As the members of the Peer Mentor Program improve their photo-eye it can be educational to have some monthly peer mentor themes that specifically emphasize composition. Taking these photos and “voting” on these compositional themes should begin with thoughtful consideration of the chosen theme.
Foreground Interest has always been an artistic approach in landscape photography and recently the extremely wide-angle lenses have increased the focus on close-up foregrounds. Photos for the Foreground Interest Theme should begin with a foreground that is clearly in focus, leads the viewer’s eye into the landscape, and emphasizes depth.
There are many articles on Foreground Interest with a wide variety of approaches. If you are interested in reading a lot of online articles, there are quite a few articles below that share good photos of a variety of approaches. If you are interested in getting a good start, try these 3:
Let’s start with some very good Foreground Interest Photos from Dustin Abbot at Digital-Photo-School – “The Importance of an Anchor – Why Foreground Matters”. This article has lots of good photos and shows why a wide-angle foreground photo can encourage viewers to begin up-close.
Anne McKinnel explains how to fill the foreground with key points of interest in this Digital-Photo-School “How to use Foreground to Create Depth in your Image”. This article describes why an interesting foreground can dramatically improve your photos.
In the Outdoor Photography Guide, Ian Plant presents a variety of photographs with foreground types using a wide-angle lens, choosing an interesting foreground, increasing depth of field, and leading lines. with “Tips for using Foreground to Create Depth.”
And if you have time and curiosity, you may want to check-in to these articles. Foreground interest can impact a wide variety of types of photographs so checking out these articles is not a waste of time.
PhotographyLife.com is a really good website for all types of photography themes as well as reviews of cameras and lens and just about anything to do with photography. I found both of these articles helpful in emphasizing foreground.
LoadedLandscapes.com is a good website for suggestions for where/when and composition for photography. I found this article to be very helpful.
Digital-Photo-School.com has lots and lots of short articles to help photographers with all kinds of challenges. It gets right to the point:
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