Tom Clark - Digital Photography Composition For Dummies

The natural world offers all these wonderful photo opportunities, but it also provides some special challenges that you must consider to get the photo you seek. For example, you must understand composition in context of a natural setting. You also need to consider how to best capture a photo of an awesome, yet dangerous creature (or one that's harmless but skittish around humans). Finally, lighting can be an issue in certain settings, such as in a shadowy forest or on a sunny beach or desert. In the following sections, I offer tips to help you with all these challenges.

If you want to get great images of nature, spend some time in it. The perfect vantage point won't come and find you, and the eagle won't pose for you if it senses your eagerness to capture its image. Patience is a virtue that enables you to be presented with nature's beauty rather than having to search for it or force it. By spending time in an area and exploring its diversity, you'll start to notice things that you couldn't see if just passing through. You'll also get to see how the area is affected by the sun and weather at different times during the day. After you've been still for a while and the wildlife has grown to accept your presence, perhaps animals will get nearer to you and provide you with the chance to get some great images.

The natural world consists of relationships between elements. The elements consist of things like the sky, mountains, fields, meadows, water sources, rocks, trees, brush, flowers, beaches, and of course, living creatures. These natural compositional elements vary greatly in size, causing photographers to think about focusing on elements both big and small.

The basic rules of composition help you make the most of any situation with any elements. These guidelines help you determine where to place your subject in the frame and how to work with the lines and elements in a scene in order to captivate a viewer. The rules also help you decide where you should position yourself to achieve the best vantage point. After you study the rules and put them to use, everything starts to become second nature. (Chapter 5 provides plenty more information on the compositional rules.)

Creating the appropriate composition depends on what's in front of you and how you want to show it. If you know what does and doesn't look good, you can make wise decisions based on how you feel a scene could best be represented. In this section, I tell you about the three most common types of scenes in nature photography.

Expansive landscapes are those that cover large areas. They show the big picture, revealing the type of environment that you're photographing and the elements that exist in it. Figure 14-1 represents an expansive landscape scene.

50mm, 1/200 sec, f/4, 100

Figure 14-1:An expansive landscape shows a large area.

When you hike to the top of a mountain, a certain sense of accomplishment inevitably runs through your blood. To capture the feeling you get from this achievement, find the best spot to photograph the view from the mountain you've tackled. This view is a perfect example of an expansive landscape. And taking that picture is sort of like receiving a trophy for the hard work you put in to get there. With this expansive photo, you want to show as much of the scene as possible in order to emulate the experience you're having by being surrounded by open space and being able to see far into the distance. Being on top of a mountain also allows you to see over smaller mountains, causing a layering effect that provides depth in your compositions.

Some elements that may intrigue you to shoot expansive landscapes include mountains, rivers, wide-open spaces (salt flats, meadows, dunes, rolling farm fields, and so on), tropical beaches, and arrangements of trees.

When composing a landscape, try to find a perspective that shows the scene as you want it to be seen. (Chapter 8 explains perspective in greater detail.) Your perspective determines how much depth your composition has and the physical relationships between each element. Consider shooting landscapes in the early morning or late afternoon. The lighting tends to be more directional at these times, so colors seem to be enhanced. (See Chapter 10 for more information on lighting.)

Intimate landscapes cover specific details in an environment. Instead of including the entire area in the frame, an intimate landscape composition focuses on a specific element, revealing the details in it. You still get an idea of what the environment is, but you don't get the big picture as you do in an expansive landscape shot. If an expansive landscape were compared to a photo of the New York City skyline, an intimate landscape could be compared to a photo of your favorite store in the Italian Market. Figure 14-2 shows an intimate landscape.

You'll be most successful shooting intimate landscapes when you notice a specific detail that's strong enough to give meaning to an image without needing the whole environment to tell the story. For example, a rock in a stream could cause the flowing water to create an interesting pattern as it pushes past it. Or you may notice that the light is reflecting on the surface of a tree or a rock in a way that has narrative qualities.

2Smm, 15 sec, f/22, 50

Figure 14-2:An intimate landscape highlights a revealing detail, such as reflections on a rushing waterfall.

In Figure 14-2, the light was shining on the water in a way that highlighted the difference between the direct sunlight and the blue sky. Had I shot the photo with a wider lens and included more of the environment, it would have become more difficult to see what was happening in the reflections.

Keep the quality of light in mind whenever you're photographing intimate scenes outdoors. While direct sunlight works well to reveal as much detail as possible in expansive landscapes, it may create too much contrast in a more intimate scene. Similarly, if your shadows are much darker than your highlights in an intimate scene, you may lose valuable details in your exposure. Be aware of the weather forecasts and make the most out of any situation. Chapter 10 tells you more about working with sunlight.

One of the masters of landscape composition in photography was Ansel Adams (1902–1984). The work he did in Yosemite National Park is amazing and basically set the standard for landscape photographers to reach for. Through his images, he covered the big picture by capturing the landmarks that everyone knows today. As far as expansive landscapes are concerned, Yosemite belongsto Ansel Adams. In fact, many professional photographers would never think to place an image of El Capitan in their portfolios because it would only cause viewers to think of Adams when looking at it.

However, another great photographer by the name of John Sexton photographed Yosemite National Park in a way that was equally amazing and unique. The two photographers worked

and studied together, and you clearly can see that Sexton (the younger of the two) learned a lot about composition in his time with Adams.

Because the big-picture images had already been created to perfection by Adams, Sexton chose to take a more intimate approach to Yosemite's natural beauty. He concentrated on the subtle relationships among individual rocks, streams, and trees. By creating striking compositions and shooting during times with appropriate lighting. Sexton produced images that were respected and not associated with the work of Adams. You can see John Sexton's work in his book Recollections: Three Decades of Photography (Ventana). And you can viewthe images created by Ansel Adams in Yosemite at www.anseladams.com.