Theme and structure analysis in landscape photography

In landscape photography, I believe you must have met such a master, that is, the same scenery. Why do some people just grasp the unpredictable moment? Is it good luck? Or is it a special favor from heaven? In fact, if you want to take good scenery photography and prepare equipment, you should also know the shooting theme to be presented, and then cut into the alternate use of composition, perspective, foreground, middle scene and background in the picture to observe the dynamic elements in the shooting environment. When the time is ripe, combine these elements together to bring out the stunning scenery with great personal characteristics! I'll take you to get to know it.

Theme selection and composition analysis in landscape photography

The subject matter of landscape photography is very extensive. In addition to famous mountains and rivers, forest Yuan Ye and places of interest, urban scenery, industrial and mining scenery, night scenes, rural scenery, lakeside park and all natural scenery belong to the category of scenery. Taking landscape photos is the same as other content. Before shooting, you must first determine the theme of the scene, and then consider how to express the theme. In this way, the central content in the photo can express the author's thoughts and intentions. Any photo without central content, no matter how good the light is, no matter how beautiful the composition is, no matter how many layers and bright colors are, will fail. Therefore, landscape works need rules and laws as well as writing articles. The light, composition, gradation and tone in a photo are all ways to express the content, and cannot be used as the purpose of determining the picture.

When choosing the theme of each kind of landscape photography, we should fully understand the scenery in advance and deeply understand its various characteristics and conditions. For example, when shooting city scenery, each city has its own different contents and characteristics, which are newly built, which are historic ancient buildings, which parks are the most beautiful, which roads are the widest, which tall buildings are crowded, when it is the most lively, when the light is the most suitable, and so on. All this must be observed and understood in detail before we can choose a better subject as our shooting theme, and determine the applied light and lens angle of each scenic spot.

▲ Shoot the Jinding of Emei Mountain. The jinding of Emei Mountain should be shot before sunrise, so that all the moments covered by clouds can be included in the lens.

▲ Shoot the mall. When shooting a city, it is necessary to determine which aspect of the city to show. If it is a busy area, it is a good strategy to choose a densely populated area.

Angle of view and angle

A perfect landscape photo should be set off by other objects besides the main scenery of the theme. In photographic terminology, the main scenery and the objects to be set off are called the main body and the lining. There are primary and secondary objects, so we should arrange them properly on the screen. Generally, the subject is arranged in an important and obvious position on the screen, and the lining is only located in the upper and lower or left and right parts of the whole screen.

Scenery with prominent buildings as the scene target should take buildings as the main body, and some scenes have more than one main body, which can even occupy the whole picture. When shooting this kind of scenery, we must first decide the position it should occupy on the screen, then decide the number of shots, and then choose the shooting angle.

▲ Xidi archway. Because of the large number, photographers need to choose the angle carefully when arranging the composition.

There are many photos of natural scenery without buildings. Because it has no fixed scenery target, the range of natural scenery is relatively wide, and the desirable shooting position is also flexible. In a natural scene without a fixed subject target, the scene range and shooting angle should be determined according to the natural conditions of the scene and the ideal sunlight. For example, the landscape of Guilin must have mountains and water. Should the mountain be the main body or the water be the main body? This depends on the scene. If it is a mountain landscape with rivers nearby and mountains far away, the river should be the main body; On the contrary, the mountain should be the main body.