Composition problems

[Evertking]

I love landscape photography and would love to practice it but I live in a flat boring area. Or are there shots out there and I just suck at composition? How do you improve this?

 

[SquarePeg36 7]

Sounds like maybe you could use negative space as a composition technique.

 

[Derrel]

If you want to improve, read about and study, and think about, the elements and principles of design--the REAL fundamentals that underly the fine arts.

Start HERE, and spend a week learning the basics from somebody who knows what he's writing about.
https://www.johnlovett.com/design-overview

Then, work your way around the web, or the local library.

LOOK at lots of photos, and evaluate the way they use the elements and principles of design.Start analyzing photos the way photos and drawings and paintings are analyzed by people who have actually,seriously,formally studied the visual arts for decades.

When the "rule of thirds" is mentioned...you know the article was written by a hack. Not kidding you.


Elements of Art/Design and Principles of Design/Organization | flyeschool.com

 

[Kiron Kid]

 

[zombiesniper112 12]

@Kiron Kid Is there a way you are trying to answer the OP's question that I'm missing? A random photo that doesn't match the problem does seem a bit odd.

@Evertking You have some great advice in the first two posts.

 

[smoke665]

I recently read this https://www.amazon.com/Photographic-Eye-Learning-See-Camera/dp/0871922835 which does a good job covering composition, discussing in depth most of the things brought out by Derrel above. Sometimes in landscape you really "can't see the forest for the trees". Training the eye to simplify and see through the clutter is difficult at first but becomes second nature with practice.

 

[Kiron Kid]

@Kiron Kid Is there a way you are trying to answer the OP's question that I'm missing? A random photo that doesn't match the problem does seem a bit odd.

@Evertking You have some great advice in the first two posts.

Yes. In most locations, an image can be made anywhere. It may take some patience and vision.

 

[Barb King]

One thing I like to try in flat, boring landscape situations is to use a very wide angle lens (24mm or wider) and to focus on one close object in the foreground. I like the breadth of environment visible behind the main object (or person). For example, get low to the ground and take a close up photo of a blade of grass with a vast landscape scene in the distant background.

 

[Kiron Kid]

One thing I like to try in flat, boring landscape situations is to use a very wide angle lens (24mm or wider) and to focus on one close object in the foreground. I like the breadth of environment visible behind the main object (or person). For example, get low to the ground and take a close up photo of a blade of grass with a vast landscape scene in the distant background.

Very true.

 

[ac12]

I love landscape photography and would love to practice it but I live in a flat boring area. Or are there shots out there and I just suck at composition? How do you improve this?

STUDY composition. Get a book or two and read and study them. Or take an art course.
Go visit a museum and look and STUDY the paintings, drawings and photos.

You have to use your eye and imagination.

There are classic photos of the flat plains.
One I remember is a farmhouse or barn on an open field.

Use the clouds as your primary subject, then under expose the clouds, to get the color and lighting. Cool stuff.

Are there parks and gardens that you can go to and shoot at?
Parks and gardens are simply smaller landscapes.

 

[AlanKlein80 19]

Try your hand at people photo essays. People at work or at home doing stuff. How about family portfolios and portraits. If you enlarge and frame them and give to family, you'll get a lot of thanks and good feedback. Your friends and family will love you for them.

 

[Tim Tucker 2]

I live in a flat boring area

Perhaps the answer is here, you won't find anything interesting to photograph until you find it interesting yourself. If you're bored with it no amount of theory will reveal anything other than that boredom...