Woodland photography can be uniquely challenging because natural forests are chaotic by nature. Trees may tilt in various directions, branches and leaves create visual clutter, and composing a balanced shot is tricky. For those aiming to create cleaner, more harmonious forest scenes, certain editing techniques can make a real difference.
Coming to you from Christian Möhrle - The Phlog Photography, this practical video demonstrates a simple yet powerful technique for straightening leaning trees in Lightroom. Möhrle starts by explaining why woodland scenes often appear cluttered and how vertical inconsistencies in trees contribute to this effect. He then dives into the Lightroom transform panel, typically used for correcting skewed lines in architectural and landscape photography. However, applying the vertical slider uniformly doesn’t work well for forest scenes, as each tree may require individual adjustments. To tackle this, Möhrle introduces the guided mode within the transform panel, allowing you to draw lines on each tree to ensure they’re straightened precisely. This technique is highly effective for improving composition, creating an orderly and balanced look, which can enhance your woodland photography dramatically.
The tutorial doesn’t stop at straightening trees. Möhrle also walks you through adjusting color and exposure settings to highlight the vibrant tones of autumn foliage. After completing the transformations, he goes into the basic adjustments panel, switching the profile to Adobe Landscape for enhanced color richness. From there, he addresses harsh highlights and adds depth to shadows, giving the photo a more dynamic and natural appearance. For added visual softness, Möhrle carefully lowers the texture and clarity, reducing some of the image’s midtone contrast. This helps soften the busy details of leaves without losing essential clarity, making the overall scene feel more cohesive.
Further into the editing, Möhrle uses masking to selectively target trees in the foreground. This method allows precise adjustments to colors and saturation levels, pulling back slightly on overly saturated hues and ensuring a harmonious balance between tree trunks and the background foliage. The masking tool provides control over specific elements in the frame, keeping the main subjects distinct and enhancing their natural look. This targeted approach is invaluable for separating the primary subjects from the chaotic forest environment, adding to the viewer’s focus and improving overall composition. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Möhrle.
