This one was created from two images with the same lens and camera (X-T3 and Super Takumar 50mm F1.4), two weeks later, on the same day
I thought I’d try something a little different, a slight departure from my “normal” photography, however, I’m always experimenting, in my mind at least.
This post may be a short one as it concerns a single image, but I thought I’d relate the brief story of how it came about and where it might go. Let me start off by saying I’m not claiming that I’m the first or only person to have tried it, I’m pretty certain I’m not, there are all sorts of people trying out stuff.
Across the road from my house is a wood, it’s not large, but it’s big enough to spend a couple of hours in and be home to a fair number of animals, birds, scrubs and trees... Many of the tress have fallen and I have shot photographs of some of the more interesting stumps. There are also a few trees, some of them dead, but standing that look interesting, hard to photograph though as they are closed in by so many other tries and obstacles, making a decent clear shot near impossible. This is the story of one tree.
When shot in focus...not so interesting and really missing specular high lights
The tree in question doesn’t seem to be old, it has an interesting shape and lean to it and for the most part can be viewed clearly from the path. I see it most days on my walks in the wood and have often thought that it would make an interesting subject and whilst I can see it without any obstructions in the way, there is one problem.
An important issue here is that the wood is a dense one and the tree shot as a regular photograph would have the disadvantage of getting “lost” in the background. It wouldn’t make an interesting image. Subconsciously, every time I’d pass by the tree (and you’d need to be walking in a certain direction along the path to see it), I’d look at it and ponder the question on how might shoot an image that worked well.
I’ve actually walked past this tree hundreds of times, but the first time I shot it was two weeks ago, when I decided to tackle the really busy background and it wasn’t hard at all. All I needed to do was isolate the tree and the best way for me to do so was to concentrate on light and shape.
Here's one with the Olympus Zuiko 28mm F2.8
There were two lenses for the job and two lenses that I own came to my mind. One was my Helios 58mm f2 and the other was the Super Takumar 50mm f1.4, both lenses that are able to render marvelous de-focused images, whilst rendering beautiful bokeh, if the light and direction are right.
On the first day, it was 19th May, I left home armed with the Helios, mounted on my Sony, the light was good though not ideal and I shot several images of the tree. They were okay and I picked one to post edit and included it in a post (One camera, one lens, one hour, it hasn’t been posted yet, but by the time this goes up, it will be). However, the image lacked impact and the following week I went out with the Super Takumar, this time mounted on my Fuji X-T1. The light on that day was much better.
Fuji X-T1 with the Super Takumar 50mm F1.4
It was whilst shooting the tree that a thought crept into my mind about combining the images…the two images were from two different formats, one full frame, one APS-C. There was also the fact that whilst shooting the Helios on the Sony, its focal length remained 58mm, the 50mm Super Takumar on the Fuji would now be 75mm. It didn’t really bother me, as I was interested in seeing what sort of result I might achieve. I knew that the images from the Super Takumar that day were going to yield much better bokeh, and so they did. The fun part was yet to come.
Whilst shooting the images I had positioned myself, by chance, at distances so the focal length differences from the lenses and formats largely negated each other, still there were slight differences, however, the biggest difference was in the quality of the light on the two days. There is no right or wrong, circumstances and planning can always be better, but here, I was more than willing to work with the images I already had.
The final image in this post is the one that gives its name to the post, and here I must say that I am not an expert or even moderately skilled in Photoshop. I did take the two (post edited) images, layered and masked them, played with positioning and “painting” parts of each image in and out for the final result. I mentioned positioning as you see in the final image, there are two tree trunks…and for me this works, as I don’t want to give the impression of a single image. With this small exercise I have only scratched the surface, there are many possibilities, the tree is just one, it could be a building, a bottle, a person, multiples of things, locations, textures, shapes…light, focal length, angle, the list goes on and on. The permutations, endless.
Sony A99 with the Helios 58mm F2
Images are subjective and you’ll have differing opinions on how you would go about an exercise like this…and so you should. This is part of why your images are unique.
If I’m going to be honest, the final image isn’t, in my opinion, as good as some of the variations I created since, I like some of them better than this one. However, this was an exercise and a little bit of fun and experimentation.
So ends my post for today, but perhaps not the experimentation, which I will probably continue, there are possibilities to be visited here and worthy of your own attention, time and patience, planning, lots of practice too and of course whatever creativity and ideas you’ll bring to the creation of your images. I for one had a good deal of fun with this, it certainly can stretch your imagination…which, as you know, has no limits!
The final image