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Author Topic: Composition in landscape photography  (Read 4324 times)

Vieri Bottazzini

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Re: Composition in landscape photography
« Reply #20 on: April 19, 2019, 03:17:22 am »

Step one is to ask what about a particular scene is worth photographing. I see too many images where it is not clear what the photographer is trying to convey. A snap shot is just that regardless of the camera and lens used by the photographer. If I do not get a visceral reaction at the onset with an image, including my own images when reviewing them at home, then the image is not worth keeping.

Well said - To me, that would be step zero, before even considering composition, light and so on :) Best regards,

Vieri
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Vieri Bottazzini
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Composition in landscape photography
« Reply #21 on: April 19, 2019, 09:14:00 am »

Well said - To me, that would be step zero, before even considering composition, light and so on :) Best regards,

Vieri
+1.
The photographer's "gut" is the most valuable piece of equipment.
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Vieri Bottazzini

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Re: Composition in landscape photography
« Reply #22 on: April 26, 2019, 02:46:58 am »

+1.
The photographer's "gut" is the most valuable piece of equipment.

Indeed. It takes years of study and application to transform "notions" into "gut", so that equipment becomes "transparent" and you just photograph without thinking about your camera, filters, about composition, technique, rules of this and that, and so on. So, you are perfectly right: not only our gut is our most valuable piece of equipment, but it's also the result of our most expensive investment: time, money, sweat and hard work :)

Best regards,

Vieri
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Vieri Bottazzini
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Lightsmith

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Re: Composition in landscape photography
« Reply #23 on: May 17, 2019, 02:53:30 pm »

I learn from looking at the created compositions of painters and the masterful images of photographers as well as by critiquing my own images. The book I found useful and have given as a gift to budding photographers is Art Wolfe's "The Art of Photographing Nature: An Updated Guide to Composing Stunning Images of Animals, Nature, and Landscapes" which is extremely well written and illustrated (very rare with this type of book).

There are key concepts like the use of negative space that are seldom mentioned but can have a large impact on pictures. Even how to crop based on the subject or key object's position in a frame is subjective but still can make and image stronger if done well.

The one advantage of shooting with sheet film is that one cannot shotgun a scene and then go home and see if one got lucky. Not that I would ever consider going back to shooting film, which though technically is far less demanding than digital, it is also too limiting.
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faberryman

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Re: Composition in landscape photography
« Reply #24 on: May 17, 2019, 03:35:02 pm »

The one advantage of shooting with sheet film is that one cannot shotgun a scene and then go home and see if one got lucky.
This is oft repeated and tiresome. You can be a deliberate digital photographer.
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Vieri Bottazzini

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Re: Composition in landscape photography
« Reply #25 on: May 18, 2019, 03:00:35 am »

This is oft repeated and tiresome. You can be a deliberate digital photographer.

Indeed. In fact, I'd just to as far as saying something which might sound unpopular. Film, and especially sheet film, "forces" people to be deliberate - a limitation that some people might welcome. In my experience, many of these are the same people that, if they used a digital camera, would "shotgun" a scene and choose to use film instead to be forced into restrain. It is easy to shoot a few frames only when you simply cannot shoot more because you don't have enough sheets of film. It takes self control and "deliberateness" to shoot less and more deliberately when you, in fact, could shotgun a scene but just decide not to.

What I mean is, shooting less or more depends on your artistic and mental approach, not on the medium you use.

Best regards,

Vieri
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Vieri Bottazzini
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Stephen Ray

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Re: Composition in landscape photography
« Reply #26 on: May 18, 2019, 03:34:29 pm »

This is oft repeated and tiresome. You can be a deliberate digital photographer.

Thanks for mentioning the key word lacking from the entire thread.

By looking at your website, I'm impressed by your deliberate composition of the end result regardless of any capture aspects or methods. Well done!

You might agree that having a vision for final presentation of product greatly helps while composing in the viewfinder.
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MoreOrLess

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Re: Composition in landscape photography
« Reply #27 on: June 22, 2019, 02:05:50 pm »

Well said - To me, that would be step zero, before even considering composition, light and so on :) Best regards,

Vieri

In that respect I think its important not to get too locked into looking for a certain photograph at a certain location/time, obviously pre planning can be effective but I think embracing unpredictability can be just as effective, certain conditions can open up a composition that you might not have considered previously if your eyes are open to see it.

I'm guessing for a lot of people as well this is a more fulfilling kind of experience planning to be in interesting locations in interesting conditions but not knowing exactly what you might be taking.
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