Forest Photography tips - finding compositions

Forests are wonderful places to capture great images but it's a source of frustration for many photographers. In this video, I show some simple techniques using your camera's live view to identify good compositions in the forest.
Music: www.jimmygelhaar.com

[@glennshoemake4200]

Thank you Stuart, this is exactly what I needed before going on my trip. Great composition tips provided in your video.

[@heinzhagenbucher4714]

Very well presented, and some very good points. Thank you!

[@FabianMaximilianPhotography]

Thanks for these simple but really fantastic tips!!! Fine video and great results in it!

[@markmuller3086]

Enjoyed this a lot Stuart. It's a subject I'm focused on a lot. Thanks. Looking forward to Part 2

[@ANOLBEE]

Thank you so much! I was lacking for inspiration, and now i know what to shoot next.

[@Wastelander13]

Thank you for this video! Its exactely what I needed right now!

[@Art2B49]

you made compositions skills easyer to develope this way. thanks! Most people watch and don’t see.

[@chriscarroll5780]

Magic thank you for taking the time to show us how its done, All the best

[@990drifter]

Enjoyed this very much. Very clear and easy to follow instructional technique and something I will look forward to exploring, thank you and good luck.

[@MrYankee853]

great video Stuart..I just found you and immediately subbed..such a simple tip but makes all the difference...cant wait for more..thanks !

[@lisapalzer2511]

Thanks you!!! I've been studying photography on my own for a few months now and i was frustrated with trying to shoot in many of the local parks here which are all mostly wooded. This video was just what i needed to inspire and keep me practicing skills. Thanks!!

[@StuartLowPhotography]

Hi Lisa, I'm glad you find it helpful and it's great that you're inspired. Best wishes and happy photography. Cheers Stuart

[@lonnieclemens8028]

Thank you for sharing this video. The forest is very beautiful.

[@markharris5771]

A very good video taken from a slightly different perspective of showing the dynamics of light. It's these nuances that can make or break shot and it was nice to hear someone explain why not to stick to the obvious such as leading lines when the light isn't suitable. One for the intermediate photographer as well as the beginner. One of the best tools on the camera to help prevent glaring mistakes, such as large areas of sky, is having the blinkies turned on. Excellent and subscribed.

[@jemsalmonphotography]

Some great tips Stuart - many thanks.

[@evertking1]

You still alive?? Your a awesome teacher and this is one of, if not the best on composition I have seen and thank you.

[@Kong2112]

many thanks for your lessons. very useful and easy to understand .

[@Rifgat]

Big thanks from Russia!

[@Glasshousebc]

That was brilliant... great to see live view and the way it was utilised. And what can happen with just a few steps and adjusting level of camera. From a newbie who’s just purchased a DSLR.

[@ethanunzicker]

This was a fantastic help! I've just started getting into photography for my job and a large portion of my shooting takes place in wooded areas. The two problems you address are EXACTLY what I've been struggling to tackle. I'm excited to get back in the field and try some of your suggestions!

[@paulphillips9082]

Really good. I watched it a few times. Just never looked at composition this way. Thanks

[@JeffPayne]

Fellow photographer and videographer here! Thanks for an awesome video! Keep having fun!

[@tendertears2001]

Great tips, I'll definitely put them to use. Thanks.

[@billhutchins4318]

Thank You Stuart, That has been a great help to me,

[@Powerstroke98]

I quite enjoyed that, as here in western Canada the forests are many. Great points of view, and hopefully you do a Part 2 on a very similar project!

[@rafalkonieczny]

Great video! I decided to focus for one year only on forests and trees, and it is so addictive!

[@debbieford8542]

Rafał Konieczny - I started photography 35 years ago and have always loved woodland. I've many images of just trees and they always feature in my landscapes.

[@mvlameiras]

Although the forests here in Brazil look a little different, the tips helped a lot... More success for the channel!

[@jenndoingmybest]

Great video! I am going to try your tips this weekend. thank you

[@subiajohri4018]

Thanks for the tips! I'm on my way to Sequoia National Park, California. I can't wait to take some shots.

[@ThePosiview]

One of the best videos I've seen for a while...shame he's vanished :(

[@debbieford8542]

Great video Stuart. I only live 20 mins from the Galloway Forest Park. Can be challenging due to the large proportion of coniferous woodland but there are little pockets of natural in there as well. I just love woodland photography at any time of year, it's always changing and is so peaceful and atmospheric. Another couple of tips - look down as well, there can be a host of things to photograph at floor level and not necessarily with a macro lens. And also look for patterns and textures, crop in tight in camera.

[@girliedog]

This is an excellant tip, which I am going to work with on my next jaunt.

[@stetoye]

Thanks Stuart, very helpful!

[@m.s.m.3916]

Very helpful video. Thank you so much, Stuart.

[@paulboyle5659]

Brilliant Stewart very welldone video, easy for the beginner to understand the way you've done it, nice and simple, thanks, mate - subbed liked and shared.

[@thasitadeepat3667]

Thanks for details explanation. It is helpful for beginner like me. LOVE.

[@schwunsch]

Thats super helpful, thank you! I like practical aproach

[@thomastessier4529]

Very good advice, panning with live view, going to try that.

[@kalavarathanthram1043]

Excellent my friend. Have a great time ❤️

[@chrlmlln9018]

Hello Sir! Big THANK to you for valuable and very good advice of portraying trees inside the forest/wood! Wishing you much inspiration and may you enjoy your great photography even more! Wishing you sir all the Best (always!) Best Regards, Charl (Sweden)

[@ShaneCrouch]

Ah stuart, do this regularly, excellent video. High quality.

[@lombokfriendly]

Thank you so much for sharing the tips. A new follower from Indonesia

[@rubberdiscoduck]

I know it's an old video but it was very very helpful to me as I live in the woods too and struggled for good composition

[@teachermay331]

Beautiful green trees 😃 nice view and good learning 😁.

[@pesthlm]

Thanks Stuart! Very good tips, trying in my near woods tomorrow :-)

[@Zapruderfilm1963]

Thank you so much Stuart!! I’ve subscribed!

[@eklavya3160]

Excellent video. I guess would like to see part 2

[@DarthSpaeter]

I find your videos quite inspiring. Could you maybe show in a video how to get the colours right. Because as seen in the video the colours differ very much between the real world, live view and the final image. That would be great. Keep it up!

[@ianspicer1529]

Really helpful - thank you Stuart.

[@peckuliarphotography1298]

Good tips. Well put together video, simple and helpful

[@pauldefaire]

This is really good, thanks for sharing! :) Forests have always scared me as a photographer, haha.

[@chrishomer]

Pleased to find this. I just gave woodland photography a go and spent the first few hours wandering around like a headless chicken. I’m an experienced photographer too. It was tough! Couldn’t make sense of the chaos. Woodland spaghetti

[@PaulRevere2009]

Well done . That's a beautiful area.

[@laurie0242]

A good presentation just like being with a friend to guide you

[@Igorotboy40]

Beautiful video and tips. Thanks.

[@ireneuszmarcinkowski9316]

Thank you for great tutorial.

[@andershagstrom437]

Bracketing is your friend! Great video!

[@Sam3532]

Some brilliant tips in this video! Though one thing you didn’t mention for blown out sky creeping through (that I noticed; or didn’t notice!) is exposure bracketing, tho I get a feeling the ‘next time’ video might cover that.. I’ll have to watch!

[@reevecarlo]

Thumbs up Sir! excellent tip! please do some more

[@danchampion5197]

Beautiful Tut , well explained, Thank you

[@elaineturpin1064]

Great video. Thanks for the tips

[@joeyr3349]

i love forest photography...

[@danielaesmaili2391]

Thanks for your time and tips. I have been doing photography for a while, I always wish tips would be categorized as beginner, intermediate and advance. If an advance photographer watches a combination of tips, s/he might get bored as they know most of it. The beginner would not get all of it either, since they are not good enough yet to catch them all, they might need more explanation and get more out of it. Hope it helps. Looking forward for your next videos.

[@kevwalton3229]

Earned another Sub. Great video, I learned quite a lot. Cheers :D

[@waltermaki3794]

VERY GOOD VIDEO....I.M GOING TO TRY YOUR IDEA;S.........THEY SEEM TO WORK AND ARE SO SIMPLE.....THANKS....

[@collincourtois8587]

Great Video. Thanks.

[@vishweshwarkandalgaonkar3446]

Nice and easy tips. Thanks

[@Revangelistautube]

big thanks from Malaysia...

[@deformator2]

Nice tutorial, mate.

[@andycapsphotos]

@6:52 - Walks into a scene from Lord of the rings - "That's not too bad of a composition" 😍😂

[@harald88]

great video!!

[@lodgeblog]

Good job Stuart.

[@jamesmicali2526]

Very informative. Thank you.

[@peterlittlewood9810]

Very clear and simple practical advice, thank you. Do you have a video on the processing techniques you used for these shots?

[@clivesquire6463]

Hi Stewart I found your channel and subbed you amazing content thanks for sharing loved the live view it helped a lot what editing software do you use as the end images were amazing keep up the great uploads , many thanks ,clive .in nottingham.

[@oldbarnsleyincolour]

Great video Stuart - The tips are very enlightening and I'll try to incorporate them into my shooting style. Just a question - when we see the finished photos they seem very heavily colour processed (tone compressed) which I think looks fantastic, do you use an HDR app? If so which one?

[@sdanckaarts]

Thanks from Holland :)

[@sarinraghuraman5151]

Thank you sir . it was really helpful

[@hannakoper]

very helpful video. thanks

[@DavidDrejer]

very nice way of explaining things 👍😃 Just got a Dslr myself and live very close to a forest. Tomorrow will be a Great day for me if its not Raining 😃😃😃

[@bryanrutherford516]

Great video!

[@lstvphoto]

Very helpful, thanks

[@allanthompson9695]

Nice vid Stuart

[@wauman7591]

Thnx for the tips

[@NadiaNasedo]

thank you :)

[@joaomacedo9056]

very nice tank you

[@JordanHauserGbg]

Keep it up!

[@lennartgoosens]

I am also waiting anxiously for the second part. :) This is one of the few good videos around to show other people what I am normally trying to accomplish in the city, but then in an even tougher environment. Let's see how much my next portrait shoot in the local park improves after letting this sink in!

[@elliotjerome6294]

sorry to be off topic but does someone know of a method to log back into an instagram account..? I stupidly forgot the password. I love any tricks you can offer me

[@maverickgavin9489]

@Elliot Jerome instablaster :)

[@elliotjerome6294]

@Maverick Gavin i really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff now. I see it takes a while so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@elliotjerome6294]

@Maverick Gavin it worked and I actually got access to my account again. I am so happy:D Thanks so much, you really help me out !

[@maverickgavin9489]

@Elliot Jerome happy to help :)

[@Dalwhat]

Nice video. Do you ever use multiple exposure HDR to help with the contrast issues?

[@obroadieswimmer]

Liked and subscribed. :)

[@LadyJaneG]

Very interesting !!! I am going to be doing a photo shoot in the woods, but with a model. I suppose I may have to use flash ..would you have any tips on this

[@JayDeeChannel]

Thank you. How did you get such vivid colours in your forest images? What settings? Thanks for the tips.

[@zarrow50]

You can clone out bright patches, small patches anyway.one idea of course

[@shivanganand8342]

very nice

[@mvlameiras]

I don't know if I searched correctly, but I didn't find the second part. Did you get to film part 2? Thank you and greetings from Brazil!

[@AshishMestry29]

were the photos you showed edited? It looked like the video didn't show the sunlight.

[@tatrama]

stunning video ! keep it coming please ! subscribe definitely !

[@ratchethoe]

How do you lessen chromatic aberrations near the corners when taking shots in locations like this?

[@unclaireable]

did you edit these photos post-capture or are they untouched? I'm wondering as the photos look much warmer in colour than the video footage does. also, would you happen to remember what settings you were using? great video!!

[@StuartLowPhotography]

Hi, and thanks for your comment. No, the still images are untouched. I don't Photoshop my images. 90% of my photography is on Fuji Velvia film which gives much richer colours. When I shoot digital, I shoot with a Canon 5D3 which has an in-camera function called a "picture style". I have my camera set up with a custom picture style I developed a few years ago that gives warmer richer colours in my stills. The video was set on basic auto mode when I was walking through the forest.. HTH :)

[@saifursrobayat5332]

Is the "picture style" mood have on canon 700d ??

[@twiggyb01]

how big is your live view image? with your hand over it, it looks like a big telly.

[@knownaigm]

Great tips! The viewing through live view is a great tip that I also use a lot. The walkthrough showing HOW you identify and build your compositions was very informative and entertaining even to a non-beginner. I would like to add my 2 cents coming from early frustrations with forest shoots when I started years ago. Keep in mind that just because there is a lot of forest around you, that doesn't mean you have to get as much of it in the frame as possible. You can also look for interesting objects and compositional interactions to create a focal point or subject in smaller scenes. Case in point: 500px.com/photo/147480391/portrait-of-a-tree-by-bryan ... I used the framing of two trees' shadows to highlight this little tree standing in front of a rock face. This sets the little tree as the foreground subject while maintaining background interest with the rock face as well as creating a spacial interest with the looming shadows of the trees.