Landscape books

I can't find Jackie's landscape thread asking for tips....

Two books I would really recommend reading, that I have found really good are

Developing Vision and Style:A Landscape Photography Masterclass(Light and Land Series) by Joe Cornish,Charlie Waite,and David Ward


# Publisher: Aurum Press; illustrated edition edition (January 1, 2008)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 1902538498
# ISBN-13: 978-1902538495



and

Working the Light: A Landscape Photography Masterclass (light and Land Series) same authors as before

# Publisher: Aurum Press (September 1, 2006)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 1902538463
# ISBN-13: 978-1902538464

Bought them together on Amazon, and they are both interesting and inspiring Lots of wonderful advice, and really make you want to pick up your camera xxxx

I merged it with her other thread but left it in the wrong section back now!

Thank you Suzi, off to see what I can find on Amazon, have now collected so many books I am surprised I have time to take any shots.

No help with the shots I took yesterday I hope the are not now buried, still may take some more to day and I will see if I can get help with them.

Snapper, your image as a means to provide an accurate historical record to people who are familiar with the location is ok - you have achieved your objective; albeit you could perhaps consider other ways of portraying it from different viewpoints and perspectives to add interest and lift what is IMO quite a 'bland' lifeless image.

Please dont take this the wrong way; I want to try and help - but, to someone like myself who doesnt know the area there is not a great deal to hold my interest or make me want to give your image more than a cursory glance.

Here are some of my thoughts that you may choose to consider.

Outwith people who are familiar with the scene - what is the key massage you are trying to convey? What are the key features? (I didnt know it was simply the road until I read your previous post) How are you trying to portray you scene? Could you consider the season you take the picture, and would for example the same image in autumn whereby the currently dominant green of the trees be used to best advantage when the leaves change colour to a whole range of yellows, oranges, browns and golds? How about the same scene is winter following a snowfall, or hard frost? What about the time of day - early morning to capture the fresh rays of sun filtering through the trees onto the road to highlight it as a key feature? or last light to capture long shadows cast by the sun? Any of these will give lift not just to this picture - but to any landscape image; particularly one which is aesthetically featureless.

These points are simply to illustrate how when we look at an image our eyes and brain seek features to help us make sense of the scene as a whole. We subconsciously look for things like balance, contrasts, symmetry, tonal values, composition, juxtapositions and contradictions, lighting and exposure, angles and elevation, framing, etc. These are some of the features a professional would use in looking to compose an image or offer a critique of any image.

Faced with a similar scene, I would consider the following if I had to capture it:

Key message or feature - what is the key message or feature I want to communicate?
Positioning & perspective - where do I want to capture the image from, and from what angle? Do I need to capture it from eye/ground/elevated level?
Compositional rules - what are the key features in the scene that could help me promote the main focal points of impact areas? the Rule of thirds is ok for landscapes and scenery but even better, and less considered are rules like the Golden Mean, or even Fibonacci sequence rules - these are used by pros for landscape much more than basic ROT's as they actually dictate where the viewer enters the picture and then, via these compositional rules, leads the viewer's eye around the image in a predetermined way.

Others in this thread have already made mention of breaking landscapes down into foreground, middle ground, and distance - these are useful to use as a mental template - you can also add to that template left of arc, centre arc, and right of arc - this then divides the ground not only horizontally but vertically too. These are most useful for helping you mentally construct the image you want and emplacing features within it.

To quote Ansel Adams, "You dont take a good photograph, you make it".

I hope this helps.

Well I found that useful JR and appreciate the piece. That should all be going on in our heads and put very simply 'some people have the eye and some don't'. Just because you have an expensive camera doesn't buy you the artistic ability nor being able to achieve competent photographs simply following the mechanics of photography either. Useful piece, hope it's taken in the right spirit by all.

Thank you JR so the main complaint is with the composition, if that is so I should be able to work on that I feared there would be all sorts of technical things awry.

I had tried to address the foreground, mid and distant with the wall the tree and the distant house, obviously not punchy enough.

Thank you Suzi, have the suggested books and they look as if they will be of great help.

That is great hope they help xx

Is it best to set your apature high so everything is in focus or des that not matter with landcapes shots?