Landscape is one of the classic areas of photography with a tradition reaching back to the beginnings of photography itself. The subjects are familiar and accessible. They are all around us, and most obvious scenic views are now cataloged tourist attractions with established viewpoints. Landscapes are accessible in a different sense also: they are permanent fixtures, and all that a photographer needs to do is get there with a camera. And, for simple shots, there are no particular technical difficulties.
What has attracted so many photographers to shooting landscapes is that, given this easy accessibility, the subjects are rich and diverse and can be viewed and interpreted in so many ways. However well photographed a particular landscape, there is nearly always an opportunity to do something new with it. Personal interpretation is at the heart of good landscape photography. (Show Photo)
There can be outstanding differences between an ordinary snapshot taken without thought, and the finest creative landscape images. Many casually conceived photographs of interesting views that originally stimulated the photographer, turn out to be disappointing images, failing to capture the essence of the scene. Often this is precisely because landscapes are such familiar, accessible subjects. Many photographers do not put a great deal of effort into a shot, believing that the subject itself will somehow carry the picture through. In reality, to lift a landscape photograph out of the ordinary requires considerable perception and technique. (Show Photo)
Responding To The Landscape
Most people react to seeing a landscape in an intuitive way. Without trying to pinpoint the elements that appeal to them, they form an overall impression, the visual components of which may be only one part. The wind, the sounds, the smells, the relationship to distant mountains to nearby rocks - all these things are the landscape, but the task of the photographer is to isolate the important aspects and convey them in a purely visual manner. A casual snapshot usually fails in this. Apart from any other faults, it may include too much in the frame, cluttering up the image, or it may exclude elements that forethought would have indicated were crucial. (Show Photo)
The first step, then, is to decide precisely what it is about a particular landscape that characterizes it, and at the same time to define the nature of the photographer's subjective impression. It may be the inherent spectacle and drama of a grand view or it may be an unusual play of light and shade on a more modest corner of a landscape. It could be the lushness of fields and copses in summer, or the transience of a spring shower over a desert. In most cases the scene is not going to change in the next few minutes, so it is worth taking time to think.
35mm Landscapes
The 35mm format's contribution to landscape photography is freedom of movement and speed of working. These qualities, which are further enhanced by the modern, automatic camera, used well, can bring a vitality sometimes lacking in the more traditional, studied approach of medium-format and large-format photography. Two examples of this are backpacking, much easier on difficult trails with smaller, lighter equipment, and the ability to snatch brief changes in lighting at a few seconds' notice. Another attribute of the 35mm camera that allows a unique type of image is the range of very long-focus lenses available. By virtue of the small size of the format, lenses that produce images magnified by 15 or 20x are practical. The result, as described in more detail below, is a compression of perspective that can make unfamiliar juxtapositions.
Style And Approach
There is a danger, in categorizing styles of landscape photography, of suggesting too many limits. There is so much room for personal statement that the range of choices here is just outlined. At opposite extremes, a landscape photograph can be representational or abstract. A representational photograph attempts a faithful, informative evocation of the subject. An abstract approach selects strong graphic elements from the landscape, and tends to be more subjective. In the past, photography, and particularly landscape photography, has drawn heavily on the traditions of painting, but a great deal of modern work has explored the medium's own potential.
Character From The Lens
In landscape photography, wide-angle lenses enable a type of image that works on the relationship between nearby objects and the distance, such as between ripples in a sand dune and a desert horizon. This "near-far" treatment (so called by Ansel Adams, one of the greatest landscape photographers) involves the viewer in the scene, and can bring a sense of completeness to the landscape image. By using a wide-angle lens and a low viewpoint, the photographer can encompass several of the different scales that exist in a landscape, from detail to the topography. This kind of view usually calls for great depth of field, and even though this is inherently good in a wide-angle lens, a small aperture and slow shutter speed are normal. (Show Photo)
By contrast, a telephoto lens can be used to isolate given elements, and will compress perspective, making distant features more dominant in relation to nearer objects. It can give a more remote, detached feeling, and is often excellent for selecting items to give abstract patterns. The scale at which different parts of a view are imaged is unusual for the eye, and so can bring a dramatic element to the picture. Really long-focus lenses - 400mm and more - are practical only for 35mm cameras, for reasons of size and bulk, making the extreme type of this image unique to the format.
Light
The variety in the treatment of landscapes comes principally from the daily and seasonal changes in lighting. Even one viewpoint can provide infinite picture possibilities, depending on the weather, time of day, and season of the year. Usually, though, the photographer has a limited choice in this respect; few people can afford the time to make repeated visits to a location in order to capture just the right moment. Nevertheless, within the constraints, it helps to anticipate the appearance of a scene at different times, and then try to work to the preferred one.
Sunrise and sunset are often good times of day, giving a wide variety of lighting conditions in just one or two hours, often with attractive sky colors and low-angled lighting to show up textures. The flat lighting of a high midday sun is often hard to cope with adequately, and if it works well at all it is usually with scenes that have inherently strong shapes, tones or colors.
Dull, overcast skies limit the choices in another way, and unless the clouds are dark and stormy enough to look interesting, it is difficult to work a relationship between sky and ground into the picture. Usually, and especially with a color transparency film, which has relatively little latitude, the contrast between sky and land is too great to record both at an acceptable exposure. A graduated filter over the lens, or print shading in the darkroom, may compensate for this extreme contrast. Nevertheless, the diffuse lighting from an overcast sky can give good, saturated color and clarify many details, such as in vegetation, that would be too confusing in bright sunlight.
Extremes Of Weather
Bad weather may be immensely frustrating to a photographer who can well imagine how things would appear at a better time, but adverse conditions provide a challenge and an opportunity for unusual and original images (after all, driving hail or a dust storm are precisely the conditions that cause most photographers to pack up and leave). Also, such conditions are an essential element in the profile of a landscape.
Rain, hail, snow and dust show the landscape in a less hospitable light, and for anyone searching for an original treatment of a well-known scene, they offer good possibilities. The scene can change constantly and rapidly under these conditions, and often fast reactions are needed. Here, once again, the 35mm automatic camera comes into its own. The one essential precaution is to protect the equipment.
Extremes Of Place
Less hospitable environments, such as mountains, deserts and rainforests, are the least accessible, yet they offer the most dramatic forms. In particular, an absence of people in such places gives more scope. To anyone seriously interested in landscape photography, a visit to one of these regions is essential, and can give a concentrated opportunity to develop ideas. Each has its special photographic problems, and all of them, as potentially harsh environments, need to be approached with commonsense and caution.
Mountains: The mountain photographer does not have to be a mountaineer, but without rock and ice-climbing skills, many shots will inevitably be missed. Ultraviolet scattering at high altitudes is considerable and so a strong UV filter is essential, particularly with telephoto lenses. The physical difficulties of mountaineering make it important to carry the minimum of equipment. Low temperatures shorten battery life considerably- a crucial matter for electronic cameras.
Deserts: Deserts offer different problems, chiefly dust and heat. Use a clear lens filter to protect the lens, and keep equipment in a well-sealed case when not needed - and keep this in the shade as much as possible. Desert daytime temperatures in summer in the Southwest, for example, regularly exceed 110 deg.F, and the black finish on most cameras makes them absorb heat very quickly. This can weaken the lens cement and alter the sensitivity of the film.
Although dunes are not quite as typical of desert landscapes as many people imagine, they make strong, graphic images in almost any lighting conditions, and particularly under low-angled sunlight, which throws into relief the texture of ripples and the patterns of dune crests.
Rainforests: Rainforest, mainly in tropical South America and some parts of Asia and Africa, forms one of the least explored parts of the planet, and for this reason alone offers exciting landscape possibilities. Nevertheless, it is not without difficulties for photography. Primary forest is characterized by dense stands of tall hardwood trees, and typically offers only limited views and very low light levels. In the atmosphere of cathedral gloom, which can be expressive if captured well, long exposures and a tripod are nearly always essential. Open views are generally possible only at the margins of the forest, and the most common location for this is the edges of river banks.
The combination of heat and high humidity, typical of a rainforest, is particularly damaging to film and equipment. Make regular inspections of equipment for green mold, and examine lenses in particular for a rash of small spots that may be the first indication of a fungus that, if not removed, will etch in to the surface of the glass and ruin the lens. As in deserts, an airtight camera case is important, and a desiccating agent such as crystals of silica gel should be packed with the cameras. Once the silica gel has absorbed as much moisture as it can (the most useful type changes color to indicate this), it can be reactivated by being dried in an oven or over a fire.
