Immersed
Have you ever felt like you could walk into a painting or a photograph? And did you linger in rapt attention, eyes moving throughout the image? I experienced this recently.
Bill Hughes (1932-1992) Canyon Passage 1991 Oil on Canvas
I was in Marietta, Georga in June visiting friends John and Joann Vineyard. They suggested a visit to the nearby Booth Museum of Western Art. This painting stopped the three of us in our tracks. We felt compelled to “walk into it” and linger.
The 3-D Challenge
Grabbing and maintaining interest in a two-dimensional landscape image requires conveying a sense of depth. You need clues to spatial relationships.
Painters start with a blank canvas and add clues to convey depth. It’s a distinct advantage.
But photographers must choose complimentary subjects and then coherently arrange them in the field. And processing the image in Photoshop™ is often necessary to enhance a sense of depth.
It isn’t always possible. Sometimes photographers reluctantly move on from beautiful scenes because they didn’t convey depth.
Atmosphere is an ally. The sense of three-dimensionality in last week’s Altit Fort photograph was due to atmosphere. The smoke separated the Fort from the distant mountainside creating a sense of distance.
Dust, fog, smoke, and clouds cause objects in the distance to become less distinct, lighter, and less saturated compared to foreground objects. Those clues to distance quickly attract photographers to the subject and viewers to their images.
The Shot
This was taken just after the Altit Fort photograph from last week’s Friday Photo. I had my telephoto lens attached looking for a way to use it to my advantage. A telephoto lens compresses perspective, making objects appear closer together.
After spotting the compressed repeating triangle shapes of the mountainsides retreating into the hazy distance, I knew I had my composition with those much-needed clues to depth.
Thanks for looking,
Chuck Derus