Overtaken by the Forest

[sachtjen]

This was an assignment photo for my local camera club. The challenge was use depth of field to isolate the subject. I often find shooting in forest frustrating because they are so beautiful to walk through but when you see something of interest it can be hard to separate the greens and browns of the subject from the greens and browns of the forest behind.

I tried to use depth of field to isolate the bench seat overrun by moss, but still give a hint of the car to complete the scene.

I should have used my backpack to weigh down the branch in the foreground and get it out of the shot.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome.



EDIT: Accidentally deleted image from Flickr. New upload has different white balance setting from original post.

[Tronhard]

Hi Mike:

You live in a great part of Canada!!!

Opinions cost nothing and some are worth event less... It's always hard to comment on a location if you have not been to it, bit there seems to be a bit of a clearing to the left of the FoV. If that was big enough I would have been tempted to shoot down that clear path, thus getting rid of the errant branch, but also placing the seats on the right of frame and allowing the body to describe a line from left of fame, leading towards the seats on the right - the darkness of the open back would have given good contrast to the left-most seat and frame. You could then use both a narrow DoF to isolate the seats but give the idea of the body, do the reverse, or have a deep DoF to show both in context. Was that a practical possibility?

Even the body on its own might be worthy of a shot or two - did you try for that?

[Shadowman]

Nicely seen and captured.

[sachtjen]

Hi Trev,

Thanks for your feedback. There was plenty of clear space to walk around to the left. I have a few shots from slightly different angles. The below shots are about as far to the left as I went before I cut the car out completely. I don't remember why I didn't take any in-between shots. I can walk here from my house so I can always try again when the weather cooperates.

#2. This is just far enough to the left to cut out the foreground branch. I almost selected this shot as my final. I don't care much for the spring side of the seat. I realized after the shoot that the blue and white strap is probably not part of the seat. It's just garbage and I should have removed it. The photo I chose, though it has the blurry branch, de-emphasizes the right ("passenger's" right) hand side of the seat. Also in this shot, the front of the left hand size of the seat is getting a little soft on focus.



#3. This is as close as I have to getting both car and seat in focus. Not quite what you were describing but shows the potential for such a composition.



I have a few with just the body of the car. Once I noticed how the moss replaced the cloth parts of the seat, that's what I decided to focus on and spent most of my time trying to capture. Next time I might focus on the the car itself more.

I am also experimenting with white balance, exposure compensation, etc. which is why all three shots have slightly different post-processing.

[Wavelength]

I like both very much

[lovelife65]

This is really a cool photograph. At first, I did have to really look at what I was looking at.... but that's the point I think

[Tronhard]

Hi Mike:

I think all these shots have their own merit, but I must admit I prefer the composition of #3 as the car provides more context for the initial viewing and it allows the eye to journey along the body to the discarded seats in the foreground.

[sachtjen]

Thank you Trev, Sharon, John and Nandakumar for you feedback and kind words.

Trev, I agree, separating the car from the seats might not be the best way to present the scene. When the car is out of focus it does leave the viewer wanting more. Since depth-of-field was the challenge I was approaching this thinking "how can I use depth of field to my advantage" rather than "what is the best way to capture the scene." It was a good challenge and pushed me to look at the shot in a way I might not have otherwise.