How I Shoot and Edit My Outdoor “Moody PNW” Photos for Instagram

Intro

Over the last couple years, I have fallen in love with the Pacific Northwest; in particular the more rainy, “moody” days and the evergreen forests. If you follow me on Instagram @zachnicholz, you know exactly what I mean. In this article, I plan to share how I plan my outings, capture my photos, and edit them using my presets.

How I Capture Moody PNW Photos and Pick My Shots

Finding the Right Conditions

The key to getting great moody photos is knowing how and where to find the “mood”. The first thing I do when I want to take photos in rainy and/or foggy conditions, is to look at the weather forecast in the area I want to visit and plan my time around that. If there is no fog or rain, it is nearly impossible to take photos that look moody. Fog alone can be just fine (and actually is a nice reprieve from getting soaked by the rain) but rain definitely adds a nice touch. One tip that may prove useful is that fog tends to be most common in the mountains when you get up “into the clouds”. Otherwise, you must rely on the fog created by rivers, lakes, and the ocean which may or may not be common in your area. Whatever the case, look for prime conditions in the forecast and aim to go in the mornings when the fog is lowest and thickest.

Choosing the Right Gear

When venturing out into rainy weather, your choice of gear is of upmost importance. Though you do not need to have the absolute best waterproof outerwear or pro-grade camera gear to do so, there are certain items I would recommend people bring with them and certain criteria that the items should meet. First off is the obvious, you need to invest in and wear clothing that can get wet and keep you warm. I personally have loved using the Torrenshell 3L jacket by Patagonia. I have owned and used two other $200+ Marmot rain jackets but they proved to not be quite as water-resistant after being exposed to rain for an extended amount of time. Also make sure to get good hiking boots and pants that you can walk through the underbrush in and still stay dry. You can also buy waterproofing spray for your hiking boots to seal and re-seal them as they loose their waterproofing over time.

As far as camera gear and backpacks are concerned, you want to think water-resistant as well. Make sure that your camera and lenses are water resistant before venturing out into the rain. You want to select one lens to take on hikes with you (my recommendation is a 24-70mm) when it is raining and keep it in a waterproof pack when not in use (or one that has a rain-cover). I also bring a tripod for landscape shots that require patience or photos where I add myself into the frame.

My In-the-Field Workflow

When I am in the field, I tend to start large and work small. This means that I will focus on the larger scale landscape photos first and then; either after getting the photos I want or not seeing a photo opportunity, focus my way down into macro shots. I have found that sometimes there is too much fog for larger scale photos and so focusing in on smaller details can be much more productive until the fog either lessens or I decide to move on to another area.

Choosing a Subject

If you look at the photos I take, you will always find that there is some “subject” in every photo. Sometimes it’s an entire forest, sometimes it’s a tree or person, and at other times, it’s as small as a raindrop. I think it is important to find your subject in the field so that when you get back home to edit, you know what you are trying to showcase. Finding a good subject can at times be easy and at other times it may prove more difficult; but be sure to explore and take your time. Never feel “in a rush” to get good photos and really search for things that are truly unique or stand out.

Setting the Subject Apart in a “Busy” Looking Environment

One thing that I have found when taking photos among forests is that they are visually “busy”. Forests are full of textures with high contrast that make separating a subject quite difficult. In my experience, there are four ways to separate your subject.

The first of these is fog. Fog creates a beautiful gradient that gets thicker as you get farther away and (generally) higher up in the sky. It is by far the most ideal element when shooting moody photos and is something that is nearly a “requirement” for me to even go out to try and capture the mood.

The next is the use of aperture. The lower your F-stop (aperture), the smaller your depth of field is (DOF). Lower apertures create more subject separation by blurring the background and foreground while higher apertures ensure that more is in focus. When I am photographing moody forests, I tend to shoot at the lowest aperture possible and only increase my aperture if I feel there needs to be more in focus.

Another way that I bring focus to my subjects is in the use of natural lighting. When taking photos in a forest under cloudy skies, the light does not always come from the direction of the sun. Instead, it generally comes from the portion of the sky that is most visible from the location of the subject. Being aware of where the light is coming from in cloudy conditions is something that takes time but when you master it, it will add a whole new element to your ability to set your subject apart.

The last way to set apart a subject is in editing. Editing photos to bring focus to a subject is something that should be used to enhance but not create subject separation. Though editing is a powerful tool, I tend to try and bring focus to my subjects naturally and only “enhance” that focus later on when editing. That being said, using filters, vignettes, and clarity/sharpness can be useful and are all things I employ when editing. I will get into this more later on.

Editing My Photos and Using My Presets

My Photo Editing Applications of Choice

When editing my photos, I use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Of the two, I use Lightroom most of the time and Photoshop only when I need to make very specific adjustments or add or remove objects within the photo.

My Presets

I am a bit different than many outdoor photographers because I am actually a full-time wedding photographer and only do landscapes and travel photos in my free time. Because of this, I have a different workflow when applying my presets and prefer to have them split into three categories.

The first of these categories of presets is my general import preset. My general import preset is automatically applied on import, as the name suggests. Whether I am editing weddings, landscapes, real estate, or any other types of photography; my workflow starts with this preset. For more information on how to create your own as well as more in-depth info on this preset, be sure to check out my guide on How to Create Lightroom Presets. In short, this preset primarily makes adjustments to the “tone” sliders, vibrance, “detail” (sharpening), “lens corrections”, and “effects” (vignette). For wedding photography, I edit photos to be what I call timeless and natural so I make small adjustments to my general preset but do not add any other presets beyond that one.

The next type of presets I use are what I call “Color Presets”. These presets make adjustments to the colors of the photos and are primarily used with my outdoor travel and landscape photos. I have two presets that I use when editing my moody PNW photos (check out my Moody PNW Preset Pack) that make adjustments to the saturation, vibrance, “HSL” sliders, color grading, and calibration.

The final presets I use are what I call my “Final Touch Presets”. These presets make adjustments to the tone curve and vignette and are meant to produce very cohesive looking photos when posted to my Instagram feed.

My Editing Workflow

A good workflow when editing can save you hundreds of hours of work, especially when editing things like weddings. When I edit landscape photos, my workflow looks like the following:

General import preset (automatically applied on import)
General edits to the white balance and/or exposure
Crop
Add my color preset and adjust the colors in the HSL tab/ color grading
Add final touch presets and adjust tonal sliders if needed
Remove objects or “clean up” photo as needed
Apply filters to bring focus
Use “reference view” to check cohesiveness
Fine tune in reference view to create a perfect cohesive look between photos

This is by no means the only way to edit but is what works best for me. Feel free to take what you like and make it your own!

Uploading Photos to Instagram

When I am done editing my photos on my desktop, I use the Lightroom Mobile App on my phone to download the photos. From there, I upload them to Instagram and edit them to have 4-6 “Structure”, 3-5 “Fade”, and “Vignette” (to taste) in the App before posting.

Conclusion

I hope that this article proved useful to you. If you are interested in my style for capturing and editing my outdoor moody PNW photos, be sure to check out my Moody PNW Preset Pack. In the download for that preset pack, I include video examples and give a more in-depth start-to-finish look into how I achieve the results I do. Thank you for taking the time to read this article!

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me. If you liked this article and want to learn more, be sure to check out my blog for more helpful information and articles.

-Zach

How I Shoot and Edit My Outdoor “Moody PNW” Photos for Instagram

Written by: Zach Nichols

December 20, 2020

Zach NicholsDecember 20, 20203 Comments