Outdoor Photography How To

Here's a provocative and enlightening video from photographer Mark Denney. In the below clip, Denney discusses whether photographers should remove elements from a landscape photo during the editing process.

It could be an overlapping tree branch that proves distracting to the viewer. Or, perhaps, it's a large rock that appears out of place in an otherwise lush green field. So, should you remove "it" or not?

"'It' can refer to really anything contained within your photograph that could be viewed as something that adds to your photo or something that's a distraction," Denney says. "If this element in your case is something you view as a benefit to your image then you'll of course want to keep it, and if this element is a distraction then you might want to consider removing it during your editing process. It's common in all genres of photography to want to remove small distractions especially in landscape photography where you might want to clean up a certain area of your image. But, it's not always easy to tell when something is helping or hurting your photograph."

Denney says that over the past few weeks he posted two photos on Instagram and Twitter which both contained elements he couldn't decide whether to remove or keep in the images.

"The source of struggle for me came in the form of a house and an autumn leaf - I know it might not seem like much, but these objects represented a key element in both photographs," he notes. "I received back a huge response on both of these photos, almost 1,000 comments in total. I read through every comment as to what others would do with the objects in question, but what I found most compelling is the reasoning behind each individuals decision."

Watch the video below where Denney discusses this dilemma and let us know what you think about removing elements from landscape photos during editing. And don't forget to visit Denney's YouTube channel for more intriguing videos.