“Mountain photography” (9)

Hints on the art and technique from a practitioner of the nineteen-forties.

Composition: Arrangement, design or composition of the chosen subject within the picture space is very intangible, to say the least. It simply cannot be reduced to rule, except in the widest of terms, and though it is possible to set down a few obvious errors which it is probably desirable to avoid, the successful steering of an arrangement among these pitfalls does not of itself assure success. 

A composite picture in the Chinese manner by Chin San Long, FRPS.
Illustration from Mountain Photography by C Douglas Milner.

There is a definite scheme of formal landscape which has come down to us from the eighteenth century which has the merits of being harmless and necessary, if dull. For the concoction of conventional landscape in terms of foreground, middle distance, background and sky, all neatly divided into thirds or along "lines of beauty", is at least better than no sort of convention at all. The Print Room of the British Museum, and the provincial art galleries (one or two London galleries are provincial in this respect) are full of stiff compositions on these lines, but it is doubtful if much study of them with a view to imitation is very good for anyone.

Fujiyama by H G Ponting,  FRGS, FRPS.
Illustration from Mountain Photography by C Douglas Milner.

Obvious errors of the kind I have mentioned include:

Exact symmetry. The mountain summit, the horizon line, the line of a lake or foreground tree is best kept away from the exact centre lines.

Equal divisions into areas of lake, mountain and sky are generally unpleasant. Lines of interest-roads, etc, with or without figures, tend to distract attention if they are at the extreme edge of a picture, or appear to be moving out of it.

Plain simple tones and lines are the easiest to deal with, a complex subject is not. This simplicity may be helped by the use of a long focus lens, or by choosing a foreground which does not assert itself and compete with the mountain for interest, to the detriment of the unity of the picture.

Figures in the foreground especially need care. If they are too large, they will attract too much attention; if too small, they might just as well not be there for all the help they give.

References

From C Douglas Milner, Mountain Photography: Its Art and Technique in Britain and Abroad, The Focal Press, First printed October 1945, reprinted June 1946.