Depth & Perspective.

   Moving into the next section it's back to an old favourite for any aspiring Landscape photography in the theme of Depth and Perspective, now by this point I've probably in one form or another covered this area in the majority of course I've done but it's possibly one of if not the most important aspect to understand and put into practise in landscape work. Don't get me wrong I'd don't claim in anyway to be an expert or even now to fully grasp why some of the ideas I'm going to look at in a minute work but if you can get a good enough grasp the creative possibilities are endless.


Linear Perspective.
One of the first way of creating depth in a photo and maybe one of the easiest is using the idea of Linear Perspective, in basic terms this is when you use parallel lines like walls,hedge lines even the edges of road and paths that are heading away from you and meeting at a vanishing point in the distance. This is one that I do tend to use quiet alot because it occurs more often then you think, just look around you parallel lines are everywhere just asking to be used. The best way to capture this effect is by using a wide angled lens because if you try it with a telescopic one it just compresses the field of view giving the effect a flatten appearance.

Above you can see this Linear perspective in action, as you can see there's more then just one single set of parallel lines at work from the path way to the sides of the green house to even the roof its self all giving the shot the added depth that I'm looking for using the effect.


Diminishing Perspective.
This next idea is similar in a way to Linear but where it differs is that instead of looking for parallel lines here all I'm after is a single line of similar sized objects moving away from the camera.

Here I've used the fence line to create depth in the way I've described above but also in away the actual pathway also work's because this is linear perspective. What I also like about this shot is the way the clouds create shadows on the cliff top in the distance giving added depth in another way which I'm going to look at next.


Tonal Perspective.
The idea here is that you use the light to create depth with the image because of how our brains intemperate what we see. How this works is that if we see a light object against a dark background the brain tells us that this object must be closer because it's brighter then the surrounding area, I know I thought I was doing a photography course but there's a little bit of psychology involved as well.

Here you can see this idea at work, with the way the light illuminates a single area it makes this section stand more forward then the rest of the image. Its not maybe the best example I could have come up with but you can kind of get the idea. What I would have liked to show you here would have been say a building picked out by the sunlight but you can always rely on the weather to try your patience.


Colour Perspective.
In away this is similar to tonal but this time its the warmer colours against cooler ones that create the idea of depth.

Bright yellows and oranges against a very dark background are always going to stand out more but its more the reason that its the clear focus of the shot that makes this image work.


Sharpness.
The idea of using sharpness to create depth relies on the fact that what ever is in focus is closest and then as blurring increases this means that things are moving further and further away from the camera. To create this kind of effect is relatively simple because all you need to do is alter the f-stop setting of your camera to create a very small field of focus.

Here you can see this in action because the focus is on the front of the scene and then by having the f-stop set at f/7.1 I created a nice gradual blur into the background giving good depth to an image that on another occasion would have appeared very flat.


   What all these process present to you as a photographer is the methods to put depth into your work but its being able to diagnose the situations where each method can be of best use to you that's key, practise and a good eye are essential and these can only be gain through time and experience but using these processes as I've found can vastly improve your work and add new dimensions to even the most basic scenes.