Compose better landscape photos: use a foreground, a middle ground and a background.
Create Classic Landscape Compositions
A
good landscape photograph tells a tale of the place it describes. And
like all good tales, your landscapes should have a catchy beginning
(the foreground), an interesting center (the middle area) and a
memorable ending (the background). Not every landscape lends itself to
this somewhat formulaic treatment, of course, but until you are very
confident of your design skills, applying it will save you a lot of
time and provide you with a solid starting point from which you can
improvise.
Also, by using these classic building blocks you not
only provide yourself with a handy framework for organization, but you
demonstrate that you are in charge of your compositions. Rather than
just tossing together a random smattering of elements—a barn here, a
silo there, some trees over there—carefully arranging your images in
layers demonstrates that you knew precisely what you were doing. In
other words, it shows that you had a plan, Stan.
Just how much
emphasis you give to each of the three regions of a particular design
is a decision you’ll have to make for each scene—and honestly, that’s
one of the toughest concepts to master in landscape photography (you
thought this was going to be easy?). In this garden shot, taken at the
Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park in New York, creating three levels of
design was easy since I just borrowed three elements from the garden
design: the foreground bed of wax begonias, the taller cannas in the
middle and that interesting tree at the top of the frame. I used a
tripod to compose the scene and it was worth the effort of carrying it;
when you start to compose landscapes carefully, it's nice to have a
tripod to help you frame things.
Eventually concepts like this
become second nature and you’ll use them more by instinct than by
forethought, but again, knowing they exist and consciously practicing
them will help you compose scenes faster and with more confidence.
In this harbor shot from Stonington, Maine, the rocks in the foreground act as the first level of the shot, the boats are the middle area and the shore in the distance helps to "end" or frame the shot. Not every landscape has three such clearly defined steps, but when you see them, use them!
Entire Site Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Wignall
An Ambitious Dogs Production In Association with Boo Boo & Mama Cat Films Please also visit my Photo Tip of the Day blog.
