Manage ‘field’ patterns

Discover how to shoot landscape scenes with repeating features to maximise the feeling of depth and continuity.

The sense of the field of detail extending beyond the frame is a powerful tool as it encourages the viewer to explore the image and adds to the immersive experience.

Landscape scenes with carpets of flowers or brightly coloured plants are a popular subject for outdoor photographers. While the lower portion of woodland scenes often need to be managed with care, or on occasion excluded entirely due to numerous distractions, those with flower carpets are full of depth and pleasing balance.

The sense of the field of detail extending beyond the frame is a powerful tool as it encourages the viewer to explore the image and adds to the immersive experience. It helps our audience to feel as if they are within the scene themselves, which is ultimately the goal of any photograph we take.

There are some challenges to address, however, namely the perspective required to complement the spatial distribution of the high-frequency flower detail. While it may be tempting to use the widest focal length available, this can stretch the foreground to reveal too much space in between each flower head. This breaks the ‘endless’ illusion and disrupts the balance. Similarly, camera height can impact the unbroken appearance of the natural carpet, as elevation controls the angle at which we see each flower.

In this tutorial we explore how best to capture a floral woodland scene by controlling distracting extraneous detail, using only camera position, lens pitch and focal length.

1

FIND A SCENE Look for a location where there is a relatively flat area of terrain covered by bright foliage. Ideally, have a flatter area in the foreground and ascending ground in the distance to show multiple angles.

2

SELECT FOCAL LENGTH Start wide, and zoom in until there is sufficient compression. Aim for a focal length between 20mm and 70mm (in full-frame terms) to retain the environment while preventing foreground stretching.

3

ALTER CAMERA HEIGHT Adjust the tripod to set the optimal camera elevation. Aim to avoid the average standing level, while preventing much of the flower stems from becoming visible in the extreme foreground.

4

VARY PITCH Alter the angle of the lens to the horizon. Pitching down will include more of the foreground but may reveal more stem. Pitching up will limit foreground but bring flowers closer together, reducing ‘breaks’.

5

EXPERIMENT WITH SUBJECT DISTANCE Change the distance between the camera and foreground flowers, and vary the focal length. This will help to find the best balance of environment and subject compression.

6

CHANGE POSITION Sometimes by simply changing your choice of shooting position you can control how your field of detail seems to spread across the frame. Aim for an even distribution of flowers/plants, with no breaks.

BEFORE After NEAR AND FAR The optimal choice of angle, elevation and focal length gives the sensation of the carpet of wild garlic continuing forever, producing depth in the two-dimensional frame. Inset DISRUPTED CONTINUITY While this is a peaceful scene, the area of visible ground at the bottom of the frame breaks the sense of a continuous carpet of white flowers.