08 Oct 2021

10 Quick Tips for Forest Photography - From Our Friends at Olympus

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Timing is Everything

The hour before sunset and the hour after sunrise are known as the incredible “Golden Hour,” which produces the ideal light for color saturation and drama. It’s also the time of the day when light cuts through trees at an almost sideways angle, which can create beautiful eerie and mythical looking scenes if mist or fog is present.

Go Light

There is nothing worse than hiking through forests and woodlands with a pack weighing more than your weekly food shopping. The OM-D series is perfect for lightweight hike photography – and combined with small lenses like the 12-45mm F4.0 PRO or a 17mm prime, you won’t even notice they’re there.

Create Depth

It’s easy to overlook, but a nice mode to walk around shooting forests with is Aperture Priority. Set a reasonably narrow aperture – such as F8 – ﬁnd a mid-range point in your scene for focus, and shoot. You should ﬁnd that most – if not all – of your forest-scape will be in focus.

Adjust Your Perspective

Play around with aspect ratios, shooting wide or square in diﬀerent scenarios. Or simply turn your camera and shoot a vertical. This works particularly well with enormous ancient trees that create a towering canopy.

Go Wide

Wide angles can create a completely new story when shooting inside woodlands and forests. Extra wide angle lenses can exaggerate height and distance for some truly amazing images.

Get Down Low

There are some wonderful tiny things in forests and all you need to capture them is a good macro lens. The M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 Macro lens is perfect for fungi, moss, and wildlife that you ﬁnd along the way. Don’t be scared to get on the ground and look closely at dead trees and logs. You might even get a chance to use Focus Bracketing and Stacking, and grab all the depth you need for tiny treasures.

Look for Easy Silhouettes

A great way to capture stunning backlit images of trees or treelines against a sunrise or sunset is to use spot metering. Set this as your metering mode in camera and let the camera read the exposure for the sky. This will immediately put anything darker into silhouette and create beautiful shapes and tones.

Embrace the Weather

What’s more dramatic than a cloudburst of rain over a lake in the woods? Being able to shoot in these types of conditions adds more drama and story to an otherwise simple image. Make sure your camera can take the elements– consider pairing an OM-D E-M1 or E-M5 series camera body with a weathersealed lens.

Go With the Seasons

There are four entirely diﬀerent stories to be told in the same forest: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. Colors change and create wonderful contrasts, or indeed give us lots of negative space to work with. Try to shoot the same scene at diﬀerent times of the year.

Bring Your Furry Friends

Dogs’ adventures in forests can make incredible images because they look happy and natural. See if you can tempt your furry friend into posing in some fantastic locations – and don’t forget the treats!

Before You Go

It’s vital for photographers and adventurers to respect our forests in order to protect these wondrous spaces for generations to come. Remember to always leave them better than you found them:

If you spot some trash, take it and put it in a trash can.
Protect the local ﬂora and fauna by staying in designated safe areas.
Keep a safe and respectful distance from animals. Additionally, do not feed or leave food behind that they can eat. Learning that humans supply food is dangerous to their natural feeding habits.
Look for local advisories, park ranger updates, and safety warnings before entering the wilderness. Most importantly adhere to all ﬁre safety warnings and burn bans!
Take photos, not souvenirs! Leave nature where it belongs, do not collect items from the forest. Instead capture their beauty with your camera.

For Olympus Shooters: M.Zuiko Lenses We Love for Forest Photography

60mm F2.8 Macro – This weathersealed macro lens is great for getting up close, while keeping some distance. Perfect for mushrooms, textures and insects!

12-40mm F2.8 PRO – This lightweight, weathersealed zoom lens that allows you get wide or zoom in on the details. With its close focus range, you It can also work for nearly macro photography!

7-14mm F2.8 PRO – A weathersealed, ultra-wide lens that allows you to capture the great expanse of nature, from wide open hillsides, to giant ancient redwoods.

40-150mm F2.8 PRO – Give yourself some space to stand back and zoom in. With this weathersealed, telephoto zoom lens you get a little more reach to capture that hawk in the tree, or the deer across the way.

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10 Quick Tips for Forest Photography - From Our Friends at Olympus

Timing is Everything

Go Light

Create Depth

Adjust Your Perspective

Go Wide

Get Down Low

Look for Easy Silhouettes

Embrace the Weather

Go With the Seasons

Bring Your Furry Friends

Before You Go

For Olympus Shooters: M.Zuiko Lenses We Love for Forest Photography

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Products

Popular

10 Quick Tips for Forest Photography - From Our Friends at Olympus

Timing is Everything

Go Light

Create Depth

Adjust Your Perspective

Go Wide

Get Down Low

Look for Easy Silhouettes

Embrace the Weather

Go With the Seasons

Bring Your Furry Friends

Before You Go

For Olympus Shooters: M.Zuiko Lenses We Love for Forest Photography

Share the article

Recent articles

Into the Forest I Go

Planning a Photography Adventure in the Desert

What is a neutral density filter (ND)?

How do I use a Circular Polarizer (CPL) effectively?

Keep up to date on the latest news and events!