Thus, canopy photographs can be used to assess local light environment beneath plant canopies and to infer properties of plant canopies. Hemispherical canopy photography is a technique that directly measures canopy geometry and that indirectly estimates light levels. This chapter provides a general introduction and overview of hemispherical canopy photography, including a description of the nature of the technique, background concerning use of the technique by various researchers, and a discussion of research applications for the technique. Chapter III gives details of field methods for obtaining hemispherical canopy photographs. Chapter IV explores future prospects for the technique, including technique refinement and enhancement, other approaches to studying canopy geometry, and an overall conclusion.
Chapter V describes hardware and software setup.
The Appendices include a listing of menu screens, hardware specification, detailed file formats, a listing of program files, and a description of the negative holder design. A user-friendly menu structure allows for convenient and efficient program control. Hardware control of image digitization and display is fully integrated with analytical capabilities. Analysis results can be read directly from the computer display monitor and output to data files. The utility programs SUN and SKY are used to create site-specific files that allow customization of analyses for a particular study site.