2/08/2013

Tips To Photograph Natural Wooden Subjects

By Amy Renfrey


Photography is a wonderful hobby and career for many people. Especially those who love nature photography. Nature photography provides so many beautiful textures to speak of. In fact there are beautiful textures everywhere you look. For instance, wooden subjects can often give the photographer with a series of challenges and photographic exploration. Regardless of whether the pictures will be done in full-color or in the black and white style it is imperative to make a well thought out "plan of attack" before starting to capture the photos. This would include visualizing the kinds of special effects and consequences preferred and then figuring out a few various approaches to shooting such images.

Let's first consider photographs of timber or objects made of wood. Due to the fact this is an organic many people may not think of bringing wood into their photographic set up for a photo session. But just stop and think for a moment. Think about how timber might as an abstract or macro photo with close up lines and swirls, we begin to realize how this would work being shot in any location.

There are plenty of timber subjects to choose from. Even your basic subjects such as coloured pencils right through to furniture can provide you with some great photographic opportunities. But it's not just man-made subjects that we can look for. It is also naturally occurring in driftwood and tree branches too. A single tree branch or portion of bark will expose crevices, moss or lichen, and a large variety of special tones and finer details.

A photographer might like to photograph the many textures and tones in a piece of driftwood using only the sepia settings on their camera, or they may instead depend on the color features to take pictures of the texture and various color patterns in something like Tiger Maple. Clearly, this will mean that that a range of approaches is required, and choosing the right setup will become imperative to to be able to get truly stunning images.

So, how do you know the correct method to photographing wood? It all depends on your intentions. That piece of debris could be captured along the sandy beach where it was discovered; through the various tones of the wood and the textures of the sand finishing and where you place things in the photo. This same piece of wood, however, may be brought into the studio and set against a solid black or white setting where its swirls, lines, ridges, and different hues will become the whole scene instead.

Irrespective of the type of wooden textures to be photographed and the decision between color or black and white, it is important to remember that sharpness in texture is the final purpose. For this illustration we will return to that piece of driftwood and consider looking at it "up close" and also examine it "au natural" with the digital camera.

If a photographer has made the decision to bring the wood into the studio and shoot the patterns and different textures that have organically occurred they are going to need to evaluate the accurate way to do this. Should they shoot with a macro lens or should they use the identical approach as they would with up-close portrait photography? Generally, it is best to make use of the zoom lens (such as put to use in a majority of portrait settings) to get a really wonderful range of choices. If you select macro for such a picture you are going to have to really wrestle with the lighting development, but the zoom lens will let the photographer remain at a distance and really flood the wood with a large deal of easily controlled lighting. This means that shadows can be created when needed or they can be completely eliminated by the lighting setup too.

If we head outside to take photos of that piece of driftwood as it lies on the sands, we are going to have to think about the depth and value of its position in the shot. Is it wise that we stand over it and just shoot down into its patterns? Is it more intersting to juxtaposition it against the pale sands, the gray waters, and the pale blue sky? Should it be done in black and white? Some of these questions have more to do with a photographer's private preferences than anything else, but for the purpose of this conversation we will opt for the color shot of the driftwood.

It is going to be an object in dark grey and black tones placed in a setting that is full of paler and softer colors. A skilled photographer is going to have to use a lot of of the equivalent treatments for this photograph as they would for average landscape photography. This means they will want to make sure that their forefront and background are in the identical focal depth as the subject, and they will need to ensure that the light of the setting is balanced. Implementing a polarizing filter can diminish any reflections off the water and the sands and keep the colors a bit cooler.

Clearly, these are just easy examples of how a individual piece of wood can generate an enormous range of photographic possibilities, but it is imperative for any photographer to keep in mind that their general surroundings are an ideal scene for experimentation.




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