About landscape photography. Coursework: Photographing landscape photography

Landscape photography has always attracted 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 shots, but also learn about what is important in landscape photography, what beginner photographers should consider.

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1. Shooting a landscape is perhaps the first thing every novice photographer takes up. It seems: what could be easier? Find a picturesque place, wait for good weather - and you can click the shutter as much as you like. Blue sky, green grass - why not a wonderful landscape? But when a certain professional level is reached, when the photographer finally develops the ability to critically evaluate his own pictures, these first inept shots, if not destroyed, then at least hide away from prying eyes.

3. One can only be surprised at how common mistakes beginners make 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 knows the feeling when, after a trip to wonderful places, instead of amazing landscapes in the pictures, only dull, nondescript copies of what was actually presented to the eyes are visible in the pictures.

5. And the whole secret is that even the most modern photographic equipment is not able to perceive and display 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 fully reflect the scale of space.

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

7. The way a photograph will look depends largely on various physical phenomena taking place in environment, which must be taken into account when shooting a landscape.

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, moreover, the real space is three-dimensional. That is why often non-professional landscapes look "flat" and boring.

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

10. Contrary to popular belief, a clear sunny day is not the most the best time for landscape photography. Too bright light, falling into the camera lens, does not allow to convey the full variety and saturation of shades, "illuminating" them and turning them into solid white spots.

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

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

14. In order to properly shoot the landscape, you must definitely use a tripod. It fixes the camera and does not allow it even the slightest movement. Thus, the pictures will be as clear as possible without any blurring.

15. Another common mistake among beginners is the "boring" sky. Even a rich blue color in most pictures 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. It seems to beginners that this way the picture will turn out to be more complete and interesting. In fact, often the opposite is true.

17. Too much detail, or empty parts of the frame create a negative impression.

18. In landscape photography, the correct composition of the frame, the presence of focal points and leading lines is very important. Therefore, the photographer needs to carefully choose the most suitable shooting point and frame the shot very accurately 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 picture a special aura.

19. The landscape should not only be beautiful, but also something 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 properly shoot the landscape, you must definitely use a tripod. It fixes the camera and does not allow it even the slightest movement. Thus, our pictures will be as clear as possible without any blurring.

21. Special attention, point to the horizon when shooting landscapes. Do not do it major mistake beginner photographers - place the horizon in the center. This will split the photo in half, and it will not look like a single whole. What to focus on is up to you.

22. If the sky looks more attractive, make two thirds of the sky and one third of the earth or water. If a Bottom part pictures looks better, then accordingly, it will take most snapshot.

24. To get good shots, it is important to choose a lens for shooting landscapes. Long lenses narrow the perspective, while wide-angle lenses 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 pictures of landscapes. After a thunderstorm, the sky can be painted in the most incredible shades, you can get a very unusual photo.

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

30. If you want to photograph a forest, then try not to get the earth into the frame. She often looks in the best way and can ruin a great photo. Better focus on the foliage of the trees, and if you can photograph the sun's rays breaking through the branches, you can get a great photo.

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

Of course, the landscape, as a genre, appeared long before the invention of photography - in painting. And honed for centuries artistic means scenery images formed series necessary conditions mandatory for this genre of photography. Linear perspective , tonal (air) perspective, optical perspective,frame composition , light space and Colour - these are the main characteristics of landscape photography, capable of not only very accurately conveying the state of the surrounding nature in a certain moment time, but also to allocate semantic center image without the use of additional manipulative 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 staffing - an element of the landscape that exists to enliven the image and plays a secondary role in this image.

Landscape photography is essentially documentary photography about nature. According to the type of space depicted, landscape photography can be terrestrial, water, astronomical and meteorological. Terrestrial 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 specification- 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, the landscape can be, by analogy with music, minor or major. Tragic or solemn. Dull or cheerful. In solving this problem, the photographer comes to the rescue color theory, namely one of its sections - color psychology. Knowing what colors and how they affect the mind of the viewer, the photographer can adjust composition color balance landscape to achieve a specific result. At the same time, in a landscape, not always cold shades can create an atmosphere of hostility, and warm ones can create friendliness. Small colored vegetation against the background of black thunderclouds looks defenseless, and the picture as a whole causes a feeling of anxiety, while the cold Elbrus causes awe and delight with its grandeur.

Of course, several of the listed natural spaces and states can easily overlap in one image at the same time, but in this case it will be important for a landscape photographer to decide what exactly in this image is semantic center, and select this center using visual means — perspectives, 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. It is to the category of aesthetic perception that landscape photography belongs. plein air- truthful transmission in the image of nature of the colorful richness of color changes in vivo 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 features artistic landscape photography.

As well as 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 a photographic landscape that it is most difficult to convey certain atmospheric phenomena with great accuracy. How to show desert pictures strong wind? How can mountain giants be depicted more majestically? It is in these cases that the landscape photographer is saved by knowledge about the dynamics of the frame, the point of shooting and the angle.

Widespread in our time travel landscape photography. Not being essentially a separate genre, travel 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 and staging tricks, it does not depend on the mood of the photo model and the preferences of the customer. It depends on the environment and weather conditions. And in this sense landscape photography unique. Whether it is a park or an alley within the city, or maybe a mountain range or a quiet expanse of a lake outside it - wherever you are, on vacation or on a business trip, in your country or abroad, it is everywhere - nature is amazing a natural space capable of changing form, content and color every minute, from day to day, all year round, for thousands of years... And even if a landscape photograph taken by you 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 "locality") - 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 “natural” photo landscape that we are used to, there is also an “urban” one, which consists in reflecting the diversity of urban life with roads and cars, buildings and sidewalks.

There is also an "industrial" landscape - it includes photographs containing pictures of construction sites, factories, industrial enterprises.

Sometimes they speak of a "rural" landscape, the purpose of which is to show rural life in a photograph: 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 supplementing all this with surrounding colors, lighting, the play of the wind, scale and sense of time, capturing and capturing one single, most complete and vivid 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 picture, a person must love and understand nature very much, be able to see beauty in it, be observant and attentive.

In all landscapes, regardless of what they depict, 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, painted with the rays of the setting or dawn sun - allows you to shoot a variety of emotionally charged photographs from the same single place.

No less favorite for shooting landscapes and water - rivers, seas, lakes. Of particular interest is the dark texture of the water, which conveys various moods; water colored with "sunny" or "lunar" paths can give the viewer the feeling of night or evening, and with different lighting conditions, water bodies 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 mountain ranges, clean air and the natural play of light and shadows.

It also happens that there are several depth plans in the picture. So, for example, on a sunny day, the forest may look like just 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 assume that the most favorable for shooting is a sunny day. In cloudy weather, fog, snow or rain you can find a lot of 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 transmitted space and its scale, photographers often place arches or buildings, trees or even people and animals in the foreground so that the viewer has a comparison of near and far objects.

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

• a person should remain against the backdrop of nature, without attracting the main attention;
• a person should enliven the landscape, bring something important and necessary to it, and not be an extra object;
• in both cases, a person should not distract from the beauty of the surrounding nature and not be a 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 gorgeous views that give rise to feelings of sadness or happiness, when captured by a camera, become ordinary and boring pictures! A landscape photographer must possess and develop a taste and sense of beauty. In addition to his love of nature, he will need a lot of skills to take good landscape photos. The laws of composition and knowledge of the features of light are by no means the key to the success of a good landscape shot. For a city dweller, landscape photography can be a great hobby that brings a change of scenery, relaxation and the joy of creativity. Admire the photos of the section, look into the section " Photography Lessons", view the work 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 shoots nature, landscapes and abandoned places. Alex travels around the country in search of interesting objects left by people. He uses a Sony A7RII camera and a DJI Mavic 2 Pro.

Before this post, I only wrote about travel, but today I will break the tradition and share with the readers of LiveJournal a small article about shooting landscapes, which I wrote for one of the photo magazines.
I did not explain in detail all the nuances and load photo terms, therefore plain language explained what aspects need to be taken into account in the process of shooting and in preparation for it.

The landscape theme is closest to me, so I want to talk about shooting in this genre in my article.
I must say right away that I have never studied this craft anywhere, I do not have a diploma of a graduate of a photography school. Everything came by itself. I bought my first DSLR three and a half years ago and still use it today. During this time, I managed to take several dozen good shots and write more than 50 photo essays. Someone even thinks that I can shoot masterpieces, but from the outside, you probably know better.

Unfortunately, I don’t have so many opportunities and free time to travel yet, but at the first opportunity I try to break out of the web of everyday life somewhere far away from the city into nature, taking my camera with me. First of all, I'm going to relax my soul, unload emotionally and be distracted. I have no thoughts in my head to shoot a masterpiece at all costs, rather, on the contrary, it seems to me that before that I had already given out the maximum of my capabilities and there will never be a better shot than before.
Very often we travel with the whole family or with friends...

Childhood spent in the summer in the countryside, apparently, left an imprint in my mind, so I shoot many of my landscapes in the Russian outback. I really like the greatness and diversity of Russian nature, the monuments of wooden architecture of extraordinary beauty, remote and half-abandoned villages and rickety huts and fences familiar to every Russian person ...
These pictures really impress me!

Professionals, on the other hand, believe that the "landscape" genre does not quite fit many of my photographs: some sites, as well as the organizers of most photo contests, define my pictures in the "architecture" or " cultural heritage". But I photograph what is close to me and pleases 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 is it filmed?" I can talk long and hard, but in the format of this publication, I would like to briefly go over the main points that allow me to take good photos.

Getting ready to shoot

I did not take a single more or less decent shot by accident. All my travels and short outings are well planned and prepared...
The most important aspect in landscape photography, I think, is the choice of shooting location (the so-called location). You can take as many photos as you like. beautiful view to the park from the window, trample the shore of a nearby lake in search of the perfect shot, or shoot a sunset near the nearest grove. You may be able to make a few good photos, but the most beautiful work you will only receive by moving through time and space.

AT school years I was seriously involved in orienteering, participated in all-Russian and international competitions, and along the way was also 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 of photography.
The current possibilities of the Internet are truly limitless, so all ideas are born after studying information from the worldwide network.

On Google maps, Google Earth, Wikimapia, Panoramio (dead long live) - I look at photos and unique places from satellites. On many roads, by the way, in Google maps you can "ride" in a virtual machine and preview the surroundings in advance. I look for interesting notes and articles on popular sites for photographers, travel forums, as well as in networks. There is a lot of information about the monuments of wooden architecture on the Sobory.ru website. Separately, I would like to mention 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 best route.

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

8

Choosing the Time to Shoot

This is the second point I would like to talk about. I take most of my shots during the so-called "regime" time: about an hour after dawn and an hour before sunset. Soft and warm light gives the image richness and saturation of colors and details the texture of objects. Transitions between bright and dark areas are smoother.
In addition, in the morning and (rarely) evening hours, there is a high probability of fogs forming, which emphasize the depth of the image, beautifully scatter 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-sunset, and then, focusing on the sides of the horizon, I superimpose the direction of movement of the luminary on the map.
And, of course, the most important thing is the weather.
When the chosen shooting point is close, it is enough just to look out the window and at the promises of weather forecasters on the phone. And if it takes a long time to travel, then I get acquainted with the forecast from at least three sources and look at the proposed map of the movement of atmospheric fronts. It helps to correct the route right in the direction of travel.
After analyzing the above points, I already have a clear timetable in my head and approximate pictures that will subsequently appear on the matrix of my camera. I must say that almost always it turns out to carry out the plan, but in some places you have to return again ...

Technical component

I shoot with Sony A65 and three lenses: Sony CZ16-80, Minolta 70-300, Samyang 8mm. There is also a portrait fix Sony SAL-50F18.
The first lens is universal, I shoot about 80% of all frames with it. It has excellent sharpness and color reproduction.
I mainly take landscape shots on a aperture covered up 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 cover the aperture and a little more.
I record the frame on a memory card in jpg and raw format, and I need the second one only for safety net, if I suddenly have to draw out shadows or lights. From the shadows, information is restored much better than from the overexposed areas, so most often I shoot the landscape with underexposure.

Forgive me, many photographers, but I rarely use a tripod. It is clear that at night, in low light, etc. conditions without it anywhere. But during regime hours, the light changes rapidly and, as a rule, it is enough for me. Sometimes you even have to run from one shooting point to another in order not to miss the moment. But I love to run and extra charging never hurts :) The 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 do with my hands.

About panorama shooting

I do some of my work in panoramic technique - I stitch together several frames taken from one point with an overlay. Such pictures in the final version look like quite ordinary ones. And the point here is not at all the desire to shoot scenes for posters or get transcendent pixels, just 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 being in the frame, and, of course, gives wider coverage.

I really like photos with an interesting foreground, so I try to start building a frame (be it a panorama or a single shot) from it. Stones, flowers, leaves, etc. can be used as the foreground. If there is nothing to catch the eye, you can improvise by dragging, for example, some snag.

Treatment

I post-process the frames in Photoshop Ps5. I mainly correct the shadows-lights, contrast, saturation, apply filters and sometimes the technology of expanding the dynamic range of the image (HDR). I do not welcome photo collages. In Photoshop, I also stitch panoramas, mostly in automatic mode. Hands finalizing inconsistencies and geometry.
It should be noted that the use of a photo editor allows you to improve the frame, but the source must be of high quality. If the picture frankly did not work out, then no editor will do anything good 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 what could have been done better.
Here, in a nutshell, is all. But perhaps I missed something.

Summarizing all of the above, I want to say the following: if you are into photography, do it with soul, be creative and improve your skills. Choose your location responsibly, plan your route, study the weather…

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