Landscape Photography Composition: Minimalism

[Music] for me there's something really evocative about minimal landscape images a really good minimal landscape composition can evoke the essence of a scene the spirits have a scene just as well if not better than any wide-angle vista now what we're trying to do with any landscape composition is attempting to take all the visual chaos that surrounds us and to find a way for it to make sense and a huge part of that just as important as what we have as a subject in the frame is choosing what we leave out of the composition and when we're shooting minimal landscapes it's this process of subtraction how we try to reduce the scene to its simplest form a frame that perfectly distills and captures the essence of the landscape so that's the theory but what about the practice what are some of the things that we can do with the camera to actually create compelling minimal landscape images now this sounds kind of obvious but what we need to do is to learn to find elements within a scene that can be isolated from the rest of the landscape things like a tree or a cabin or a particular peak and to do that we really need to slow down and take our time when we're actually on the location quite often there's so much visual chaos wherever we're standing in the landscape so much information coming into our eyes and often one part of a scene that can really dominate but for a minimal image it's often not that kind of thing that you're looking for it's something smaller something more discreet something that's not immediately obvious when we arrive at the scene so what we need to do is to take our time slow down take a breath and really look around the landscape just to see if there's one element that really captures the feel of the landscape that we can isolate from everything else when i made this shot i was standing on a hill with the intention of photographing something else completely at a nearby chapel and these two trees were really long way away from where we're standing with all kinds of visual chaos surrounding me and in between me and them but by taking the time to look around the location and not just the chapel that i plan to shoot and by looking into the distance and visualizing the scene then i walked around a little bit found a spot where i could frame it with a telephoto lens and then shoot it without any other distracting elements every landscape needs a strong focal point that we can build the image around that really pulls the eye towards it but with a minimal photograph with a minimal image often that focal point is going to be the only thing in the frame it's going to be completely unsupported now i've mentioned already the idea of isolating something from the landscape so that's what it is that we're looking for a strong element something that can be isolated from the rest of the landscape and stand on its own an example is the huts in these images from the high vantage point that i had i could isolate the huts by surrounding them with the mystic field so that they were the only things visible within the frame and this is another example the spy here is actually part of a group of rock stacks off the coast of iceland but by removing the other rucksacks from the composition and focusing on just this one we create this sense of isolation a much more minimal image with just a single point of interest that's much stronger if we'd included the other elements which would have just distracted the eye isolating the subject can be done in different ways which i'm going to talk about in this video but the simplest way the most straightforward way is by using a telephoto zoom that we can zoom in and just frame the particular element that it is in the scene that we want to focus on like the huts or the rock spike in the previous image and framing them in such a way that we cut all the other distracting elements out you can see in these scenes that i've isolated just a small part of the overall scene focusing on just one element and building all the composition around that in each of these shots the point of interest was really far away but by spending a little bit of time observing the scene it's often possible with a telephoto lens to find just one tiny part of the landscape that can be isolated in an interesting way and cut off from the rest of the scene to create a more minimal frame now when we're composing with a telephoto lens it's really important that we give the subject that we give the focal point plenty of breathing space that there's lots of space between the subject and the edges of the frame the sides and the top because if we get it too close then it starts to feel cramped but if we have lots of breathing space it's that breathing space that starts to make the image feel a little bit more prominent and actually increases the sense of isolation you can see in this image of the mountain it's important to have breathing space at the top of the frame so the mountain doesn't push against the top and has some space which actually makes the mountain feel bigger now in this image of the huts the huts are stronger and their isolation is magnified by the space around them and here the breathing space gives space to the mist that's flowing over the edge of the volcanic caldera which makes this raised kind of hill much stronger and more prominent in the image this image is a really good example of how weather conditions can help with isolating a subject without the mist this image just wouldn't work but by having the mist in the frame it actually brings prominence to the subject and also obscures and covers a lot of other elements in the scene that would normally be distracting so mist is a really powerful tool for minimal images you can see in this image here that the mist covering the landscape really makes a single element of the frame stand out like in this image in the amazon it's the morning mist partially hiding the far bank of the river that emphasizes the small tree in front without the mist then this wouldn't have worked because that small tree would actually be completely absorbed into the trees behind it it wouldn't stand out at all but that separation of the mist really helps with isolating the tree it's the same with this tree here the mist completely hiding the background and here in this scene the mist obscures the background and partially hides the trees fading out towards the top of the image and making it much simpler and a much cleaner more minimal image clouds serve a similar function to most when it comes to creating minimal landscape photos the only difference is they tend to appear in a different part of the frame and work with different subjects low-lying cloud for example is really good when it comes to isolating individual mountain peaks but they do the same job as mist obscuring lots of the background and hiding any distracting elements here this mountain is usually quite hard to make out because there's a whole row of mountains behind it but the low-lying cloud has covered the glacier and all the mountains in the background and the peak is just reduced to a simple triangular shape now this image was taken on the same day the cloud completely removes the background making the sky and the lake merge into each other this really makes these floating pieces of ice stand out as they're the only solid element in the frame here the clouds are on the peaks of treichim in italy now there are a lot of peaks here and usually this scene is really overwhelming with visual information and lots of mountains but the low-lying clouds coming down and obscure the peaks just hiding in revealing parts of them really simplified into a minimal image and the telephoto lens isolated just these peaks and most importantly i made sure i gave as much breathing space as i could in the frame because the more cloud there is in the frame the more breathing space then the greater the isolation of the subject is snow is another weather element that makes for really great minimal images a blanket of white snow covering the landscape completely removes almost all the detail and allows just single elements like trees or huts and splashes of color to really stand out on their own against an almost completely white background in this image the landscape has almost all its detail removed by the snow which adds a sense of isolation to the hut the snow here also acts as a negative space and by negative space i mean an empty space that doesn't just serve as breathing space around the subject but actually balances it against it this is another example here the large block of snow at the bottom serves as a balance to the sky and the contrast to the heart negative space doesn't have detail of something to pull the eye towards it but rather it says like a pause between notes in a melody to contrast and balance the subject against in this image there's nothing on the right of the frame except empty ocean not really any detail at all but it's this negative space that actually has some weight and gives balance to the rock stack here on the left and in this image of the trees the negative space at the bottom and also at the top of the frame highlights the contrast of the trees snow is really useful for this kind of minimalism and providing this kind of negative space but it is possible to have negative space without snow here in this image it's the shadows beneath the mountain caused by the low-lying sun and lots of cloud that serve as a negative space to contrast the really well-lit peaks now it would be possible to frame tighter and remove all that negative space at the bottom but it's this negative space it's part of the image it balances the subject and actually increases that sense of isolation now in any minimal image the position of the subject in the frame is always really important what matters most is balance so if you have just one single element in the frame then you can put that element right in the center and it will balance perfectly like you can see in this image of the moon but as soon as you move the subject off to the center and onto a third it needs to be balanced against something else in the frame and when in a minimal image you have no other elements in the frame then it's negative space that provides that balance as you can see in these images color is another really important element when it comes to minimal landscape images lots of bright contrasting colors don't really work things like a really colorful sunset because there's just too many details to catch your eye on and be distracted by what works really well is a limited palette and more subdued tones which is one reason why snow works so well because covering the landscape in this blanket of white creates this really nice white canvases monitoring canvas which we can just use a single element and a splash of color to contrast against it's the same with mist mist really desaturates and subdues the color in a landscape creating these really nice subdued tones that are really really harmonious and work just much better for minimal photography in this image i've used a telephoto lens to look into a tiny part of the sunset sky where these peaks are backlit by the light now the telephoto lens also compresses the peaks together and the haze in the sky has given them some separation but the fact that they're backlit removes any details from the peaks so the image just becomes about the shape of the peaks with a tiny figure below having a little bit of compositional weight but enough to provide scale and a focal point and also just a single simple color palette with these kind of images it's really important to be aware of the angles and lines so here i found a part of the scene and a focal length on the zoom where it could have all these converging lines creating a v now this is another example of how backlight and mist allied with a telephoto lens can reduce the scene to its essential shapes and remove the detail creating a minimal image in regular mid-day light this scene just doesn't work at all it would be really busy with lots of contrasting colors but the sun burning through the mist has removed all of the colors from the scene completely desaturating it and creating a singular tone that focuses the eye on the shape and the light more and this is another image where similar color tones really highlight a single subject and add mood to the scene this is actually a wide angle shot but i can post a bridge to make it a single element with a more or less even split between the water and the sky now normally these elements would both have a lot of detail in them the ripples in the water and and the contrast in the clouds but a two minute exposure has blurred both and removed any details which you're going to catch your eye on and turn both of them into solid blocks of color now the water here is a negative space and the harmony of the subdued tones across the frame is what turns it into a minimal image and the last thing to talk about is how powerful a repeated pattern can be in a minimal image now in this video i've talked a lot about negative space and shown examples of images where there's very little happening where the negative space has almost no detail in it so you would think that it would be counter-intuitive to have a pattern in the scene and fill the frame with it that it would actually make the image too busy but if you can find a repeated pattern in nature and completely fill the frame with it then that repeated pattern actually turns into and becomes a negative space for example in this aerial image of a glacier in iceland the repeated vertical lines of the glacier across a horizontal frame combined with the minimal colour palette make it work as a minimal image despite the fact that the image really does have a lot of detail in it this is another example from java in indonesia there's actually a lot of detail in this image but this mist has reduced the color palette to almost a monotone and separated the lines of trees into a form of repeated pattern which actually makes the image feel quite minimal this height in norway is a simple image done with a slight telephoto reducing the seam to just the two elements the heart with the mounted behind but it's the repeated triangle pattern which really gives the image at strength and these images of dunes from the moroccan sahara are another example now here the lines of the dunes are this time flowing horizontally to match the frame with the focal point being where the light falls on the dunes and with repeated patterns if you can find an interesting focal point like these camels here amongst the dunes the subject acts to break the repeated patterns which effectively are working as a negative space isolating the subject then you can create a really compelling image with that now these are just some examples but in any landscape that you visit if you take your time breathe and slow down you can almost always find some single element within a landscape that you can isolate using a telephoto lens or using the weather conditions like mist or snow or low-lying cloud and by isolating that subject giving it plenty of breathing space or using negative space to balance against that subject you reduce the landscape down to its essential elements and create a really compelling minimal image now that's it for this video i hope it's been useful and i hope it's been interesting if you've got any comments at all just drop them in the comment box below or send me an email and i'll get back to you and if you like my photography and you'd like to go shooting with me on a workshop there are still some places in my workshops later this year and next year and i've got some really exciting trips lined up i'll be heading to the dolomites in winter and also in the summer i'm going to be in iceland next winter and also there's an incredible trip to namibia and also hopefully the pixar center in norway for the midnight sun so check out my website and drop me a line if there's anything there that interests you so as always thanks for watching and supporting the channel i really appreciate it and until the next time take care and good luck with your photography see ya [Music] you

Channel: Andy Mumford

Views: 25,283

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Id: l5mLwYdq7HQ

Length: 15min 26sec (926 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 11 2021