Grass Photography

What lies at the heart of photography, is the ability to make people see things from your perspective. Whether it be a sunset, a model or a beautiful landscape, photography is a unique medium because it allows you to showcase something you have seen, in an artistic, or personal lens, for others to understand and appreciate.

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As such, one of the best ways to improve your photography is to take a common, everyday object that most people would ignore, and experiment with ways to capture it in a new and interesting way. That’s right, no need for big ideas, like a wedding with a backdrop of endless beauty, all you need is something simple – it could even be a blade of grass. This is where grass photography comes in.

What Is Grass Photography and Why Should I Be Doing It?

Grass photography is a perfect exercise for photographers looking to hone their skills, as the ability to create something impressive and beautiful out of an item as mundane as a blade of grass is a real show of skill. Given that we are almost always surrounded by it, grass is one of the most easily accessible subjects to photograph, yet most of us would completely overlook it as a source for good ideas that could create a fascinating image.

However, if you take the time to examine it in detail, you’ll realize that grass is full of opportunities for a great shot. As grass comes in a wide array of varieties – tall and tangled, short and twisted, small, heavy, dark, light – you can showcase often overlooked beauty within the subject, and with effective use of photography techniques, you can even create unique and never before seen perspectives on the mundane topic.

So instead of watching the grass grow trying to think of your next big photography idea, how about getting out there and getting creative with small stuff. Don’t feel limited by your own back lawn, go for a stroll and see how many kinds of grass you can find. Try out some of these techniques to create some really interesting grass photography shots.

Ideas For Creating Interesting Grass Photos

Experiment With Shot Types

One of the best ways to create extraordinary images out of ordinary subjects is to utilize out of the box camera techniques that can really show an image in a new light. To start off with, try shooting from a low angle to automatically re-contextualize the subject, as grass is rarely ever viewed from below in day to day life.

Next, try experimenting with Dutch tilts or full on inversions as this will give the grass a more ambiguous appeal and engages the viewer more actively as they will not immediately be able to identify the subject of your photo for what it is. Feel free to continue experimenting with grass photography to your heart’s content. 

From shallow and deep focus to high and low shutter speed, your camera has more than enough settings. It’s almost guaranteed that you can create interesting photos or videos by playing around with these settings to make your viewers see your subject from a new and exciting perspective.

Play Around With Color

Color is another that is benefitted by experimentation and can be used to create eye catching images that stand out from the crowd. Like nature photography, color is crucial in grass photography. With the depth that accompanies grass in its lush greens to blazing reds, there is so much potential for experimentation and the creation of interesting grass photography that can hone your skills.

One such idea for experimentation would be to create contrast within your photograph. While most people assume grass to simply be green on green, you can subvert expectations by using contrasting colors to create a beautiful image. For example, if you contrast an orange field of tall grass with the purple tips of flowering wild grasses, then your image will have an aesthetically appealing color contrast and will provide your viewers with a perspective on grass that they will have never even thought of.

Of course, you must be aware of lighting and environmental factors if you’re aiming to create any color-related effect. While a bright, sunny day will give you vibrant and high contrast green, a duller, overcast day will provide you with softer greens and darker tones. It also important to keep in mind that, as grass photography is an outdoor activity, the biggest rule of outdoor photography applies; Shoot during the golden hours – early morning and early evening – to make your pictures look that much better.

Avoid Glare and Reflections

A common mistake in grass and landscape photography, is having images washed out due to glare and reflection. Due to the glossy nature of grass and color reflections, glare created by grass will throw off the color of a photographer’s frame if they don’t adjust accordingly, making their lawn appear much brighter than is aesthetically pleasing.

A good way to minimize glare is to invest in polarized lens, known as ND filters. Just as polarized sunglasses can be used to minimize glare, there are polarized filters for camera lenses that can do the same, and they are known as natural density, or ND filters. These filters screw onto the front of your lens and have a front element that rotates to help fine tune glare mitigation.

All you need to do to fix glare using these filters, is attach one to your camera, and then rotate the filter to the best position to avoid glare.

When using these types of filters, it is important to remember that the polarizing decreases the amount of light that is allowed flowing through the lens. This will affect your exposure, so it is essential to test your gray balance and white balance and adjust accordingly so you’re not inadvertently altering your images without knowing it.

Create Some Contrast

Another good technique to consider with your photography is to not just photograph grass alone. Having multiple objects of interest helps generate a focal point for your grass photography. Whether it be the dew on leaves, insects among the blades of grass, or even a beautiful sky behind the grass, the options of what you can add to your image are infinite.

Regardless of what style of grass photography you end up experimenting with, the important heart of this exercise is to view the ordinary parts of life in new ways and develop your photographer’s eye. Once you’ve honed your eye and taken some incredible pieces of grass photography, the next step is to protect them.

Digital image watermarking

Digital image watermarking is one of the popular ways to protect online photos and watermark makers, like Watermarquee, allow easy application of watermarks on your photos. Next time, when you choose to protect your online grass photographs or photography of any kind, choose Watermarquee and start watermarking today with our unlimited plan