Thoughtful use of the foreground in a photo

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Using a foreground can completely transform your photo. It can shift the point of attention entirely. You need to use this consciously. Choose how you bring the foreground into the frame by deciding what matters.

You can use a foreground in all types of photography. Or not, of course. In landscapes, it is often used, sometimes even compulsively. Don't be the photographer who insists on making the foreground large and dominant in the frame.

Decide what matters in the photo you are taking. If the landscape itself is important, make sure you draw attention to it. That could be an object lying further away, or the clouds in the sky. If the foreground is more important, choose to direct attention towards it.

In the photo above, attention is focused on the horizon and the clouds above it. The grain field in the foreground provides the necessary depth. But it does not draw attention away from what I want to show: the landscape with the trees on the horizon and the clouds.

The photo above was taken with a very wide-angle view and extremely close to the foreground. This creates a shift in attention compared with the first photo in this article. Attention is now focused entirely on the crop. The background is literally that: background.

This example shows that you should not simply get right on top of the foreground to make it appear as large as possible in the frame. Decide what matters in the photo. If it is the foreground, get right on top of it. If it is the background, the landscape itself, keep a little further away from the foreground.

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