Project Day 3

The project for Day 3 of the Better Landscapes in Just 7 Days tutorial is to "Take a landscape photo using as many composition rules as possible to make your framing visually appealing as it can be."

Here are the results of today's shoot taken at Inch Castle in Co. Donegal:

I am quite pleased with this photo even though the castle is quite small. I wanted to show the castle ruin in its surroundings, and the cloudy grey sky had just cleared a bit to add some colour to the sky. I used the burial mound both as foreground and a leading line towards the castle, while the hedgerow on the left provides a diagonal leading line. Finally, the fields across the water also acts as a leading line to the ruins. Perhaps I should have cropped the photo a bit at the top, however, so that the sky wasn't so dominating and the ruins stood out more as the focal point.

This photo of Inch Castle is taken from the field in front of it. Basically, I just used the bushes to the right to lead into the image.

Finally, the composition of this photo of the burial mound near the ruins was achieved by accident. I just wanted the marker stone to be on the lower-left intersecting line, but ended up with two diagonal leading lines (the rock in the lower-right hand corner and the rocks of the mound itself).

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Day 3: Frame It Better

Day 3 of the 7 day landscape tutorial in the current issue of Practical Photography focuses on classical composition rules to create balance in your photos.

"Good composition is all about selecting the best part of the scene in front of you and arranging the elements in the view you've chosen. Some of this is personal interpretation, and will be determined by the subject you are shooting. But there are a few simple rules that can help you out. Learn these and use them at the right time and you've already made a huge step in the right direction.

One of the most common mistakes in landscape photography is to try to include every element of the subject, which can result in a confused image that doesn't draw the viewer into the scene. So take your time to really look at the landscape in front of you and decide which elements you want to include, and, just as importantly, what you don't. Then use a combination of the type of lens - and your position - to allow you to frame the scene so that you only include these parts of the landscape in your shot. Finally you should fine-tune your composition by moving the camera until all of the elements knit together in the image."

There are 5 common composition rules that you should aquaint yourself with:

1. Rule of Thirds. Place the main lines and elements of the landscape on imaginary lines that divide the horizontal and vertical axis into three. This is easily done if your camera shows these guidelines in the viewfinder/LCD monitor. The intersection points of these lines are the strongest places visually to place the main point of interest in the frame.
2. Foreground Interest. Include an object in the foreground to add a sense of depth to your photo and also to draw the viewer in.
3. Focal Point. Include one dominant point of interest to grab the viewers attention.
4. Lead-In Lines. Include diagonal lines leading to the middle of your image or to the main focal point to create a sense of dynamism in your photos.
5. Scale. Introduce a recognisable object in your photos so that the viewers can more easily judge the scale of objects in the landscape.

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