Ways to Photograph a Tree

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Photographing a tree doesn't have to be difficult, does it? I set out to capture a tree and ended up with several possibilities. It shows how careful observation, experimenting and making a conscious choice can greatly influence the final result.

This article isn't about right or wrong. It's intended to show that you can't just point your camera and take a successful photo. It takes more than that. Are you in the right position? Do you have the right perspective? Are you using the right focal length? Are there any distracting things in the frame?

The subject was a tree in the middle of a field in the German Eifel. As it was a solitary tree, I thought it would be nice to photograph it. Normally, I don't consciously think about this. I take my time, look carefully, find the right spot and the right position, and only then take the photo.

This time, I took several photos to make the process clear to myself as well. I want to take you through this process to show that it pays to pay attention to many things.

Pay attention not only to the tree, but also to the background. Your position, perspective and focal length all play a major role here.

Photographing the tree the moment you see it doesn't produce a successful photo. The tree is in front of the background, so it doesn't stand out. The tree gets lost this way, so you need to find a new position where it separates from the background.

I haven't moved far enough to the right, because although the tree is separated from the background, it isn't completely. The branches still touch the woodland in the background. I need to move further to the right. While I was at it, I also moved further back because I saw that there was more woodland. This time on the left.

By moving further away, the woodland came into the frame on the left and right, with the solitary tree between it. This creates a nice effect, but a small problem has appeared.

By focusing only on the woodland on the left and right, I failed to place the tree properly in the centre. There is no symmetry, which is a shame.

I moved a little further to the right to get the tree exactly in the centre. This symmetry makes the photo more pleasant for me to look at.

But because of the distance I took, the tree has become a little too small in the frame. It gets a bit lost between the woodland on the left and right. So the tree needs to become larger. Waiting for the tree to grow a bit more isn't an option, so we need to use another trick.

Zooming in isn't possible, because that would make not only the tree larger, but also the woodland in the background. The difference in size between the two wouldn't change. What's more, I would get less of the woodland in the frame because the angle of view would become smaller.

Moving closer is another solution. But with the angle of view I have at this focal length (40mm), the tree would no longer fit completely in the frame. So I need to compensate for this by not only moving closer, but also zooming out a little.

I changed the angle of view from about 40mm to 24mm. This changes the relative size of the tree and the woodland in the background. I also made sure that the tree's branches remained separate from the woodland at the sides.

I found a nice balance by moving closer and zooming out. But perhaps it would also be nice to have the tree completely on its own in the frame. So no woodland on the left or right.

For this, I shouldn't move even closer to the tree, but further away. At the same time, I need to zoom in so that the angle of view becomes small enough for the woodland on the left and right to fall outside the frame.

I was simply standing upright and photographing the tree from that position. Can you see how the trunk starts below the horizon? If you don't want that, you can choose a low viewpoint so that the tree rises up from the horizon.

So I held the camera low above the grass, making the tree rise above it.

The result of this low viewpoint is the blades of grass sticking above the horizon. This makes sense, because the viewpoint is low. If you don't want those blades of grass, you need to hold the camera at a height that still gives you a low viewpoint, but isn't incredibly low.

You can see that a tree can be captured in different ways. Here, of course, I had the space to do this. That's not always the case. But it does show that looking carefully and making choices about your viewpoint, position, perspective and focal length will make a big difference to your composition.

This way, you can capture a tree in the way you want, in the way you think looks good. This doesn't just apply to a tree, of course. It applies to every subject you photograph. Just try it for yourself.

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