You plan, prepare, watch the weather, get up super early, hike in and finally make it to that phenomenal vista to witness and photograph sunrise and it’s just incredible. You take countless images and relish the fact that you have some amazing material to work on when you get back to the computer. How many times have you come back and looked at your images and been disappointed.
“That isn’t what I saw!”
One of the most important elements of composition to creating a visually inspiring image of a scene is depth within that scene. How can you best illustrate depth? The easiest way is to find and use foreground, mid ground and background. If you are photographing a vista then foreground interest is usually lacking. Look for anything that will help frame the scene and allow the viewer to perceive the depth in that scene. Flowers, rocks, flowing water or any other element can be used as an interesting foreground.
A great technique to boost the idea of depth in a scene is to use multiple objects that the viewer will perceive as similar in size. Rocks, trees, fence lines, leading lines of any kind, anything to show the three dimensional nature of the scene. In the following image of Maroon Bells, I’ve used numerous features to show the depth of the scene. The rocks, trees even the water and ridge lines help to lead the eye into the scene and toward the background creating depth.
Once you’ve selected your elements get close to that foreground, especially if you are using a super wide angle lens. It will really help to accentuate that item and give your image more depth.
This was captured on the last day of the Blue Ridge Parkway Summer Workshop, Tommy and I climbed up Beacon Heights with our group to watch the sunrise from this immense rock. All of our spots were excellent but this one I enjoyed the most. We welcomed the sun and watched as the hills revealed what they had hidden. We had some wonderful clouds moving from behind Grandfather Mountain and over the ridges and it was calm and peaceful as we welcomed another glorious day.
Take a look at the following two images to see how close I got to that rock and how I setup this composition. Thanks Tommy for the behind the scenes images.
Are you interested in joining us on our next workshop adventure? Click here to see all the details.
What’s the most interesting foreground element you’ve ever used to create your images? Let me know in the comments below.
