Shooting bluebells

JORDAN BANKS reveals how to improve your shots of spring woodland scenes

With the arrival of spring comes the bluebell season, when a charming carpet of violet flowers covers the woodland floor, creating a magical scene. Now is the perfect time to start thinking about visiting your local woodland to photograph these beautiful little flowers when they appear.

Photographing bluebell fields is one of my favourite things to shoot here in the UK. There is nothing quite like being alone in the woods surrounded by the sounds of nature as the sun rises and the first dappled rays of light hit the forest floor illuminating the scene in a wondrous array of colours. One of the great things about bluebells is that they can be found throughout the UK making them easily accessible for almost everyone. A great resource to find your local bluebell fields is the National Trust website (WWW.NATIONALTRUST.ORG.UK/LISTS/BLUEBELL-WOODS-NEAR-YOU).

Blossoming times vary from mid-April to midMay so be sure to keep an eye on things to avoid missing them.

Whilst these seemingly endless carpets of blue and purple can appear quite simple to photograph at first glance, it’s not always as easy as you might think. Finding that perfect composition, angle and lighting can become rather challenging at times. Here are a few of my top tips to get you started.

Right

GOLDEN LIGHTING

Go out first thing or at the end of the day and you can capture the dappled sunlight piercing through the trees for added depth and atmosphere

6 SHOOT RAW Bluebell fields can play havoc with the white balance settings on some cameras, so it is as important as ever that you shoot RAW. Shooting RAW will allow you greater control over the white balance and tones of the bluebells in post-production.

4SPECIES TAKE CARE Bluebells are a protected so make sure you pay attention to where you walk and set up. Try and stick to the path or edges of the fields to avoid damaging these precious flowers and not spoiling them for other visitors to the area.

5 ADD A POLARISING FILTER Polarisers are an incredibly useful filter for shooting bluebells. Polarisers will help you reduce the glare caused by the sun reflecting off the moisture on the leaves in order to increase the vibrancy of those rich blues and greens.

2 USE A TELEPHOTO LENS There is a tendency to choose a wide-angle lens for shooting bluebells. Try switching to a zoom lens such as a 70-200 to compress those gaps in the rows of bluebells, making the carpet of flowers appear thicker.

3 USE A TRIPOD More often than not you will be shooting bluebells under the shade of the trees so it’s important to have a tripod and remote shutter release with you to avoid any risk of camera shake from a slow shutter speed.