Create gorgeous compositions with tree photography.

The art of photographing beautiful trees.

Tree photographs are an important subset of landscape photography. Trees can make great backgrounds for portrait photography, but they can also convey a lot of meaning all on their own. And tree wall art and art prints are popular home decor items because of the strong associations people have with these ubiquitous plants. So celebrate the beauty of nature by using one or two trees as the subject of a photograph.

Trees are everywhere and their meaning runs deep.

A well-composed photo of a lone tree can be moving, whether it’s taken a few miles from city centre Los Angeles or on a hike deep in the forest of a national park. Almost every area and climate has some type of tree to offer. And for many people, trees symbolise life and strength and they can evoke special personal memories.

“I grew up in trees as a kid,” says landscape and wildlife photographer Joseph Filer. “I built tree houses on every tree in the yard. I just enjoy trees immensely and I think a lot of people do. There’s a very pleasing, soothing, warm feel to trees.”

Types of tree photography.

 Just as you can find trees in almost any climate, there are myriad ways trees can be photographed. And they can look good in any season or weather condition.

So many ways to capture trees.

Try some of the photography styles below to see what you enjoy most.

• Fine art: Carry a tripod with you for a perfect shot and be intentional with your composition and your tree photo can be worthy of a frame or gallery show.
  
  
• Abstract: Showcase unique elements of the tree and focus on colour and form for striking photos that aren’t immediately identifiable but leave room for artistic interpretation.
  
  
• Silhouette: Highlight the shape of your tree by showing it as a dark silhouette against the skyline.
  
  
• Black and white: Remove the distraction of colour and focus on light and texture with a black-and-white image.
  
  
• Long exposure: Experiment with long exposure to see how light and motion affect a tree and its surroundings over time.

Remember: Timing is everything.

The best time to shoot trees is during golden hour, the time right after sunrise or right before sunset. “I’m always up an hour and a half before sunrise when I’m out shooting,” says Filer. “And that’s just the nature of the game. You can take a nap when you come back.”

Early morning hours are the best for most types of forest photography, because there’s no harsh sunlight shining directly down onto your subject matter. Bright sunlight poking through tree branches will overwhelm your camera’s sensor and wash out parts of your photo. An overcast day can be great for tree photography and fog can be even better, adding a little drama to your image.

Line up some helpful equipment.

A tripod is always a good idea for tree photography. Since you’ll be shooting a still subject, you have the advantage of using the manual settings on your camera and the steadiness of a tripod to get the most crisp shot possible.

In addition to your tripod, here are some optional items to bring along:

• Wide-angle lens: This can be a great way to show the vastness of a tree while standing close to it.
  
  
• Telephoto lens: This is a good option when you want to focus on a single tree that’s far away from you. Never trespass on private property or disobey the safety signs in a park to get closer to your subject.
  
  
• Circular polariser: This is a filter for your lens that can take the glare and reflections off wet trees and be a great help when shooting in the rain.
   

Branch out with your composition.

Play with composition and see if you can frame your shot uniquely. Trees can be a great way to explore leading lines in photos: the line that the viewer’s eye will follow. As always, make sure that you shoot your photos as RAW files, so you can easily edit your images in post-production.

Perfect your photos of trees with Adobe.

Put the finishing touches on your tree photos with post-processing software like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Fine-tune every aspect of your image in Lightroom and then add a few more advanced effects.

“There’s always something to do,” says Davidson. “I’ll start with Lightroom to make minor adjustments. And then if I need to do more, I’ll take it into Photoshop.”