Portrait of a Landscape

[LaFoto]

VerticalLandscape von Corinna-Fotos auf Flickr

On the Island of Madeira

What do you say about the vertical orientation here?
I feel it is the only possible way to frame this scene. Do you?

 

[seakritter]

I would agree, mostly because of the haze over the mountains in the background. It creates more of a vocal point of the foreground. The sky is being effect by it however, perhaps you could correct that.

"As I Wander"

 

[KenC]

Yes, absolutely. I love the reddish flowers tucked into the lower right corner and how one is led from there to the mountain with the trees as a border on the right. The antennae on the mountain are a good touch, imo. Many landscape and nature photographers go by the "no hand of man" rule, but I think it's important to show that there actually is very little unspoiled nature anymore.

 

[LaFoto]

Seakritter, how would I correct the sky?
I worked on the haze a bit, carefully, and - you can see that the light was more or less against me - the polarizer did not work overly well at the point of taking this photo.
What more could I do without making the whole scene look false?

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Wow this is showing HUGE on my monitor, how'd you pull that off? Cool pic.

 

[LaFoto]

Does it not shrink automatically here on TPF?
It was an attempt to upload pics that big, but I decided I much rather upload them smaller yet again.
Maybe not quite as small as they used to be but considerably smaller, anyway.

 

[jowensphoto]

Portrait of a Landscape

Aren't you clever!

 

[cgipson1]

Lovely shot! The haze CAN be dealt with.... I would ask Keith, he would know.

 

[LaFoto]

But then doesn't the haze show how much further away those higher mountains are?

 

[Bend The Light]

But then doesn't the haze show how much further away those higher mountains are?

I think the haze is not showing in the sky, so the sky would appear closer than the mountains in the background. It's incongruous.

I think the far mountains should lose the haze if possible.

Like the framing and the image itself. I have a lot of portraits of landscapes.

 

[timor]

What do you say about the vertical orientation here?
I feel it is the only possible way to frame this scene. Do you?

Who said that landscape HAS to be horizontal ? I think...nobody ! You frame your picture in best way, to show, what do you intend to show.
To be hazy...or not to be hazy. Goes both ways. Haze here supports strong feeling of third dimension, space. No haze; maybe the mountains far over there are not that interesting. What should be of concern are the aerials on the top of them. Man made element in otherwise pure nature.
To avoid haze I think the best way is to put a proper filter on the lens before releasing the shutter.

 

[LaFoto]

... you can see that the light was more or less against me - the polarizer did not work overly well at the point of taking this photo.

Just so I don't have to repeat myself, Timor.
What better filter could there have been (given that I've only got a regular ND-filter and the polariser...)

But BIG thanks to everyone who replied!!! :hugs:

 

[timor]

Polarizer is only effective in specific orientations towards the sun but aren't the shelves in every photo store full of UV, daylight and haze filters ? I heard that Tiffen is making very good ones.

 

[Derrel]

Looks good as a vertical...this picture is to me all about the different depth planes...I immediately see five different depth planes, each one very distinct. Had this been framed as a horizontal, I think the tall trees would have had to have been sacrificed, and those trees are BIG depth cues...the very nearest foliage would have also been minimized, and the entire shot would have lost a LOT of the feeling of great distance being shown would have disappeared. This scene seems to be well-frames as a "tall", yes, most definitely. I myself do not mind the haze one bit; it's called aerial perspective, and its presence conveys both time of year, as well as increasing distance.

 

[Compaq]

I really like the vertical framing. It's the only way to include that much foreground as well as the mountain in the back, unless you go at shorter focal lengths - or back off (which isn't always easy in the terrain you're shooting in here, in my experience...too much can get in the way, trees and stuff). As Derrel pointed out, the different planes is lovely, and naturally drags my eye into the scene. The trees is very nicely framed in upper right corner, IMO. The slightly curved diagonal is lovely and a classic element of landscape photography, and it's much easier to get these visually pleasing diagonals in a vertical orientation.

There is a very subtle CROSS (X) in here. My eyes goes across the scene, from lower right to upper left. Then, it goes from the trees in upper right and follows the curved diagonal I talked about. That makes an X. This basically means that you're used your space in the frame very efficiently - everything is of interest.

To conclude, great shot.