- Have you ever wondered what the best settings are
for forest and woodland photography?
I know when starting out it can be really frustrating
to try and work those all out.
So in today's video, I'm gonna break down
what those settings are and what they mean for you.
Be sure to stick around at the end because there's one tip
you must know to ensure you've got sharp images.
That's today's video,
let's jump in.
So the first thing to see my system in action
is we're gonna take a photograph in auto.
So I'm gonna let the camera make all
the decisions for me, so there's
something to compare to later.
So I'm just gonna do our auto here on the Sony a7 IV,
subject point, sorry, the focal point.
And we'll let the camera make all the decisions,
so we'll have a loose photograph a little bit later on.
So first things we're gonna focus on the settings,
I need to get the correct exposure first.
So for woodland and forest photography,
I always use manual mode now
over say, aperture priority mode.
And the reason for that is you've gotta
contend with things like wind, snow, fog, rain,
those kind of things.
It's a very dynamic environment to work in.
And so having full control over
the aperture, shutter, and ISO
is really useful to make sure I get the image right
and obviously exposure right as well.
So usually I like to start off with aperture first,
and the lens I'm using today which is a 24-105,
I usually start f/8.
Now, if I'm using a longer lens say like a 70-200,
I generally start f/11,
cause I have a smaller depth of field.
But the reason I start f/8 with this lens
is because I know that I want
the foreground and sharp focus, I don't want these ferns
and bracken to be out of focus or soft,
cause that's part of the story
and the subjects, which are some of these
silver virtues here really need to be in focus
so the eye is not distracted,
but as a general guide, something in the vicinity
of a midrange aperture,
usually be the sharpest part of the lens.
So I can't tell you how many times I've got this
wrong myself and it's choosing the wrong shutter speed.
And you really need to pay attention
to the micro movements of the leaves, the branches,
it's not really a magical shutter speed as such
and it's really big knowing and comfortable with your gear.
But what I would say is you can comfortably shoot
if you're holding on a tripod down to 1 second,
I have found with this camera
and still get a really sharp image, but again
a bit of experimentation.
Now, if we were dealing with some wind,
it was quite windy here right now
then perhaps you'd look at something like 1/250
to really freeze the action
and maybe have to compensate with your ISO,
which we'll talk about in a moment.
So for the longest time, I always shot my photographs
or as close to possible as ISO 100
because I was told by other landscape photographers
that's what you needed to do to avoid
introducing noise into your images.
So noise or grain into your images
is the appearance of like little,
I guess essentially little dots is probably
the easiest way to explain it to you.
Some people like it, some people don't,
some people think it gives the appearance of film.
The truth of the matter is I comfortably shoot ISO 1600
in a forest environment quite regularly.
Cause I'd rather get the image
than worry about whether someone's gonna pixel peep
and have a look at how much grain is in my image.
So it's about you finding the comfort factor
but knowing that ISO 100 is not always the answer
to getting the right exposure in a forest environment.
All right, so we've set the aperture,
shutter speed, and the ISO.
So the next thing in my system would be to
actually manually adjust the white balance.
And that's really a creative decision between how warm
or cool I want the photograph to be.
Now for the purpose of today's lesson
I'm gonna use the auto white balance
knowing that I can change it in light room when I get home.
But the reason I normally manually choose
the white balance is cause I really wanted
the viewer to have a certain feeling
or emotion when looking at the image.
And the other challenge that you have,
especially with a forest and woodland settings,
and particularly in the rainforest I find,
is the color green,
it's a really challenging color to work with.
And so by setting the white balance,
I get a true reflection in field
as to how I feel the image should be.
So next step of the process is to set the focus point.
So today I'm gonna use the auto focus system here
on the Sony a7 IV.
What you do need to realize though
as in conditions such as snow, fog, heavy rain,
the auto focus system can really struggle
to find a focus point and hold it.
And so there are other focusing options available to you.
So the focus matter I am using
with the auto focus system is known as flexible spot
which allows me to pick a point
or track a point across the LCD screen
or the EVF as to what part I want to be in focus.
See the important thing here to think
about where you want your viewer to go
and where the eye wants to go,
and it's a lot more detailed, but generally speaking
I definitely want, in this case,
the foreground through the mid ground in sharp focus.
Next step is to confirm that we've got
the right settings are for our exposure correct,
and that's known as metering.
So what we can do is have a look on the back of our EVF
or LCD screen here, and we're looking
to see what reading the camera's actually given.
We can also use the histogram as well.
Now one thing with exposure, there's no right or wrong.
It really is depending on what mood,
how you want the image to look,
but what we definitely don't want
is pure white in our images
unless that's your intent, but pure white
which is known as a clipping, can be really challenging
if not impossible to recover in light room.
So we really wanna avoid that.
So if we look at the back at the LCD screen here
you can see where it says MM at the bottom
and it says plus one.
And what that means is it's the camera's light meter
thinks I am one stop of light above the correct exposure.
But the second thing we can check is the histogram
in the bottom right hand corner.
And you can see the little mountain of white.
And if there wasn't any of that clipping that we don't want
it'd be up the far right hand side.
So the one way to avoid getting clipping
or getting bright white spots
in the images is by excluding the sky.
So a lot of my woodland photographs
you'll see, the sky doesn't exist.
Now we're just about ready to take the photograph,
there's a couple more things we just need to check.
So next thing I wanna set is the timer.
So you need to use the timer inbuilt in the camera
or if you've got a remote shutter thing
or potentially use your app with your camera.
So my camera has a 2 second, 5 second and 10,
depending on the weather, the conditions,
and the length of the lens, is sort of,
what I sort of think about, generally 5 or 10 seconds.
There's not much wind here, so we'll go with 5 today.
So we'll just lock that in.
And perhaps the secret tip and the thing
that's probably the most important thing,
and that I, I've often forgot over the years
and you really need to check,
is you are using your camera on a tripod,
you need to make sure you turn off image stabilization.
So whether it's on the lens, which in this case,
it is on the Sony 24-105, or it's inbuilt into the camera.
You need to make sure both of those are turned off.
Otherwise you're gonna introduce shake
as it compensates as you take the photographs.
So that's an important thing to remember.
So now we're ready take that photograph.
And just as we do,
the light is coming straight across the scene.
And so let's take that shot now
(camera beeps)
after all that.
So we are taking the,
the final settings we've dialed in,
F/13, one 10th of a second, ISO 125,
and away we go.
(camera beeps over heartwarming music)
It's kinda like it was destined to happen,
the light coming through all that.
So we're gonna show you now the photograph
that was originally, which was the photograph
which was full auto,
the camera made all the decisions for us.
The photograph I've just taken now as a raw image
and then the photograph after I've edited it.
Let's have a look.
(inspiring music)
for forest and woodland photography.
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