Photo tip # 2 - The foreground

There is a beautiful sky, but do you have something in front of?

In front of a beautiful landscape, one can often be inclined to concentrate on a single element - the sky, the mountains, a building - and forget the rest. The image being in only two dimensions, the element of grandeur that we saw on the spot is easily lost.

There is however an excellent trick to reproduce this depth of the landscape in the photo: to integrate a strong element in the foreground.

What to put in the foreground?

Any object can be brought to the foreground. The aim is to bring context and dimension to what lies behind. A seashell, a boat or rocks on the beach, flowers in a field, a tree or a person are just a few examples.

Camping and daisies in Georgia

Bend down

If the foreground subject brings a higher quality to the photo, it is still necessary to find it! For that, it is a question of opening the eye towards the ground. Once my object is located, I usually get as close as possible to it.

The outlook is completely different when you are standing or bending over. When I photograph a landscape, I am very often sitting on the ground in front of my tripod placed as low as possible.

I walked around this temple for a long time to find an interesting foreground. Once the water lilies were found, I bent down to include them completely in the buildings and in the sky.

It is also not uncommon for me to move the objects myself to have a better context. Like this skull that I turned so that I could photograph it from the side rather than behind.

The arid climate of Azerbaijan

Choose your horizon

Finally, you have to decide where to place your horizon. Generally following the rule of thirds (first photo tip), I ask myself the question on what is the most interesting: the sky, or what is in front. Most of the time, I choose to keep only a little sky, but if the clouds are interesting and the colors varied, I will make more room for it.

Alone, a great sky will not have all the depth that one would like. But added to the subject chosen for the foreground, it will give it a context and an element of grandeur.

Camping in a cemetery in Kazakhstan

And remember, it's not the camera that takes the photo, but the person behind the lens. Keep your eyes open, move, lean, be active. Everything is already in front of you, you just have to find it.

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