Trial and Error!

Right, a few days ago I went on my first woodland adventure to do with this assignment. I tried to be incredibly organised. I chose a fairly local Forest/walking area which was Cannock Chase. I used it mainly as a practice place. I was familiar with the lay out and just wanted to experiment the basics of photographing woodland areas.

Checklist:

• Making sure my battery for my Camera was fully charged the night before.
• Making sure I had plenty of space on my Memory Card.
• Tripod already packed in the car.
• Suitable clothing as the forecast was Rain, Cloudy and low temperatures.
• Make sure I have my Camera Manual with me and any notes that I need.

I set off around 10:30 AM on my day off and manage to park in a quieter area. Luckily my day off landed on a week day so the Chase seemed to be a lot quieter than if I had gone at the weekend. The forecast predicted the night before seemed to be keeping to its promise with grey clouds looming above. Since I have recently discovered the White Balance on my camera this didn't worry me as I could change the settings accordingly. I tried to take some photographs without the Tripod firstly but this was proving to be difficult as it was a fairly dismal day and the forest seemed darker than usual. I had to really play around with the ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. I really wanted the colours of Autumn to show through my pictures so it was important for me to get the right lighting. After about fifty attempts at shooting the same spot I managed to capture the individual colours of different trees, plants, leaves etc. The lighting in the Woodland is so drastic in different locations that I had to keep changing the F number and Shutter Speed. I must have stayed in each spot for about half an hour just taking the same picture.

I then tried it out on my Tripod which seemed to improve the situation quite a bit. I was able to get a sharper image as I could slower the Shutter Speed and have a smaller Aperture. Below are some of my examples. Some I have altered and edited just to add more of an effect and character.

                                                     Shutter Speed: 1/160 ISO 400 F8 WB Cloudy

         

                                                                                                                       

Shutter Speed: 1/100 ISO 400 F8 WB Cloudy

(Changed the Monochrome to Black and White)

Shutter Speed: 1/125 ISO 400 F7.1 WB Cloudy

(Monochrome changed to Black and White)

I like the angle of this photo as I think it makes an eerie effect.

Shutter Speed: 1/60 ISO 400 F5.6 WB Cloudy

I like the Colours on this photo; I think it looks like it could have been painted. The tree in the foreground seems to frame the picture slightly.

This is the same picture as above but I have intensified the Colours to make the picture look more defined. I think I let in too much light on the original photo.

Shutter Speed: 1/125 ISO 400 F7.1 WB Cloudy

As if was a fairly dull day, I had to play around with the colours afterwards as the natural light seemed to merge the colours into one.