Telephoto landscape

Learning goal

From inside a wide landscape, you will be able to pick out with a long lens just one piece, a handful of trees where the light falls, overlapping ridges or the lines of fields on a slope, and turn it into a frame of its own. You will notice that when you take the sky and the horizon out of the frame the viewer can't judge size, that this ambiguity brings the frame closer to a pattern, and use it knowingly. You will recognize the hours when a long path of air makes the image shimmer and choose the cool hours, and reduce vibration with a long lens. You will learn to show a distant person both as a measure and as a person, taking into account what haze and a snowy background change in their skin.

The question

Your friend looks at the wide frame they shot after the storm. The rocks, the clouds, the end of the rainbow; all in place. But their eye stays on a small piece of the opposite slope: the light seeping between the clouds has fallen on just a handful of pines on a dark slope. The trees bright, what's behind them in shadow, lined up in rows. In the wide frame this piece takes up the space of a fingernail and no one notices it. Yet looking at it, a carpet pattern appears in their mind. Why photograph a landscape up close?

Context

You know from the calculations you made about viewpoint that when shot from afar with a long lens the background comes closer to the subject and grows, that is, perspective compression (Lesson 12.4). While working on symmetry and repetition you noticed that a shape repeated enough to fill the frame builds a pattern, and its spaced repetition a rhythm (Lesson 14.3). In the abstract photography lesson you also tried tearing an object from its context and telling it only through shape, line, color and texture (Lesson 16.10).

In landscape, the wide angle is often the first lens that comes to mind: it fits everything in. But inside a wide scene there are frames that only show when you look through a narrow window. A long lens stacks mountains on top of each other, turns a slope's texture into a fabric and makes a patch of light the star of the scene. This lesson takes up, after shooting the wide landscape once, changing the lens and walking inside the same scene.

Simple explanation

What is chosen from inside the landscape?

An intimate landscape is a landscape frame showing, instead of a wide scene as a whole, a small piece chosen from inside it, a part of a slope, a forest edge or a ridge line. The sky, the horizon and the viewpoint's wide angle leave the frame; only tones, lines, textures and light remain. These frames often carry a quiet, close and personal feeling; the viewer seems to have stepped inside the landscape.

The choice begins by looking at the wide scene with a long lens, scanning it slowly. Ridges stepping in front of each other turn, thanks to compression, into layers of paper stacked one over another. Trees or field boundaries on a slope turn into a repeating rhythm, and a piece where light falls into an accent shining against a shaded background. Using the long lens like a pair of binoculars shows these pieces that don't show in the wide frame. After picking out a piece, if there is a distracting road, pole or wire at the edges, shifting the framing a little cleans up the frame.

Why does size disappear?

Scale ambiguity is the viewer being unable to judge the size of what they see because there is no element of known size in a frame. When you take out the sky and horizon and fill the frame with a slope's texture, the viewer can't tell whether those lines are the boundaries of a field or the folds of a fabric under their hand. This ambiguity brings the frame closer to a pattern, an abstract surface, and can invite the viewer to look longer.

There are also times you don't want the ambiguity. If you want to tell how big a mountain really is, a small person on the ridge, a single pine standing alone or a shepherd's hut brings the scale back. A distant person shot with a long lens stands small but distinct in front of the mountain behind, thanks to compression. Such a person isn't only a measure; with their walk, their stance and their clothing they add a story to the frame. Which you choose depends on whether the frame will tell a pattern or a place.

What does a long lens make harder?

Heat shimmer is air rising from warm ground or water bending light and making distant things look shimmering and soft. Because the path of air looked through with a long lens is kilometers long, this effect grows a lot. In the noon heat, looking over a plain or a road warmed in the sun, the distant ridges ripple and no focus makes them sharp. The cool hours of morning, cloudy days and the clean air right after rain reduce this effect.

A long lens also magnifies vibration. Setting up the tripod firmly, shortening the legs in the wind, and using the self-timer or a remote so as not to touch the shutter button help. Reading a distant person's skin also becomes harder: the haze between lowers contrast and shifts color toward cool, dark skin can approach gray, light skin a pale blue. If there is a bright, snowy mountain behind them, the camera exposes for the snow and the face goes dark. Setting the exposure for the person's face and keeping the white balance warm shows them in their own color.

Visual evidence

At the same spot your friend takes off the wide angle, mounts a long lens and slowly scans the opposite slope. They find the pines where the light falls; when they tighten the framing, the sky and horizon stay outside. In the frame there is only a dark, shaded slope and, in its middle, trees lined up in rows, their tops burning with light. The frame is like a piece of carpet; the trees' height can't be judged.

Then they turn the lens a little to the left: four ridges lined up one behind another, opening from dark navy in front to pale gray behind, like layers of paper stacked one over another. Their hiking companion walking on one of the ridges, a dark-skinned woman in a red jacket, appears as a small dot; the mountain's size suddenly comes out.

When they want to shoot the woman a little closer, there is a snowy peak behind her and in the first frame her face goes dark. They set the exposure for her face and warm the white balance; her skin is in its own warm brown, the snow still detailed.

Common mistakes

Summary

Photographing a landscape up close is picking out, as an intimate landscape, the patterns, overlapping ridges and pieces where light falls that show inside the wide scene only through a narrow window; the scale ambiguity that appears when the sky and horizon leave brings the frame closer to a pattern, while a small distant person brings back scale and story. With a long lens, heat shimmer and vibration are avoided; a distant person's skin is exposed in its own color, taking into account haze and a snowy background.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will draw three frames out of a single landscape.

1. First shoot an open landscape once with a wide angle.
2. From the same spot, slowly scan the scene with a long lens and choose three pieces from inside it: a pattern, overlapping layers and a piece where light falls.
3. In one of the frames, bring back the scale with something of known size, a person, a pole or a hut; if there is a person in the frame, check whether their face and skin shifted because of haze or a bright background.

Check yourself

• Do the three frames show something that wasn't noticed in the wide frame?
• Did you use scale ambiguity knowingly, or by accident?
• Is the distant person's skin in its own color?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is an intimate landscape?

• A) A landscape shot inside a building
• B) A frame showing a small piece chosen from inside a wide scene
• C) A frame showing only the sky
• D) Every frame shot with a wide angle

2. What can happen when the sky and horizon leave the frame?

• A) The frame always gets brighter
• B) The lens changes
• C) The viewer can't judge the size of what they see
• D) The colors disappear

3. Which hour is chosen to reduce heat shimmer?

• A) The cool hours of morning
• B) The hottest hour of noon
• C) The moment the sun is at its highest
• D) An afternoon looking over a warmed road

4. Why can the face of a distant person in front of a snowy mountain go dark?

• A) The long lens erases color
• B) The snow shades the face
• C) The haze thickens the face
• D) The camera exposes for the bright snow

Answers

1. B — An intimate landscape leaves the sky and horizon outside and picks out a piece from inside the scene.
2. C — With no element of known size, the lines could be a field or a fabric.
3. A — In cool air less heat rises from the ground and distant things shimmer less.
4. D — The bright snow raises the metering, the camera lowers the exposure and the face darkens.

Summary card

• After the wide frame, scan the scene with a long lens.
• Pattern, layer, piece of light: pick out the intimate landscape.
• No horizon, no scale; use it knowingly or bring it back with a person.
• Cool hour, firm tripod, remote shutter.
• Expose the distant face for its skin, not the snow; warm the white balance.

Bridge to the next lesson

Your friend makes the piece of pines where the light fell their desktop background and looks at it every day. One autumn morning, passing the same slope, they see that the beeches among the pines have turned yellow; they think that in winter the same slope will be covered with snow, in spring it will bud. Photographing the same place in all four seasons gives them an idea. The next lesson takes up following a place over a year, building change as a story, and finding the same framing on every return.