Nature Photography How To

Every so often one of our favorite instructors surprises us with a concept that really makes sense for capturing landscape scenes with maximum impact. And that’s exactly what you’ll find in the quick tutorial below, as Romanian pro Toma Bonciu demonstrates what he means by “layering” a scene from foreground to background.

This notion isn’t to be confused with using Layers during the editing process to make selective adjustments to various portion of an image. Rather, as Bonciu explains, it’s a compositional technique that creates an “immersive experience” by directing a viewer’s attention through a photograph.

After explaining this simple-but powerful concept, Bonciu uses seven of his photos to point out the layers he captured at each location and explain how they interact with the composition. In short, it’s a different way of looking at the world and putting what you discern to good use.

Bonciu is a very adept visual storyteller, and he explains that layering is a method he uses to create easily understandable images that make viewers wish they were standing within the scene. This approach is all about adding depth to a photo that invites viewers to “come on in.” Best yet, you can use this interesting technique with just about any lens, from wide-angle to long telephoto.

Bonciu illustrates how prevailing light levels and your position relative to the sun can have a big impact upon how you divide a scene into different layers or regions. A uniformity of color, or lack thereof, can also determine how you conceptualize and layer the scene—as can the focal length of the your lens.

As you watch Bonciu evaluate seven impactful images, you’ll learn a variety of layering methods that you can start using today to elevate your landscape photography skills.

For more helpful travel photographer tips, simply pay a visit to Bonciu’s popular instructional YouTube channel and be sure to subscribe.

And check out the earlier tutorial we posted with another successful pro, explaining how to use ND filters for epic landscape photos in bright light.