A 2011 advice note still sets photomontage's technical bar

The picture

In March 2011 the Landscape Institute issued Advice Note 01/11, Photography and photomontage in landscape and visual impact assessment, superseding Advice Note 01/09. The note sets out method for the landscape professional producing photographs and photomontages for planning applications and Environmental Statements: tripod-mounted, levelled cameras; recording focal length and sensor data; and, for printing and viewing, matching image resolution to a defined viewing distance so the printed perspective reconstructs what the camera saw. This is a separate, more granular document from the Institute's later verified-view technical guidance covered elsewhere on this site, and the two should not be conflated.

What the documents show

The Advice Note states the calculation at its core: at a standard 300mm viewing distance, the human eye's roughly one-minute angular resolution implies a target print resolution of about 300 pixels per inch, from which the note derives the camera resolution needed for a given lens and viewing distance. The Institute's own current listing page, retrieved via archive since the live Institute site returned a bot-verification page rather than content on direct request, confirms this was 'the last formal issue' of the guidance, later joined by two narrow clarification notes and, as of that snapshot, a still-unfinished revision. Both sources agree the note's requirements are method, not aesthetic judgment.

What it is allowed to decide

A photomontage produced to this Advice Note's method can support a class-4 planning decision, since the note is written specifically for evidence submitted to planning authorities and Environmental Statements, and a planning authority is the party positioned to check submitted images against its published camera-height, focal-length and viewing-distance criteria. It establishes Optical authority when followed, because it fixes lens and sensor parameters against a real camera rather than an artistic choice. It does not establish Physical or Photometric authority, since the note is silent on simulating light or material behaviour in the inserted development.

The disclosure label

A photomontage submitted under this method would carry a label reading: produced to Landscape Institute Advice Note 01/11, March 2011; class 4 planning use supported when camera and print-viewing parameters are recorded and disclosed; Optical authority held, Physical and Photometric authority not addressed; dated 16 September 2026; properly asserted by the landscape professional who took the photograph, naming the camera, lens and viewing distance used.

• Are the camera height, focal length and viewing distance used in this photomontage recorded and available for checking?
• Was this image produced under Advice Note 01/11's method, the Institute's later revision, or neither?
• Does the printed or displayed viewing distance actually match the distance the calculation assumed?

A photomontage that looks convincing on screen can still fail this note's method if the underlying camera data was never recorded, which is precisely the failure the note was written to prevent.