Walking in our local forest I came across this nasty looking vine growing across the trail. The ‘hard directional light’ (a very bright shaft of sunlight) was coming through the shady forest and ‘isolating’ this thorny beast.
To emphasize the ‘main subject, I got close, chose a shallow depth of focus to further isolate the vine, and underexposed the shot by ‘three stops’ (which dampened the overly bright, contrasty light and further darkened the background).
This sounds complicated, but is super simple.
Technical:Canon EOS R5 , ISO 400, 1/320 sec, f/8, (and exposure compensation of -3.0 stops) 100-400mm zoom lens at 260mm, handheld