I was just looking at my photos from my last trip to the Grand Canyon and I was not impressed at all. Why do photos of beautiful landscapes never do them justice? Alex Robinson, Suffolk
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Readers response
You can take a great landscape photo if you know how to compose the image. Most people point the camera at what they’re looking at and press the button. Painters don’t just paint what’s in front of them; They create a picture. The answer is composition. too many roses
It’s most likely the camera you shot the scene with. I recommend you try using Grand Canon. photomontage
Beautiful scenery gives me (and maybe you) a tremendous sense of light, space, color and freedom; It makes me feel like life is worth living, that I’m on top of the world (especially if I’m at the top of a hill). harmony, well-being and balance, if only for a moment. I also have the feeling of moving and being in nature. That’s a lot to expect, especially from a photograph that has only a limited range of colors and brightness, is taken near midday, has none of the golden tones of sunrise or sunset, and has a limited depth of focus. Photography compresses space, depth, and panorama into a flat rectangle. What is remarkable is that photos can be impressive and beautiful, given all the restrictions. But they can, just like paintings. Let’s Just Look At This
Photography really struggles to capture the sheer scale of geographical features like the Grand Canyon. Having the ability to take breathtaking photos is why professional photographers still exist, especially when everyone on the planet has a camera phone and believes themselves to be a photographer! Even with a wide-angle lens on a DSLR or the widest angle of view on a phone camera, you can’t begin to fit the entire scene in the frame, so you’ll need to decide which small section to photograph. Some photographers use extreme ultra-wide-angle lenses or physically or digitally combine multiple photos to create a panorama of the entire scene; but unless the final pressures are very large, the effect is usually disappointing.
Relating to: How to take great photos – tips from an award-winning photographer
Choosing a viewpoint and a time of day with dramatic light in advance can make a big difference. Choose early mornings or evenings when shadows are longer and colors are brighter; Avoid harsh, direct midday sun. Look at how great photographers like Ansel Adams or artists like David Hockney approached the Grand Canyon for some inspiration and thought-provoking. james1000
Ansel Adams certainly did landscape photography justice, using primarily cameras with large or medium format sensors (film or plate negatives) and lenses with long focal lengths, often tiltable to correct for the reduction of tall, distant objects. In modern cameras all these features are minimized, but some degree of correction is possible with in-camera AI. Of course, it was also printed in black and white. Modern professional landscape photographers either use versions of older technology or have learned to use processing tools like Photoshop to manipulate their images. You have to decide what your image is for and whether adapting your kit or technique is worth it… daibeaver
Neither photographs nor paintings can do justice to a scene. Smells, sounds, breezes, changing light, and the impact of the audience’s movements are all included in the appreciation of the scene. However, a good landscape painting can evoke memories of a visit and with it the emotional impact on the viewer. It can also be an artistic expression in its own right, conveying visual components in a way that evokes an emotional response completely independent of context. RollyW
Photography is a skill and an art. As can be seen from our holiday photos, most of us are not talented artists. We wouldn’t expect to match the artistry of a Michelin chef or an old master portrait painter who honed his skills over years of study. Why do we all hope to be able to take amazing photos? Random username222
I’ve photographed quite a bit in the southwestern United States, and the Grand Canyon is known to be a pretty challenging place because it’s so vast. Your eye commands the sense of perspective—or thinks it does—and therefore marvels (though occasionally you see a plane flying over the canyon and suddenly realize that your own perspective, too, is stunned by the size).
Three tips for taking photos at GC are: choose golden hour; My best photos are taken at sunset or sunrise; There are some spectacular lighting effects; make sure you get some images of specific features or sightlines rather than the entire canyon (which almost never reflects what you see); and if you can, add something to it that gives a sense of perspective. This is also really hard for the Grand Canyon because the people on the other rim will be completely invisible. I also always buy a few postcards as backup. Use the photos you took to remind you of this feeling and enjoy seeing an unfilmable wonder like Everest. You’ve been there!
“Size means nothing to the senses, and all we are left with is a troubling sense of vastness.” (Clarence Dutton seeing the Grand Canyon.) thomas1178
A camera, no matter how expensive or complex, is an incredibly simple device compared to the human brain. Our eyes can perceive an incredible amount of information in 3D; This allows the brain to create a complex picture that would not be possible with, for example, a camera with a shutter operating at 1/200 of a second. It is impossible to capture in a single photograph what our eyes see over a period of time. ChrisGC
A good landscape is rarely a good photograph. I think a photographer’s best art lies in finding and isolating something that others have missed. PascalFire
Because the best perspectives are blocked by lots of narcissists taking selfies. Shrinkproof