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Forest Photography:
Landscape Photography is generally considered as the pictures of well known vistas and grand landscapes but travelling across the globe for capturing just a landscape is not a cup of tea for mobile photographers. So, there comes a sub genre of landscape photography; Forest Photography.
Forest can be a great aesthetic subject for landscapes photographers because one can capture awesome photographs in any Forest just using his/her iphone.
Considering the points below before visiting any nearby forest with your iphone might be a game changer for iPhone Photographers.
1. Spend enough time in your location before shooting
It’s vital to spend time in the forest or woodland you wish to shoot in. You might have noticed how wildlife photographers study their subject before pressing the shutter.
In the same way, you should also observe your surrounding to understand the shapes, patterns, colors etc before shooting.
2. Explore every nook and corner of the forest
Try to get off the pathways moving through the forest. Try to find those spots which other people might overlook.
Each and every part of the forest have its own unique look. Look for the weird arrangements of branches which have their own character.
3. Get up early and reach your destination early
during Golden Hour
The best time to shoot any kind of landscape is in the hour following the sunrise and the hour before sunset. This precious moment of time is called golden hour when the light is most beautiful.
You will find golden rays of light travelling through the trees that gives beautiful backlit images and perfect contract between properly light up areas and dark shadows.
4. Don't back off during day time for forest photography
Landscape photography is not a good decision during mid day time due to harsh lighting condition. But it is not the case with Forest Photography because the harsh light is diffused by the branches and leaves of trees.
But you should try to avoid the bright light through the open gaps between trees in your composition. As the huge difference in brightness ends up as a ugly bright fleck of distraction.
5. Use telephoto lens for forest photography
The iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max comes with telephoto lens(52mm focal length) with 2x optical zoom.
It is recommended to use wide lens for landscape photography but telephoto lens is really good in compressing your composition and bringing your background elements forward.
Using telephoto lens will also help you in keeping all your verticals of the composition straight.
6. Use wide angle lens for forest photography
The all new iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max comes with wide angle lens(13mm focal length) with 4x more scene i.e. 120° field of view.
A wider lens is to give wider idea about the area and to push the background details distinctly out to give the rich view.
One of the best ides is to shoot tree trunk straight up. This will provide you with converging lines that makes trees look taller and the treetops look furthermore away.
7. Use leading lines to improve forest photography
Leading lines are one of the most talked compositional tool of photography.Depending just only on leading lines is not recommended but it’s undeniable that it always stands perfect for forest photography.
Most of the forests have paths running through them.These paths just work perfectly in attracting viewers attention and transporting it towards your main subject or just the scene.
Not just the paths but the rays of sun and the beautiful elongated shadows during the golden hour as mentioned above also works really good as leading lines.
8. Try using external Macro lens
If you have one with you, make sure to carry macro lens.Forest is full of small details.If you focus only on massive subjects you will miss these beautiful miniature subjects.
It is recommended to use flash during macro photography because light condition will be gloomy for such small point on the low land.
If you don’t have a macro lens then check out Moment Macro Lens for iPhone. You will surely love this external macro lens to step up your photography skill.
Always be conscious about your surrounding and the environment and make sure that you leave the area as you found it.Try not to disturb the components of location and never break off any branches or twigs even though they are disturbing your composition.A landscape photographer must be aware about every step and should be an ethical visitor to every location.
Make sure you check out Camera Tips and Tricks for iPhone to learn further about iPhone camera and tricks to get the best mileage just using the stock Camera App.
Very helpful post. Thank you