chapter 4: compoSition 87
conSider the Foreground, middLe ground,
and background
Foreground, middle ground, and background are three very important parts of any
landscape composition and are critical to the visual relationships of any photograph.
Not all landscape photographs will have all three—for example, a mountain against
the sky doesn’t have any foreground—but how you work with these areas has a big
effect on what your picture looks like.
Foreground is the area immediately in front of you that sets the stage for the main
part of the landscape. Background is that part of the landscape that is the most distant
from you. Middle ground is everything in between.
Relationships between these three areas are largely affected by how much space
you devote to each area within your photograph (Figure 4.12). This space is strongly
affected by your height and angle of view toward the landscape. I think it’s fun to
see some of the old photographs of Ansel Adams standing on top of his car. He actu-
ally had a platform there where he could set up a tripod and get some height to the
landscape. He did this deliberately to spread out the relationships of foreground to
middle ground to background.
FIgure 4.12
This image is totally
about the relation-
ship of foreground
to background with
a strong middle
ground in between.ISO 100
1/100 sec.
f/16
15mm
(APS-C)