B (184)

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B+W

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JOKULSARLON, ICELAND

The reflective nature of water makes it a very effective compositional aid. This image wouldn’t work nearly as well

if it wasn’t for the perfect reflection of the mountains in the surface of the lagoon.

Canon EOS 5D MKIII with 24-70mm lens, 1/50sec at f/11, ISO 200

We may moan about the weather, but

one great benefit of high rainfall levels is

that water is an integral part of the British

countryside, adding great interest to our

landscape compositions.

Rivers and streams can be used as

foreground interest, to add a sense of scale

and lead the eye into a scene. This technique

works particularly well if you use a wideangle

lens, though a telephoto can also be useful

for compressing perspective to emphasise

distant curves and ‘S’ bends in rivers. It’s

worth packing a pair of wellies when heading

off to shoot watery landscapes as you may

find the best viewpoint is knee-deep in the

middle of a stream! Where there’s water you

will also find reflections, especially in lakes,

ponds, lochs and tarns where the water is

static. For the best results you need a

perfectly still day so the water’s surface

is mirror-calm – though if the water is in

a sheltered area you may find a calm spot

even when there’s a breeze blowing.

Where you have a nice reflection of the

landscape and sky in the water it often

pays to compose the scene symmetrically,

so the far shore cuts across the centre of

the frame. This will give you a balanced

composition that’s easy on the eye and

which also captures the calm, static nature

of the scene.

When I shoot scenes like this I tend to

use a weak ND grad on my lens so the

reflection doesn’t come out much darker

than the scene being reflected.

A 0.3 or 0.45 grad is aligned so it covers

everything in the top of the shot down

to the shore of the lake. My camera then

naturally increases the exposure so the

reflection comes out lighter, while the grad

filter tones down the rest of the shot so it

doesn’t overexpose. The key is not to over

grad, otherwise the reflection will be lighter

than the landscape and that defies the

laws of physics!

4 WATER IN THE LANDSCAPE

‘We may moan about the

weather, but one great benefi t

of high rainfall levels is that

water is an integral part of

the British countryside.’

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