7 Top Tips for Composition in Landscape PhotographyPosted by Photography Talk on June 13th, 2017 Have you ever tried to take a picture of a stunning landscape, only to discover that the photo of those beautiful mountains looks flat, boring, and not nearly as beautiful as the real thing? Chances are you need to work on your composition. Here are some handy tips to help you take your composition to the next level, and really make your landscape pictures pop.
Of course you can read about the rule of thirds until your eyes hurt, but the best way to learn if an image is well-composed or not, is by looking at the great compositions made by the masters. Look at photographs from Ansel Adam or Ernst Haas for example, and try to see why their compositions are so great at drawing in the eye.
One thing I always recommend to anyone asking me about composition, is to go to a museum and spend some hours just staring at the paintings. Van Gogh’s landscapes for example are all so well-composed, we landscape photographers could really learn a thing or two from them… Also look at the way these painters use light to draw your eye to certain parts of the image, and shadows to draw your attention away from others. Try to apply what you see the next time you go out shooting – think of your picture as a painting, and make all the elements appear exactly where you want them to.
I realise I made fun of the composition rules at point one, but it really doesn’t hurt to spend a little time learning about them. Read up on some composition techniques, do’s and don’ts, try and test them out in a test shoot and see what difference it makes to your landscape photos. Knowing the rules and seeing how they influence your photograph will help you understand what to look for when you’re hunting for the perfect angle or vantage point.
Now that you know the rules and have practiced with them – forget all about them. Rules alone might make for a good landscape photo, but never for a great one. If you’re out there in the elements surrounded by nature and beautiful landscapes, it would be a pity if all you could think about were composition rules. Allow yourself to become inspired and don’t worry if your horizon is in the middle of the frame – if your gut tells you that that’s where it looks best, leave it! Don’t allow any rules to interfere with your creative flow, trust yourself and get the shot the way you feel it looks best.
So once you forgot about all the rules and gained an infinite amount of freedom, use it! You are now free to try out any kind of composition you like, the rules aren’t watching anymore. So use your feet, walk up as close as you can to the foreground of your image or go as far away from your subject as possible. Try a new angle, maybe even turn around completely and see what´s on the other horizon. Lay flat on the floor to get an ant´s perspective, or go crazy and rent an airplane for an hour to see what that mountain looks like to a bird. The sky is the limit, and you can do whatever you want with your landscape picture – it’s yours, after all. Like it? Share it!More by this author |