Here’s a question I don’t often get: “what types of landscape photography are there?”  Most people already have a general idea of what landscape photography is so this question doesn’t come up much.  However, the answer to this question might surprise you.  Keep reading to learn more about the different types of landscape photography out there.

I bet you’re thinking that you know the different kinds of landscape photography: mountain scenes, lakes, rivers, seascapes, canyons, cliffs, waterfalls, etc.  That’s where you’d be wrong.  Those are merely different subjects of landscape photography.

It’s like saying that Star Trek, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars Clone Wars, etc. are all different genres of TV shows.  No, they’re all part of one TV show genre: science fiction (sci-fi).  If you want to differentiate different TV shows, you must step back and go much broader.  We’ll do the same with landscape photography.

Let me introduce you to the different genres of landscape photography which you might not already be aware of: representational landscape photography, impressionistic landscape photography, and abstract landscape photography.  I’ll now go into more depth on each.

Representational

Representational landscape photography strives to present the viewer with an accurate depiction of the scene in front of the camera.  It is not stylized.  It is not abstracted.  However, it’s probably enhanced to better meet the photographer’s vision of the scene rather than what the camera records (which is different than what the human eye sees).  It doesn’t bear much in the way of description as it’s best to show rather than tell.  The photos displayed under this heading are all representational landscape photography.

Representational landscape photography makes up most of the landscape photography you see these days.  For some reason, most people like their landscape photography looking as realistic as possible.  This means that a photographer taking a representational approach will always find a market for their photography if they look and work hard enough for it.  The downside is that “everyone else is doing it.”  This means that it will be MUCH more difficult to differentiate yourself if you are a representational landscape photographer.

As I said, it’s much easier to show than tell.  I also really prefer representational landscape photography myself if you couldn’t tell from my portfolio.

Impressionistic

Impressionistic landscape photography seeks to present the viewer with a particular mood when viewing the photo.  One may alter colors to be brighter or more muted for example.  It is still somewhat representational of the scene but takes some liberties with the captured scene in order to create the mood the photographer wants to convey with the photo.  Take the photos under this heading, for example.  Each one has a different mood which it conveys due to not looking like representational landscape photography.  Can you guess what each mood is?

While still grounded in the original subject matter, one must take certain liberties when processing up a regular landscape photo into an impressionistic landscape photo.  For instance, one might alter sunlight shining through a cloud to look like a giant fireball.  The mood is achieved but you’re still very much looking at a grounded landscape photograph (though not representational anymore).

You might consider impressionistic landscape photography the point were classic art forms start mixing in with photography to create unique compositions of light.  I occasionally dabble in impressionistic landscape photography.

Abstract

You might easily confuse abstract landscape photography with abstract photography if you don’t know what you’re looking at.  Abstract landscape photography uses a landscape but completely loses any representational elements in favor of abstracting to a mood.  You may recognize that an abstract landscape photo is a landscape photo or you may not.  It’s all abstract.  Leaving you thinking and guessing is all a part of abstract art of any kind.

Abstract landscape photography will emphasize shapes, colors, textures, and other elements without a clear representational picture of the subject.  Some abstract landscape photography will even de-emphasize or lose sharpness altogether in favor of those other elements.  I’ve seen abstract landscape photography which have no sharpness at all.  Everything is blurry in order to show movement of some fashion (think waves on the sea).  Obviously, abstract landscape photography is not something I experiment with much, however, to each: their own.

Conclusion

The different types or varieties of landscape photography are different than many people imagine.  Rather than dividing by subject matter, landscape photography is divided into representational, impressionistic, and abstract landscape photography.  Everyone has their different tastes in landscape photography so there’s at least one style out there which should appeal to you.  Perhaps you’ll feel a bit better informed when you go shopping for landscape photography.