5 Ways To Improve Your Landscape Composition

Lee Frost shows you how to transform your scenic shots from picture-postcard snaps into photographic works of art

- Lee Frost

If light is the raw material of photography, composition is the glue that holds everything together. For a landscape photograph to be considered truly great, these two powerful elements must work together with equal force, to provide stability and equilibrium. If one fails, both fail.

In practice, composition isn’t a particularly difficult concept to grasp. Essentially, all you’re doing is arranging the different elements of a scene in your camera’s viewfinder so that they form a visually pleasing whole. A successful composition will be balanced and interesting to look at, and should lead the viewer’s eye around the frame, effortlessly taking in all the important elements within it.

To help us do this, there are various aids and tricks available. The ‘rule of thirds’ is a classic and effective compositional tool, while natural or man-made lines can be used to lead the eye around an image, and foreground interest adds depth and scale. Colour has great power, helping to highlight elements so they dominate the composition or influence the mood of the image. Lens choice allows us to control what appears in the frame and how perspective is recorded, while viewpoint changes the relationship between elements in a scene.

Ultimately though, the most powerful tools at your disposal are your eyes. By using them, and by thinking about what you’re doing, your compositional skills will improve.

1 CREATE BALANCE

A fundamental principle of good landscape photography is creating balanced compositions. Follow the age-old rule of thirds and you won’t go far wrong