© Paolo Dala
Creating Landscape Photos
Monet was a great artist. What is it that makes his paintings good? Like so many artists, his technique was excellent, but technique is simply platform for creativity. The crucial element in his work, and that which sets him apart, was his imagination and flare for interpreting the interaction between light and his subjects. This allowed him translate what he saw onto a two dimensional canvas. His paintings are more than a record of a subject. The appeal to all senses, not just the visual, and allow us to experience rather than mere view each scene.
Photography, like art, is a creative medium which relies on the translation of a three dimensional scene into a two dimensional image. At the time of taking a photograph the scene is set by the light but also by the other senses which create an atmosphere. How well an image works depends on the photographer's creativity in capturing, or sometimes creating, the mood of the scene rather than just photographing the subject. As with Monet, a great landscape photographer, such as Ansel Adams, showed more than good technique in his photographs. The images are his own personal view of the world, but a view which has immediate impact and a more sustaining interest. Every time you look at one of his photographs you feel as if you are there, and can experience what he experienced at the time the picture was taken.
Too often the keen photographer attaches too much importance to equipment and technique. Both are just tools which allow the creative work to succeed. Many photographers fall into the trap of thinking that they have to use the best and latest equipment to be able to take good photographs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Monet needed only paints and a canvas, not the best paints and the latest canvas. Of course good technique Is important but it is a basic skill in the range of skills needed to become a good photographer. Its importance will become most apparent when you are trying to take a photograph in rapidly changing light. The photographer with poor technique will almost certainly spend so much time deciding which lens and settings to use that the moment will be lost. To an experienced photographer basic technique is second nature, allowing efforts to be concentrated on the creative process of capturing the subject itself.
Chris Coe The Art of Landscape Photography