How to choose the right focus in landscape photography composition?

When it comes to landscape photography, we should consider what we want the audience to pay attention to. It sounds simple, but how do we do it? Photographers may not be able to take care of many details when watching the scene. So, here are some tips for choosing the focus, so that you can choose your favorite shooting method at any time.

First, add the interesting front attractions.

Landscape photography is usually about broad vision, broad sky ... As photographers, we are very concerned about the background of photos. Foreground is usually used to add space to our panorama, but it is not the only way to use foreground in landscape images.

By combining photos with foreground points of interest, the dynamics of photos will change immediately and will not be separated from the background scenery at all. Even the simple ripples of stones thrown into the pond bring more fun to the prospect.

Second, use foreground interest points to compose the scene.

This is similar to the previous suggestion, but it can be simpler according to the scenario discussed. For the foreground frame, we want to use elements that occupy most or all the edges to increase the interest of the foreground.

We can use trees on both sides of the clear road and the road itself to create a landscape, but by using branches and leaves to compose along the top, the photographer creates a strong forest atmosphere for the audience. We are not looking at the forest, but we feel that we are looking outside.

Third, the golden ratio.

Because this is an article about composition, it is almost impossible not to mention the golden ratio. Just like the dichotomy, this is a technique that has been practiced for a long time. The idea is to guide your subject's eyes along most of the imaginary tracks shown here. We want our interests to be as close as possible to the spiral, and the main theme or action point occurs on the spiral. The result is a pleasant photo and a certain sense of action.

If we flip the spiral pattern from above, we can clearly see that this principle is at work. The broken foam waves on the coastline make the viewer's eyes trace to the intersection of clouds and cross the sky, and then we tend to enter directly from there. Suppose the photographer composes a picture without the golden ratio focus, but leaves the sun in the middle of the picture and the waves pass directly through. Compared with this more subtle composite image, it looks flat and typical.

Fourth, raise or lower your horizons.

When composing, please consider the position of the horizon, which involves another standard component dichotomy of photographic composition. By improving our horizons, we can pay more attention to the prospects and make most or the whole area a point of interest.

Alternatively, we can weaken the foreground by aligning the horizon along the lower horizontal line or lower horizontal line of the triangular mesh. This enables the background to jump in front of us without competing for attention, which is especially effective in synthesizing images focused on the sky. Many modern interchangeable lens cameras have a triangular mesh, which can be selected as

The LCD or EVF option can also be built directly into the optical viewfinder.

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Composition plays an important role in landscape photography, which is sometimes overlooked. If we only consider the beauty of the scene, we may compose it in a way that actually takes it away. On the contrary, if we make use of our knowledge of composition, we can take an ideal photo effortlessly.