Photographing a Landscape Classic, “The Lone Tree”
When it comes to focal points in the landscape is there anything more appealing than a lone tree? When they work well there’s nothing better to act as an anchor point for the eye on but it’s not as easy as just plunking it onto the rules of thirds. The first thing we need to do is find a suitable tree. Not only does this mean a tree on its own but one which has an attractive form to it. There are no rules here except to say that when you see one it will be obvious.
I first discovered this tree when I was driving along the road over there and although I couldn’t stop that time because I was on my way to the airport, I made a mental note to return here another time and explore the area for further potential. The most important aspect of maximizing the potential impact of a loan tree is getting your viewpoint right. By viewpoint, I mean the exact position of the camera when the photo is taken. Changes to the viewpoint will make a huge difference to the end result. This is something which cannot be changed at the post processing stage which is why it’s so important to get it right before your press the shutter button.
The first thing we need to do is work out which angle our tree works best from. Now some trees will afford you the luxury of being able to walk all the way around them 360 degrees whereas other trees will limit you to just a few degrees. If your tree is in the foreground then as you more around it, two things will change. Firstly, the form of the tree itself, obviously looking at it from different angles will give different shapes to that tree and one angle might be particularly appealing whereas another angle you might get branches overlapping in an undesirable way. The second that that will change is the background. As you move around the tree obviously the background is going to change. For example, here I’ve got power lines to one side, so I’ve discounted looking at the tree from the opposite side because I don’t want power lines in the background so sometimes it's pretty obvious which angle is going to work the best but ultimately, you’re trying to find the best balance between the best shape of the tree and the best background.
Once we found our best angle, the next thing we need to do is find our best distance. Do we go close up to the tree and shoot it with a wide-angle lens, or do we come further back and shoot it with a longer telephoto lens? Those two options will give a very, very different result. Watch what happens as I move closer to the tree. The background stays the same in size but the tree becomes much bigger in the frame. This allows us full control to balance the ration of our subject with our background. A much underused element of composition in this scenario here I’ve decided to shoot the tree from quite a long way back because I want the top of the mountains to go way over the tree, When the tree’s backlit, the leaves will catch the light but the background will still be in shadows and that’s the contrast I’m looking for here.
Now that we’ve identified the best angle and the best distance, we can now be confident we’re standing in the perfect position but there’s one final dimension to consider… height. So do we get down low and shoot from this kind of height or do we work from higher up. Now the two will be quite important and generally speaking, you’ll find that if you’re using wide angle lens, getting down low here will be beneficial because you’ll bring the foreground right into the front of the photo. In the situation we’re using a longer lens, this is a 300 mm here, and then you’ll find that height actually doesn’t make that much difference because you’re probably not including any foreground anyway. I can’t stress the importance of viewpoint enough and you should invest as much time as possible into making sure you have this as perfect as it can be. Sometimes just moving the camera a centimeter can make or break a photo. For example, if you need to perfectly line up foreground element with background elements.
Now that we’ve found our best viewpoint, it’s simply a case of going through the usual checklist of composition, depth of filed, exposure, etc., the same as you would with any other photo.
One thing we need to pay attention to is whether the tree itself is moving. Now if it’s windy, the branches are going to be swaying in the breeze, and our exposure time will either needs to be fast enough to freeze that movement or long enough to intentionally blur it attractively. Only you can decide which one’s best for you. Now on today, there’s no breeze at all so my tree’s not moving so I don’t have to consider this but on a breezy day, it’s something else that you have to think about.
Two other considerations are sky and light. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to the sky. You might want a totally clear sky if your tree is large in the frame and protrudes above the horizon but if you have large areas of empty shy then you’ll probably want some texture in the form of clouds. Only you can decide what will be best for your scene, but the most important aspect is that you consider this. Don’t just accept what you have at the time as waiting a while or returning on another occasion may result in far better conditions. When it comes to light, assuming your tree works well in direct light, you need to decide which angle of light will give you the best result. Trees can work well side lit or backlit as they often make great silhouette4s. The one place you probably don’t want the sun is right behind you as you will then be seeing the tree from the same angle it’s being lit from which provides a very flat light. The only exception to this if you have a rainbow, in which case the sun has to be directly behind you.
Keep on the lookout for suitable lone trees that you can use as a focal point in your landscape images, and they don’t have to be massive in the frame. They can be quite small and subtle just acting as an anchor point for the viewer’s eye to settle on. By far the most difficult thing is identifying a suitable tree in the first place. Once you’ve done that, and then invest as much time into finding the best viewpoint of the tree because that’s really important. Once you’ve got those two things sorted, it’s just a case of patience, waiting for the right light to really show off the tree to its best. You may have to wait a while or even return several times before you get the tree looking perfect. Good luck!