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How To Show Depth In Landscapes

July 24, 2017 by Steve Berardi 23 Comments

Mojave DesertOne of the common goals of a landscape photograph is to show depth—either to show the viewer how vast a landscape is or to help lead the viewer’s eye from the foreground into the background.

You might think that adding depth is as simple as using a wide angle lens, but it’s a little more subtle than that.

Here are a few ways to show depth in a landscape photo:

1. Focus on elements that lead the viewer’s eye

The general thing to remember with capturing depth in a landscape is to focus on elements that naturally lead the viewer’s eyes through all dimensions of the landscape. This could be things like a fallen tree that points towards the back of the frame and leads the eye to the base of a mountain, or a stream that serves a similar purpose.

When you lead the viewer’s eye through the frame like this, it makes the viewer feel like they’re traveling through the image—which translates to a feeling of depth.

High Country Sunset

For example, in the image above, there’s a natural path that starts wide in the bottom of the frame, and gets narrower as it moves back in the frame. This helps give depth to the image.

2. Get above the landscape

One of the simplest ways to add depth to a landscape is to get above it. Look around for big rocks you can stand on or see if there’s a short hill nearby (please be careful not to disturb any plants though). Or, if you’re photographing a landscape from the road, you can do what Ansel Adams did: just get on top of your car!

Getting above the landscape helps give you a wider view of what’s below. Think about the difference between seeing a city while standing on the street vs seeing it from the top floor of a skyscraper. Neither view is necessarily “better” than the other, but the view from up high in the skyscraper would show more vastness to the city.

Mojave Sunrise

In order to show the wide open space of the Mojave Desert in the photo above, I shot the photo from a small hill — I was about 4-5 ft above the landscape.

3. Photograph your subject from an angle

If your image focuses around a single large feature, like an interesting rock formation or canyon, then one thing you can do to show depth is photograph it from the side at an angle.

For example, compare these two images of one of my favorite canyons in the Mojave Desert:

Canyon

The first image is a direct shot of the canyon walls — my camera’s sensor for this image was parallel to the wall of the canyon. In the second image, I switched to a wide angle lens and looked down the canyon at an angle — this helps show depth because as the canyon walls get farther in the background, they also get smaller.

4. Include lots of near, mid and far objects

Depth is another word for deep, so in order to show depth, you want to capture a lot of space. One simple rule of thumb to do this is to make sure you include a variety of near, mid and far objects.

This works even better if you have similar objects at different distances, because the human eye knows these objects are the same but sees them getting smaller as they move back in the frame and that makes the viewer process the scene as three dimensional. Like in this photo:

Mojave Desert

If instead you just have near and far objects, the image will have less depth because the viewer will have less space to look and travel through. It’ll seem like there’s a sudden “jump” in the image from near to far.

These are just guidelines, you don’t always need depth

It’s important to remember that you don’t always need depth in a landscape image. Sometimes that might not be the message you’re trying to send with a photograph — and that’s ok! Personally, I photograph a lot of distant landscapes with telephoto lenses, and these naturally show very little depth (not a bad thing at all).

But, in those cases where you DO want to show depth and communicate to the viewer how vast and open a space is, then consider some of the ideas listed above. You don’t need to include them all, just use what works for your vision.

What did I miss?

Do you have another way of showing depth in a landscape image? If so, please share it with us by leaving a comment below. Thanks!

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steveb2About the Author: Steve Berardi is a nature photographer, software engineer, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the beautiful mountains and deserts of southern California.

Filed Under: Landscapes, Tips Tagged With: composition, depth, Landscapes, nature photography, Tips

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Joe says

    July 24, 2017 at 10:33 am

    Glad you’re back…thanks for the article.

    Reply
  2. Wes Gibson says

    July 24, 2017 at 11:04 am

    Gald to hear that you are back in action Steve. I missed reading your articles. I know what it’s like to get overwhelmed with the writing. I’ve been on a one-year hiatus myself.

    I will let all of my friends and followers know that Photo Naturalist is back on the map.

    Reply
  3. Cynthia says

    July 24, 2017 at 11:13 am

    Yeah! Welcome back! Inhave always enjoyed your blog–and this doesn’t disappoint!

    Reply
  4. Jan says

    July 24, 2017 at 11:26 am

    Hi Steve,
    I am glad that you are back. I have been following your and your dad’s articles, which are very interesting, and educational. I missed them very much. I am looking forward to read more articles, but this as long as you have the time to do it. Thank you very much. Have a nice day.
    Jan Khoe

    Reply
  5. Del says

    July 24, 2017 at 11:50 am

    Nice to have you back, Steve. I’ve missed your great tips the last couple of years.

    Your desert shots are awesome. Do you ever capture the Milky Way in the desert? I would be interested in knowing more about how you get those dramatic photos of the night sky.

    Reply
    • Steve Berardi says

      July 24, 2017 at 5:52 pm

      Hi Del,

      We published an article by Jeff Stamer a few years ago, about photographing the Milky Way:

      https://photonaturalist.com/4-steps-photographing-milky-way/

      There’s some good tips in there, but I’ll probably be writing more about it too later this year once it cools down in the desert 🙂

      Reply
  6. JD says

    July 24, 2017 at 11:59 am

    Yay, i forgot i was following you and reminded why i am, awesome photos!!!! yeah, no burn out.

    Reply
  7. Tony says

    July 24, 2017 at 12:32 pm

    Thanks Steve, I have just got back from a trip to Canada and Alaska and was thinking seriously about packing my camera gear away for a while as my pictures are very disappointing p, to me. But just reading your article has given me some hope. So I will now look for someone who can point me in the right direction. I have owned my DSLR for six years now and never really learnt how to use it to its fullest.
    Cheers for that.

    Reply
    • Steve Berardi says

      July 24, 2017 at 5:49 pm

      Don’t give up, Tony! Photography can be frustrating sometimes when your photos don’t come out as you expected, but it can also be rewarding when they do 🙂 just keep trying and learning, and focus on your successes. For every “good” photo I take, there’s usually at least 4 bad ones that didn’t turn out well — and even those “bad photos” are valuable learning experiences because I always go over them and try to explain to myself why the photo failed, which helps improve my vision for future photos.

      Reply
  8. Lynn Krupa says

    July 24, 2017 at 12:51 pm

    Welcome back!

    Reply
  9. John Pierce says

    July 24, 2017 at 1:15 pm

    Great tips. Glad you are back ????????

    Reply
  10. Don Hendricks says

    July 24, 2017 at 1:46 pm

    Welcome back, Steve! I am so happy to know that my favorite mentor is back from hiatus! This article is so timely for me! Putting your advice to practical application. I’ve just upgraded some gear – my first full-frame (5DMarkIV) and I’m anxious to explore the new possibilities! Yes! I am stoked buddy!

    Reply
  11. Jodie says

    July 24, 2017 at 4:05 pm

    Great post. Nice to hear from you again. I totally get it about life taking over aspirations. Persistence is key!

    Reply
  12. Jim says

    July 24, 2017 at 4:06 pm

    We’ve missed you. Glad to see you back!

    Reply
  13. kay ellen Hamilton says

    July 24, 2017 at 4:59 pm

    Great info many thanks

    Reply
  14. Steve Berardi says

    July 24, 2017 at 5:42 pm

    Thanks everyone for your kind and welcoming comments! It’s very good to be back 🙂

    Reply
  15. Wendy says

    July 25, 2017 at 1:18 am

    Welcome Back, Steve!
    Your tips are so helpful and easy to understand. I love your images. Your respect for nature comes out in your work. I live in Southern Oregon where there are many opportunities for depth of field and your tips have helped me often to capture it the best way possible.
    You have been missed.
    Wendy

    Reply
  16. Gordon says

    July 25, 2017 at 6:08 am

    Glad to see you’re back again! I enjoy your posts a lot!

    Reply
  17. Norman Eaton says

    July 25, 2017 at 9:29 am

    Good to hear from you again, looking forward to reading your articles

    Reply
  18. Dale L Peterson says

    July 25, 2017 at 9:46 am

    Ditto, ditto, ditto. Enjoy your perspective. Thanks for being the Guy.

    Reply
  19. Bill Sotak says

    July 25, 2017 at 5:26 pm

    So pleased you are back again. This article is a prime example of the quality work you do–from both the photography and the writing perspectives.

    Reply
  20. Lillian says

    July 29, 2017 at 12:49 pm

    Missed u, ur articles & photos. Welcome back????????

    Reply
  21. Patti says

    August 7, 2017 at 8:30 am

    Welcome back! Thanks for the article!

    Reply

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