Landscape Photography

"> Tanguar Haor. Photo: Ihtisham Kabir
The great photographer Ansel Adams once said that  “landscape photography is the supreme test of the   photographer and often the supreme disappointment.”
Adams was, I believe, talking about the difference between the experience of being outdoors and taking a picture of the outdoors. How can a photograph capture that experience and everything it entails: the view, sounds and smells, freedom of space, colours, flora and fauna, and so on?
Yet, people have tried to do just that for centuries, first with paintings, then with photographs. The earliest      photographs made in 1859 by Henry Fox Talbot, inventor of photography, were of the landscape around his home in rural England.
But the “supreme disappointment” plagues us all. Rarely do our landscape pictures evoke the same feelings as “being there.”
When we enjoy a beautiful scene, our brain automatically makes some adjustments. For example, if a tree branch partially obscures the view of a distant mountain, our brain ignores the branch and lets us enjoy the   mountain view. However, when we take a picture of this scene, the camera, an inert mechanical device, dutifully records everything in front of it. So the same branch that we had ignored while watching the mountain becomes an ugly obstruction that destroys the photograph. Our eyes filter out things we do not want to see, but the camera does not. We must keep this in mind for better results.
How can one take good landscape photographs? Here are some tips.
1. Find a point of focus. For  example, if you include a person, a house or a boat in the photograph, it will bring a sense of scale to your  photograph. It also becomes a point for the eye to anchor.
2. Try to keep the foreground and background separate. This will create a sense of three-dimensional depth in the photograph, so important in   landscapes. If the background and foreground interfere – for example, leaves from a nearby branch intrude into the faraway river – our sense of depth becomes confused.
3. Take the picture when the light is soft rather than contrasty. Early morning and evening light is usually better than midday; cloudy days are preferable over sunny ones.
4. Vary the vantage point. Sometimes climbing just one or two feet yields a better photograph in our flat land. Some photographers, however, like shooting from a lower vantage point.
5. Take your time. The best way to slow down is to use a tripod, but if that is unrealistic, try looking at the scene from several points. Good   landscape photography requires contemplation. The landscape      photographer, Michael Kenna, spends much time at a place before  photographing it. He goes so far as to have conversations with the trees he is about to photograph.
6. Colour plays an important role because we have certain innate responses to colour: blue, for example, denotes freedom; green is life. When taking a landscape photograph, pay attention to how the colour factors in.
7. A wide angle lens is helpful in photographing landscapes. Use a small aperture to maximize depth of field. Be careful to eliminate tilt of the camera, so the horizon remains horizontal in the photograph.
8. Be prepared for supreme disappointments, but working patiently you might catch a supreme delight!

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