 johanne guenette |
Making mountains big not flat I just moved to Colorado. When I take pictures of the Rockies (doesn't matter if it's an old 35 mm or my new Sony digital), the mountains always appear flatter not as majestic as I see them with naked eyes. Why is that? I tried different angles but I'm never satisfied with the outcome. Thanks, Johanne
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
For starters, when I moved to Colorado I have to say I was disappointed in the Rockies. As far as mountains go they aren't all that spectacular. Their big selling point is there are just so many of them. Quantity over quality. If you want to see beautiful mountains.....nah never mind. You don't want to see the Cascades in Oregon. What was I thinking? ;-))) Seriously, one of the keys to good mountain shots (and landscape shots in general) is to get close to them and use a wide angle lens. The reason for this is to show depth in the shot. With a wide angle lens you can include a foreground element (a flower or rock) that leads the eye into the frame. In the background you place the mountain. Showing the relationship between the foreground and background elements will give you image depth (making it less flat).
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Molly O'Connell |
First of all, Jeff I'm from Colorado, and I don't appriciate your're comment about the mountains. (j/k) I've lived there my entire life and I have some great pictures of the mountains. One thing I've found is that taking picures in black and white can make the mountains look good (when there is snow on them) cause it gives the picture good contrast. Go to Telluride, those are by far the most beautiful mountains I've iver seen.
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
Molly, you're right. The mountains around Tlluride and also around Ouray are pretty. Having grown up around volcanic peaks (like the Cascades), I am more partial to clasically shaped mountains. Another thing about the Colorado Rockies that makes them less appealing to me is that they seem to have relatively high timberlines (IOW, the trees seem to grow much higher up on them. Which makes them look less mountainish to me. It must have something to do with latitude because the Wyoming Rockies seem to have a lower tree line. A lot of things look better in b&w but b&w doesn't really add the depth Johanne is looking for.
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Molly O'Connell |
Jeff, Sorry to bug you about the mountains again, but what do mean by classical shaped mountains. Also what do you mean about the high timberlines? I am living in New Zealand right now, and it's winter here. The mountains here don't have trees at all, beacause all the mountains are above the tree line, but the mountains here are not taller that any mountain in Colorado or the the cascades i'm sure. the highest mountain in newzealand isn't even 1400ft. Except they use meters here, but still I know that there not any taller in elevation. I don't know?
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johanne guenette |
I think you should both send mountain pictures in a photo gallery for my (and probably others) benefits. It will give me an idea of what I should obtain with different settings: I got a wide angle lens and will also try b&w. Thank you for your info. (and may be I'll get my mountain gallery one of these days).
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
By classically shaped mountains I mean conical or pyramid shaped. IOW a wide base with a sharp peak. The Rockies, for the most part, are just clumps of rock. They were formed by upheaval of the earths crust. Mountains like the Cascades were formed volcanically. Consequently they are shaped differently. As to the tree line, I think part of the determination of treeline is the latitude in relation to the equator. As I stated the treeline in Colorado seems relatively high. Whereas the same Rocky Mountains in Wyoming the treeline is much lower. The lower treeline shows more "rocky" mountain and thus gives a better impression of grandeur IMO. Sorry Johanne, most of my landscape work is of a more intimate nature so I don't have a lot of mountain shots to post. But I think you'll find if you include more foreground elements with wider angle lenses that your shots will be a lot less flat.
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Molly O'Connell |
If I could figure out how to get my pictures uploaded or downloaded, I would put some mountain picutures in there, but it might be a while, I suck with computers and I've been trying to get pictures on the internet for a while now, and nothing I ever do works
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