Forest are an excellent place to look for details. If it is during a rainy day, the better! Colors get naturally saturated, fallen branches and leaves feel alive, and some moisture or droplets add that little something to a photograph.
Wet branch and leaves on the forest floor. Sezelhe, Portugal
Canon 5DII, Canon 180 f/3.5 Macro - 180mm, f/14, 0.8s, ISO 400
This image is all about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. How many times did we walk on a forest floor without noticing the patterns and colors of nature? Tripod set, small aperture, shutter speed to stop any motion due to wind or rain droplets and ISO adjusted for a correct exposure. It’s always good to check your histogram after a shot in order not to blow highlights or shadows. Exposure compensation could be applied on those cases.
Leaf covered with droplets. Montalegre, Portugal
Canon 5DII, Canon 180 f/3.5 Macro - 180mm, f/14, 0.5s, ISO 200
By walking slowly with eyes wide open, there are some relics to be found. I spent some time looking for a pristine leaf like this one in a nice a place that could bear an interesting composition. I could have taken any other leaf with droplets and put it in a place I liked, but that is not my approach with nature. I like to photograph nature as it is, I want to show what one could find by walking on the forest, not a set up to document a species or place. For this image I used a LED lantern to get a bit of light on the left side.
