Composing Great Landscapes

Composing Great Landscapes
The next time you pick up a great travel magazine that features landscape photography
or look at some of the work from the masters in digital landscape photography, like David
Muench, Moose Peterson, Stephen Johnson, Bill Fortney, and John Shaw, take a moment
to study some of their wonderful, sweeping images. One thing you’ll find that most have
in common is that these landscape shots have three distinct things: (1) A foreground.
If shooting a sunset, the shot doesn’t start in the water—it starts on the beach. The beach
is the foreground. (2) They have a middle ground. In the case of a sunset shot, this would
be either the ocean reflecting the sun, or in some cases it can be the sun itself. And lastly,
(3) they have a background. In the sunset case, the clouds and the sky. All three elements
are there, and you need all three to make a really compelling landscape shot. The next
time you’re out shooting, ask yourself, “Where’s my foreground?” (because that’s the one
most amateurs seem to forget—their shots are all middle and background). Keeping all
three in mind when shooting will help you tell your story, lead the eye, and give your
Another advantage of shooting at dawn (rather than at sunset) is that water (in ponds,
lakes, bays, etc.) is more still at dawn because there’s usually less wind in the morning than
in the late afternoon. So, if you’re looking for that glassy mirror-like reflection in the lake,
you’ve got a much better shot at getting that effect at dawn than you do at dusk.
landscape shots more depth.