What makes a landscape scene stand out?

John's Family Conservatory near Kelowna, BC.

Framing, rule of thirds, lines, foreground and background subjects of interest - these are all things that can be used to create attractive landscapes.  I try not to approach photography from a formulaic point of view, but rather an artistic one keeping in mind the fundamentals of composition.  I like the above photo because much of what I just said is somewhat evident.  Have a look at the image below - it details areas that help to make it an attractive image.

1)  Rule of thirds - The bridge is both at a thirds position and a line along the upper thirds.  The city is exactly the same.  The large erratic rock is in the lower right thirds.  Also, the center of the image is open, this helps the eye to move around the photo instead of being fixed centrally.

2)  Framing - The framing here is a little different from most of my other work, but it is just as effective.  The higher hills act as a frame with the lowering slopes drawing your eyes into the image.  The tree (left) and the bush (lower center) also draw your eye inward.

3)  Strong backgrounds and foregrounds are important in creating an effective photo.  I usually like to have only one strong foreground with a variety of attractive background subjects; the foreground should not overwhelm the background nor should it be too small.  You can manage the ratio by playing with focal length and your position relative to the front object.

4)  Lines - The lines in this shot are a bit wispy, except for the receding lake, but are still effective.  The bridge is relatively strong as a line and its position in the upper thirds helps to cement its importance.

All in all, I like this shot.  I used my iPhone 15 to create it.  I also set the image to raw (DNG file) to create the quality I wanted.  In order to bring the background up relative to the foreground, I used the 3x camera which had a relative focal length of 77 mm.  It was just about perfect as it allowed me to use both hummocks as a frame and the slopes to frame the lake.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

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