Behind The Print

Even woodland scenes shot on a drizzly day can make nice prints. Lizzie Shepherd is your guide

- Lizzie Shepherd

1 I lifted the shadows (+62) and pulled back the highlights (-20) to reveal the gentle tones and textures.

2 I set clarity to -30. I often use this for woodland images, particularly detailed ones, viewing at 100%.

3 HSL sliders desaturated the green in the bracken and trees. The greens went down by -13, the blues by -2.

4 Using an adjustment layer in Photoshop, I desaturated the greens further. I used the brush tool to apply just to the bracken.

Lizzie Shepherd

Lizzie is a full-time photographer, specializing in landscape, nature, and travel. She runs a number of small group workshops in the UK and Europe and writes and speaks on photography. See www.lizzieshepherd.com and the Joe Cornish Gallery in Yorkshire.

This is a favorite image and was the result of a chance encounter. It was a wonderfully dank, mizzly kind of day and, as I wandered in the woods near Hodge Close Quarry [in Cumbria], this beautiful and somewhat broken old birch tree jumped out at me and cried out to be photographed. When shooting woodland, I particularly enjoy soft light, so I can make the most of all the wonderfully complex little details you notice if you are aware. If it’s a little damp too, all the better. I tend not to use a polarising filter as I like the resulting specular highlights on the wet leaves – they give an ethereal glow to the image.