Mike Hindle exposes the architecture of leaves

Preface

I’ll preface this article by saying that it reflects my personal reactions, thoughts, assumptions.

I don’t believe Mike Hindle intentionally photographs leaves to show their architecture. Even so, I do believe his leaf photography exposes the architecture of leaves elegantly.

By jotting down my thoughts about them, I gain a deeper understanding of what works for me image-wise. Which I hope will make me a better photographer.

I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below: agree, disagree, add perspectives…

Who is Mike Hindle?

Mike is a photographer and graphic designer based in the UK. He focuses on architecture, nature, travel, and commercial photography. He’s active on Instagram, Vero, LinkedIn, and he’s an Unsplash star, with many millions of views.

I met Mike when I was active on Twitter. I admired his photography and we struck up an online friendship. I followed his lead in moving over to Vero when I cancelled my Twitter account. And now I follow him mostly on Threads (@mikehindle.uk).

All of Mike’s images in this article are used with his permission.

Mike Hindle’s nature photography

Mike’s intimate, elegant nature photography gravitates to close-up studies of flowers and leaves. He edits with an eye to simplified compositions and structure, careful focus light, and muted or monochromatic colour.

Mike’s nature photography has a studio-photography feel, even though he often takes them on his phone in the wild (or a garden). He beautifully translates the techniques of high contrast black and white architecture photos to his close-ups of leaves and flowers.

I particularly admire his leaf photography. The combination of contrast, enhanced light, and muted colour reveal the architecture of leaves: their textures and fractal structures.

what do I mean by the fractal architecture of leaves and high contrast architecture photography?

Fractal architecture in leaves

The terms “leaf architecture” and “architecture of leaves” refer to the way leaves self-organise off the blueprint of a plant’s DNA. Researchers study leaf architecture to better understand how plants evolve to support and feed themselves. Those understandings help other disciplines devise more efficient structures and systems, for instance in agriculture and architecture.

As an example of this kind of study, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley’s Rausser College of Natural Resources explain how they visualise the architecture of a leaf during their analyses:

Fractal structures essentially repeat at all scales of an object: the details mirror the whole in an almost infinitely complex cascade of organisation. Each detail resembles a smaller scale version of the whole.

Naturally occurring fractals surround us and suffuse us – in snowflakes, bone marrow, circulatory systems, plant branches and leaves… We’ve evolved to recognise them instinctively and associate them with life. It makes perfect sense that human cultures across time have incorporated fractal design in our built environments and and our art. Yet relatively few people meditate on them except perhaps with mandalas or in other spiritually-oriented contexts.

The enhanced fractal ubiquity in Mike Hindle’s nature photography gives his portraits of leaves a meditative quality, in addition to their aesthetic sophistication.

High contrast architecture photography

High contrast architecture photography boosts contrast and limits detail to emphasise the structure of buildings, usually in black and white.

It most often emphasises verticality with strong lines, planes, and angles:

Mike frequently engages in this kind of photography, with a twist – literally. His architecture photos often include organic curves and fractal content:

Examples of Mike Hindle’s leaf photography

So let’s take a look at some of my favourites from Mike Hindle’s nature photography, focusing on leaves.

Monkey puzzle 1

A dramatic take on a monkey puzzle tree branch! And of course a high contrast architectural take too. The balanced stark black negative space around the central subject isolates the branch to the exclusion of anything else. Graduating the focus and lighting from front to back emphases the dimensionality. This image punches out from the frame.

Interestingly, the sharpest focus and most intense highlights are on the triangular spikes above the central core, and the core is slightly out of focus. I think those are good decisions (or perhaps just lucky shooting). By taking our eye away from the obvious choice for focus – the soft core – Mike leads our eyes to the point (pun intended) of the image: the spikey fractal structure of the overall tree branch. Also, it subtly suggests the unreadiness of the softer, developing spikes in the core of the branch: it tells a story of becoming, with the emphasis on fruition.

High contrast black and white accentuates both the overall structure as well as the texture detail of the individual spikes.

I like the slight imperfections in the two spikes at the bottom of the image. By leaving those un-retouched, Mike adds a slight jarring note that snags our attention, leading the eye down as well as up across the subject.

Monkey puzzle 2

Here’s another take on a monkey puzzle branch, still high contrast black and white, but reversed from the previous image: white background isolating the dark spikey leaves. This gorgeous image has such 3-dimensionality – from the graduated focus blurring to the background, as well as the highlighted foreground spike edges flowing back to the dark blurred ones.

The amorphous dark shape in the upper right corner helps balance the featureless white base of the image, and adds mystery.

Again here the primary focus is on the spikes above the core of the branch. This time the white edges of the spikes outline against the dark centres of the surrounding spikes, and the sharp outlines of the focus spikes contrast with the soft ombre of the spikes’ meat.

And again there are a couple of irregularities/imperfections that snag the eye (if you look for them). Snagging the eye with a small detail is a good thing in my book.

Fern fronds

These fern leaves have a metallic look, emphasising the fractal structure of the blade of a fern frond. Fading the tips of the leaves into the background shadow emphasises the “bones” of the fond: the central rachis off of which the rows of pinnae branch, and costae off of which the individual serrated leaves sprout.

This composition has a strong graphic design look that echoes the orderly row structure of a fern frond: the central line diving down diagonally from left to right, with horizontal rows to the right and downward rows to the left. I suspect Mike didn’t crop or rotate this image, instead getting the composition in camera/on phone.

Even though the leaves look metallic, Mike has used subdued lighting that still works as high contrast against the black shadows.

In the lower left and right corners, he’s left some shadowy bokeh-like details. They add depth to the image: without them, it could look like the fern was flattened against something.

Silver leaf

I don’t know what kind of leaf this is and it doesn’t matter. It works for me because of the topographical ridges and valleys, beaten silver colour and texture, and variety of focus areas due to the shallow depth of field. The glow of the central vein contrasts beautifully with the subdued highlights across the surface of the entire leaf.

Backlighting from the lower right behind a shadowed portion of another leaf does triple duty. It exposes the edge of the main subject leaf. It picks out the outline of the almost invisible lower right leaf. At the upper right it punctuates the negative space by outlining the tip of another leaf.

Speaking of negative space, the main focus (for me) is the upper left quarter of the image where the focus is sharpest, the light is brightest, and the topography is most pronounced. On the other side of the image, the softer focus and column of balance out the image’s off-centre focal point.

Maple

I love the metallic look in this contrasty black and white image of maple leaves. It shows the architecture of the leaves themselves in overview only: the leaves’ shapes, midribs running the length of the lobes, the veins branching laterally off the midribs, and hints of the smaller veins. We don’t see the detailed surface of the leaves. Instead, here Mike serves us the architecture of the tree – how it sprouts leaves in layers.

At first the lighting on the leaves looks natural, if perhaps exaggerated. But on closer inspection the lighting looks artificial in the sense that, aside from the background, the leaves look lit from slightly different directions. That may be due to dappled light coming through unseen upward layers of leaves. Obviously Mike dodged and burned across this image to create this heightened lighting effect. Small areas of highlight at the tips of multiple leaves’ lobes accentuate structure and lead the eye across the top layer of leaves.

Shadows behind the leaves bring them out, while the blurred lit area in back silhouettes the petioles (stems) of the leaves and the twig that supports them.

Papery leaves

This composition looks like a finely detailed illustration drawn by hand. In this case, Mike’s high contrast black and white architectural approach shows the fractal structures of the tops of the leaves, accentuates the spiny edges, and gives the leaves a beautiful papery texture.

Masterful composition: convoluted negative space speared by the primary highlighted subject in the lower left corner. In the upper right, multiple leaves kiss at their tips. The upper right corner leaf is softly focused except for the outline of the edge and spines. At the lower left the largest leaf leans out from the shadows. At the bottom, just the hint of a smaller leaf. The dodging and burning as well as selective focus all over this image keep the eye moving, always coming back to the lower left leaf.

Cactus

A semi-abstract high contrast black and white view of bunny ears cactus leaves. The out of focus foreground leave jutting out with a blown out highlight immediately draws the eye, but then the eye slips off the uninteresting highlight (nothing to see there) up to the subject of the image, the central focused leaf. That out of focus highlighted foreground leaf acts like a plate to serve us the main dish.

The central leaf demonstrates the ordered polka-dot distribution of thorns across its surface. High contrast also shows off the rough texture of the leaf in tiny details. The black negative space immediately to the left of the foreground leaf balances out its over exposure.

The surrounding shadowed leaves crowd around the central pair, demonstrating how cactus leaves can grow in different clashing directions.

Mike has used gentle dodging and burning to arrange subdued highlights across the image to keep the eye moving. The little hairs on the shadowed leaf far right act as imperfections to snag the eye and keep bounce us back to the interior of the image. I’d be tempted to remove them, but now I appreciate how that kind of detail can contribute to composition.

Agave

This closeup of an agave shows the architectural schema of the plant: how the leaves spiral out from the central budding point. The textures of the leaves themselves are blown out or blurred, so the thorns along the edges receive focus and tell the story of the plant: it protects its vulnerable central core as it continually expands.

The shallow depth of field results in several focus areas across the image, almost all of them on leaf edge thorns. Far from a fault, that selective focus causes the eye to jump around the image. Strong directional lighting from right to left enables a high contrast approach that also brings movement to the composition – from right to left, following the light.

Hairy agave

This very different paint & string agave has such an abstract feel (I love me a good abstract). The blown-out hairs against the dark smooth leaves act like leading lines all over the place. A beautiful capture.

By focusing on the random hairs in this close-up, and using high contrast architectural photo techniques, Mike highlights how the hairs of this plant sprout off the edges of the leaves forming a protective barrier for the central core. Muting the contrast on the leaves themselves reduces their apparent texture, while accentuating the hairs.

Echeveria

A soft, delicate, very textured close up of an echeveria. Similar to the agave photo, the image shows the architecture of the plant with leaves spiralling around the central budding zone.

The shallow depth of field focuses on the leaves and their little spikes at the top of the subject, along with the water droplets. High contrast hints at the texture of the leaves while highlighting their edges. Strong lighting from the front-left creates shadows that show how the leaves curve into cups.

The off-centre balance of negative and positive space creates tension. Bright leaves around the central budding zone make it the secondary focal point of the image, the first point being above it on a leaf spike that’s in sharper focus (two types of focal point: sharpness and brightness). When I look at the image, my eye first goes to the brightest spot – the budding zone – then jumps up to the sharper spike, then drifts back down to the brightest spot, and then around the image. Intriguingly, the budding area has a dark mysterious shadow at its core.

A slight imperfection along the centre line peeks out from behind a leaf. Nice touch.

Cape honey flower

This portrait of a Cape Honey Flower frond stands in for all its larger siblings surrounding it in the shadows. The full-on frontal view shows the overall structure of the frond, while larger fonds display the back and front of individual leaves. On the upper right, Mike shows us a bottom view of how the leaves branch out from a central stem, while on the lower left we see how they branch out from above. This composition gives us a 3D view of the leaf structure. Subtle and smart.

With no identifiable light source, it looks like Mike relied on dodging and burning to create the hot spot on the central frond, and light vs shadow on the planes of the individual leaves above it. Relatively heavy vignetting top and bottom strengthens focus on the subject. Interesting that the vignette at the bottom angles up from left to right, giving more room for the lighter, more complicated leaves at the left side. On the right, negative space defines fewer, larger leaves that display how they fold with greater contrast between the sides of the folds.

There’s a lot going on to keep the eye moving around the central subject, which always draws the eye back as the lightest, most defined structure in the image. Excellent crop-while-shooting, ready for edit.

“Spirals of nature”

The muted grey-greens of this image as well as the high contrast architecture edit show the spiral of leaves flowing out from an undefined centre. As a study of the leaves, it successfully limits the structural highlight to the bright area centre left where we see the veins and capillaries, along with the ridged texture of the leaf surface.

As with Mike’s turquoise leaves photo (next section), the original pre-edit version of this image is mostly bright green, with a much narrower dynamic range than the final edit:

Strong vignetting narrows our attention to the centre line of the image. Higher contrast reveals details easily missed in the original’s wash of bright green. Selective highlighting exaggerates the original’s highlights. Mike boosts the highlights along the leaves’ serrated edges to emphasise their structure.

Turquoise leaves

This collage-like image shows the architecture of these leaves from different angles. We see the overall shape of the leaf in the centre, the back of the leaf with highly visible veins at the top, highlighted serrated edges at the bottom right, and what looks like a stem at the top left. The monochromatic metallic turquoise colouring and elevated contrast accentuate the leaf’s textures better than a softer green would do.

Dodging and burning highlights the gorgeous texture of the leaf. Perhaps the upper and lower right corner leaves are overblown, but that’s a minor detail. The main subject stands on it’s own with fantastic highlights and shadows that guide the eye across it. The slightly out of focus cabbage-like veins of the back of another leaf serve as a counterpoint to the darkened upper right corner of the main leaf. And the shadowed ghost of another leaf peeking out from the lower right adds mystery.

See the following section for a screen recording of Mike’s editing process.

Mike Hindle’s nature photography editing process: examples

Photographers rarely share in detail their editing process. So it was a great surprise when Mike very generously posted videos on Twitter of how he edited a photo of leaves and another of flowers.

Turquoise leaves

Here’s a screen recording Mike shared that shows how he edited his turquoise leaves image:

In the original, the intense green overwhelms the details in the leaf, both veins and texture. The highlights are all there but subtle.

In the final edited version, Mike increases contrast, changes tint, and desaturates to emphasise both the fractal structure of the leaves’ circulatory systems and the fractal topography of the leaves’ textures.

Of course, he does this for artistic effect, not scientific research. I point out these aesthetic and editorial choices and effects to help me understand why I (for one) enjoy the final version so much. And to help me grow as a photographer.

Lillies

The following edited image of flowers is breath-taking. While it features flowers, not leaves, I think this edit demonstrates some of the techniques Mike uses in his leaf photos. He shared his process in response to the super positive feedback he’d received on the final version.

Here’s the original and final versions side by side of Mike’s “Shot on the Sunday stroll here in Derby”:

A superb and surprising transformation!

Let’s take a closer look at the gorgeous final version.

I love this lush, painterly image for several reasons:

Light: Mike defined several focus areas with hotspots – above and to the left of the two sets of pistils and stamens; one at the very bottom to anchor the image; several secondary highlights hiding in the mid-field scattered around the sides of the image; the off-centre vertical column of light overall.

Shadow: he delicately emphasised the structure of the flowers – individually and as a group – with copious yet judicious shadows. The cool blue/grey shadows guide the eye to the warm peach highlights.

Muted colour story: the gentle combination of peach, ivory, cyan, and grey; here too desaturation emphasises structure and texture.

Texture: all of the petals have a rough, detailed texture that catches tiny increments of light and shadow.

Leading lines: in addition to the shadows leading to the highlights, most of the stamens and pistils point to the upper left corner. This subtle guidance uplifts the image, making it (to me at least) elegiac yet hopeful.

Of course, all of those factors contribute to many types of images. But Mike’s style of using enhanced/high contrast in his architecture images also evidences in this image and in his close-ups of leaves.

How did he achieve that transformation? Here’s a screen recording of the process that he posted on Twitter:

The specific technical process Mike used in this flowers example may or may not reflect how he edits his photos of leaves. For one thing, this flower image is softer and less obviously ordered than his leaf close-ups. However, the use of strong contrast to reveal the structure – the architecture – of the petals does reflect his approach to nature photography (at least to my eyes).

Conclusion

Mike Hindle’s nature photography and especially his leaf photography align naturally with his high contrast architecture photography. He exposes the architecture of leaves with subtlety and elegance. And his generosity in sharing his editing process is an extraordinary gift to us all.

I’ve enjoyed this deep dive into his leaf photography, and I hope you have too. For more of Mike’s nature photography, check out his Unsplash account.

By the way, in addition to sharing his photography on Unsplash, Mike also shares his Lightroom presets!

What do you think?

Do you have any questions or thoughts you want to share about Mike’s nature photography? Comment below!