In order to improve efficiency of field operation in normal plot investigation, the photograph plot method was studied. The binocular stereo camera was chosen as the main tool. We placed the binocular stereo camera vertically in the center of plot, took twelve 30-degree-shots and got twelve groups of stereo images in turn. The field visual examination was used to check the shielding tree. After the supplementary surveying of the shielding tree, we used forward intersection to obtain the coordinate of homonymy points in the stereo images so as to extract the diameter and relative coordinate of the target tree. The photograph plot was then finished after all the coordinates had been transformed to the same coordinate system by the rotation angle. In order to verify the proposed method, nine fixed sample plots were chosen as examples to make a comparison between the results of photograph plot and the normal method. The results included the diameter and the coordinate of each target tree, the volume of fixed sample plot and the working time of two methods above. The results show that the average fractional error of plot volume is 5.5%, and the maximum error is 8.2%. The comparison results confirmed the feasibility of photograph plot.