Aspen forest help

[Ben Egbert]

I love aspen forests but have never been able to capture a compelling image. I usually want an entire tree without cutting it off. But the ones I see that look good tend to emphasize the trunks and the array of them all in a line.

A couple weeks ago while camping, I had a lovely aspen forest right in my campground. After getting my morning shot, I wondered around the trees and took several images, this was the best of them.

I would like you critique on this one and any tips you may have for choosing a comp and or processing etc.

Feel free to rework this one, or if you want, I can put up and unedited JPG.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Ben,

I wish I could help more, but I just back down from another day up in the mountains here in Colorado.

I will say, I have seen some great looking aspen shots like you are describing, I have strived to get some of those type of shots myself. I have found that’s a hard shot to capture.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Jim, maybe its just a matter of luck and light. I have seen some while driving by and no place to park.

 

[AlanLichty]

Ben - I took a shot at the trunks just to see what I could do with this. I used the Transform tools in Lightroom to contort the image for vertical trunks and then spread the result to a pano view. Settings: Vertical +21; Horizontal -4; Aspect +38; and Scale at 76. Finally I cropped the bottom to make the subject the aspen trunks instead of the foreground vegetation.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Allen that is really helpful I suppose this is when a tse lens would be useful

 

[JimFox]

I like Alan’s work on this!

 

[AlanLichty]

Thanks Allen that is really helpful I suppose this is when a tse lens would be useful

Yup - this is what it is very good at. I use my 24mm TS-E to make a wide shot as a shifted pano which eliminates the WA distortion I get from just using a wide lens.

 

[Ben Egbert]

So did I I had the 17 and 24 butbefore live view and I missed focus too much

 

[AlanLichty]

The TS-E's are almost impossible to use without Live View. No way I can get good clean focus through the little viewfinder.

 

[Ken Rennie]

Looking at your image Ben it looks very busy. Part of this is caused by the bright sunshine with extreme highlights grabbing the attention. I usually head for the woods when there is flat light. The other way to simplify the image is use a wide aperture the shallow dof allows a few foreground trees to stand out. Mist is the best solution however. I did look at a few of my ICM shots to see if it would simplify the image. Here is an image to give you an idea what simplifying the background could do. Ken

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks so much Ken for your reply and example. I have been out of town last week and away from a decent computer so late in answering.

This is a great explanation and example. I am usually going for maximum DOF in my landscapes so this is a style I need to adapt and try to see if I can get a handle on it.

I saw on my way home that the trees in my area are just about ready for fall color, so I will be going into the aspen forests to try my hand. I will look for darker days, as mist is not a common feature in this area.

 

[Jeffrey]

Ben, simply put, forests are a difficult thing to capture. I don't mean small scenes or close ups of groupings of elements, I mean making a meaningful image of what a forest looks like. The scenes are always a cacophony of branches and things filling every area and going every which way. Personally, that is not what I want. I have very few forest keepers after all these years. Some forests are unique, like the Mariposa Grove or the Bristlecones, but most are too busy and confusing. Your image does a good job of accurately representing a very attractive area within your forest, but it doesn't have the interest or fascination to make it a fine art photograph. I'm recommending you 'crop' your vision to extract out a smaller scene that can be taken with one swallow. It may be harder to do that but the results of a successful effort are worth it. Aspens usually have too much ground growth as shown here (for me, that is). I also seek isolation and less background. Look at Ansel's aspen to see where I'm coming from here. Try using a long lens only and that may help adjust your brain to see that way.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Jeffrey. Most of my aspen shots are from a wide angle perspective that shows the fall color which is generally more uniform and less interest in the trunks. I will try both on my next trip. The long lens is a good suggestion.

You might be proud to know that on my recent Teton Trip I never used my 11-24 lens. Just the 24-70 and 100-400.