Effective compositions are something we all struggle with at one time or another, and with so many ways to construct a frame, it can be tough to know how to fix things. If you are struggling with your landscape compositions, this excellent video tutorial will offer some useful advice that is sure to improve your work.
Coming to you from Mark Denney, this great video tutorial offers some helpful advice for producing better compositions in landscape photography. The thing that has always worked best for me is to work on simplifying my compositions. Landscapes are often complex, vast, and multilayered, and as such, we often choose a wide angle lens and a narrow aperture to try to capture it all in one frame. That does not always translate to a compelling image, however, and often, the result is simply too busy for the viewer to effectively digest. There are many ways to simplify a composition — zooming in, changing your position, a different perspective, using a wider aperture, just to name a few. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Denney.
And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out "Photographing The World 1: Landscape Photography and Post-Processing with Elia Locardi."
While I absolutely respect and appreciate all the teachings on composition, including this video, I'm a believer, practitioner, and advocate for developing your own artistic intuition.
When photographing, I do not put myself through mind exercise on the what, why or how to compose. I simply trust myself and my intuition. This has furthered me photographically, artistically, and verbally to new heights and discovery.
So much so that composing is the last attribute I am concerned about, leaving me to experiment, or fumble with the wide array of camera settings.
How do you compose inutitively. Study and work on your artistic senses. Be it art, music, or writing. It's all there for you to absorb and the arts are truly the raw material in a world of rules and endless opinions, like mine.
Great advise!! You have to have a photographer's eye, no matter the place your back yard or driving around or on a walkabout somewhere new, you just see it, like a snapper does not! It is like " You never know what you will get in a box of chocolates" First you have to be there, then you have to uncover what you see! I like planning apps for sunrise/sets and weather apps. From the longest day to the shortest day the sun rises and sets everyday in a different location on both the east and west horizon even the moon when full is at a different location all this and you visualize a place and mark it on a calendar and for all year long many places. There are places where the sun will shine through a rock formation every year on a date and you will find Photographers in mass there. It makes for many dreams and plans both day and night. Like a Milky Way in March/April early morning it arcs form south to north looking east with a panorama and finding a thing to center under and in Aug/Sept/Oct it goes vertical before midnight and finding a place to frame over or beside in just the right spot. Seeing colors on a cloudy day like fall/spring with foggy mornings. And you do not need to travel far it is all right in front of you, as a photographer you see it and your photos show it where the non lookers say "Where was that?" You capture time and put in a bottle, put the story on back of prints!