Composition is an essential aspect of landscape photography. It may make or shatter a picture. Understanding the fundamentals of landscape photography composition can help you make your images far more aesthetically appealing.
These things come effortlessly to certain individuals, and they intuitively comprehend composition concepts. They have an “excellent eye.” To everyone else, they must be learned, just like any other photographic skill.
There is always room for development, no matter what sort of photographer you are. Here are a few pointers to help you build more appealing landscapes.
The Rule Of Thirds And Beyond
The “Rule of Thirds” is one of the first compositional rules most of us acquire as new photographers. It’s most likely not a novel idea to you. It operates on the concept that the human eye is naturally attracted to items around one-third of the way into a picture. It’s a useful guideline for effective picture composition, but don’t restrict your landscapes to only the rule of thirds.
There are a few additional suggestions that might help you construct your landscapes in a more aesthetically appealing manner. The first is the “golden ratio,” and the second is the “golden triangle.”
I’m not sure what makes them golden, but I do know they may help you break out of the rule of thirds and create more appealing compositions in your landscapes. The best way to grasp these two principles is to visualise them.
The more you apply these concepts to your landscape photography composition, the more they will become second nature. Many cameras now allow you to overlay grids in the viewfinder or on the LCD screen to see how these laws work as you frame your landscape photography composition.
Symmetry
laws are a terrific method to learn and enhance your picture composition, but they may be violated. One of such situations is when you apply symmetry to your photographs. In many ways, symmetry is aesthetically pleasing to our eyes, and photography is no exception.
Look for symmetry in your landscape photography, utilising natural or man-made components, or both.
The rough, straight lines of a structure may contrast beautifully with the natural lines of a landscape to make a wonderful symmetrical shot.
Incorporate The Foreground
Landscape photography is often associated with huge panoramas of mountains, seas, and skies. Those elements do make for stunning vistas, but frequently having a foreground element may truly enhance the picture.
There’s an old adage in landscape photography: place a terrific foreground in front of a stunning backdrop. I’ve shot several landscape photographs that had amazing promise but fell short due to a lack of foreground interest. A strong foreground will draw the viewer’s attention, particularly when using a wide lens, which will make nearby items seem much larger.
Use something intriguing in the front of the landscape, such as rocks or flowers, to draw the viewer’s attention to the gorgeous backdrop.
Layer Your Landscapes
The layers that appear everywhere are one of the distinctive features of natural landscapes. They can be found anywhere in nature. There are always at least two: earth and sky. There are usually many more.
Layers of sand, grass, trees, water, mountains, clouds, sky, and so on are often seen in the same landscape. That does not even take into account man-made components.
Try framing your landscapes to capture a range of layers inside the same frame to show the many features of the location. Sometimes these layers line up neatly, and other times they crisscross with no pattern. Both can look terrific.
Natural Framing
If you’ve ever observed how much different an image may seem when it’s placed in a frame, you know how powerful framing can be. Finding natural frames in your landscape photography may affect the way the picture appears and feels.
I’m not talking about constructing driftwood frames to show your prints in. I’m talking about shooting through a gap in the woods, through a window, between two buildings, or beneath a bridge. You may even shoot a frame inside a frame.
You can go extremely creative with this. Natural frames may draw the viewer’s attention, add interest, or conceal boring portions of the picture.
Make Your Point
When you look at an image, your eye is looking for a path to take and a place to rest. Nothing ruins a photograph more than a cluttered scene that fails to grab the attention.
If your eye is looking for anything to concentrate on and doesn’t find it, you won’t stay with that picture for long. Having a clear focus in your landscape photos is an important part of making photos that look good.
Knowing what grabs attention is essential. Color, contrast, brightness, and size are all factors that influence how the eye moves across a photograph. Consider which portion of the scene you want the spectator to concentrate on and what the primary theme is.
Get Low
When you approach your camera near the ground, you may obtain a pretty intriguing viewpoint on the subject you’re capturing. It enables you to include more of the foreground in the shot without having to crop off the backdrop or sky.
When photographing with a wide-angle lens, items that are nearby seem larger, which implies that the ground will appear larger in your picture as you get closer to it.
This may work incredibly well if your foreground comprises little, attractive elements like flowers. It may also work well if the ground has an intriguing texture, such as sand. I often use this method while shooting the beach and seascapes. It may also work nicely when your foreground incorporates flowing water, such as a river.
Reflections
You’ve definitely noticed that reflections are popular in landscape photography, and for good reason. There’s something incredibly appealing about a shot with a reflection. They may also play tricks on our sight, causing us to reconsider the picture.
Reflections are most typically seen in water, such as a tranquil lake, but they may also be seen in other locations, such as windows. Reflections are an excellent way to bring harmony to your landscape photos.
Leading Lines
Leading lines are components inside your frame that guide the viewer’s eye through the frame. Most examples of leading lines in landscape photography employ straight lines; however, your lines may guide the viewer’s attention on a tour across the picture without having to be straight.
Curved lines that guide the eye may be more appealing, particularly if the picture is purely natural with no man-made items. A hiking route, footprints in the sand, or the bend of a river may all guide the eye in a much more natural direction.
Zoom In
Although I like broad vistas, zooming in on a specific portion of a picture may provide some quite spectacular landscape shots. It’s tempting to attempt to capture all you see in one shot, but isolating just a portion of the picture may result in some outstanding shots. You will frequently receive shots that appear to be completely different from the same situation.
There are a few options. The first, and most obvious, is to use your feet to walk closer to the section of the image you wish to isolate. You may also use a telephoto or zoom lens to concentrate on that section of the scene.
Each of these options has pros and cons, but they both open up new ways to look at the big picture.
Dramatic Crop
The aspect ratio of your picture may have a big impact on how it seems. A 2:3 aspect ratio is used by the majority of DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. Cropping your photographs to a 16:9 ratio might give them a more dramatic effect. Many panoramic photos have a 3:1 or even 4:1 aspect ratio.
It is not necessary to capture and combine many frames into a panoramic to achieve the dramatic broad appearance. Experiment with cropping your photos into different aspect ratios to see how it affects the feel of your photos.
Simplify
When it comes to landscape photography, the adage “less is more” is quite true. A crowded picture with a lot going on confuses the eye. We won’t gaze at the picture for long if we aren’t organically attracted to it.
Another option is to remove components from the frame. Some of the most stunning landscapes I’ve seen make good use of simplicity. Often, all that is required for a superb landscape photograph is a form or texture.
Examine your composition and consider whether components of the scene might be removed to simplify it. You may need to reframe your photograph from time to time. Sometimes you’ll need to zoom in. You’ll often need to pick up your gear and shift into a different position.
There may be instances when items beyond your control must be included in the frame. You may be able to delete them in post-production.
Seek The Best Composition
When you arrive at a site, it’s tempting to take out your tripod and set up for the first nice composition you notice, or the most apparent one. There’s nothing wrong with this, but I suggest spending a little more time exploring the region and considering other compositions. People tend to focus on the first thing they see and miss other things that might be better.
This is often the case with my landscape photographs. I’ve learned to spend a little more time working the scene and searching for additional images that I may like more than the initial one I notice.
You can always go back to that original photo if you can’t find something better, or you can shoot many compositions from other locations, as I often do.
Conclusion
It takes work to become more deliberate about how you arrange your landscapes. It’s simple to grab your camera and start shooting, but learning to pause and think about what you’re doing and how these principles could enhance your images will go a long way.
