P#17 Q4B: Do Your Landscape Photos Start In the Camera and End with Post Production?

The Passion

Bill Neill: I'm going to answer the where it starts question first. To me, great landscape photos start not in the camera, but in the heart with a passion for the subject.

It ends with not just the post production, but with a reconnection with our own experience of making the photograph. Hopefully, for the viewer, they can gain some sense of the photographer's experience.

All the technical effort in between is simply a matter of craft to me. I think that's important to remember.

In terms of the craft, you remove any one key element and the image fails. The composition is good, but without good light, the image doesn't work. Great post processing won't work without the photographer communicating a true passion for the subject.

The Signature Look

This next part of your question about how I create a signature look, I simply work hard to create intimate views of the landscape -- isolations of the scene that aren't really literal or explanatory. I seek to ask questions. I don't want all the answers to be evident when they look at the picture, I want them to wonder what the scene was like. In a sense, it's kind of an abstraction.

I look for magic light, I look for strong graphic forms in order to create a mood of mystery and wonder.

That's why I photographed it to communicate that sense I see when I'm exploring in nature, in the landscape.

Most people can learn the craft but tend to get bogged down by it. It's important not to let that happen.

Audri Lanford: The two things you just said, the idea of it starting in the heart and the communicating the mystery and wonder... I think those two points are just so important and inspiring, that I think those alone will make this interview very worthwhile to all of our listeners. I'd like to thank you so much for that.

To Sum Up

What's the most important element of landscape photography? According to Bill Neill, a passion for the subject, the ability to communicate mystery and wonder, and not allowing yourself to get bogged down by the technical details are all fundamental to creating exceptional landscape photos.