The technique of fMRI provides an opportunity to further explore the psychophysiological benefits of viewing natural environments. This novel approach enables direct examination of regional brain activity while viewing landscapes. Tang et al. compared the restorative value of four types of landscape environments (urban, mountain, forest and water) by using fMRI to investigate regional brain activity [60]. The study recruited 39 adults between the age of 20 and 30 years, and data from 31 participants (14 males and 17 females) were used after excluding for movement artifacts. The nature landscape included images from three types of common natural setting: mountains, forests and water. Urban landscapes were retrieved from an online gallery of photographs. In total, 12 photographs, three from each of the four categories, with similar color, lightness and layout, were used in the experiment. Compared with the mountain and water landscapes, urban images increased visual and attentional focus, which resulted in activation of the cuneus. This finding indicates that viewing mountain and water landscapes after urban landscapes may reduce activation in the visual cortex and increase activation in the rest of the attention system. Compared with urban landscapes, water landscapes were associated with increased neural activation in the attention area of the brain, which suggested that viewing water landscapes may stimulate the rest of the attention system. Interestingly, a lack of significant difference in brain activities between viewing urban and forest landscapes suggests a smaller effect on attention restoration than viewing the mountain and water landscapes. Overall, different landscapes affected regional brain activity differently; most notably, the visual and attention areas of the brain responded differently to images of urban and natural environments.
Researchers often use the autonomic nervous system, which is vital in homeostasis and normal and stress-responsive physiology, to understand the physiological effects of nature. In 2003, a research reported heart rate response to natural and urban environments [67]. In this study, 28 female students watched a nature video depicting a waterside and an urban video depicting pedestrian streets. Consequently, the heart rate of the participants significantly decreased after viewing the nature video. In 2012, Gladwell et al. also explored autonomic nervous system control during the viewing of nature and built scenes. They measured heart rate, HRV and blood pressure [69]. Slides of nature and urban scenes were projected onto a screen (1.8 m 1.8 m) while the participants lay in a semisupine position. Standard deviation of RR intervals (SDRR), reflecting overall HRV, and parasympathetic nervous activity increased significantly during the viewing of nature images relative to those during viewing built environment scenes, which suggested increases in vagal activity. This finding suggests that the simple act of viewing nature may induce changes in autonomic control.
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The following year, Brown et al. examined the effects of viewing nature scenes on the recovery of autonomic activity after the introduction of a stressor [70]. Heart rate, HRV and systolic and diastolic blood pressure were used as markers of autonomic function change, and physiological data from 23 adults were collected. The study involved showing the participants 20 photographs of nature and built scenes in the same order for 10 min (each photograph for 30 s) in a Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow. Before seeing the photographs, the participants performed a forward digit span test with an accompanying social-evaluative threat to elicit cardiovascular stress. SDRR was significantly greater in viewing nature scenes than built scenes. The finding shows that viewing images of nature improved the recovery process following a stressful event.
Some researchers have applied three-dimensional (3D) images or VR technology to the field of psychology and healthcare. Using VR is an efficient way to introduce natural settings to participants who could not otherwise access nature. A research compared the effects of 3D and two-dimensional (2D) images of nature. The prefrontal cortex and sympathetic nervous activities of 19 male university students were continuously evaluated by NIRS and HRV while they looked at 3D and 2D images of water lily [72]. The right prefrontal cortex activity and sympathetic nervous activity significantly decreased while the participants looked at the 3D rather than the 2D images of water lily; thus, compared with the 2D image, the realistic 3D image of nature induced physiological relaxation to a greater extent.
A review on the health effects of viewing landscape in environmental psychology reported that the natural landscapes gave a stronger positive health effect compared to urban landscapes [77]. In this review, most studies related to displaying images of natural landscapes compared the physiological effects of city/built landscape images and confirmed that relaxed body responses occurred while viewing natural landscape scenery as well. For example, urban images activated the visual and attentional areas of the brain that nature landscape did not [65], oxy-Hb concentrations in the prefrontal area decreased while viewing forest scenes [59] and autonomic nervous responses, such as parasympathetic activity, were significantly higher during the recovery steps after viewing nature scenes [64]. The studies that used real nature stimuli reported that visual contact with green plants and flowers in daily environments had positive impacts, such as decreased sympathetic nerve activity and increased parasympathetic nerve activity [33,34,35,40,43,44,46].
The use of VR techniques and 3D images to maximize visual effects could offer more realistic interesting visual stimulations than those of 2D photographs. Some studies that investigated this topic found that EDA decreased more after viewing natural scenes by using VR techniques than by viewing control scenes, which indicated that viewing natural scenes through VR could lead to relaxation effects [74]. Igarashi et al. reported that a realistic 3D image of nature induced a significant decrease in the prefrontal cortex activity, whereas a similar 2D image did not [72].
When capturing beautiful scenes in nature, your picture can benefit from a bit of foreground interest. When you find a magical landscape to photograph, do it some justice by including something interesting in the foreground. I see many nature photos showing empty landscapes and skies without any consideration for the foreground.
Have you ever taken photos in nature and been disappointed with the images you produced? Returning from a photography outing with images that please you can be a challenge. So my next tip is to make your photos more balanced. Capture images of nature with careful consideration of what you include in the frame, and balance all of those elements.
Jeremy Flint is an award-winning photographer and writer, specialising in travel, landscape and location photography and is known for documenting images of beautiful destinations, cultures and communities from around the world. Jeremy has won awards including the National Geographic Traveller Grand Prize and the Association of Photographers Discovery Award, besides being commended in Outdoor Photographer of the Year. He has also been a finalist in the Travel Photographer of the year and British Photography Awards several times. He has been commissioned by commercial and editorial clients worldwide including National Geographic Traveller, Country Life, Discover Britain, USA National Parks and Visit Britain and has travelled extensively to over 65 countries.
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