DIY Network

Landscape Photography: Composition and Camera Position From "The Whole Picture" episode DTWP-104

This compelling photo of a sunset, taken by The Whole Picture host Erin Manning, makes good compositional use of a low horizon-line while the setting sun and clouds provide focal interest.

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Is it possible to capture the natural beauty of a majestic landscape with your digital camera?

Taking great landscape photos can be deceptively challenging. Often what's magnificent scenery in real life can end up looking flat and unspectacular in a photo. Professional photographer Erin Manning, host of DIY's The Whole Picture, provides practical advice that will help you capture with your camera that beautiful scenery you saw with your own eyes.

In her first lesson, Erin talks about how to properly compose a landscape photograph, paying special attention to horizon lines as well as foreground and background. She then shows why using a tripod can help make for a much better landscape photograph. Lastly, she provides instruction on how to shoot a panoramic photo--a picture in which multiple images are combined to create one seamless landscape. She also shows how to use photo-editing software to combine and manipulate images to create a panorama.

Materials:

Digital camera with the panorama function
Camera owner's manual
Tripod
Carpenter's level

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	Figure A
	Figure B

Composition Challenges in Landscape Photography

What you see with your eyes and what a camera is able to "see" and capture on film (or in pixels) are two different things. Your eyes are able to view a wider image than a camera, and your eyes translate a greater range of light. Moreover, most digital cameras are more limited than film cameras in their ability to work with light. These are just some of the challenges that are inherent in digital landscape photography.

In endeavoring to capture the beauty and space of a landscape in a photograph, there are some basic principles and techniques that will help make your photos more successful at approximating what you see with your eyes. They'll also help yield visual results that are more dramatic and aesthetically pleasing.

Here are a couple of problem areas to look out for:

In one of our examples of a poor landscape image, a photo taken at the Santa Barbara Bay fills the frame with water and sky, places the horizon line in the middle of the frame and features little in the way of distinguishing features (figure A).

In another of our examples, a photo of a potentially interesting landscape incorporates too much lawn in the foreground, producing a rather "flat" image (figure B). Emphasizing the more distinctive attributes of the scene, such as the trees and background, would likely yield a better picture.

Figure C

Including either too little or too much within the frame are two common compositional mistakes in landscape photography. Additionally, failure to incorporate foreground or background in the image can also make for photos that lack depth or interest.

In a more successful landscape photo--taken by Erin on a trip to the Panama Canal--the horizon line is placed low in the frame, and the focal emphasis is placed on the setting sun and cloud formation (figure C).

Figure D

Camera Position

Camera position is essentially just another name for the perspective or point-of-view on the scene being photographed. In this exercise, Erin has her student take three separate photographs of the same location, each using a different camera position or angle. The results illustrate some of the basic principles involved in effectively capturing landscape images. In this case, a tree-lined landscape is photographed with a varied approach to the horizon line.

Using a digital camera, the first step is to set the camera's setting to the LANDSCAPE mode, indicated on this camera by a mountain-range icon (figure D). This automatically adjusts the camera exposure to enhance the detail that's captured in a landscape photo.

	Play with the horizon line of the photo by taking the photo straight on and then taking photos with the camera tilted up and down.

Erin's Advice for Successful Landscape Photography

Whether in your backyard or at the Grand Canyon, the principles of landscape photography remain the same. Here are some of the basics:

• Time of day is a consideration for landscape pictures. As the daylight changes, different lighting conditions present different photo opportunities and challenges. But the right camera positioning remains key.

• Take a moment to observe your subject and think about the photo you want. Then use the horizon lines to alter the composition of your image. Simple tilts of the camera will move the horizon line and give you different points of view of the same object.

• In addition to horizon lines, you can also add depth and distinction to a landscape photo by emphasizing objects in the foreground of the image.

• Try including items in the middle and background of the image and observe the difference between the three. Experimentation will help make your landscape photos more compelling.
  

  Add depth and distinction to your landscape photograph by including a visually interesting object in the foreground.

RESOURCES :

PC Photo magazine
Website: www.pcphotomag.com
Online version of the magazine devoted to digital photography and related technologies.

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