This article features a number of forest compositions recently captured handheld at Niagara Glen Nature Centre. It discusses some of the compositional considerations used. As you review the featured images you may find the EXIF data of interest as we’ve included the focusing distance used for various photographs.
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Hiking through forests to create some photographs can sometimes be a challenge. Individual trees seem to get lost visually. Often the stands of trees project a feeling of sameness which can dull our creative spirit. It can be helpful to look at the visual attributes of individual trees, like the exposed roots captured in the above image.
Using a zoom lens that offers a wide range of focal lengths can be helpful to quickly adjust our forest compositions.
The forest floor is often a jumble of rocks, boulders, fallen branches and other seemingly random items. If we study the positions of these various elements we can sometimes find some subtle eye flow that can help guide a viewer’s eye through out composition.
Looking for interesting foreground elements can create a sense of scale and focus in a forest composition.
It can be helpful to turn around as we are hiking through the forest to capture images of where we’ve just been hiking. If the location we are visiting has some rough stone pathways, these can be incorporated as leading lines.
We can create eye flow by looking for foreground elements like fallen branches, and adjusting our shooting angle to position them as leading lines. Using a reveal, like the cropped tree trunk on the left hand side, can help to direct eye flow.
Bringing a short stool with us as we explore forested trails allows us to lower our shooting position comfortably. Getting in tight to a foreground element can help create a feeling of intimacy.
Using ‘soft eyes’ as we walk along paths can reveal interesting geometric shapes, like the two triangles formed by rocks in the composition above.
Moving laterally can help reveal natural alignments of trees. These can be used to form a subtle leading line.
Finding a strong corner anchor, and lining it up with other rocks in a composition can create some drama, a sense of scale, and good eye flow.
Getting down low, and in close, to foreground elements helps create a feeling of intimacy, so our viewers can feel that they are inside our forest compositions.
We can move in very tightly to a tree trunk, using it as a reveal for the balance of the scene, and create strong right to left eye flow as illustrated in the photograph above.
If our cameras have articulating screens we can lower them to almost ground level to create interesting perspectives of the forest floor.
We can look for cracks and breaks in rock formations, using them as leading lines in forest compositions.
Fallen trees can act as leading lines.
Adjusting our shooting angle and shooting height can help create an overlapping effect and increase eye flow.
We can use somewhat longer focal lengths to visually compress elements and guide a viewer’s eye into our images.
Finding strong geometric shapes like the triangle in this composition, and combining it with a corner exit can create interest and encourage eye flow.
We can look for small details that tell their own stories…
If we open our eyes and our minds, forest compositions can illustrate past trauma.
Have us wonder what awaits around the corner.
And, confirm that our concept of permanence is a relative experience.
Technical Note
Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. All images were created from out-of-camera RAW files using my standard process in post. This is the 1,491 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.
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