Include eye-catching foreground interest
Strengthen your landscape compositions by including some elements in the foreground of your images that will be of intrinsic interest
1 Now add some interest
It might seem obvious, but placing something of interest in the foreground of your image really does work, catching the viewer’s eye and leading it on through the frame. Shots without foreground interest are very boring.
By simply lowering the viewpoint and including something in the foreground, negative space can be filled, and the resulting photograph will be far more pleasing.
2 Make water look more interesting
When shooting large areas of water, you can create the kind of soft, milky effect used by landscape pros, simply by slowing your shutter speed (creating a longer exposure).
This is a great way of illustrating movement in water – whether you’re shooting the sea, waterfalls or fast-moving rivers – but also in dramatic overhead clouds on a windy day. It’s this kind of technique that elevates images from simple to stunning.
3 Don’t be afraid to use negative space
We’ve mentioned the term negative space, and despite it sounding like a bad thing – and in some cases it is – there are times when it can be used to create an effective, minimal result. In this monochrome seascape, for example, we’ve created movement and atmosphere by dragging the camera across as we opened the shutter. This can work particularly well in a coastal location such as this, where you are trying to capture a large open space.
4 Landscape versus portrait
In landscape photography, it’s easy to get into the habit of shooting everything in a landscape orientation; that is, with your camera in its normal shooting position. However, in some situations, you’ll get better, stronger results simply by turning your camera to a portrait orientation, as shown (right). Now you can capture an entirely different view of a scene, emphasising vertical lines and features that lead the eye into the image.