Successful landscape photography brings the viewer into the scene, making a two dimensional image feel three dimensional. It also tells a story, leading the eye through it, revealing more and more the further you go. There are many composition and lighting techniques that landscape photographers use to achieve these effects. One of the most powerful is the use of a wide angle lens and the careful placement of foreground, middle ground and background elements.
Ansel Adams was a pioneering master of this technique and used it in many of his famous landscapes of Yosemite and the American west. Some photographs that illustrate the foreground, middle ground, background technique include Sand Dunes, Sunrise Death Valley , Mount Williamson and White Branches, Mono Lake.
Galen Rowell’s photography has had a great impact on my work. He brought wide angle, foreground, middle ground, background technique to color photography and the 35mm format. Galen worked hard to create compelling, dynamic and dimensional compositions and to reveal the landscape in new ways. Examples of his work that exemplify the technique include Cuernos del Paine at dawn from Lago Pehoe, Valley Of Ten Peaks, and Wild Iris At Dawn.
William Neil is another one of my favorite outdoor photographers who often uses the technique in his work. I particularly like how he uses very subtle subjects and ethereal compositions to lead the eye through mysterious and somewhat abstract landscapes.
Mark Adamus is a relatively new photographer whose dynamic and powerful landscape images are pushing the fore/middle/background technique to new levels. Some examples of his work include Coast Of Wonders, Edge Of Dreams and The Reflection Tarn.
The concepts involved in taking deeply dimensional, wide angle landscapes such as these are basic and complex at the same time. They are easy to learn, but can take a lifetime to master. Here are some technique tips I find helpful.
Use a wide angle lens. While fore/middle/background photos can be made using longer focal length lenses, they have the most dimension and depth when taken with a very wide angle lens. I like to use my 16-35mm zoom. For APS format digital SLRs that have a “crop factor” an even wider lens is needed.
Find a suitable landscape. Look for exciting background and middle ground elements first, such as dramatic sky, mountains, trees, streams, or shapes and patterns in the land that lead into the distance. Then look for an interesting subject that you can get close to for the foreground, such as a flower, plant, rock, log or intimate landscape feature.
Try many different camera positions to bring the elements together in a way that draws the viewer into the image. I like to use lines, light/shadow or motion to form a connection between my foreground and background, such as the S curve of a stream or ridge, a line of trees or rocks, or shadows cast by low angle sun. Sometimes moving the camera back and forth or up and down just a few inches will completely change the relationship between the different components.
Get close to your foreground. Wide angle lenses make distant objects look even more distant. To emphasize and showcase your foreground element you need to get close, sometimes within a few feet or even inches. Setting up too far away from your foreground feature makes it fade into the middle ground and leaves your foreground empty.
Use light and shadow to create the perception of depth. Side lighting helps reveal texture and shape and gives objects a more three dimensional look than direct front lighting. Also, within a composition, using areas of light and shadow to illuminate elements of the fore, middle and background add to the perception of depth.
Use a split neutral density filter to highlight the foreground and darken the more distant objects and the sky. The viewers eye will be drawn to the lighter foreground element first before being led into through the image towards the background. The darker background will appear more distant.