Panoramic Format for Compelling Landscapes
Posted October 4th, 2007 in [hide]
From Yellowstone’s Geyser Basin, this is a good example of the power of panoramic format landscape photography. We tend to scan the horizon - glance side to side - to keep our wits about us and avoid surprises. Whether this is hard wired from evolutionary times or because of the generally broad plane from one edge of our vision to the other, we see the world this was: as wide as the sky.
Photography is an art, meaning that your goal shouldn’t be to reproduce the world as a bystander would see it. On the other hand, tapping into the familiar can help convey abstract notions.
Cameras have a number of deficits compared to actually being there; chief among them is being locked into staring in one direction. More than resolution, tonal range, or any other specification, satisfying the viewer’s curiosity about a scene while avoiding distractions is what makes an image seem realistic. This isn’t always appropriate or useful, but it’s a good tool to carry around in your bag of tools.
Those wide but short and squat pictures are really nice. Any one of them would make the best web banner in history. The top one is just nice. Calming, metative.
How cool! I can’t even tell which one is best - but it’s probably one of the nature ones. I like that you can share your tips with us mere mortals. Ha!