A (successful) landscape image has a FOCAL POINT and provides VISUAL CLUES leading the eye of the viewer towards it.
Always ask yourself this question before you jump into action: "What do I want the viewer to look at?" - if you can't give a simple answer to this question (and I don't mean "the landscape"), don't press the shutter.
If you can answer this question, you have a subject - a so-called FOCAL POINT.
Now start looking for VISUAL CLUES, such as LEADING LINES or CURVES, leading towards your subject. Move, try different positions to arrange elements in the scene so they point towards your subject. BRIGHT spots or COLORS can also be VISUAL CLUES, the eye is drawn to those, you see. Foreground objects, such as rocks can form a LEADING LINE also, as the eye connects them.
Once that's done, REMOVE everything that DISTRACTS from your subject- again you're looking for VISUAL CLUES, but now for those that pull the eye away from your subject. Make sure they don't get in the way, be it by moving, changing position or maybe waiting for different light so they'll be in the shade, blurring them is another way to REMOVE them from the equation, as the eye is drawn to sharp patches in your picture. Wait for fog, to hide them.
In the below picture THE TREE is the FOCAL POINT, there's a CURVE LEADING towards it, starting in the bottom left corner. I took a long exposure to REMOVE the ripples which may have DISTRACTED from the tree. Matter of fact, there was a BRIGHT reflection on the surface, as Geoff pointed out to me - I REMOVED that also. I would have preferred fog to REMOVE the trees in the background from the image, but it wasn't to be. I could've blurred the background in order to achieve that, but would have lost focus on the BRIGHT sunburst, which now counters the trees on the left by pulling the eye to the right.
Sorry for caps, but I think it adds to clarity in this case. I hope this wall of text was some help.
the more info the better..after our conversations you could copy all our text and get a book made from it hahaha. but seriously this is all great stuff for me to improve if we ever have the fortune to meet I'm buying you a beer. for some reason i m struggling with composition when i do a painting or illustration i feel i don't have these problems because i have more control working with natural setups is giving me a hard time because i can't in most cases physically rearrange things to suit me. i will keep it up so that i can produce a true eye popper of an image.
A (successful) landscape image has a FOCAL POINT and provides VISUAL CLUES leading the eye of the viewer towards it.
Always ask yourself this question before you jump into action: "What do I want the viewer to look at?" - if you can't give a simple answer to this question (and I don't mean "the landscape"), don't press the shutter.
If you can answer this question, you have a subject - a so-called FOCAL POINT.
Now start looking for VISUAL CLUES, such as LEADING LINES or CURVES, leading towards your subject. Move, try different positions to arrange elements in the scene so they point towards your subject. BRIGHT spots or COLORS can also be VISUAL CLUES, the eye is drawn to those, you see. Foreground objects, such as rocks can form a LEADING LINE also, as the eye connects them.
Once that's done, REMOVE everything that DISTRACTS from your subject- again you're looking for VISUAL CLUES, but now for those that pull the eye away from your subject. Make sure they don't get in the way, be it by moving, changing position or maybe waiting for different light so they'll be in the shade, blurring them is another way to REMOVE them from the equation, as the eye is drawn to sharp patches in your picture. Wait for fog, to hide them.
In the below picture THE TREE is the FOCAL POINT, there's a CURVE LEADING towards it, starting in the bottom left corner. I took a long exposure to REMOVE the ripples which may have DISTRACTED from the tree. Matter of fact, there was a BRIGHT reflection on the surface, as Geoff pointed out to me - I REMOVED that also. I would have preferred fog to REMOVE the trees in the background from the image, but it wasn't to be. I could've blurred the background in order to achieve that, but would have lost focus on the BRIGHT sunburst, which now counters the trees on the left by pulling the eye to the right.
Sorry for caps, but I think it adds to clarity in this case. I hope this wall of text was some help.
the more info the better..after our conversations you could copy all our text and get a book made from it hahaha. but seriously this is all great stuff for me to improve if we ever have the fortune to meet I'm buying you a beer. for some reason i m struggling with composition when i do a painting or illustration i feel i don't have these problems because i have more control working with natural setups is giving me a hard time because i can't in most cases physically rearrange things to suit me. i will keep it up so that i can produce a true eye popper of an image.