Landscape Styles

There are many styles of landscape photography that have been used in many different ways to create some really interesting photo's.

Of these many styles I am going to select a few and focus on these. The styles and select my favorite examples an try to analyse them. I will focus on will be:

• Seascapes
• Cityscapes
• Representational
• Impressionistic
• Abstract

Seascapes

Seascapes are viewed by some to be seperate from landscapes completely not being of land an all. However I do class it as a form of landscape photography so i will be looking at it because it offers a whole different focus that i find interesting.

Cityscapes

These are also not always classed under landscape and are some times classed as a style of there own like seascapes but they offer many great images that carry all the features of a normal landscape photograph but with the added senery of the man made world that dominates so many views. If you don't use it to your advantage it can ruin a photo but if used properly it can be a great tool to show contrast and scale.

Representational

This style results in pictures that show scenery at its most natural and realistic, with no visual manipulation or artifice. It is a straightforward style - what you see is what you get. Successful images in the representational style are not simple snapshots. Although the photographer adds no props or other components to a scene and does not try to “bend” reality, great attention is paid to composition and detail. Light, timing and the weather are critical elements.

IMPRESSIONISTIC

The impressionistic landscape photographer employs photographic techniques that result in images that have vague or elusive qualities. They are less tangible and more unreal, while still retaining their values that make them landscape pictures. The viewer is given the impression of a landscape rather than the clear reality of one.

ABSTRACT

This style - Abstract - could also probably be referred to as the graphic style, since the components of scenery are treated by the photographer as graphic elements, arranged for their compositional values. Natural elements may be rendered as unrecognizable or almost so. Shape and form take priority. Elements may be positioned for comparison or contrast, isolated by extreme close-up, reduced to silhouettes by severe underexposure, and so on. Design is more important than recognizable representation.