A landscape is a section or portion of scenery - usually nature - as seen from a single viewpoint. Typically, people and animals are not shown in a landscape, unless they are relatively small in the image and have been included in the composition to show scale.

The term “Urban Landscape” describes photographs of the city taken in the manner of a landscape, using buildings and other man-made features as graphical elements of composition that are treated in the same way the photographer would treat mountains and trees.

Three styles of landscape photography are recognized - representational, impressionistic and abstract.

The representational style show scenery at its most natural and realistic way, without visual manipulation or artifice. It is a straightforward style - however, successful images are more than simple snapshots. Although the photographer adds no props or other components to a scene and does not try to “bend” reality, great attention is paid to composition and detail. Light, timing and the weather are critical elements.

The impressionistic landscape photographer employs photographic techniques that result in images that have vague or elusive qualities. They are less tangible and more unreal, while still retaining their values that make them landscape pictures. The viewer is given the impression of a landscape rather than the clear reality of one.

Abstract style could also probably be referred to as graphic style, since the components of scenery are treated by the photographer as graphic elements, arranged for their compositional values. Natural elements may be rendered as unrecognizable as shape and form take priority. Elements may be juxtapositioned for comparison or contrast, isolated by extreme close-up, reduced to silhouettes by severe underexposure, and so on. Design is more important than recognizable representation.

Continued in part 2

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