Landscape photography technique. Landscape photography. Recommendations. Horizon level in landscape photography

Introduction

In artistic creativity, “the richness and variety of speech genres is boundless, because the possibilities of diverse human activity are inexhaustible...”. These words may well be applied to photographic creativity.

The following genres have been established in photography: landscape, still life, wedding photography, portrait, architectural photographs, interior, genre photography, reproduction, photo report, panoramic photography.

From the wide variety of genres, it follows that some people like to take certain types of photographs, while others prefer to take other types of photography. In my opinion, the most relevant and interesting place In photography today, the genre of landscape is occupied. And what person doesn't like landscapes? Everyone loves him. There is no photographer who would not try himself in this genre. None of them can resist the temptation to capture in photographs a beautiful view or those changes in the landscape that arose as a result of the gigantic scale of work to transform nature. Every person is not averse to putting a photo with beautiful view evening sunset, or hang a picture of a mountain landscape on the wall.

I chose the features of landscape photography as the topic of my course work. Landscape in photography is an independent genre in which the main subject is nature under the vault of heaven: forest, garden, field, meadow, steppe, pond, swamps, plains, hills, mountains. The concept of “urban landscape” refers to architectural space.

Is it difficult? For those starting landscape photography for the first time, it may seem that this genre is simple and accessible to everyone. In fact, the landscape genre is one of the most difficult types of photography to master. In my opinion, in order to create a worthwhile shot that can be shown to others, a photographer needs to work for a long time, and sometimes even get up at five o’clock in the morning and travel hundreds of kilometers. To make a good landscape, you must, first of all, love nature, understand and feel its beauty, have artistic taste and be good at photographic techniques. A landscape is, first of all, your story about nature and its beauty, because a landscape can show nature as simple, touching and captivatingly beautiful, or it can reveal its formidable power. Not everything that at first glance seems beautiful in nature is of interest for a landscape image. Sometimes beauty is apparent, like a fleeting moment. And vice versa, sometimes you are surprised that the most ordinary, ordinary picture of nature in a photograph can appear as amazingly beautiful. So in my course work I would like to reveal all the charm of winter photography, the beauty of the evening seascape.

The winter landscape is unusual due to the looseness of the snow cover, its shimmering sparkles in the sunlight, and the snowy terry trees.

The beauty of the evening landscape lies in the illumination of the clouds, in the reflection of the brown light in the surface of the sea. These landscapes were painted by many artists of past centuries, and even now they attract people with their uniqueness.

Photography teaches you to look, observe and see the world around you, and not only with two eyes, but also monocularly, i.e. the way the lens depicts it.

It is unlikely that you can master the art of landscape photography while traveling by car or motorcycle. Sometimes, in pursuit of the plot while moving quickly, we lose concentration. Only external beauties flash before us, and at the same time we miss the life of nature, in which the earth, sky, clouds, trees form the most expressive combinations. It's better to be alone with nature. A leisurely walk with frequent stops will give the photographer the opportunity to deeply feel nature, feel like a part of it, comprehend its secrets, and reveal images of pristine beauty. Only in such a state can one discover the boundless greatness of the universe in a drop of dew on a leaf.

The ability to see everything as if for the first time, without the heavy burden of habit, is inherent only in an artist, no matter whether he is a painter or a photographer.

1. Literature review

1.1 The history of the creation of an artistic landscape

Landscape (French paysage, from pays - country, area) is a genre in which the object of the image is nature. It is customary to refer to the landscape as the image of large spaces, regardless of their “subject filling”. It can be urban, industrial, but most often the landscape is an image of nature.

The most important and oldest type of landscape is the image of pristine nature and countryside. This is the original understanding of the French word “paysage” and the German “Landschaft” (image of a village, image of the land), which over three centuries have become firmly rooted in our language. The industrial landscape, which emerged at the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th centuries, as well as the urban landscape, constitute separate directions in the development of landscape painting.

Landscape of medieval Europe

As written in the book by V.N. Stasevich “Landscape. Picture and reality”: “In medieval Europe, the art of depicting nature experienced a certain decline for a long time. Depicting the harvest of grapes, the Garden of Eden or the end of the flood, the medieval European artist limited himself to merely decorative designation of nature, without caring about any visual similarity to the natural world.”

The conquests of ancient realism, which came into medieval painting, seem to fade away and degenerate into decorative motifs or extremely symbols places of action. This is especially typical for the art of Byzantium. In the 14th century, a certain turn towards realism was noticeable in the art of this country. Accordingly, the image of nature takes on a more specific character.

The influence of Byzantine art spread to Italy and the part of the European continent north of the Alps. Related principles of depicting trees, mountains and other elements of nature are found in Western European art, including in the frescoes of artists of the Italian Trecento - the period preceding the Renaissance.

Landscapes in European miniature of the 15th century are lyrical images of places familiar to the artist, often very accurately conveying the appearance of a particular landscape and architectural structures.

Since the early Renaissance, artists have been occupied with issues of linear and aerial perspective. Perspective images are used even in relief, which acquires a picturesque character that is not typical for sculpture. Interest in real space gave impetus to the discovery of the laws of perspective

Landscape of Holland in the 17th century

As written in the “Brief Reference Book of Artistic Terms” by N.M. Sokolnikova: “In the 17th century, Holland experienced an upsurge of spiritual renewal. In this country, genres of art such as still life and landscape are becoming widespread, which presuppose the viewer's ability to enjoy art without religious, historical or heroic reminiscences. Here, for the first time, a realistic landscape as an image of a specific area received wide recognition. Here the sea becomes the hero of the paintings. After all, it was a real breadwinner for the country of sailors and fishermen.”

Just as artisans specialized in making a certain type of object, so artists specialized in different types landscape. One preferred to paint the sea, another - trees, the third - city corners. Artists created their paintings for the market. This prosaic stimulus, combined with excellent taste and talent, produced amazing results. The seascapes of Adrian van Velde are so excellent in their accuracy of depiction of nature, in their sense of light and color, that later art critics began to wonder whether the artist painted his paintings from life.

No less significant are the artistic merits of the works of Albert Cuyp, Jan van Goyen, and Solomon van Ruisdael.

Dutch masters of the mid-century were characterized by painting in similar tones, in brownish-silver or yellowish-silver tones. These tones attracted artists with the opportunity to convey the moisture-saturated air of Holland (Meindert Gobbema, Philipp Wouwerman, Claes Berchem, etc.). Artists loved to paint cloudy skies, when the dim light of the sun penetrates through a thin layer of clouds and evenly envelops nature.

Rice. 1. "View of Delft." Vermeer of Delft

Vermeer's landscape of Delft "View of Delft" (Fig. 1) can be called real pearls of painting. In it, “the artist depicted that moment of a summer day when it had just rained. The sun's rays breaking through the silvery clouds have not yet dried the roofs, and raindrops sparkle on the leaves of the trees, on the walls of houses and the sides of boats. The whole picture sparkles and trembles with many colorful shades and highlights.

The drawing of architectural structures in the landscapes of Vermeer of Delft is so reliable, and the composition is so natural, that there is an assumption that the artist painted the paintings from life, looking out the window. This was unusual for that time.

But Dutch landscape painters did not limit themselves to a reliable “portrait” of their native land. There were “Italianist” or “novelist” artists who painted Italian landscapes or followed the trends of the “composed” Italian landscape (Clas Berchem, Jan Asseleym, Jan Bot, etc.). A major master of the romantic style was Hercules Seghers, who was followed in his interpretation of nature by Jacob van Ruisdael and Harmens van Rijn Rembrandt. In the landscapes of these artists, Dutch realism is combined with a romantic beginning. From the realistic motif of an old cemetery or a group of trees, artists extracted the dramatic power of spiritual tension through tonal, color and linear contrasts. Such is the “Jewish Cemetery” (Fig. 2), full of mystery and alarming flashes of light, or the darkly exotic “Swamp” (Fig. 3) by Jacob Ruisdael.

These artists were much less concerned with the careful finishing of a thing than with its philosophical meaning and psychological effect when contemplating it. It is characteristic that the theme of Rembrandt’s excellent landscape sketches and drawings was not the clean, cozy streets and courtyards of Dutch cities, but peasant huts, old houses, and country bridges.

Landscape of Baroque and Classicism

And this is how it is described in the Avanta+ encyclopedia. Volume 5", : A different attitude to the image of nature is observed in the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens' art was formed under the strong influence of the Baroque. Baroque is an artistic movement prone to exaggeration, in which a realistic attitude to the objective world coexists freely with fiction. It originated in Italy and spread throughout Europe.

Rice. 2. "Jewish cemetery." Jacob Ruisdael

Rice. 3. "Swamp". Jacob Ruisdael

An exceptionally talented artist, Rubens became the head of the Flemish school, and transferred the principles of Baroque to the depiction of nature. When in his later works the artist turned to the image of Flemish nature, he painted a heroic, ideal, collective image. Hence the characteristic panoramic scope of his canvases, coming from the traditions of the 16th century.

But the landscape of the 17th century is not only Holland and Flanders. This genre received a characteristic solution in the art of France, in particular in the works of Nicolas Poussin, Claude Jelle, and Claude Lorrain. The landscapes of Poussin and Lorrain have all the necessary signs of classicism: orderly balance, thoughtful distribution of volumes, tonal and pictorial masses of the composition, fragments of antique columns, statues and even entire structures reminiscent of ancient architecture, necessary from the point of view of classicism. There are mythological and biblical motifs borrowed from literary monuments of the ancient world and the Middle Ages and introduced into the landscape as staffage to revitalize it and give it a semantic focus.

The classical landscape is called “historical” for its connection with scenes from ancient and medieval history. Unlike the baroque landscape with its elemental heroism, the classic one has the harmony and clarity of nature. A classical landscape is a composed landscape, but composed on the basis of artistic exploration of reality.

National realistic landscape

In France, by the 30s of the 19th century, a school of artists was emerging - creators of the national landscape. Georges Michel was one of the first to turn to the image of national nature. The nature of “everyday” France, with its birches and poplars, became the theme of Camille Corot’s paintings. He loved to paint the transitional states of evening and morning, avoiding bright contrasts.

A group of Corot's contemporaries - Theodore Rousseau, Leon Dupre, Charles-François Daubigny, Constant Troyon, Narcisse Diaz de la Pena, who were not satisfied with the rational system of the academic landscape - decided on an experiment reminiscent of Constable's experiment. They began to paint the groves, fields, and creeks surrounding Paris. Sometimes they worked together, gathering in the village of Barbizon with Theodore Rousseau. The result of their efforts was a natural, life-true composition of the landscape.

20th century landscape

The 20th century introduced something completely new into the history of landscape, breaking with the centuries-old traditions of depicting nature. This is cubism, the first representatives of which were the French artists Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Cubism is based on a purely speculative constructive analysis forms, dividing them into arbitrarily assumed elements or absolutizing their geometric meaning. Cubist landscapes are perhaps less connected with the landscape of reality than the landscapes of past centuries.

1.2 Artistic landscape in Russia

In Russia, the 19th century in landscape art began with the gradual conquest of realistic positions. As in Europe, this was expressed in the development of plein air and the national motif. At the beginning of the century, many traditions of classical landscape were still preserved. Russian artists went to Italy for landscapes.

However, artists of Sylvester Shchedrin’s generation were not satisfied with the static scheme of the classic landscape-scenery with its nameless trees. In an effort to convey the life of nature, they introduce romantic lighting effects into their works, move away from the “scene” composition and brown color, and strive to capture sunlight and the specific character of nature.

Alexander Andreevich Ivanov made a colossal step in this direction (Fig. 4). His paintings are characterized by purity and naturalness of color, richness of tonal and color relationships. Ivanov, like his other contemporaries, was attracted to nature by signs of the eternal, rather than the transitory.

Rice. 4. “Olive trees near the cemetery in Albano. New month" A.A. Ivanov

The epic calm of the ideal image prevails even in those cases when Russian artists took the national landscape as a basis and sought to depict it ingenuously. native nature, as it is. These are the landscapes of A.G. Venetsianov, his students G.V. Soroki, I.S. Krylov and other pioneers of the national Russian landscape, who saw the scope and beauty of the “nondescript” Russian nature.

Among these artists, the original phenomenon was represented by the brothers G.G. and I.G. Chernetsovs, the first artists of the Volga. Intending to paint a panorama of both banks of the river, they traveled from Rybinsk to Astrakhan on a special barge and created many original sketches and sketches. One of them is “View of the Syukeevsky Mountains on the Volga in the Kazan Province” (Fig. 5).

This is what it says in the book by V.P. Rotmistrov “Russian Landscape”: “The real systematic artistic exploration of Russian nature began in the second half of the 19th century, in the work of artists of the 60s. Russian nature, discreet and “not ideal” - swampy lowlands, slushy mudflats, monotonous flatness - became the main character in the landscapes of the Wanderers. Russian artists finally “discovered” their homeland and stopped going to Italy for beauty. They discovered the beauty of the natural manifestation of life and lost the need to search for an “ideal” nature.”

Rice. 5. “View of the Syukeevsky mountains on the Volga in the Kazan province” G.G. and I.G. Chernetsovs

In the mid-19th century, the idealizing aesthetics of romanticism and classicism began to become a thing of the past. The national landscape begins to acquire leading importance in Russian art.

The very concept of “national landscape” presupposes a “portrait” of a certain geographically specific nature, characteristic of Holland, France or England. For Russian artists, central Russia became such a landscape for a long time. But, unlike the Europeans, Russian masters often invested social meaning into national motifs.

The nature of the Russian landscape was influenced by the principles of critical realism. Sorrowful motifs are inherent in images of nature not only in the paintings of V.G. Perov (“Seeing Off the Dead Man”) or I.M. Pryanishnikov “Empty” (Fig. 6), where the landscape serves as an accompaniment to the depiction of the negative sides of Russian life.

Rice. 6. “Empty” I.M. Pryanishnikov

Characteristic of the Russian national landscape is also an attraction to the epic, in a sense, ideal image of the Russian land, glorious for its forest wealth, wide fields and mighty rivers (I.I. Shishkin).

The beginning of the lyrical Russian landscape is usually associated with the work of A.K. Savrasov and his well-known painting “The Rooks Have Arrived”. It is difficult to point to another example of a landscape from the early 70s in which the theme of spring was resolved with such completeness and specificity. This image of Russian nature is so truthful that it seems as if the landscape was copied from life, as if all of Rus' fit into it. Expressed with subtle insight spring mood. The landscape can rightly be called lyrical. At the same time, in other works of Savrasov - “Country Road” or “Rye” - the spirit of romanticism is alive.

The dynamic landscapes of the talented artist F.A. are imbued with a romantic feeling. Vasilyeva. In the film “Swamp in the Forest. Autumn" (Fig. 7).

Rice. 7. "Swamp in the forest." F. Vasiliev

The sun appeared through a gap in the autumn clouds, and its rays splashed onto the forest swamp. The trees and grass seemed to sparkle with precious gold, and the moisture of the recent rain sparkled. Nature smiled for a while. Soon the sun will go away, twilight will come, the frowning sky will become gray, even and indifferent, the birds will fly away. The artist, in a hurry to capture a brief state of nature, sketches the gold of autumn trees with energetic strokes, not caring about the detailed drawing of the details.

Vasiliev’s teacher I.I. set himself a different task. Shishkin. Shishkin believed that “a painting from life should be without imagination.” There is no complete illusion in Shishkin’s landscapes. The colors here are rather conventional and do not reach the richness that is observed in living nature. Shishkin's sunny paintings are not devoid of poetry, a sense of the epic grandeur of nature.

A.I. Kuindzhi, an epic-romantic artist, believed that an artist should paint a landscape “by heart,” relying entirely on creative imagination. With a complete impression of naturalness, his landscapes are distinguished by thoughtful balance. Often the artist introduces an almost stereoscopic image of three-dimensional details in the foreground into the picture. They serve to further emphasize the illusion and scope of space.

Less common in Russian art is the seascape. This is not surprising: the sea is less characteristic of Russia than plains, forests and rivers. However, almost every major Russian artist painted the sea. I.K. Aivazovsky went through a long creative path from the romantic to the realistically convincing poem “The Black Sea” (Fig. 8) or the magnificent “Waves”.

Rice. 8. “Black Sea” by I.K. Aivazovsky

Without any overtly romantic effects, A.P. painted his “water” landscapes convincingly and truthfully. Bogolyubov.

In the last decades of the past and at the beginning of our century, the epic landscape was continued in the works of such famous masters as Savrasov’s student I.I. Levitan, N.K. Roerich, A.M. Vasnetsov. And yet, the intimate, lyrical landscape took the leading place.

Already in the landscape sketches of I.N. Kramskoy, one can notice signs of a different attitude towards the image of nature. Ivan Nikolaevich, an intelligent and far-sighted artist, found that the experience of French masters had undeniable advantages. “We absolutely need to move towards light, colors and air,” he wrote in 1874, inspired by the works he saw in Paris.

Landscape also often plays an equal semantic role in paintings of other genres: in the portraits of V.A. Serov, plot paintings by M.V. Nesterov, sketches by K.A. Korovina, A.S. Stepanov, and later in the works of B.M. Kustodiev, K.F. Yuona, M.V. Dobuzhinsky, K.A. Somov and many other Russian artists.

1.3 Landscape as a photography genre

As written in the book by A.V. Afanasyeva “History of Photography”: The genre of landscape began to take shape from the birth of photography. The world's first photograph, taken by N. Niépce in 1826, is of a landscape (Fig. 9).

Rice. 9. “View of the city roofs” N. Niepce 1826

With the advent of daguerreotype, many photographers began to photograph world-famous architectural monuments and other famous landmarks of antiquity (a number of such photographs were published in the book “Travels of the Daguerreotype”). The wide and rapid dissemination of the architectural landscape was facilitated by the large size, local volumes and immobility of architectural objects, while images of living nature for photography of that time with its long exposures and imperfect (low-sensitivity) photographic materials were successful with with great difficulty. The reason for this was the movement of leaves and blades of grass in the wind, the fragmentation of landscape details (branches, trunks), and the play of light and shadow that was difficult to recreate. Therefore, the first images of the landscape were distinguished by their generalized form and the absence of unnecessary details. At the same time, already the first masters of landscape, following the traditions of painting, learned to convey a certain mood and personal perception of nature in landscape motifs. In this sense, the development of the landscape genre was significantly influenced by impressionism, the best representatives of which perfected the art of conveying impressions of natural motifs. This distinguished the works of Russian photographers N. Andreev, P. Klepikov, N. Svishchov-Paol, S. Ivanov-Alliluyev (Fig. 10).

Rice. 10. “Man in Nature” Ivanov-Alliluyev

The further evolution of the landscape genre was associated with new possibilities of more advanced photographic equipment and the development of creative principles of photography. After a long period of displaying nature in general outline, conveying the general impression of her paintings since the 1930s. landscape photographs become more detailed, including the smallest details of landscapes and objects of a specific time. Elements of the landscape genre are organically combined with the features of reportage; the photographs take on a journalistic orientation. This was especially characteristic of such innovative masters as A. Stiglitz (USA) and M. Dmitriev. The photograph became documentary evidence of the depicted fragment of nature landscapes of the Lithuanian master I. Kalvalis (Fig. 11), it began to include environmental motives of man’s attitude towards environment, subject to disastrous anthropogenic influence (landscapes by V. Filonov).

Rice. 11. “Niemen Embankment” by I. Kalvyalis

In the modern landscape genre, such varieties as industrial, urban and architectural landscapes have received significant development, in which new themes and motifs and aesthetic assessments have appeared. The industrial landscape occupies a significant place in the works of A. Rodchenko, B. Ignatovich, A. Shaikhet, M. Alpert, A. Skurikhin and others.

An important feature of the modern landscape is the diversity of points of view on the captured nature. Landscapes from high altitudes have become available for photography (from a balloon, airplane, spaceship, interplanetary stations), incl. landscapes of the moon and planets solar system. In addition, in the light of new knowledge about nature, new relationships to it, the photographer’s gaze has become more insightful, sharp-sighted, and larger-scale, which allows him to more deeply convey his artistic vision of the world through pictures of nature and reflect in them many other socially significant phenomena, problems, and ideals.

1.4 Features of landscape photography

Landscape photography can be divided into periods of photography: summer, winter, autumn, mountain, sunset. This separation is due to natural features. Natural features include: what time the photography is taking place, temperature, and landscape of the area.

As written in the book by L.D. Kursky, Ya.D. Feldman “Illustrated manual for teaching photography”: “The main feature of landscape photography is constructive. Unlike a still life, it is impossible to make any adjustments here. It is impossible, for example, to remove a mountainside that interferes with the overall composition; it is impossible to change the location of the whole. Thus, work on the composition of the plot is limited to the only method of choosing a shooting point and choosing a lens with the desired focal length. There may be many of these points, and each of them has its own peculiarity, its own individuality.” Each landscape has several plans: near, far and middle. Their appearance is associated with a reduction in the scale of objects moving into the depths of space, towards the horizon line. The comparison of the scales of linear shapes is the linear perspective of a photograph.

An integral part of constructing a photograph is lighting. Light is one of the most determining sources of our sensations. It is considered as the main means of creating an artistic photographic work. The individuality of a landscape depends mainly on the unity and integrity that a well-chosen lighting effect gives to nature. Light makes it possible to see the really existing world. In this case, an important role is played by the originality and attractiveness of the lighting, as it occurs at different times of the day: at dawn, in the morning, at noon, in the afternoon, during sunset.

Rice. 13. “Dawn. Stratus clouds"

Dawn is characterized by lightly spreading fogs or layered clouds (Fig. 13), shadowless soft lighting, in which the shape of objects becomes unclear and they appear blurry. Weak evaporations of morning moisture slightly dim the distance, and depending on the depth of space, the aerial perspective can be expressed by a barely perceptible haze.

The most favorable time for shooting on location is morning light, when the sky is transparent and not covered by thick clouds. In the morning, color saturation is low and ranges from negligible to neutral color saturation.

Midday is characterized by a particularly bright glow of the sun. Falling vertically, its rays create a high contrast of chiaroscuro and sharp light contours on the horizontal surfaces of the branches. For landscape photography, the effect of midday light is considered less expressive.

The second half of the day and the time of approaching sunset are the most favorable for location photography. The slanting rays of the sun lengthen the falling shadows; its rays lie horizontally on the ground, gently modeling the contours of trees and buildings. Sunset and sunrise, when the space is filled with gentle diffused light, - best time admiring nature. Its very appearance resembles a picturesque landscape. The haze, which previously absorbed some of the red rays and scattered the blue ones by dissolving, colors the horizon pink or red, and the upper part of the sky still remains blue, and surprisingly gentle transitions of various color shades are observed on it (Fig. 14).

Rice. 14. “Sunset. Sea"

2. experimental part

2.1 Features of winter landscape photography

Shooting in winter has some difficulties: at this time of year the sun is low and daylight hours are short. An open landscape can be filmed from sunrise to sunset in just a few midday hours, and for filming in the forest this time is reduced to a minimum, especially in narrow clearings or clearings. Severe frost and a small number of sunny days favorable for this purpose are not conducive to winter landscape photography.

Photography in winter is technically more difficult than at any other time of the year. It is believed that a winter landscape in sunny weather has a large range of brightness, which cannot be reproduced in a photograph without losing detail in the highlights or shadows of the image. You can combat this by applying positive exposure compensation of approximately +/-0.7.

The second difficulty of winter filming is reproducing the texture of snow surfaces in the image. This is achieved by choosing the most advantageous lighting, filter and exposure value. The texture of snow is well reproduced with side, semi-backlit or campfire lighting. Due to the low position of the sun in winter, long oblique shadows appear from each irregularity in the snow, helping to reveal its structure in the image. Frontal light is unsuccessful, since with such lighting the texture of the snow is almost not revealed. The texture of snow surfaces is poorly reproduced even in diffuse lighting due to the lack of chiaroscuro, so you should not shoot a winter landscape in cloudy weather.

The snow surface in the foreground should not be smooth or untouched. Snow looks much more natural in photographs when it is loosened and traces, a ski track or a trodden path are visible on it (Fig. 16).

The correct ratio of light and shadow on the snow, ensuring natural reproduction of its surface, is possible with making the right choice light filter. With a blue, cloudless sky, light yellow and yellow-green filters (Zh-1.4X and ZhZ-1.4X) are most often used. Denser filters of this group are used less frequently, mainly when there is a large quantity white clouds. An orange filter increases the contrast of light and shade on snow, thereby worsening the nature of its reproduction in photographs. Orange and red filters are used on winter filming only when it is necessary to emphasize the whiteness and thickness of frost on tree branches and wires, which in this case are projected against the background of a dark, almost black sky. The blue light filter G-1.4X is almost never used in such shooting, since, by reducing the contrast of light and shade on the snow, it worsens its elaboration in the pictures.

When photographing landscapes that include areas of ice sparkling in the sun, a polarizing filter can be very helpful to reduce glare. In some cases, this filter can be used to darken the sky without fear of increasing the chiaroscuro contrast.

To make the snow white and not dirty gray, it is also important to adjust the white balance. Usually a sheet of white paper is used for this, but in winter it will do for this purpose, and a fresh white snowdrift, the main thing is that there are no foreign objects on it. But such an installation will be correct only for the lighting in which it was made, and every time you change the place and light, the balance must be rebuilt - otherwise the snow will remain gray and faces blue.

Frost and frozen drops on black branches, on the contrary, are dazzling on sunny days. To prevent frost from blending into a faded background, you need to photograph it in contrast with a shady area or dark object, and frost looks even better against the background of a bright blue sky.

For an upcoming photo shoot with winter views, it is best to choose a time with the most suitable weather conditions. It could be a bright sunny day, or a cloudy sky with dark snow clouds that will add some drama to the photo.

Rice. 15. “Evening landscape”

In Fig. 15 shows an evening landscape. The goal was to depict how the texture of snow is reproduced. Photography was carried out outdoors in the evening. The photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera. I set the aperture to 5.6 and the shutter speed to 1/125. The composition of the photo is somewhat incorrect, the foreground is empty. The lighting used was cut-off, the texture of the snow is noticeable, but not sufficiently developed. The photo has a dark tone, the snow in the picture has a grayish tint, which indicates that the exposure was incorrectly selected.

Rice. 16. "Winter Park"

In Fig. 16 shows a winter park. The goal is to reproduce the texture of snow among the trees. Photography was carried out outdoors in daytime. This photo taken on a Canon 450D camera. A polarizing filter was used to reduce glare on the snow. To create the correct composition of the photo, I decided to place the road in the foreground and many snow-covered trees in the background. Unlike the previous photo, this photo has a light tone. To convey the texture of the snow, I used back-diagonal lighting, thanks to which the snow in the photograph has good detail.

In Fig. 17 shows trees. The goal is to show snow-covered trees. A Canon 450D camera was used to take the photograph. The trees were photographed on a sunny day using back-diagonal lighting. There are two trees in the foreground, making the frame look symmetrical. The blue sky with a pale pink transition makes the frame expressive. An orange filter was used to emphasize the whiteness and thickness of the frost on the tree branches. The shooting was carried out from afar using zoom. I set the aperture to 5.6 and shutter speed to 1/250. The tree branches are clearly drawn and have a snowy appearance.

Rice. 17. “Winter. Trees"

Rice. 18. "Frozen River"

In Fig. 18 depicts a winter landscape. The goal is to show snow-covered nature. There are several plans in the photograph. The first plan can be called the place where the bird feeder is depicted. If it were not there, the photograph would be less interesting. Thanks to this feeder, the image acquires a “circular view”. The background is trees balancing the composition of the frame. The bridge seems to connect two groups of trees on the right and left sides. The trees located behind the bridge complete the planned structure of the frame. I think the frame is balanced, it’s perfect. This photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera with a polarizing filter to soften the sparkles in the snow. The trees were photographed from afar using zoom. I set the aperture to 5.6 and the shutter speed to 1/125. The photograph has good quality. The branches of the trees are clearly drawn. The photo is balanced correctly.

Rice. 19. “River Landscape”

In Fig. 19 depicts a winter river landscape. The goal is to show the river landscape. A Canon 450D camera was used for this shot. The landscape photography was carried out at midday. To show the entire panorama of the river, I chose a high shooting point. I set the aperture to 5.6 and shutter speed to 1/125. The subject of the photograph is interesting: there is a frozen river, a snow-covered embankment, and winter trees. On the one hand, this frame is composed correctly, but on the other hand, the big drawback is that the photo has a dark tone. This minus shows how important it is to choose the correct exposure when taking a photo.

2.2 Features of photographing an evening seascape

In the morning and evening, the lighting of the coastal landscape is most optimal for photography. The sunset is considered more colorful than the sunrise.

A sunset with a large surface of water can be made colorful. A calm sea will reflect the sky, creating a mirror image; The ripples on the surface of the water will break up this reflection, maintaining the warm glow of the water and creating a path of light from the horizon to the foreground. It is best to shoot the sunset from a higher point. This can be the top of a coastal cliff or a pier.

Sunset photography can be challenging. The most difficult of them is determining exposure. If you use an exposure based on the brightness of the sun, the result will be an image of only the sun, and the rest of the image, including the clouds, will remain completely dim. And if you determine the exposure by the brightness of the sky, the sun will turn out to be “scorched” and will look not like the golden ball that you intended to photograph, but as a white mass. Therefore, a compromise is necessary. One method is to take the average of two exposure readings - the brightness of the sun and the brightness of the sky above. Another method for determining exposure by the weighted average brightness of the frame is that the exposure reading is taken with the sun positioned at one of the edges within the viewfinder. With this position of the sun, there will be no shortcomings in brightness and contrast. The exposure parameters that are obtained in this case are then set manually before the camera is switched to working position, corresponding to the selected frame composition. Regardless of which exposure metering method is used when shooting this scene, it is advisable to duplicate frames with exposure brackets, since a difference of one stop on the aperture scale can completely change the mood of the picture.

In this situation, the aperture controls more than just exposure. If you use a small aperture, you will get something similar to a starburst effect in the sun image. The smaller the aperture, the stronger this effect. Since with this type of shooting direct sunlight enters the lens, there is a danger of flare from glare. You can use any lens, but if the sun is the focal point of your subject, use the longest lens possible. When the sun is low in the sky, the light level is also low and you will have to use a long shutter speed, which makes it impossible to hold long lenses steady in your hands. Therefore, when shooting low sun, a tripod is useful.

Large water surfaces are best photographed from a high point. In this case, the image of water occupies most of the frame area, while at a low shooting point, the main part of the frame will be occupied by the sky. To emphasize the enormity of the water space, an image of a boat or ship is included in the frame, which helps to identify scale relationships. Sometimes their reflections in the water contribute to a more accurate representation of the state of its surface and weather.

During sunset, the overall color tone changes literally every minute. The lower the sun goes, the redder its light, and long before a person notices this change in color, the matrix registers it as a transition from deep yellow to orange and then to red. The same thing, but in reverse order, happens at sunrise.

As soon as the sun sets below the horizon, the sky quickly turns dark blue with a stripe of red dawn along the horizon. Half an hour after the sun has completely disappeared, if the night is clear, a warm afterglow will fill the entire sky. This is exactly the moment when you need to install a standard lens and start taking photographs. The exposures will be long, but this time the exposure can be reliably determined by the brightness of the sky itself, since this glow is uniform and there is no solar disk in the frame that would affect the exposure reading. The same glow appears in the sky before dawn. Both of these moments are worth capturing on camera, and are often much more interesting than the sunrise and sunset themselves.

Rice. 20. "Sea"

In Fig. 20 depicts a seascape. The goal is to show the sunset on a sunny day. Photography was carried out outdoors in the evening. The photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera. An ultraviolet filter was used. I set the aperture to 5.6 and shutter speed to 1/250. You could say that the horizon divides the frame in half, but in this shot it’s justified. You cannot “cut off” the top or bottom from this photo. The presence of stratus clouds in the picture makes the photograph expressive. The sunny path also adds expressiveness to the photo. I consider the photograph to be properly balanced.

In Fig. 21 depicts a seascape. The goal is to show the sky at sunset. The photograph mainly shows the sky illuminated by the red color of the setting sun. There are red and blue color elements in the sky, which indicates the sunny weather of the day.

Rice. 21. “Scarlet Sunset”

The scarlet tone of the sunset can say: soon the sun will go below the horizon and night will come. Photography of this landscape was carried out outdoors in the evening. The photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera. A red filter was used. I set the aperture to 8 and shutter speed to 1/1000. The photo is of good quality. The sea in the photograph is dark, almost black. The sun is just above sea level and there are also a lot of clouds in the photo, which gives the photo a colorful look. The frame is balanced correctly. The intended goal was successfully accomplished.

Rice. 22. “Brown Evening”

In Fig. 22 depicts a seascape. The goal is to show the sunset. Photography was carried out outdoors in the evening. The photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera. A red filter was used. I set the aperture to 5.6 and shutter speed to 1/500. The photo is of good quality. The sky is pink, the sea is mostly dark red, and the presence of clouds makes the shot pop. When creating this image, I intended to show the colorful sky at sunset. I did the composition of the shot, what goals I pursued. I didn’t want to show the vast expanses of the ocean; the main character here is the sky. There are a lot of clouds on it, and the disk of the sun, and light yellow highlights - all this indicates that the composition of the frame is built correctly. The pursued goal has been achieved. The sunset is colorful.

Rice. 23. "Rainy Evening"

In Fig. 23 shows the sea after the rain. The goal is to show the sunset on a cloudy day. Yes, this is really shown: the haze, which previously absorbed some of the red rays and scattered the blue ones by dissolving, colors the horizon pink or red, and the upper part of the sky still remains blue, and surprisingly gentle transitions of various color shades are observed on it. Photography was carried out outdoors in the evening. The photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera. A yellow filter was used. I set the aperture to 5.6 and shutter speed to 1/125. The photo was taken an hour after the rain. The presence of black clouds in the sky indicates past rain. The main character here is the sky, for this reason I chose to show the horizon insignificant.

Rice. 24. "Seascape"

In Fig. 24 depicts a seascape. The goal was to show the sunset on a sunny day. Photography was carried out outdoors in the evening. The photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera. An ultraviolet filter was used. I set the aperture to 5.6 and shutter speed to 1/250. Although the horizon divides the frame in half, in this photo it is justified. It is impossible to “cut off anything” from this photograph. The sunset has a light purple tint, which gives the photo an unusual, expressive quality.

conclusions

To summarize, I would like to note that when shooting snow, side, semi-backlit and backlit lighting conveys the texture best. Due to the low position of the sun in winter, long oblique shadows appear from each irregularity in the snow, helping to reveal its structure in the image.

It is important that photography is not carried out in cloudy weather, since with diffuse lighting the texture of the snow will hardly be revealed, otherwise you can ruin the picture in an artistic sense.

As a visual technique, it is advisable to use various light filters. To emphasize the blue, cloudless sky, you should often use light yellow and yellow-green filters. If you want to emphasize the whiteness and thickness of the frost, you must use orange and red filters. If you need to dim the very bright glare of snow sparkling in the sun, you can use a polarizing filter.

The best time to photograph a seascape at sunset is summer. During this period there are more clouds, which enhance the expressiveness of the plot. The clouds perceive the red glow of the sun, complementing the picture with an ever-changing light palette. Very often, when the sun is behind the clouds, its rays shine in all directions, creating a particularly impressive picture.

If desired, you can enhance the impression by placing various scenes in the foreground with a large water surface. So a calm sea or lake will reflect the sky, forming a mirror image; The ripples on the surface of the water will break up this reflection, maintaining the warm glow of the water and creating a path of light from the horizon to the foreground.

Bibliography

1. V.N. Stasevich “Landscape. Picture and reality" M.: "Impulse", 2006 - 184 p.

2. Encyclopedia “Art. Volume 5". M.: “Avanta+”, 2001 - 547 p.

3. V.P. Rotmistrov "Russian landscape". M.: "Avangard", 1999 - 205 p.

4. J. Wade “Landscape Photography Techniques.” M.: “Mir”, 1989 - 200 p.

5. A.A. Tikhonov “Photography lighting techniques.” Minsk: LLC New Knowledge, 1999 - 143 p.

Scenery- This is one of the most popular and widespread genres in photography. Sooner or later, all masters of their craft go through the hobby of landscape photography. And there are reasons for this: when shooting a landscape or panorama, you can get great results even without the use of expensive equipment and a specially equipped workshop or studio with special lighting. All you need to create a masterpiece is a camera and, preferably, a tripod, as well as certain professional skills and a fair amount of patience. It should be noted that very often the final result depends not only and not so much on the camera, but on the skill of the photographer. Of course, any photography is, first of all, a creative process, but there are a number of rules that, if followed, will allow you to avoid common mistakes made by novice photographers.

Lighting

The object of attention of a landscape photographer is, first of all, nature. Of course, the landscape can be urban, rural, or sea; it can be panorama or macro photography; The photographs may contain buildings, animals and even people, however, the main difference here is the absence of artificial studio lighting. Landscape photography is done in natural natural conditions. This means that the issue of illumination should be approached very seriously, since the final result often depends on light, or rather on the play of light and shadows. Mornings and evenings, when the sun is low relative to the horizon, are considered the most favorable for photographing landscapes. It is at this time that the most contrasting photographs are obtained with a rich and varied play of light and shadows. As a rule, such results cannot be achieved at midday due to the blinding sun and the almost complete absence of shadows - the pictures come out bright, but lifeless and “ flat" Late evening, after sunset, is also not the best time of day. To shoot at dusk, you need a powerful device with a good lens and noise reduction system, and also, preferably, an external flash. Otherwise, the pictures will be blurry, grainy, with a lot of digital noise. It is equally important to choose a suitable position in relation to the light source, in particular the sun. It is not recommended to shoot into the sun as you risk getting completely overexposed photos. Ideally, the light source should be located behind the photographer.

Photo composition

An equally important condition for obtaining a truly successful landscape is the composition, that is, what falls into the frame and how the objects in the frame are located in relation to each other. It is not enough to simply choose a picturesque area - often the beautiful landscapes in the photographs seem banal, and, on the contrary, in the most ordinary setting you can create a real masterpiece. To do this, you need to understand what exactly is the main subject of the photo, why you are taking it, and how the photo can become more expressive. It is necessary to remember some golden rules of the photographer:

. Rule of thirds. When taking a picture, try mentally dividing the frame into three equal parts horizontally. If you want to draw attention to the landscape, then it should occupy two thirds of the photo. Conversely, if it is necessary to emphasize the beauty of the sky, the horizon line should run along the lower horizontal line.

. Golden ratio rule. In the same way, mentally divide the picture into three parts horizontally and into three parts vertically. At the intersection of these virtual lines, the most significant objects. It is best if there is one main object, for example, a tree, house, stone or flower. ()

. Diagonal rule. It is better to place objects such as a road, river, or path diagonally across the frame. The photo will look more alive and dynamic.

And finally, one important nuance for a professional landscape photographer is the mandatory use of a tripod. Without this accessory, it will be very difficult to create a truly professional photo, since ideal lighting conditions are rare in nature, which means that even slight hand shaking can cause blurriness and unclearness of the photo.
Of course, all of the above rules are just the basis of your creativity. However, their use in practice will greatly facilitate the process of mastering the technique of landscape photography.

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