Re: Re: Lesson 6

#19538
Duncan Rawlinson
Keymaster

Beautiful landscape photograph!

With this assignment we wanted to see your ability to organize a large geographic space. We wanted to see you explore different design elements that would allow you to accomplish this. You’ve done a wonderful job of simplifying this image and presenting your landscape in a very un-cluttered and easy to navigate fashion.

You’ve done this through the use of balance, shape and color. Your color palette consists primarily of gradients of blues, greens and browns. The “weight” of the photograph is slanted towards camera-left. This gives the image a sense of “informal balance” which helps make the composition slightly more dramatic.

You’ve also incorporated the series of three cliffs as your main object. These act as your “stopper”, giving your audience something to stop on while they are not exploring the rest of your photograph. This helps ensure their eyes don’t simply wander out of your composition because they have nothing to rest or focus on.

My main concern with the image is the balance of the horizon line. This is a very common mistake with landscape photographs. Do you notice how your horizon line slants down towards the left of the frame? This looks unintentional and therefore detracts from the overall composition of your shot.

Notice how straight these horizon lines are:

http://digital-photography-school.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/imageslandscape-photography.jpg

and

http://www.steferrari.com.au/images/landscape_photographer_lancelin/large/landscape_photography_WA_2.jpg

Now look at your yours and see how the slant is much more exaggerated than the images above. You can train your eye to notice these variations in your horizon lines. It’s important to be conscious of it first and then you’ll always double check your lines before taking the shot.

Overall, it’s a great image! Just focus on the small details and you’ll soon be an incredible photographer!