Pro-Tip #2: Creating Depth

Depth or the feeling of depth is a compositional element used to trick the brain in thinking a flat piece of paper (or screen) has three dimensional qualities. Here are five common effects the pros use to create depth:

Relative Size Effect - Include a distinct foreground, middle ground, and background in your composition. Elements in the foreground look larger than those in the middle ground which look larger than those in the background creating a sense of depth. This is often accomplished with a wide-angle lens and by getting down low and close to your foreground which has the effect of making it appear larger than life while the middle and background appear smaller than normal accentuating depth.

Cascade Detail, North Creek, Zion NP - © Greg Clure

Here in my Cascade Detail example of this effect, my camera lens is about 12 inches from the water cascading over the sandstone terrace and about 18 inches off the ground, so I am low and close to my foreground which comprises the bottom half of the image. The middle ground is the next quarter up and includes the creek bed and upper terrace water falls and background is comprised of the trees and cliffs in top quarter of the image. A vertical or portrait orientation does the best job of capturing depth when using this effect as it provides more near to far real estate to illustrate the scene's depth.

Elevated Effect - Often used in combination with the above effect, gaining elevation helps by visually separating the foreground, middle ground, and background, which makes perspective lines and size comparisons more apparent.

Ice Cream, White Pocket - © Greg Clure

Pocket Reflection, White Pocket - © Greg Clure

The pool in both these images are one and the same which might not be apparent at first glance. In my Ice Cream image I climbed up to an elevated vantage point about 10 feet above the pool which provides greater separation of elements than the low and close view at pool level image titled Pocket Reflection. This elevated vantage point also allowed me to include a more distant sunlit butte in the background not seen in the Pocket Reflection image.

Atmospheric Effect - The use of haze or fog creates depth by obscuring more distant objects even if those object are not all the far away.

Toroweap Sunset - © Greg Clure

In my image, Toroweap Sunset, I am demonstrating all three of the effects discussed so far in a single image as we have a distinct foreground, middle ground and background. I am close to the foreground rock ledge. I am shooting from an elevated location, 3000 feet above the Colorado River and the canyon walls and distant buttes are obscured by the haze and recede into the distance enhancing the feeling of depth and size of the Grand Canyon.
 
Juxtaposition Effect - While similar to the first effect discussed, this effect uses a prominent foreground juxtaposed to the background. The reduction or elimination of a middle ground creates a strong sense of depth by accentuating distance.

Stormy Sierras - © Greg Clure

In my Stormy Sierras image I am juxtaposing the foreground petroglyphs against the distant Sierra Range and dramatic storm clouds. While you could say there is some middle ground here, the slice of open brush land between the petroglyphs and the mountains, it is not a significant or important part of the image. So this image is really two-thirds foreground and one-third background and goes a long way to enhancing the sense of distance.


Perspective Effect - Include leading lines, S-curves and converging lines in your images as these visual cues of perspective are easily associated with depth or distance.

Playa de Verde - © Greg Clure

My Playa de Verde image is a good example of leading line and they are mostly all converging toward the setting sun. There are line of mossy rocks and lines of blue water between those rock all pointing toward the sunset. The prominent rock jetty ends just before the sun. The bay waters channel the ocean waters on both sides of the jetty towards the sun. The flaring sun rays and V-shaped hillsides point toward the sun. All these lines and others seemingly point to and converge toward the setting sun. This image also exhibits four of five effects discussed and tells a convincing story of depth and distance.

So what are you waiting for, get out there and and capture that third dimension of depth in your landscape images and breathe some life into your two dimensional photos.

Pro-Tip #1: Back Button Focusing

While many problems can be fixed in software after capture, focus or sharp focus, is not one of them. Focus must be obtained at the point of image capture as no amount of post-process sharpening can bring an out-of-focus subject into focus. One way to gain better control over your point-of-focus is to separate the focusing action from the exposure reading when you fully depress the shutter button. Most all DSLRs and many point and shoot cameras are capable of separating these two functions. In the case of a DSLR, you can assign the focusing action to one of the other buttons on the back of your camera, known as "Back-button Focusing". This allows you to place your center focus point, which is your most accurate focus point, directly on your subject to obtain sharp focus and then re-compose the shot as desired gaining the proper exposure for the re-composed scene when you depress the shutter button. Not only will you begin to increase the number of sharply focused images you are recording but you will also gain more accurate exposure readings for your scenes. Review your camera manual for instructions on how to set this up on your particular camera then give it a try, it may take a while to get used to this new way of image capture but the results will be much better and more controllable than when both functions were engaged with the shutter button alone.

Black & White Processing

© Greg Clure

What images make good candidates for black & white (B&W) comversion? Any image with tonal contrast. What is tonal contrast? Tonal contrast are those areas of different luminacity. The best B&W candidates have many of these alterating tonal areas repeated throughout the image. This image of a water filled pocket in the White Pocket area of the Vermillion Cliffs has such characteristics. The white sandstone rock (a light tone) is broken up throughout the image by the darker shadow areas of the cracks (a dark tone) running between the rocks. The same thing is happening with the blue sky and white clouds and we see both repeated in the pool's reflection of rock and sky. The pool's concentric rings also has alternating light/dark tonality.

When converting images to B&W use an optimized color image in a RAW format for maximum control and detail. Since RAW images contain more information they can be pushed further than others. Once you have your color version looking its best, you can now convert to B&W. I have found that there is not faster and easier way to do this conversion than by using Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro 2. I also like to access Silver Efex from Photoshop which allows the use of Smart Filter technology which is a non-distructive means of applying changes that can be re-accessed at any time to make changes starting with all the controlls in the last place you left them. The presets available in Silver Efex make it fast to select a starting point, simply browse the presets and select the one that works best for your image. In the case of this image, I choose the Full Contrast & Structure preset. This however was a bit to contrasty for the sky area but not quite enough structure and contrast for the rock area. Using the global adjustments I brought down the brightness and bumped up the contrast and structure. I also added a red filter to futher enhance the sky by darkening the blue areas. Still wanting more controll over each area in the image I created a group of controll points for both the sky area and rock areas and further tweeked my contrast in the sky and structure in the rock. This conversion took me about 2 minutes to complete, thanks to Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. Nik offers a free 15 day trial version of any of their plug-ins and you can download (use download button in right column) it and give it a try on some of your images. If you like it, and I am sure you will, you can use my discount code, gclure, to recieve a 15% discount on your purchase at www.niksoftware.com. Or equally impressive is Black & White Effects from Topaz Labs who offers a dozen plug-ins for Lightroom, Photoshop and Aperture. The good news is you can download a free trial copy at www.topazlabs.com and compare it to Nik's and purchase the one that you find works best for you! The same discount code, gclure, will save you 15% on any Topaz product as well.