Composition in landscape photography

Composition is the most important component of any visual work. And it’s not just for pictures and photography. The same rules of composition apply to virtually all fine art, from sculpture to city planning. But today we will consider only photography and landscape.

Nikon D7500 + AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140MM F/3.5-5.6G ED VR f/11, 1/125 ISO 100

The human figure in the lower left corner is balanced by the cascade of mountain ranges in the upper right corner

Forming a correct composition is first of all the way to attract viewer’s attention to important objects in the frame, to draw his sight along the whole frame from one side to the other. You’ve probably heard, seen, and read that the most important compositional rule is the rule of thirds. This rule has become so ingrained in the popular consciousness that in many cameras and smartphones developers place a grid in the viewfinder, dividing the frame into thirds horizontally and vertically. Fortunately, the new Nikon D7500 is devoid of this, and the lines in the viewfinder are only there to control the horizon. It is also possible to hear an opinion that “the rule of thirds is for losers, the real geniuses use the rule of the golden ratio”. It’s about the same, but the ratios between the lines change slightly – ⅜, 2/8, ⅜.

The popularity of the rule of thirds is easy to explain. Put the horizon here, the main subject here, and that’s it, a masterpiece. This is such a kind of magic, which allows you to almost automatically sculpt great photos. There’s just one little problem. This magic does not work.

Imagine that you decided to get a job as a top manager at a major oil and gas company, and you began to study your predecessors. And it turns out they are all blondes with blue eyes. You are also blond with blue eyes, which means you will definitely get that spot. But an interview goes by, and you are politely pointed to the door? Why is this the case, what is the reason for failure? Maybe it’s that you haven’t considered the really important criteria – work experience, education, personal qualities. You were a good fit on formal grounds, but on the much more important ones, you weren’t. So the rule of thirds is that blond hair and blue eyes. This is an attempt to squeeze the complex laws of perceptual psychology into an automatic framework. Art and psychology don’t work that way. And if suddenly the rule of thirds is working, something else is probably working.

For example, the rule of balances. It means that the object located in one part of the image should be balanced by a less contrasting, but nevertheless quite evident objects in the opposite diagonal corner. The object counterbalance should not draw attention away from the main character, which is why it must be a little faded and less contrast than the main character. By the way, this is exactly where the rule of thirds can work. But, again, it doesn’t work, even if our object is in the “golden ratio”. And what works is that our object is balanced. And it is not necessary to place the object and the balancer in thirds.

Note that in the photo above, the generally dark figure of a person against the dark background of the mountains stands out because of the contrasting light glare on the person’s face. And the opposing view on the horizon is also generally light against the darker slopes. This brings us to another important principle of composition-the rule of contrasts. The viewer first of all pays attention to the contrasting spots – light on a dark background and dark on a light one. So try to make your subjects stand out in contrast.

Nikon D7500 + AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140MM F/3.5-5.6G ED VR f/5.6, 1/1250 ISO 125

A bright white yurt stands out against a dark background and attracts maximum attention.

The yurt in the previous photo is in the central part of the frame, which supporters of the rule of thirds call the most wrong. “The main subject should never be placed in the center of the frame.”. Wrong again. The center of the frame is the most powerful point, you just need to lead your viewer to it properly. And there are a ton of ways to do that. For example, as in the photo above – to make the main object in contrast, clearly distinguishable, dominating in the frame. Also, it can be placed in a natural frame. In the previous photo, such frames are the spruces to the left and right of the yurt, with the mountainside and the river at the top and bottom.

Nikon D7500 + AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140MM F/3.5-5.6G ED VR f/7.1, 1/100 ISO 250

The light yurts clearly stand out against the dark background, and the dawn-lit mountains and their reflection are a natural frame

By the way, it is often very difficult to balance the reflection of the sun, moon and their reflections. A bright light source and its reflection creates bright spots and lines in one part of the frame and cuts it, knocking some part of the frame out of the field of view. And you need to find some obvious object to balance these spots.

Nikon D7500 + AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140MM F/3.5-5.6G ED VR

6G ED VR f/14, 0.6 sec ISO 320

Here I had to include not only the moon and its reflection, but also an accurate reflection of the landscape, as well as breaking its symmetry to create additional dynamics between the top and bottom of the frame

One of the most powerful ways to hook the viewer’s attention and guide them through the frame – lines. You’ve probably heard that the viewer reads a photo from the lower left corner to the upper right – the way one normally reads text, from right to left. But that’s not exactly true either. Any line can take the viewer’s eye. Diagonals pointing from lower right to upper left will work just as well. And even the diagonals that lead from the upper corners to the center of the frame will lead the viewer’s attention not to the top edge, but to the center of the composition.

Nikon D7500 + AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140MM F/3.5-5.6G ED VR f/14, 1/50 sec ISO 100

Diagonals can not only be formed explicitly. Notice how the lichen-covered rocks and their border with the grass form a diagonal that takes the viewer’s eye to the upper edge of the frame. Finding these rocks and diagonals is an important moment in preparation for sunset photography

Nikon D7500 + AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140MM F/3.5-5.6G ED VR f/13, 1/500, ISO 100

Here the stones form diagonals, converging from the lower corners of the frame to its center and on to the mountains

Nikon D7500 + AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140MM F/3.5-5.6G ED VR f/8, 1/250 ISO 250

The diagonal rays coming from the upper right corner of the frame lead the viewer’s eye to the center of the photo, the bright spot of the setting sun

Nikon D7500 + AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140MM F/3.5-5.6G ED VR f/9, 1/200 ISO 320

Besides straight lines in a landscape, arabesques are also great – swirling lines that draw the viewer’s eye into the frame. Once you’ve hit a curve like this the eye clings to it and won’t leave until you go all the way around it

But if diagonal lines draw the viewer’s eye, then the horizontal lines are cutting the composition. And yet, a landscape based on the repetition of horizontal lines can, like in steps, lead the viewer’s eye from the foreground to the far background.

Nikon D7500 + AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140MM F/3.5-5.6G ED VR f/11, 1/500 ISO 200

Nikon D7500 + AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140MM F/3.5-5.6G ED VR f/10, 1/320 ISO 125

Here I have described some of the most basic composition techniques that will help you break out of the “plateau of the rule of thirds” and start improving, looking for interesting angles and experimenting with them. However, it is important to understand that no matter how important it is to know the rules, it is equally important to understand and feel the composition. When you’re writing a text you don’t think about every letter, you just put them in the right order intuitively.

Composition is as much a language as it is a visual one.And it can only be mastered by practice. Watch beautiful photographs and paintings by talented artists and try to feel the harmony or, conversely, disharmony in them. And then you won’t need a grid with some contrived thirds and sections in your viewfinder.