few people ask me how I find compositions when in woodland like this and so I though it might be enlightening to show you a few pictures I took as I was trying to find something to capture and also as I worked on the composition.
The first thing that you have to know is to close one eye! This is essential as if we don't, we see far too much interesting 3D structure to be able to pick out the 2D shapes. The second thing is to move slowly and be constantly looking around (preferable only look around when you are standing still as you will still 'see' in a form of 3D by interpolating the way things move against each other). The first thing that I saw in the woodland that captured my interest was just the mosses. Quite a few branches was draped with this wonderful green moss and I started to walk around, looking at each area of moss, trying to identify interesting shapes or backgrounds. The first area I saw that started to look interesting is shown below.
The area that interested me was the curving branch just above and to the right of my camera bag. The next step was to get a bit closer and examine the area.. I could see the branch itself was going to be the focal point, the next step was to look around at the background of the branch and also to see how the shape of the branch changed as you looked at it from different directions.
I decided quite quickly what part of the branch I wanted to photograph but as I moved around the scene, some of the background to the branch made any potential picture very fussy. Here th left hand part of the branch itself is fussy and the tree in the background is quite dark and cuts through the area of interest.
This picture shows the angle where most of the elements of the picture are lining up OK.. The area below the branch is still not quite perfect, there is a little too much leaf litter showing and the green rock is touching the branch. The next step is to work on cropping the area of the branch I would like to take a picture of.
The next step is to start working with focal lengths to see what happens when we zoom in and out. This step effectively allows us to 'scale' the background of the image, to include or exclude elements. For instance, this is only a minor tweak but I wanted to close up the gap below the bottom branch and also didn't like the small branch that shows in the following angle..
In the red area, I wanted to try and tuck the tree trunk behind the branch a but more. The yellow area the same, hoping to move the trunk just above the yellow area to the left a bit and also to hide a bit more of the white branch (or at least don't have the white branch contrasing against the very dark bit of branch in front of it. The blue area needs closing up a little and hopefully hiding the stone and finally, I would like the path of the eye following the bottom limb of the branch to get to the green area and then to continue up the trunk. So hopefully moving the background to the left a bit and also shrinking the background slightly (lifting the bottom up and moving the right hand side in a bit).
You get this effect by zooming out whilst moving toward the subject, trying to keep the subject the same size in the frame using the zoom. This gives you an effect not unlike the bit in Michael Jacksons thriller video where his head stays the same size but the background falls away rapidly (over used to much effect in many horror films since). Anyway - the overall crop and composition I was after is now shown below.
Now the next thing to add is a polarising filter, hoping that it will help darken the highlights in the scene, ultimately creating less contrast and boosting colours in the process.
And finally, set up the large format camera and do some focus jiggery pokery (A combination of tilt and swing allowed me to get the branch limbs in focus but in the process gave me a small depth of field at the bottom of the picture where the depth of field wedge was 'pointy' and a larger depth of field at the top of the picture. ) and some last minute composition fine tuning.
And finally - I thought seriously about a crop when I was taking the picture, I'm not sure about it though. I quite like the way your eye travels back up the tree trunk on the right however the crop has the advantage of being a very simple, clean composition. Any thoughts?
Oh - I took another couple of pictures whilst I was out and I'd love some feedback on them as they aren't my usual style of composition. They're in the sidebar after the wiggly branch shot (sorry about non-'artistic' photo names - how about "Druid Soul of the Half Shade")
Highlight this Comment James Morris11/04/2010, 14:38
Immensely useful post on the real process of making the shot.
I like dense shots (e.g. Ray Metzger landscapes), and they are definitely challenging in terms of defining a subject.
I think the narrow focus wedge at the bottom helps greatly with this.
The only issue I can think of with the crop is the non-moss covered branch about 80% up on the left edge, which keeps drawing my eye. Cropping it takes important bits of the shot out, so perhaps some burning in PS?
Highlight this Comment David Langan11/04/2010, 16:40
Always interesting in reading about the evolution of a photograph from conception to capture and all the compromising and compositional considerations that goes into making a photograph. Very interesting
D
Highlight this Comment Tim12/04/2010, 09:28
A good work-through from (pre)visualizing to getting the shot you want; I particularly like the tonal effect of adding the polarizer. Might have to start using one more often. Having spent a good 30mins out with the MF kit last week trying this kind of scene for myself, I understand it can be hard to go from "oh, nice pattern of branches, if I just held the camera here..." to "blasted distracting background!" when you frame-up. Much micro-wiggling of position,tripod,angle,aperture,etc ensues.
What I find distracting in your final composition is the way the branch touches the left of the frame, repeatedly up the edge. Personally - and it is only a subjective thing - given the wider-angle context of the shot, I might've tried a step back, up and left and landscape orientation.
I like the lighting in the copper-beech side-photo, but the focussing seems distracting. Dappled grass is a nice concept, although I'm not sure about cropping the trees.
Highlight this Comment Tim Parkin12/04/2010, 10:40
Thanks for the comment tim, much appreciated - As to the left of the branch, I'm not sure there is a 'best' crop but I was hoping to keep the eye flowing around the picture.. might try your version using one of the wide shots when I get a chance..
Highlight this Comment patrick dodds13/04/2010, 08:36
thanks for sharing your process of image making Tim - very interesting and, like the commenter above, I might get a bit more busy with my polariser as a result. FWIW, I like the final image but the very light, almost white, branch on the right hand side is a distraction and breaks up an otherwise coherent picture. Slightly off topic, and you are probably already aware of this, but I was interested to note that the the photos on your home page all have the same crescent shape and I was wondering if this was a shape you continually return to as one that "works"?
Highlight this Comment Tim Parkin13/04/2010, 08:45
Hi Patrick - thanks for commenting! I agree about the white branch and I'd love to take a saw to it but I'm not sure it's ethical ;-)
And the pictures on the home page were chosen to have a 'theme' although I shoul dprobably start rotating pictures a little more. The crescent shape is definitely one I think about (or more generally, curves that hold your eye in the picture) and play a part in lots of my pictures. I often think back to my technical drawing days and the use of the french curve. Elegant smooth curves can really help the eye track around a picture niceley. If I'm not using curves, I'm using zig-zags or S shapes.. they just happen to be good shapes to guide the eye through a picture (and more importantly, not letting your eye get stuck or exit a picture)
Highlight this Comment Roger Overall17/04/2010, 18:46
Beautifully observed Tim.
And such self control. I'd almost have taken a hack saw to the bright branches in the background on the right.
Highlight this Comment Margot24/06/2010, 16:16
Great tutorial and amazing images.
Highlight this Comment Lars Daniel11/07/2010, 22:33
I just found your brilliant blog. Will follow. Great insight in your process in this post. As for the image, I like the uncropped better. I wonder if infrared film could have been good here. I am thinking it might have been able to pull out all the green moss and thereby reduce the clutter.
Highlight this Comment Patrick Meylan03/08/2010, 11:34
Very interesting walk-through of image composition. As an amateur LF photographer who loves shooting in the forest, I know how difficult it is to make good images out of the inherent complexity. Obviously you know how to do it. The picture at the bottom of the sidebar has wonderful colors, also. Best regards
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