Canopy photography

When digital photography meets ecology

A brief history of vegetation phenology

phenology
canopy cover
Vegetation phenology - the study of seasonal vegetation cycles such as leaf-out, flowering, and senescence - is one of the oldest sciences that humans have studied for…
Jun 8, 2026

Processing aerial LiDAR data in R

LiDAR
R package
LiDAR data have revolutionized the way we look at forests, owing to their ability to depict detailed 3D canopy structure.
May 6, 2026

Using continuous camera for precision poplar plantation

blog
crownet
We used continuous camera to analyse the impact of poplar clones and irrigation management on canopy attributes.
Nov 4, 2025

CrowNet: first study illustrating the monitoring system

blog
crownet
CrowNet is a continuous canopy monitoring system based on time-lapse trail cameras. The method was firstly proposed by Chianucci et al. 2021.
May 30, 2025

Reliability of canopy photography in ecology studies

blog
biodiversity
Relatively few studies have considered using canopy photography to link forest structure to diversity.
Sep 12, 2024

Relating canopy photography with forest biodiversity

blog
biodiversity
Canopy structure modulates the availability of light and nutrient cycling below the canopy, thus having a key role in driving forest diversity.
Feb 23, 2024

LAIr: an R package to estimate LAI from NDVI

blog
R package
Leaf Area Index can be collected in the field, using either direct or indirect optical methods (for a review, see Yan et al. 2019, Chianucci 2020).
Sep 25, 2023

Ground and aerial methods for monitoring vegetation cover

blog
canopy cover
Many definition of cover exists, depending on the vegetation type, component, methods is considered in the measuration.
Apr 14, 2023

LAD: an R package to estimate leaf angle distribution (LAD) from measured leaf inclination angles

blog
leaf traits
leaf angle distribution
R package
Leaf angle distribution (LAD) is an important factor for describing optical features of vegetation canopies (Ross 1981).
Nov 1, 2022

bRaw: an R package for digital RAW canopy imagery

blog
R package
Estimates of gap fraction, upon which calculations of canopy attributes are based, are sensitive to photographic exposure in upward-facing images (Macfarlane et al. (2014)).
Oct 27, 2022

hemispheR: an R package for fisheye canopy image analysis

blog
R package
Very few R solutions were available for processing canopy images. So I decided to create my own R packages.
Apr 5, 2022

coveR: an R Package for processing digital cover images of tree canopies

blog
R package
Digital Cover Photography (DCP) is an increasingly popular method for estimating tree canopy attributes like canopy cover and leaf area index (LAI).
Jan 15, 2022

CrowNet: first project started!

blog
crownet
CrowNet is a collaborative canopy and tree phenology monitoring network based on continuous digital canopy images from remote camera traps.
Dec 23, 2021

Estimate canopy structure from terrestrial lidar intensity images

blog
laser scanning
Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR), is an active technology which uses information from optically-directed laser beams to precisely obtain 3D information of target objects.
Dec 13, 2021

Open-access tools for canopy image processing

blog
canopy photography
Digital photography is the cheapest, most flexible, but also effective tool to estimate canopy attributes light Leaf Area Index (LAI), canopy cover, and radiation regime.
Dec 6, 2021

CrowNet: a continuous camera-trap canopy monitoring network

blog
crownet
Spatial and temporal variation in vegetation phenology is key for understanding the interaction between plants and atmosphere, and their adaptation to rapid climatic changes.
Nov 29, 2021

Smartphone canopy photography

blog
The total number of smartphone users worldwide have nowadays reached 4 billion users — more than half the human population (The Atlantic 2018).
Nov 22, 2021

Canopy and seed photography

blog
canopy photography
seed
Digital photography possesses several features which makes use of the digital information suitable for retrieving information on the green components of vegetation.
Nov 15, 2021

The significance of leaf angle distribution in plants

blog
leaf traits
leaf angle distribution
Intuitively, the arrangement of plant components in space follows specific strategies to allow vegetation to cope with their non-locomotory nature.
Nov 8, 2021

Leaf-level digital photography

blog
leaf traits
Due to the camera’s lens footprint, canopy photography is typically not suited for applications at scales smaller than trees. However, there are some examples in literature…
Nov 4, 2021

The importance of canopy structure

blog
canopy
The canopy, which is the aggregate of leaves, branches and twigs in a stand or a crop, is the active interface between plants and atmosphere.
Oct 28, 2021

Methods to estimate LAI

blog
optical methods
Field measurements of forest canopy structure can be grouped in two methods: those based on direct (or contact) approaches, and those based on indirect approaches.
Oct 28, 2021
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