Pixiq

This is my second post on the Colors of Nature – the first featured Red. Green is the colour of nature to such an extent it symbolizes the natural world. Indeed, the fresh greens of spring are an advertiser's dream for promoting 'green' products and you can see this repeatedly in prints or poster ads.

With the exception of the polar regions, deep oceans, inside caves and deserts (where rainfall is very sparse), green leaves and plants abound. Yet they are by no means all the same shade of green - they may be grey-green, yellow-green or blue-green. However, green grass and matt, rather than shiny, green leaves are a good average tone and many a time I will hold a matt green leaf in front of a white flower such as a rose or a peony – to manually spot-meter the light reflected from it (see High Key Images).

Green plants

True green flowers are comparatively rare – one shrub from central America has pure green petals and a distinctive scent of smelly cheese that attracts fly pollinators. Twayblade orchids have insignificant green flowers, but orchid growers have managed to cultivate some exotic large green orchid flowers.

Unlike a red rose surrounded by green foliage, green on green is more of a challenge to separate one from the other in a photo. There are several solutions: crop in tight to the flower, backlight small green flowers / translucent leaves or use a shallow depth of field to separate from a green background.

Green animals

Camouflage colors do not always resemble camo clothing. Many green animals – such as frogs, snakes and chameleons – blend in with green vegetation. Preferably photograph them in natural light, rather than with flash, since this can create a conspicuous body shadow that immediately pinpoints the animal's  position, thereby negating the whole point of their camouflage.

White's tree frog, is native to Australia and New Guinea.  It appears green as a result of blue and green pigments, covered by a yellow layer. Early records show it was originally called the blue frog;  this was because the first specimens sent to England had the yellow layer destroyed by preservative, which made the frog appear blue!

Many green insects, including beetles and butterflies appear green from interference colors that iridesce when viewed at different angles to the light. The green peafowl (distinct from the blue peafowl) occurs in Java, Burma, Thailand and southern China and has an iridescent blue / green neck and green eye spots on the train feathers. To get the best colors, these also need to be taken in available light without a flash.

Green sea anemones gain their color from microscopic green algae that live inside their tissues, as they do tiny freshwater hydras.

Photographing Green

With all natural subjects, the texture needs to be considered before deciding how to light it. Textured leaves and scaly skin can be lit with direct or indirect light. For shiny green apples, avoid direct light – especially flash – because this, plus the curved surface, will make it difficult to avoid getting a reflection. Either take on a day with a light cloud cover or place the fruit inside a light tent. Trees in leaf will separate from green pastures when lit early or late in the day so that long shadows are cast in front or behind them.

Fortunately, natural greens do not present similar problems to the photographer as some man-made green fibers.  A combination of certain dyes used to create some green fibers can make it impossible to record on digital media the exact color of fabrics that appear green to the human eye. This is due to high reflectance of wavelengths at the far-red end of the spectrum – not detected by our eyes – and is known as anomalous reflectance.