Focus On The Foreground

In landscape photography, the foreground is often an important element in composing a photograph. The use of nearby objects such as flowers, a flowing river or branches of a tree is a common way to lead the viewer back into the scene toward the major geographic landmarks of a place. A field of poppies leads the eye back toward green, rolling hills. A meandering stream wanders across the image frame to reveal golden desert cliffs beyond. One key advantage to using prominent foregrounds is that it gives the viewer a sense of being there, that one could walk right into the scene. On the other hand, if one wishes to create some mystery to a landscape, providing a lot of context and description will leave little to the imagination.