e - Ken Gilbert

AP’s expert guide to photographing… Forest scenes
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DIFFICULTIES IN COMPOSITION
You maY think that photographing
forests would be a simple matter of
turning up in the fog and, hey presto,
job done. However, while most of us
can place a lone tree in the top third
of our snow-covered dawn field that’s
graphically majestic and stereotypically
strong, or use the strong verticals of
a pine forest to balance the eye, try
doing that in one of our gnarled and
tangled native forests without swearing.
To illustrate my point, let’s explore the
foggy example above.
Before I begin, let me first make it
clear that this shot isn’t quite working.
I had to dig it out of the archives and
dust it off to illuminate some common
compromises you will face. However,
let’s start with some positives.
There are plenty of strong
horizontals broken up by differing
thicknesses and subtleties accentuated
by the mist. It’s always good to
juxtapose opposing elements, such
as solid and delicate, soft and sharp,
moving and static, and increasing
the power of both by adding depth
and tension. The naked winter trees
in the mist work well to catalyse a
mysterious bleak atmosphere, and
the foreground up to and including
the wall adds texture and balances the
softness of the distant trees. These
things combine to give the viewer
a richer experience, but let’s not
forget the problems.
The biggest issue here is the
sloping bank; the dense area in the
bottom right of this image creates an
uncomfortable imbalance, creating
Compositionally,
this image doesn’t
work, with the
biggest problem
being the sloping
bank in the
foreground
‘It is
always
a good
idea to
contrast
opposing
elements,
such as
solid and
delicate,
soft and
sharp’
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tension in the top left. Try to think of a
good composition as having balancing
elements – this big area knocks it off.
Second, the markers 1, 2 and 3
represent irritating distractions to the
composition. The tangled branches
interfere with the smooth flow of
your eye around the image. I have
been known to bend back and
move irritating distractions, and
sometimes even clone out tricky
customers. Obviously, in such areas
it would be tricky to do any of these,
which is why, until now, this image
hasn’t seen the light of day.
Item 4 is a compromise in
composition and illustrates one of
the main issues faced by the subject
matter. In my defence, I was trying
to use the foreground trunk as a
barrier, but alas the solution (to move
slightly up the bank) causes even
more problems to the composition
elsewhere, with intersecting trunks
and unbalanced negative spaces.
Item 5 is also a very common
problem alongside 1, 2 and 3 – an
irritating branch that I should have
moved as it hinders the smooth eye
movement around the image.
Finally, I wondered if a square
crop would work better, as cropping
out issues 1, 2, and 3 strengthens
the diagonal into a more balanced
composition. The only snag is that the
upper left forking trunk looks really
cool, but sometimes less is more.
Anyway, let’s examine some successful
images to further emphasise these
compositional elements.
32 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 17 April 2010 subscribe 0845 676 7778
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I’m drawn to angular
shapes and these forests
are perfect to exploit
my ever-so-slightly
idiosyncratic trait.
This Lake District
pine plantation
suited my mood
on this foggy afternoon
Canon EOS 5D Mark II,
24-105mm, 1/8sec at f/11
A momentary break in the
clouds lasted for seconds
as I ran around looking for
a composition. Get into
the habit of leaving your
camera set for this type
of shot (100 ISO, f/11,
aperture priority), so when
you need to move fast you
know you are ready
Canon EOS 5D Mark II,
17-40mm, 1/8sec at f/14