Using pics to "design". Do you?

[Fidur]

I frequently take pics of my trees. Then, watching the pics, I take decisions on what to do with them.
For instance, tonight I took a pic of one of my bougies, and instantly decided to chop a branch:



I guess, I'm not the only one.... Do you make changes on your trees after photographing them?

 

[Joe Dupre']

Yes, I do that too. But, more often, I'll take a pic and put it in Paint on the computer. There, you can fill in possible branches, take out unwanted branches and fill in the canopy to make it bigger or even make it smaller.

 

[Joe Dupre']

Here s the way I used it on this homely black pine.

 

[Wulfskaar]

I do often. Since most of my trees are in early development phases, I like to mess around with the pictures to visualize my goals, or do different things to see what I like better.

Sometimes, I even do it on other people's trees that they post here. I think it's a good exercise in bonsai design, decision making, and gets you thinking about how to follow a goal.

 

[shohin_branches]

I've been trying to do more sketches of my trees so I can have a better idea year over year of where I want to take that tree. Too often I forget my plan.

 

[zens]

Yep i do. Mostly because i find when i review photos i see more.

I used to draw lots but i cannot draw a decent tree so photos and editing it is.

Blue atlas cedar eg below for example

 

[Cadillactaste]

I can't say I overly do that except when studying new material that I may bring in. If the tree has potential.

That said...2D once a tree is styled. I can tend to focus on tweaks needing made from a still shot.

 

[leatherback]

Pictures help enourmously to see things in your tree, that in 3D would seem OK. It helps. A lot.

 

[johng]

I take a lot of pics of my trees but I rarely use them to assist in designing trees... for me it difficult to use a 2d picture to design a 3d object...

 

[rockm]

I don’t obsess with pics. They can reinforce a bad idea sometimes just as well as reinforce or emphasize a good design direction. Best tree to work with is the tree in front of you. Adapting to what is , and not planning for what may be, has some value with bonsai

 

[nuttiest]

Photos can be painful. Immediately I'm confronted with 'why did you let that... what year was that?, ... what happened there? ... deadwood looks like fishing spear ... you can't leave that... agh!'

 

[Kievnstavick]

I take photos of my trees and play with photoshop on them sometimes. I find it easy and helpful if I wanted to make some "minor" edits to visualize.

If I am trying to conceptualize a potential future of a young or early in development tree, I prefer to do it with a hand drawn sketch

 

[shohin_branches]

My Fiancée is a photographer/videographer/drone pilot and I'm trying to convince her to do some 3d scans of my trees. There was a show last year that did that and you could buy the 360° renderings. I used to set up the 360° renderings on the Harley-Davidson website a long long time ago so I think between the two of us we could figure it out.