Article

Landscape photography

So what is landscape photography?

When we think of landscape photography we may think of rolling hills, mountain scenes or similar, but landscape photography includes any larger picturesque setting, so a train in the countryside, a large house in its grounds, or a single tree silhouetted against the sunset plus many other situations are all landscape scenes.

Thornton Force on the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail, Yorkshire

Landscape photography can, at any time of the year and in any place just about, although some would class townscape and seascapes as a superset or subsets of landscape.

You can take landscapes from a building, or a vehicle, or within the landscape itself. The subjects within it could be hills, valleys, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, trains, roads.......

So it may be that its not the subject, or style but the setting that defines it as a landscape image. So when someone says they are a landscape photographer they are not giving much away.

One dictionary defines landscape as :-

1. A portion of land or territory which the eye can comprehend in a single view, including all the objects it contains.

2. A picture representing a scene by land or sea, actual or fancied, the chief subject being the general aspect of nature, as fields, hills, forests, water. etc.

3. The pictorial aspect of a country.

and  Landscape Gardening, the art of laying out grounds and arranging trees, shrubbery, etc., in such a manner as to produce a picturesque effect.

Historically is also tells us that the term landskip was used to mean the same.

Someone who lists themselves as a landscape photographer, usually means that they specialise in large country and mountain scenes, rather then photography based upon subjects within the scene. For them its the wide open spaces, and general geography that is of prime interest. Others however use the term to mean picturesque countryside images, so a scene in a wood with bluebells, a stile and path, a waterfall in a picturesque setting...

If you are to class yourself as a landscape photographer it may be worth defining either what you mean by the term or deciding which part or subset of landscape photography you are interested in.

Having decided the areas of interest we can then think about how to photograph it, and can select one or more of the following articles to consider the topic in more detail.

Photographing Pictorial Landscapes (views)

Photographing Historic Houses 

Photography articles in the following sections, each looking at photographing these features:-

Gardens

Waterfalls

Walks

Castles

Abbeys

Canals

Railways

Islands Section