Part of telling a story in landscape photography at times requires knowing the size of the landscape. In macro photography, we can for example place a dime by something and we all would know instantly the approximate size of the subject. Put a dime in a landscape though and you’ll need a metal detector to find it. So a common object we use as a scale reference are people. We can get a general idea from them the grandeur of the scene, we can understand distance and a feel for size. But even with this simple element, we can take it even further by manipulating scale.
Are two images taken really just minutes apart to illustrate my point. Taken with Df / 80-400 at 400mm, can you tell what is different between the two changing the sense of overall size? Really, can you tell because I’m not going to say. You’re going to have to look at these images to figure it out. Then, if you like it, you need to go out and do it for yourself so then when you need the technique, you have it in your bag of tricks. Moving our feet can really change a photograph, especially when manipulating scale.