Spring Harmony - Teutoburg Forest, Germany.
About the Location
The image was taken in a local forest close to my home on an early morning in May. I had scouted and photographed this scene for the first time a couple of days earlier also in the morning but without the fog. Just a week later I was fortunate to revisit the location and find the scene with the wild garlic still blooming and the fog muting colors as well as adding to the overall atmosphere.
The year 2022 had been a lot more dry and had less changeable weather than usual for our area so far. And I think the day I took this image was even the first foggy day of the year in the local woods.
Thoughts on Composition
The pathway works well as a leading line pulling the viewer into the center of the image due to its central position and contrasting color.
The blooming wild garlic creates a repetitive pattern on the forest floor adding simplicity and guiding the view from bottom to top without any distractions.
On an abstract level the tree trunks create a uniform pattern of vertical lines. Therefore the fallen tree trunk really added interest to the scene for me by breaking these lines horizontally. In order to strengthen this element I had made sure that both ends of the fallen trunk do not intersect with any of the other trunks and thereby stand out more.
The fog separates the trees from front to back adding depth and bringing the scene to live for me.
In the end the challenging part about this image was to separate all the tree trunks properly to retain the "spring harmony" with so many elements included. This usually gets more challenging the wider the view and the more trees are included in different distances. Although the pathway did not offer much space for moving around I am happy with the perspective found.
Moving 2-3 meters forwards and backwards while zooming in and out can really make a difference. Shooting digital I prefer to take a couple of different compositions and crops of the same scene and compare later on the computer rather than tweaking every image till the end on location. I often come away with a different favorite when browsing the catalog later than I had expected on location. The week before I had photographed this scene with a narrower field of view which feels less balanced with the second foreground tree missing on the right-hand side (see below).
Moving 2-3 meters forwards and backwards while zooming in and out can really make a difference. Shooting digital I prefer to take a couple of different compositions and crops of the same scene and compare later on the computer rather than tweaking every image till the end on location. I often come away with a different favorite when browsing the catalog later than I had expected on location. The week before I had photographed this scene with a narrower field of view which feels less balanced with the second foreground tree missing on the right-hand side (see below).
Yellow: Leading lines
Pink: Vertical uniform pattern
Blue: Watch out for intersecting elements to reduce complexity
Processing
For this image the processing took no more than 15 minutes to create the final result. All I wanted to do was to add to the moody atmosphere and to transport the quietness and soleness I had enjoyed while taking the image. Processing was all done in Adobe LR only using a single exposure without any focus stacking or blending needed.
The biggest changes were lifting the shadows as well as the blacks. The histogram of the final image has a lot of empty space on the left side. Too much contrast would take away from the overall atmosphere. Also I wanted to make details of the tree trunks more visible, especially for the left foreground tree.
A local mask targeting the highlights only was used for decreasing clarity while also decreasing structure for the overall image.
On location I had used a polarizing filter to eliminate reflections on the leaves and greenery. Still, the pathway was emphasized by increasing saturation and decreasing luminance for orange color. The color temperature overall was slightly decreased.
Camera Settings
Camera: Nikon Z6
Lens: Nikkor 24-120mm f/4
Focal length: 55mm
Aperture: f/8
Shutter: 1/10s + CPL
ISO: 160
Taken on tripod
2022 World Landscape Photographer Awards
I am happy to say this image has been picked 1st place in the woodland category of the 2022 World Landscape Photographer Awards.
Find all the results here: 2022 WLP Results
Find the image of the same scene from my scouting session without the fog below. This image taken from a few steps back with a longer focal length. Without the fog I had to choose a narrower view in order to cut part of the top where the background was getting a lot brighter and distracting. In this case I prefer the foggy version for its wider view including more details in the top part and more trees on the right-hand side. I still like the backlit canopy as well as the wild garlic which was at the peak of blooming time in this version without the fog.
Scouting the area without having fog
