Why do my photos never look right

[dtreesj]

I set up my P. afra and in person it looks good to me, but when I take a picture it looks like trash. Like all the depth and branch arrangement disappears.

As you can see in the 2nd pic I've been carefully arranging and pruning the branches, but when I take a picture of it, it looks like garbage. Like where does all the depth go?

 

[TomB]

To some extent that's just what happens.
Try to take pictures with the tree pretty much at eye level, rather than looking down at an angle (as you have done in picture 1).
Aim for a clear uncluttered background if you can (e.g. put a board behind it). A plain black felt cloth works really well.
If you have 'real' camera you can play around with depth of field and so on, though to be honest I find it better to use a smaller aperture so all parts of the tree are in focus.

 

[BonsaiMatt]

Here is a nice write up on the subject:

Bonsai Photography (Redux)

Hi fellow BNuts. Many people have remarked about the photography I use in my posts here. Years ago I made a tutorial on another site that explained the process, which is really quite simple, and available to most everyone. I have sometimes simply referred people to that tutorial, but it is...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[Gabler]

Also, your lighting is very even. Normally, that’s a good thing in photography, especially portraiture, but here it means you lose any sense of depth you might have preserved through shadows. Of course, introducing shadows comes at a tradeoff in detail clarity.

 

[rockm]

Transferring a three dimensional object into two dimensions just flattens it out. Can't really be helped, even with adequate lighting and staging. Some trees just photograph better than others.

 

[bwaynef]

Focal length plays a part as well. Long zooms flatten images. Use that to your advantage when Aunt Edna w/ the big nose wants a flattering picture. Stand back and zoom in and her nose won't seem so prominent.

 

[dtreesj]

Thanks for the help.
I tried putting it on my mantel and there's some improvement. You can see where I'm going with it at least.

 

[Mikecheck123]

Bonsai makes you realize what "two-dimensional projection" means. I always found the photography aspect to be just as challenging as the horticulture. You have to build the tree right from the start with photography in mind, or it won't photograph well. And lots of our little rules, such as no crossing branches, have some photographic wisdom in them.

Another thing that makes trees look weird in pictures is wide angle shots from being too close. They look a lot more natural if you get farther away and use a longer lens. Your typical cell phone camera on default settings is generally too wide.

 

[Gabler]

Bonsai makes you realize what "two-dimensional projection" means. I always found the photography aspect to be just as challenging as the horticulture. You have to build the tree right from the start with photography in mind, or it won't photograph well. And lots of our little rules, such as no crossing branches, have some photographic wisdom in them.

Another thing that makes trees look weird in pictures is wide angle shots from being too close. They look a lot more natural if you get farther away and use a longer lens. Your typical cell phone camera on default settings is generally too wide.

I suspect that’s because they’re small, and we’re used to seeing faraway trees that look small, so the faraway perspective is more convincing. I find a wide-angle closeup to be more convincing when taken from below, since that’s how we’re used to seeing close-up trees.

 

[0soyoung]

Just to amplify @Gabler's 'suspicions':

The reason it looks flat in pictures is that the branches in back are the same thickness as the ones in front. When (or maybe I should say, if) you look at or photograph a big tree, the branches in back appear to be thinner, even though they are, in reality, the same (generally). Likewise, distances (internodes) seem relatively shorter the farther away they are.

On the scale of bonsai, branches in front need to be thicker and internodes longer than those in back. Not only will your trees look better in pictures they will look better in person.

--> perspective must be built into the design

 

[pjciii]

If you go out sunday at twilight You will see an enormous Flower moon and super moon. Now if you put your fist out in front of you it will just barely Cover it. Take a photo of that same moon and it will look like a firefly In a dark image. Also later that night take a photo of the full Eclipse and it will look like a speck. The moon is no closer or further away. Your brain compensates for what you understand about how far the horizon is.

 

[Mikecheck123]

If you go out sunday at twilight You will see an enormous Flower moon and super moon. Now if you put your fist out in front of you it will just barely Cover it. Take a photo of that same moon and it will look like a firefly In a dark image. Also later that night take a photo of the full Eclipse and it will look like a speck. The moon is no closer or further away. Your brain compensates for what you understand about how far the horizon is.

Fun fact: how far away from your eyes do you have to hold a dime to perfectly cover the moon?

Trick question. It's six feet! So no one could actually do it.

That's how small in the sky the moon actually is.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Use a plain background, light bg accentuates detail (like ramification on a bare d-tree), dark bg accentuates the overall shape.
Stand farther back. Some of my best shots are with a zoom lens from 20’ away.
Leave some space in the frame all the way around the tree and pot.
Put the lens at a height where you can just see the soil between the front lip and trunk. not so low you don’t see soil, not so high you see it all.
Use other light sources and not the flash. Light should not be behind the tree, but shining at the front and sides.
Practice, practice, practice.

 

[Shibui]

I know very little about photography but I've seen references to using aperture priority priority setting on the camera to give better depth of field.
I suspect that the zoom tip from @Brian Van Fleet does the same thing.

If you want to get real fancy There is software that merges a whole heap of photos taken at different focus points (focus stacking) to give a picture with much better focus through the depth of the tree.

 

[Mikecheck123]

I know very little about photography but I've seen references to using aperture priority priority setting on the camera to give better depth of field.
I suspect that the zoom tip from @Brian Van Fleet does the same thing.

If you want to get real fancy There is software that merges a whole heap of photos taken at different focus points (focus stacking) to give a picture with much better focus through the depth of the tree.

Most cameras are sharpest in the mid aperture range, say F4-F5.7, which also gives you plenty of depth of field.

The zoom thing is more about perspective. Using zoom with a wide aperture can actually give a shallow depth of field that blurs out the background. Maybe that's desirable for what you're trying to do, although I think most simply use a plain background.

One last advanced tip: you want the ISO pegged on 100 to reduce the noise as much as possible.

 

[namnhi]

Thanks for the help.
I tried putting it on my mantel and there's some improvement. You can see where I'm going with it at least.

View attachment 435202

Feel like this image is not in focus.

 

[baron]

Reminded me of an old post from you @Brian Van Fleet

How I photograph bonsai

A recent discussion about cameras brought up conversation about taking good bonsai photos. For me, more important than the camera itself, is getting the right camera distance and angle. I have foun…

nebaribonsai.wordpress.com

 

[Michigan Tree Murderer]

I set up my P. afra and in person it looks good to me, but when I take a picture it looks like trash. Like all the depth and branch arrangement disappears.

As you can see in the 2nd pic I've been carefully arranging and pruning the branches, but when I take a picture of it, it looks like garbage. Like where does all the depth go?

View attachment 435183

View attachment 435184

I've taken a couple of photography classes and there's a lot of good advice in this thread. Are you using a phone camera or a digital camera (DLSR)? Phone cameras are good now a days, but sometimes you have to play with the settings & pick focal points when shooting, light levels, focus,...etc.

 

[dtreesj]

I've taken a couple of photography classes and there's a lot of good advice in this thread. Are you using a phone camera or a digital camera (DLSR)? Phone cameras are good now a days, but sometimes you have to play with the settings & pick focal points when shooting, light levels, focus,...etc.

Yeah I'm using my phone. Part of the problem is that I can't always see what's on the screen very well so I kind of just hope for the best.

 

[baron]

I just got a new table in and decided to try out some tests.
At this point it's about so many details/things.. not only the display and positioning but also the photo & light angle's, direction of the table,..
I find it very very hard.

Here are all my attempts and the final result. I'm somewhat happy with but there's still room for improvement.