Tuscany in Autumn

by Tony
(Manchester UK)

This was a beautiful vista,

I wanted to get the idea of the hayfield against the backdrop of the mountain range.


Tony has spotted a wonderful vista here, and captured it well.

One thing that immediately strikes the viewer when they look at this photo is the depth. Tony has done well to capture some foreground interest, some mid-ground interest, and finally those wonderful mountains create our backdrop.

This is important, because landscapes that lack a range of interest tend to look a little flat.

Let’s go one step further and look at the position of these focal points – first the neatly rolled bales of hay. They sit in the foreground quite neatly on the bottom line of the classic ‘rule of thirds’ (click for more on the rule of thirds - and scroll down to the photo showing the rule of thirds. Keep the window open as you read through the rest of my comments).

Then there is the horizon – the line of those mountain tops sits well on the top line of the rule of thirds.

This brings me onto the vertical lines, and my main tip for improvement. The vertical lines of the rule of thirds have been a little neglected in this photo. Take the right hand bale of hay and the central tree as examples – they sit in the middle of the photo, leaving emptiness on the right side of the photo.

Then look at the left hand bale of hay and the tree on the left side of the photo – they are very close to the edge of the photo. Too close, especially with all that space on the right!

Just imagine if Tony had moved his camera to the left a little. He could have placed a bale of hay and a tree on the two vertical lines of the rule of thirds, and we would have a better balanced photo as a result.

There is something else Tony could try here – use the crop tool, but make a square crop, rather than the more common rectangular crop (for some reason we just don’t see enough square photos any more). He could cut out the empty space on the right, place the right side bale of hay on the right edge of the photo, and restore the balance!

Thanks Tony for the submission, and I hope there are some tips in here for improvements.

Ed.

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