Beware the Human: people in landscape photography – Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth.

Seven Simple Tips for Using people in landscape photography

1. Decide what the photograph is about

Before pressing the shutter, ask yourself whether the subject is the view, the people, the light, the place, or the feeling of being there.

2. Use people for scale

Tiny figures on a beach can make the sea, cliffs and sky feel larger. Without them, the image may be calmer, but less alive.

3. Let movement create story

A dog running through shallow water, or a family walking along the shore, can add a small human story to a broad landscape.

4. Watch where the figures sit in the frame

People near the edge may feel accidental. People placed within the rhythm of the composition can feel beautifully natural.

5. Be careful with too much foreground

Foreground gives depth, but it can also weigh the image down. Ask whether it leads the eye into the scene, or simply occupies space.

6. Notice the balance between land, sea and sky

In these images, the gorse, beach, water, cliffs and sky all compete for attention. The strongest frame is often the one where each area has just enough space.

7. Take both versions when you can

Studland Bay is one of our closer pieces of coast, and carries a multitude of opportunities, both for activity, and for photographic opportunities.

The other morning started off as perfect chocolate box (the style has disappeared, the expression has remained)

But as the morning moved on, a hazy cloud appeared and gradually built, not just an overcast sky, but a sky with character, and delicacy.

As you'll have maybe noticed from the title, this article is about the place of people in landscape photography.

There is nearly always something of the landscape that is worth capturing and it's often a case of trying to catch more than you can!

Looking across the bay towards what remains of Old Harry Rocks, I pondered the question of whether the people walking along the make or break the picture. I took a couple of images.

The view was pretty much the same. The light hardly changed. The sea, the cliffs, the yellow gorse and the pale sky had barely changed. Yet the photographs feel quite different.

Let's look at three out of the four images I took.

Image One - Wide landscape view across Studland Bay to Old Harry Rocks

Image One is taken using the ultra-wide setting on my phone camera, my primary aim being to catch the drama of the cloud and the hazy sunlight on the water.

To this was added the need to compose the image, with some balance to my theme. The gorse bushes in the left foreground act in a way to counter the dark line of the headland.

The people and dogs are small enough to be part of the image without dominating it.

Image Two - People walking in centre of image

Image Two is a much more zoomed in version. My attention had moved from the skyscape to the moored boats, and the seascape. I wanted the image in case the sun went, so went with the people include.

But the people are not odeal. Unlike Image One, they have become much more dominant, and are going in the wrong direction.

What do I mean by wrong direction?

Well in your imagination place them in the compositionally comfortable vertical third. If they're on the right third, their movement takes the eye into the picture, which is comfortable, but they will be adding a visual weight on the same side as the visually dense headland, sunlight on water, and the right hand heavy flowering taller gorse.

If you place them on the left hand vertical third, their presence adds better balance, but their direction of movement means they are walking out of the picture - which doesn't work.

Image Three - The people have moved on.

Image Three, is a taken about a minute later - I'd reckoned the sun would stay a bit longer, and without the people there would be a balanced image, for the reasons above.

Without them the points of focus and the balance change - the yacht, which has not moved, suddenly takes on a greater visual presence and is pointing at Old Harry.

There is more peace, more balance, and the line of the left hand gorse points gently toward Old Harry sitting on the upper vertical third. When the people are in, they block that line of sight.

So, two images taken seconds apart at Studland Bay raise a useful question: do people and dogs spoil a landscape photograph, or do they add scale, movement and meaning?

The answer - it depends, for the reasons given. And one more reason why they may be good news is if you know them. That changes everything. No longer really a landscape shot, more an environmental portrait.

Many years ago I was doing a family portrait session further along the coast at Kimmeridge Bay. The tide was out, so the bay was filled with lines of eroded rock. I sent the family out, way out, until they became just a small part of the scene. But that was the point, they were there, tiny, but significant.

And they had a huge canvas on their wall.

Once you know the people in a photograph, they stop being anonymous figures and begin to carry memory. To everyone else, they may simply add scale. To you, they may become the reason the photograph matters.

Photography is often less about finding an empty view and more about recognising what belongs in the frame.

Sometimes people distract. Sometimes they give scale, movement and warmth.

Sometimes a dog running along the waterline says more about the feel of the place than the empty beach ever could.

The skill is not simply knowing how to take the photograph. It is knowing what to leave in, what to leave out, and when to wait a few seconds longer.

If you would like more thoughts like this, subscribe to Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth for practical Wednesday posts and reflective Friday thoughts on learning to look until you see.