Landscapes: An Essay On Oriental Landscapes Part 7

In the previous post I combined multiple elements together, including fog, mountains, and the elongated portrait format.

Water is also an important and recurring element in Chinese Landscapes.  But as I see it, it is one that highlights flow or movement within the frame, along with other elements that provide shape.  In this example I have combined many of the elements from the previous shots (mountains, flog) with shape. The round shapes of the mountains provide a smoothness and tranquility.  The inherent sense of perspective derived from a line cutting the tops of the mountains going from left to right. The foreground trees on the left complement the line of the mountain tops with a diagonal line across the tops of the trees. To the western eye these lines travel from left to right in a downward direction.  The bird flying across the river, left to right, adds a nice touch.  

In creating this picture I used:

• Lightroom: to establish the exposure, to dodge and burn (lighten / darken) the mountains to enhance the fog and thus the sense of depth; contrast and exposure to reduce the detail and further enhance the shapes in the picture
• Nik Silver Efex: to convert to black & white