About landscape photography. Coursework: Photographing landscape photography

Photographing landscapes has always fascinated photographers. Photos of the sea, forests, mountains are sometimes striking in their beauty. But in order to convey all the beauty of nature, you need to know how to shoot a landscape correctly. In this issue, you will not only be able to look at several dozen beautiful landscape photographs, but also learn about what is important when shooting landscapes, and what beginner photographers should consider.

(Total 42 photos)

1. Shooting a landscape is perhaps the first thing every novice photographer takes on. It seems: what could be simpler? Find a picturesque place, wait for good weather - and you can click the shutter as much as your heart desires. Blue sky, green grass - what is not a wonderful landscape? But upon reaching a certain professional level, when the photographer finally develops the ability to critically evaluate his own photographs, these first inept shots, if not destroyed, are at least hidden away from prying eyes.

3. One can only be surprised at how commonplace the mistakes are made by beginners when shooting landscapes. It turns out that here, as in any other genre of photography, one cannot do without knowing certain rules, good taste and creative inspiration.

4. Surely, every amateur photographer is familiar with the feeling when, after a trip to wonderful places, instead of stunning landscapes in the photographs, only dull, inconspicuous copies of what was actually visible to the eyes are visible.

5. And the whole secret is that even the most modern photographic equipment is not capable of perceiving and displaying space in the same way as the human eye does. The camera lens has a much smaller viewing angle, which limits the boundaries of the frame and does not allow the scale of space to be fully reflected.

6. If the human eye adapts to different types lighting, then the perception of the camera color range, color saturation and contrast occurs based on the settings specified in it, which are not always able to change adequately in automatic mode.

7. How the photograph will look depends largely on various physical phenomena happening in environment, which definitely needs to be taken into account when shooting landscapes.

8. One of the most difficult tasks in landscape photography is to convey the volume of space, because in photographs we get two-dimensional images, despite the fact that the real space is three-dimensional. This is why unprofessional landscapes often look “flat” and boring.

9. In photography, volume is created by proper lighting shooting objects. But if in the studio a photographer can always arrange light sources and adjust their intensity at his own discretion, then when photographing a landscape this, alas, is impossible. And “catching” the light suitable for the intended landscape can sometimes be as difficult as good shot when shooting dynamic subjects.

10. Contrary to popular belief, a clear sunny day is not the best best time for landscape photography. Too bright light entering the camera lens does not allow you to convey all the variety and richness of shades, “exposing” them and turning them into solid white spots.

11. It is best to shoot landscapes in lighting conditions when the sun is not high above the horizon, that is, at sunset and dawn.

12. It is best to shoot landscapes at dawn, 30 minutes before sunrise and for an hour after, depending on the brightness of the sun. Or at sunset. It is at this time that amazing photographs are taken that convey the soft warm light rising or setting sun or light shadows.

14. In order to shoot a landscape correctly, you must use a tripod. It fixes the camera and prevents it from even the slightest movement. Thus, the pictures will be as clear as possible without any blurring.

15. Another common mistake among beginners is a “boring” sky. Even a rich blue color in most photographs will not look as impressive as fluffy clouds of various bizarre shapes shimmering in the sun.

16. The most common mistake in landscape photography is trying to capture as much space as possible in the frame. Beginners think that this way the picture will be more complete and interesting. In fact, often, everything is exactly the opposite.

17. Too many details or empty parts of the frame create a negative impression.

18. In landscape photography, the correct composition of the frame, the presence of centers of attention and leading lines are very important. Therefore, the photographer must carefully select the most suitable shooting point and frame the photo very precisely in order to create a harmonious and at the same time original composition of the landscape, which can be complemented by interesting lighting effects that give the photo a special aura.

19. The landscape should not only be beautiful, but also in some way extraordinary, spectacular, memorable, it should evoke emotions in people and awaken their imagination - these are the features that always distinguish the work of a professional photographer from the inept attempts of an amateur.

20. In order to shoot a landscape correctly, you must use a tripod. It fixes the camera and prevents it from even the slightest movement. This way, our pictures will be as clear as possible without any blurring.

21. Special attention, When shooting a landscape, pay attention to the horizon. Do not do it main mistake For beginner photographers, place the horizon in the center. This will divide the photo in half, and it will not look like a single whole. It's up to you to decide what to focus on

22. If the sky looks more attractive, make it two-thirds sky and one-third land or water. If Bottom part the photo looks better, then accordingly it will take most picture.

24. To get good photos, it is important to choose a lens for landscape photography. Long-focus lenses narrow the perspective, while wide-angle lenses, on the contrary, open it up. In general, any lens is suitable for landscape photography.

28. On a cloudy day, you should not refuse to walk with a camera. On the contrary, a gloomy day is very unpredictable, and you can take up landscape photography. After a thunderstorm, the sky can be painted in the most incredible shades, you can get a very unusual photograph.

29. After the rain the trees become more rich color, you can also play with raindrops - shoot them at a long shutter speed or take macro photography.

30. If you want to photograph a forest, then try not to include the ground in the frame. She often doesn't look in the best possible way and can ruin a great photo. It's better to focus on the foliage of the trees, and if you can photograph the sun's rays breaking through the branches, you can get a beautiful photo.

- genre visual arts, the main task of which is to display the surrounding nature both in its original form and in one modified by man to one degree or another. Since photography is one of the fine arts, landscape photography fully corresponds to this definition. The main visual center of landscape photography is nature in all its manifestations.

Of course, landscape as a genre appeared long before the invention of photography - in painting. And honed over centuries artistic media landscape images formed a row necessary conditions, mandatory for this genre of photography. Linear perspective , tonal (aerial) perspective, optical perspective,frame composition , light space And color - these are the main characteristics of landscape photography, capable of not only very accurately conveying the state of the surrounding nature in certain moment time, but also allocate semantic center image without the use of additional manipulation techniques. And despite the fact that in landscape photography the presence of people or animals in the frame is allowed, they are clearly assigned the role of staffage - an element of the landscape that exists to enliven the image and plays a secondary role in this image.

At its core, landscape photography is documentary photography about nature. According to the type of space depicted, landscape photography can be terrestrial, water, astronomical and meteorological. Landscape photography depicts landscape, topography and vegetation and is both rural and urban.

Water landscape (seascape, marina) is an image of the water (sea) element.

Astronomical landscape photography depicts the heavens (stars, constellations, Sun, Moon),

and meteorological - weather and precipitation (fog, rain, clouds, tornado, etc.).

According to the way of depicting space, landscape photography can be chamber and panoramic. Camera photography in this case does not imply a narrow circle of viewers, but expresses purely technical characteristics- a small, narrow viewing angle of the depicted space.

Panoramic landscape photography is the absolute opposite - it is a photograph, the viewing angle of which can often exceed 180 degrees.

According to the degree of perception by the viewer, a landscape can, by analogy with music, be minor or major. Tragic or solemn. Sad or cheerful. In solving this problem, the photographer comes to the aid of color theory, namely one of its sections - psychology of color. Knowing what colors and how they affect the viewer’s consciousness, the photographer can adjust color balance of the composition landscape to achieve a specific result. At the same time, in a landscape, cold shades cannot always create an atmosphere of hostility, and warm shades can create an atmosphere of friendliness. Small colored vegetation against the backdrop of black thunderclouds looks defenseless, and the picture as a whole evokes a feeling of anxiety, while cold Elbrus evokes awe and delight with its grandeur.

Of course, several of the listed natural spaces and states can easily overlap in one picture at the same time, but in this case it is important for the landscape photographer to decide what exactly in this picture is semantic center, and select this center using visual arts — prospects, compositions, Sveta, colors.

If there is no such center, then landscape photography is purely aesthetic, narrative-specific in nature and is used for decorative, scientific or journalistic purposes. Landscape photography belongs precisely to the category of aesthetic perception - plein air- truthful depiction of nature’s colorful richness of color changes in natural conditions exposed to sunlight and atmosphere.

If there is still a semantic center in landscape photography, then such a landscape will be charged with emotional-dramatic (or epic) energy and will acquire the features artistic landscape photography.

Along with mandatory conditions creating landscape photography, there are a number of conditions that are specific in nature - dynamism , angle , detail. Considering that photography is a static and silent form of fine art, it is in landscape photography that it is most difficult to convey certain atmospheric phenomena with great accuracy. How to show desert in a photo strong wind? How can mountain giants be depicted more majestic? It is in these cases that a landscape photographer is saved by knowledge about the dynamics of the frame, the shooting point and the angle.

Has become widespread nowadays tourist landscape photography. Although not essentially a separate genre, tourist landscape photography has become very popular due to both the availability of photographic equipment and the opportunity to visit the most remote corners of our planet.

The main feature of landscape photography is its accessibility. It does not require any scenery or staging tricks; it does not depend on the mood of the model or the preferences of the customer. It depends on the surrounding nature and weather conditions. And in this sense landscape photography unique. Whether it’s a park or an alley within the city, or maybe a mountain range or the quiet expanse of a lake beyond its borders - wherever you are, on vacation or on a business trip, in your own country or abroad, it is everywhere - nature - amazing a natural space capable of changing shape, content and color every minute, day after day, all year round, for thousands of years... And even if the landscape photograph you take does not contain any semantic core, it will always be aesthetic, which means it will always remind you of the essence and forms of beauty.

Articles

11.08.2016

Landscape in photography, as in painting, (from the French words “paysage” and “pays”, which means “terrain”) is an independent genre in which the main object for the image is nature: forests and fields, mountains and seas and others its objects and manifestations.

Types of landscape photography

In addition to the usual “natural” photo landscape, there is also an “urban” one, which consists of reflecting the diversity of city life with roads and cars, buildings and sidewalks.

There is also an “industrial” landscape - this includes photographs containing pictures of construction sites, factories, and industrial enterprises.

Sometimes they talk about a “rural” landscape, the purpose of which is to show rural life in photographs: houses, wells, roads, etc.

Of all the genres of photography, landscape photography is the most popular, but not the easiest. The photographer is faced with the task of capturing and combining in one picture the most expressive combination of sky and earth, conveying and complementing all this with surrounding colors, lighting, play of the wind, scale and sense of time, catching and capturing one single, most complete and vibrant moment in the life of nature or a city. .

Features of shooting a natural landscape

If we are talking about photographs of nature, then in order to take a good shot, a person must really love and understand nature, be able to see the beauty in it, be observant and attentive.

In all landscapes, regardless of what is depicted in them, there is one common phenomenon that has a special power over the audience and the photographer... this is the sky. A huge variety of skies - cloudy, stormy, clear, colored by the rays of the sunset or dawn sun - allows you to take photographs with a variety of emotional loads from the same single place.

No less favorite for photographing landscapes is water - rivers, seas, lakes. Of particular interest is the dark texture of the water, conveying different moods; water painted with “sunny” or “lunar” paths can give the viewer the feeling of night or evening, and with different lighting, ponds can create the effect of both a warm and cold day.

Shooting in the mountains also attracts many photographers with the grandeur and beauty of the mountain ranges, clean air and the natural play of light and shadows.

It also happens that the photograph contains several plans for the depth of space. So, for example, on a sunny day the forest may look just like a dark stripe, some kind of undeveloped mass, but by changing the brightness or shooting angle, using special filters, you can get a good perspective.

It is a mistake to think that the most favorable day for photography is a sunny day. In cloudy weather, fog, snow or rain you can find a lot interesting topics and objects and convey the appropriate mood of nature and the season.

Images of people and other objects in landscape photography

In order to emphasize the depth of the conveyed space and its scale, photographers often place arches or buildings, trees, or even people and animals in the foreground so that the viewer can compare close and distant objects.

When depicting people in photographic landscapes, you must remember the following rules:

• a person should remain against the backdrop of nature, without attracting the main attention;
• a person must enliven the landscape with himself, bring something important and necessary into it, and not be an unnecessary object;
• in both cases, a person should not distract from the beauty of the surrounding nature and should not be the central object.

This also applies to the urban landscape. All objects must be thought out and not interfere with each other.

Interesting publications on the site

With whom you still need to be able to negotiate. Nature is beautiful in itself. However, how often do gorgeous views that give rise to feelings of sadness or happiness, when captured by a camera, become mediocre and boring photographs! A landscape photographer must possess and develop a taste and sense of beauty. In addition to his love of nature, he will need many skills to take successful landscape photographs. The laws of composition and knowledge of the characteristics of light are by no means the key to the success of a good landscape photograph. For a city dweller, landscape photography can be an excellent hobby that brings a change of scenery, relaxation and the joy of creativity. Admire the photographs of the section, look into the “Photography Lessons” section, look at the works of famous landscape photographers and join the connoisseurs of beauty - landscape photographers.

Abandoned America
Alexa Mackenzie

Alex McKenzie is a self-taught photographer, traveler and drone operator. Alex currently lives and works in Colorado. He mainly photographs nature, landscapes and abandoned places. Alex travels around the country in search of interesting objects left behind by people. He uses a Sony A7RII camera and a DJI Mavic 2 Pro.

Before this post, I wrote only about travel, but today I will break tradition and share with LJ readers a short article about landscape photography that I wrote for one of the photo magazines.
I didn’t explain all the nuances in detail and load them with photo terms, so in simple language explained what aspects need to be taken into account during the shooting process and in preparation for it.

Landscape themes are closest to me, so in this article I want to talk about shooting in this genre.
I’ll say right away that I have never studied this craft anywhere, and I don’t have a diploma from a photography school. Everything came somehow by itself. I bought my first DSLR camera three and a half years ago, and I still use it. During this time, I managed to take several dozen good shots and write more than 50 photo reports. Some even think that I can shoot masterpieces, but from the outside, they probably know better.

Unfortunately, I don’t yet have many opportunities and free time to travel, but at the first opportunity, I try to escape from the web of everyday life somewhere away from the city into nature, taking my camera with me. First of all, I go to relax my soul, unload emotionally and get distracted. I have no thoughts in my head of shooting a masterpiece at any cost; rather, on the contrary, it seems to me that before this I have already given the maximum of my capabilities and there will never be a better shot than before.
Very often we travel with our whole family or with friends...

My childhood spent in the village in the summer apparently left an imprint on my mind, which is why I shoot many of my landscapes in the Russian outback. I really like the grandeur and diversity of Russian nature, the unusually beautiful monuments of wooden architecture, remote and half-abandoned villages and the rickety huts and fences familiar to every Russian person...
These pictures really impress me!

Professionals believe that the “landscape” genre does not quite fit many of my photographs: some sites, as well as the organizers of most photo competitions, classify my photographs in the “architecture” or “ cultural heritage"But I photograph what is close to me and pleasing to the eye, and it doesn’t matter to me what genre it is called. I would simply call my work “Photo for the soul.”

To the traditional question: “How was this filmed?” I can talk at length and in detail, but in the format of this publication I would like to briefly go over the main points that allow me to take good photographs.

Preparing for shooting

I didn’t take a single more or less decent shot by accident. All my travels and short forays are well planned and prepared...
I consider the most important aspect in landscape photography to be the choice of shooting location (the so-called location). You can take as many photographs as you like beautiful view look at the park from the window, trample the shore of a nearby lake in search of the perfect shot, or shoot the sunset near the nearest grove. You might be able to make a few good photos, but the most beautiful work you will only gain by moving in time and space.

IN school years I was seriously involved in orienteering, participated in all-Russian and international competitions, and at the same time was involved in tourism, so I am relatively well versed in maps. This helps me a lot in choosing a location and preparing a route. I would even say that studying maps and terrain is a hobby that goes along with photography.
The current possibilities of the Internet are truly limitless, so all ideas are born after studying information from the World Wide Web.

On Google maps, Google Earth, Wikimapia, Panoramio (ordered to live long) - I look at photographs and unique places from satellites. By the way, you can “drive” along many roads in Google maps in a virtual car and preview the surroundings. I look for interesting notes and articles on websites popular with photographers, travel forums, and also on networks. There is a lot of information about monuments of wooden architecture on the website Sobory.ru. I would especially like to mention nature reserves, national and natural parks. These territories, by definition, should be of interest to landscape painters. I put all the information received together and get the optimal route.

To get to some locations sometimes you have to provide additional funds transportation such as boat, bicycle or skis.
If possible, it is better to visit the object before shooting, conduct reconnaissance and “try on” angles - it will not be superfluous.
I visit both the sites of photographers’ “pilgrimage” and places where photographers have not yet reached. I like the second option much more, since the end result is often an unexpectedly pleasant result and always a unique picture. In areas where dozens or hundreds of shots have already been taken before me, I try to approach the shooting outside the box and bring something of my own to the picture.

8

Choosing a time to shoot

This is the second point I would like to mention. I take most of my shots at the so-called “regime” time: about an hour after dawn and an hour before sunset. Soft and warm light gives the photo richness and richness of colors and details the texture of objects. Transitions between bright and dark areas are smoother.
In addition, in the morning and (less often) evening hours, there is a high probability of the formation of fogs, which emphasize the depth of the image, beautifully scatter the light and blur the contours of objects, making photographs more mysterious and fabulous.

Naturally, it is important to understand where the light source will be at the time of shooting. For this I look on the Internet exact time sunrise and sunset, and then, focusing on the sides of the horizon, I superimpose the direction of movement of the luminary on the map.
Well, and of course the most important thing is the weather.
When the chosen shooting point is nearby, it’s enough to just look outside the window and at the weather forecasters’ promises on your phone. And if it takes a long time to travel, then I get acquainted with the forecast in at least three sources and look at the estimated map of the movement of atmospheric fronts. It helps you adjust your route as you go.
Having analyzed the above-mentioned points, I already have a clear movement schedule in my head and approximate pictures that will subsequently appear on the matrix of my camera. It must be said that it is almost always possible to carry out our plans, but you have to return to some places again...

Technical component

I shoot with a Sony A65 and three lenses: Sony CZ16-80, Minolta 70-300, Samyang 8mm. There is also a portrait prime Sony SAL-50F18.
The first lens is universal; I use it to shoot about 80% of all frames. It has excellent sharpness and color rendition.
I take landscape shots mainly with an aperture closed to f/8 - f/13 (this ensures maximum sharpness throughout the frame) with the lowest possible ISO value in auto (not always) focus mode. I set all these parameters, including shutter speed, in manual mode. If there is a need to get beautiful rays from the sun in the frame, you can close the aperture even further.
I record the frame on a memory card in jpg and raw format, and I need the second one only for backup if I suddenly have to pull out shadows or highlights. Information is restored from shadows much better than from highlighted areas, so most often I shoot landscapes with underexposure.

May many photographers forgive me, but I rarely use a tripod. It is clear that at night, in low light conditions, etc. conditions are nowhere without it. But during regular hours the light changes rapidly and, as a rule, it’s enough for me. Sometimes you even have to jog from one shooting point to another so as not to miss the moment. But I love running and extra exercise never hurts :) A tripod in this situation significantly reduces efficiency. Sometimes I shoot with exposure bracketing, but here, as a rule, I don’t need a tripod. Even panoramic shots in 90% of cases I take handheld.

About panoramic photography

I do some of my work using the panoramic technique - stitching together several frames taken from one point with overlay. In the final version, such photographs look completely ordinary. And the point here is not at all in the desire to shoot scenes for posters or to get exorbitant pixels, it’s just that a panorama gives volume, depth and sharpness to the entire frame, allows you to direct the viewer’s gaze from the foreground to the middle and background, create the effect of presence in the frame, and of course it gives wider coverage.

I really like photos with an interesting foreground, so when constructing a frame (be it a panorama or a single shot), I try to start with that. You can use stones, flowers, leaves, etc. as the foreground. If there is nothing to catch your eye on, you can improvise by dragging, for example, some kind of snag.

Treatment

I post-process the frames in Photoshop Ps5. I mainly edit shadows and highlights, contrast, saturation, apply filters and sometimes the technology of expanding the dynamic range of the image (HDR). I do not welcome photo collages. I also stitch together panoramas in Photoshop, mostly in automatic mode. I refine the inconsistencies and geometry by hand.
It should be noted that using a photo editor allows you to improve the frame, but the source must be of high quality. If the photo frankly doesn’t turn out well, then no editor will make anything useful out of it.

I am critical of many of my shots. It so happens that at the time of shooting you lose sight of some moments, and simply neglect some nuances. After some time, you begin to understand that it could have been filmed better.
That's all, in a nutshell. But perhaps I missed something.

Summarizing all of the above, I want to say the following: if you are engaged in photography, do it with soul, be creative and improve your skills. Take a responsible approach to choosing a shooting location, plan your route, study the weather...

I wish you all good luck, interesting travels and beautiful memorable shots!