Autumn Tree Photography Tips in Non-Ideal Places

Photography Tips

Often, in photography, we come across situations where we want to photograph something—but not everything feels just right. Maybe it’s the subject’s placement, the lighting or the background. But that’s okay, because you won’t always get everything readily served on your plate. As an artist, it’s up to you to creatively solve these issues. In today’s video, we have photographer Taylor Jackson who demonstrates his problem-solving process when photographing in a non-ideal location:

As Jackson shows us in the video, the tree he wants to photograph is really beautiful, but capturing it is a challenge. There are a lot of distracting elements surrounding the tree that make the whole scene not work. So how does he go on to solve the problem?

He starts off by looking for ways to isolate the subject. The first step is using a longer focal length, which effectively does two things: it helps him to get a tight frame around the subject, and it blurs out the background thanks to the shallow depth of field. But this trick alone does not provide a complete solution, so Jackson scouts the area for a better perspective, trying different angles, using complementing foreground elements and employing the Brenizer method—also known as a “bokeh panorama.”

All of these problem-solving techniques that Jackson used added certain value to the image. Ultimately, his efforts paid off—and he was able to get a fantastic image.

The key takeaway here is to understand that things may not always line up for you at first. The key is to not give up immediately but look for ways to make things work. This is what will help you develop into a better photographer.