Photographing Forests

I'm often asked to judge photo contests or to perform portfolio reviews and one of my pet peeves is overly contrasty images. These are usually the easiest to discard, as they hurt my eyes. It's also very difficult to pick out any detail. Usually, the highlights are blown out (no detail) and the shadows are blocked up (no detail). Yuck!

There are ways of modifying the light of the direct sun when photographing smaller subjects, such as wildflowers, and we use diffusing disks quite a lot during our wildflower tours. Forests are a different story, though! You just can't hold up a large enough diffuser to soften the light in a forest scene! Therefore, I always check the weather forecast for cloudy or overcast conditions and plan my shooting schedule accordingly. Clouds make a great diffuser!

As Sheila and I were photographing the various redwood forests in Northern California, the light conditions changed from day to day. Some days were cloudless and some were a perfect overcast. It seems I always need to prove to myself that - by golly - you just can't capture a decent forest scenic in sunny weather (as below), so most of the shots taken this day were discarded. This first shot was photographed with full sun and I tried my best to shoot only in the shade most of the time, but this is often what I'm presented with for review by novice shooters.

Redwood forest scene shot in full sun.

This first shot had a lot more contrast prior to adjusting in Lightroom. I toned down the Exposure and brought up Fill Light, which evened things out quite a bit. But there are still bright highlights, which tend to pull the eye away from the central subject matter. It's OK, but not great.

Redwood forest scene shot in overcast skies.

While it's difficult to find a comparable scene when we're traveling from park to park, this one is fairly typical. There are no bright highlights and the tonal value of the scene as a whole is a lot more consistent. Much easier on the eyes!

Image Stabilizing Lenses and Tripods!

Most photographers fail to read the manuals that accompany their newest toys and I admit, I'm one of them. I feel the sign of a quality product is one where you don't have to read how to use it! However, when it comes to image stabilized (vibration reduction) lenses, this can be a major mistake. How many of you realize that most IS/VR lenses require the mode to be turned OFF when tripod-mounted?

Frankly, I have been guilty of this more often than not, and I always wondered why some images were just a bit fuzzy. I always assumed I had jiggled the setup during the exposure. I decided to create an example as I was photographing in Redwoods National Park in Northern California.

I mounted my Canon Rebel T2i body with 24-105mm IS lens on my tripod and photographed a redwood trunk from about eight feet away. I used no filters, and because I was shooting in shade, adjusted the white balance to "Cloudy". I was very careful to avoid shaking the setup during exposure. Then I exposed a shot with IS turned ON and another with IS turned OFF. Once I returned home, I cropped out a small area in order to magnify the surface of the bark. No processing or sharpening has been performed - both images are straight out of the camera. See how much sharper the second image looks? Because digital camera include an infrared (IR) filter which increases blur slightly, it would look even better with a bit of post-process sharpening.

Cropped image as shot with IS turned ON.

Cropped image with IS turned OFF.

Why I Use Polarizing Filters for Vegetation

Most photographers know polarizing filters are useful to reduce reflections - mainly for wet objects, such as boulders in stream shots, or to enhance rainbows or darken skies, allowing clouds to stand out more clearly. Many do not realize they are essential for reducing reflections in vegetation. This came across loud and clear during our trip through the Redwoods National and State Parks in Northern California.

I was shooting in Jedediah Redwoods State Park near the Oregon border and tried shooting the images below with, and without, a polarizer. As you can readily observe, there is a lot of reflection from the ferns and other foliage.

What's also quite interesting is that you don't need full sunlight for the effect to occur. Normally, the greatest polarization effect is 90 degrees from the direction of the sun (as this picture was shot). But in this case, the sky was completely overcast (the best time to photograph forests, by the way). The filter had a very great effect, as you can see! Do you also see that the colors are a deeper, truer, green?

Neither shot was adjusted...these are both straight out of the camera using auto-exposure and aperture priority mode...

Which would you rather hang on your wall?

Scene without polarizing filter.

Scene with polarizing filter.

When purchasing a polarizing filter, be sure to buy one that will fit your largest lens. You can always use reducing rings to fit to smaller diameter ones. You'll also want to be sure to select a circular polarizer, as these will work best for auto-focus cameras.

Be careful when using a polarizer on a wide-angle lens 16-35mm) - especially, the super-wide lenses (10-18mm), as the thicker lens may cause shadowing (vignetting) in the corners of your images. This is primarily an issue for full-frame cameras...not so much with the cameras using the smaller APS-C-sized imagers. The other issue with wide-angle lenses is that the polarizer may cause the tonal value of the sky to vary from left to right. This is why they are usually not recommended for this case. A similar issue presents itself when shooting a series of images to be used in a panoramic. As the angle of the filter changes in relation to the sun, the tonal value of the sky will change, making it near impossible for the panoramic software to fit the pieces together resulting in a consistent tone in the sky.

Crater Lake, OR

Crater Lake, OR - The last time I visited Crater Lake was when I was in my early teens, so its been on my list for many years. We finally were able to get there to photograph it November 1st during our tour up the West Coast. Its depth of 1,943 feet makes it the 7th deepest lake in the world and deepest in the U.S. Compare this image with the commemorative stamp issued September 5th, 1934. This was part of a series of stamps issued that year from 1 to 10 cent denominations that honored major national parks. Camera settings: Canon Rebel T2i with 24-105mm lens, ISO 400, 1/400 second at f11.