Landscape Photography

A new genre of landscape art, exploring the natural beauty of the world through camera has developed over the years - popularly referred as landscape photography.

This form of photography virtually encompasses every aspect of landforms, weather, and ambient light. It is all about capturing the essence of the scene.

Typically, people consider landscape photography, as all about Mother Nature, however this is not the truth. It also includes urban landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes and others depending on requirements. Technically there are wide aspects to be discovered in landscape photography.

http://flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/352382915/

You would discover most people assuming that landscape photography is far easier than other kinds and styles of photography. The reason being there would be nobody to instruct you on the subject and you can chose your convenient angle to shoot. Well, things are not always as easy as it seems.

The best way to evoke the mood with your photograph is to compose your image emphasizing on the subject. Make use of different lenses, different lighting (sunset, moonlight, harsh mid-day sun), and different compositions, which would support a particular mood. Now, if you have thought of a barren desert, consider shooting with polarizing filters at mid-day where the shadows are genuinely spectacular.

Styles of landscape photography

Broadly, you have three recognized styles of landscape photography - impressionist, representational and abstract:

Impressionistic – This form of photography involves techniques, which are expected to produce images that look more real and less obvious while still enclosing their values. So the viewer gets an impression of a landscape instead of a clear picture.

Representational - The representational style is also known as the straight descriptive style. This style of photography includes the sceneries in their natural form, without any kind of visual deception or tactical maneuvering. The style is purely unambiguous that is What You See Is What You Get.

Abstract – Basically, this is a graphic style, as the section of the landscape are assumed to be graphic elements and are arranged according to the compositional values. The shape or form is the major consideration. To achieve the required comparison or contrast, the elements can be juxtaposed by extreme close-ups or even generate silhouettes through under exposure. The design holds more importance than representation.

Landscape photography is by far my favorite, but I had a lot of problems making my pictures look good. I've found myself facing the same problem over and over again. I had great equipment and I stood before a wondrous, almost magical scene of nature. Click, click...
And yet my photographs were never any good. It was really a sad sight when I compared what I remembered I saw and what pictures were before me. A lost opportunity.

Here I have to mention a photo school that really helped me. It's not like it made me into a professional or that from then on all of my work was perfect, but it thought me a lot of things I knew nothing about.
Here is the link.
In my next post I will write a review about it, for those having the same skepticism like I did.