{"id":15124,"date":"2025-08-15T15:42:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simonschoenhoff.de\/?p=15124"},"modified":"2025-08-15T15:42:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:42:23","slug":"waldfotografie-in-der-blauen-stunde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simonschoenhoff.de\/en\/waldfotografie-in-der-blauen-stunde\/","title":{"rendered":"Wood\u00adland photo\u00adgraphy at twilight"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wood\u00adland photo\u00adgraphy at twilight<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI recently spent a few days travel\u00adling with my family in the Nether\u00adlands and disco\u00advered a lovely little forest with some inte\u00adres\u00adting trees close to the beach. However, the weather during those days was a bit unpre\u00addic\u00adtable. It was either pure suns\u00adhine or pouring rain. Neither of these condi\u00adtions encou\u00adraged me to go outside and take photos in the forest. How could I still get some great shots? Then I had an idea. I\u2019ll go when the sun isn\u2019t bothe\u00adring me. Blue, diffuse, mystical. In this blog\/vlog, I\u2019ll show you why the blue hour is an under\u00adrated time for forest photography. <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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You can see the VLOG to the BLOG at the bottom of the page or you can reach it via this button:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDirectly to the video<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Gear:<\/span><\/p>

Sony a7IV
Sony FE 4\/24\u2013105 mm G
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Ideal condi\u00adtions for wood\u00adland photography<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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It\u2019s no secret that thick fog between trees is the ideal condi\u00adtion for forest photo\u00adgraphy. The fog helps to bring depth to the image and sepa\u00adrate trees. This makes it a little easier to achieve a good image compo\u00adsi\u00adtion, and even begin\u00adners can achieve great results more quickly in such conditions. <\/p>

Nevert\u00adheless, you shouldn\u2019t be put off going into the forest in other condi\u00adtions. I have taken some very atmo\u00adspheric pictures in the forest in the rain, which, admit\u00adtedly, can have a similar effect to fog. But even when the sun is low in the sky, you can take inte\u00adres\u00adting pictures. In back\u00adlighting with HDR bracke\u00adting and sun stars, for example. In general, it helps if the light is diffuse, as it is on a cloudy day with dense cloud cover. You just have to make sure that the light is not too flat, as this can make a photo\u00adgraph appear two-dimen\u00adsional and boring to the viewer. So, despite the diffuse light, it helps to have some\u00adthing like a direc\u00adtion of light. This can be achieved, for example, at the edge of the forest, in a clea\u00adring or on a forest path. Where more light shines into the forest through lighter foliage than where the forest is closed. If you reco\u00adg\u00adnise this light as a photo\u00adgrapher and the direc\u00adtion from which it comes, you should make proper use of the direc\u00adtion of the light in the compo\u00adsi\u00adtion of your image. For example, as light falling from the side. This gives you a more three-dimen\u00adsional image of the forest, which appears much more vivid.<\/p>

So how did I come up with the idea for this VLOG? Well, when I have nothing but cloud\u00adless skies for days on end, the direc\u00adtion of the setting sun isn\u2019t right, or it\u2019s raining cats and dogs and stormy at the same time, I have to come up with some\u00adthing. A certain direc\u00adtion of light is advan\u00adta\u00adgeous, as is diffuse light, and when do I have that? Right, during the blue hour. So, a game changer in forest photo\u00adgraphy when the condi\u00adtions aren\u2019t right for weeks on end? <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Stan\u00adding Strong | Sony a7 IV + Sony FE 4\/24\u2013105 mm G<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Game\u00adch\u00adanger Blue Hour?<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We refer to the blue hour when we talk about the time shortly before sunrise or after sunset, when the sky takes on a deep blue colour. This effect is caused by the scat\u00adte\u00adring of sunlight in the Earth\u2019s atmo\u00adsphere when the sun is just below the horizon. More precisely, when the sun is between \u20114 and \u20116 degrees below the horizon.<\/span><\/p>

Photo\u00adgraphers parti\u00adcu\u00adlarly appre\u00adciate the blue hour in urban photo\u00adgraphy because of the special light and intense colours they can use for their shots. A beau\u00adtiful harmony of colours can arise between the ambient light and the lights of the city. But in forest photo\u00adgraphy, this doesn\u2019t really matter, because gene\u00adrally spea\u00adking, the sky is often not ideal in the compo\u00adsi\u00adtion. However, the remai\u00adning light is great. This is the light reflected from the sun by the Earth\u2019s atmo\u00adsphere. There is more light towards the sun and less away from the sun, towards night-time, so to speak. This creates a diffuse, direc\u00adtional light that can be perfect for forest images. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Diffi\u00adcul\u00adties arise when the light is already dim, the forest is dark, or there is wind. Opening the aper\u00adture fully is only useful in the forest for detailed shots. An aper\u00adture of f\/8 may be neces\u00adsary to achieve suffi\u00adcient depth of field. If you don\u2019t want to increase the ISO too much, the expo\u00adsure time must be corre\u00adspon\u00addingly longer. Depen\u00adding on the air move\u00adment and moving leaves, it must not be too long. A certain amount of ISO noise must be expected, also due to the dark\u00adness. A full-frame camera such as mine, for example Sony a7 IV<\/a><\/span> (*) helps, of course, due to its good low-light perfor\u00admance and low noise. Modern image editing programmes are effec\u00adtive in redu\u00adcing noise retro\u00ads\u00adpec\u00adtively. From this point of view, I would ther\u00ade\u00adfore tend to favour a higher ISO value rather than an unneces\u00ads\u00ada\u00adrily long expo\u00adsure time. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Image crop and compo\u00adsi\u00adtion for wood\u00adland photos<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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When it comes to compo\u00adsi\u00adtion, forest photo\u00adgraphy is always a chall\u00adenge, but there are tech\u00adni\u00adques that can help you get an appe\u00adaling image. <\/p>