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By skoeber
My first love in photography when I first got my trusty old Minolta SLR as a teenager was landscape photography. There’s something about getting out in nature with the challenge of capturing some of the amazing beauty that you see. Perhaps it fits with my personality type – but I loved the quietness and stillness of waiting for the perfect moment for the shot, scoping out an area for the best vantage point and then seeing the way that the light changed a scene over a few hours.
While I don’t get as much time as I’d like for Landscape Photography these days – I thought I’d jot down a few of the lessons that I learned in my early years of doing it. I’d love to hear your own tips in comments below.
Landscape Photography Tips
1. Maximize your Depth of Field
By Louis Vest
While there may be times that you want to get a little more creative and experiment with narrow depth of fields in your Landscape Photography – the normal approach is to ensure that as much of your scene is in focus as possible. The simplest way to do this is to choose a small Aperture setting (a large number) as the smaller your aperture the greater the depth of field in your shots.
Do keep in mind that smaller apertures mean less light is hitting your image sensor at any point in time so they will mean you need to compensate either by increasing your ISO or lengthening your shutter speed (or both).
PS: of course there are times when you can get some great results with a very shallow DOF in a landscape setting (see the picture of the double yellow line below).
2. Use a Tripod
By Mike Behnken
As a result of the longer shutter speed that you may need to select to compensate for a small aperture you will need to find a way of ensuring your camera is completely still during the exposure. In fact even if you’re able to shoot at a fast shutter speed the practice of using a tripod can be beneficial to you. Also consider a cable or wireless shutter release mechanism for extra camera stillness.
Related Reading – Introduction to Tripods
3. Look for a Focal Point
By luigi
All shots need some sort of focal point to them and landscapes are no different – in fact landscape photographs without them end up looking rather empty and will leave your viewers eye wondering through the image with nowhere to rest (and they’ll generally move on quickly).
Focal points can take many forms in landscapes and could range from a building or structure, a striking tree, a boulder or rock formation, a silhouette etc.
Think not only about what the focal point is but where you place it. The rule of thirds might be useful here.
Related Reading – Focal Points in Photography
4. Think Foregrounds
By Eleder Jimenez Hermoso
One element that can set apart your landscape shots is to think carefully about the foreground of your shots and by placing points of interest in them. When you do this you give those viewing the shot a way into the image as well as creating a sense of depth in your shot.
Related Reading: Getting Foregrounds right in photography
5. Consider the Sky
By Trey Ratcliff
Another element to consider is the sky in your landscape.
Most landscapes will either have a dominant foreground or sky – unless you have one or the other your shot can end up being fairly boring.
If you have a bland, boring sky – don’t let it dominate your shot and place the horizon in the upper third of your shot (however you’ll want to make sure your foreground is interesting). However if the sky is filled with drama and interesting cloud formations and colors – let it shine by placing the horizon lower.
Consider enhancing skies either in post production or with the use of filters (for example a polarizing filter can add color and contrast).
6. Lines
By Pierre Metivier
One of the questions to ask yourself as you take Landscape shots is ‘how am I leading the eye of those viewing this shot’? There are a number of ways of doing this (foregrounds is one) but one of the best ways into a shot is to provide viewers with lines that lead them into an image.
Lines give an image depth, scale and can be a point of interest in and of themselves by creating patterns in your shot.
Related Reading: Using lines in photography (mini-series)
7. Capture Movement
By Toby Keller
When most people think about landscapes they think of calm, serene and passive environments – however landscapes are rarely completely still and to convey this movement in an image will add drama, mood and create a point of interest.
Examples – wind in trees, waves on a beach, water flowing over a waterfall, birds flying over head, moving clouds.
Capturing this movement generally means you need to look at a longer shutter speed (sometimes quite a few seconds). Of course this means more light hitting your sensor which will mean you need to either go for a small Aperture, use some sort of a filter or even shoot at the start or end of the day when there is less light.
8. Work with the Weather
By luigi
A scene can change dramatically depending upon the weather at any given moment. As a result, choosing the right time to shoot is of real importance.
Many beginner photographers see a sunny day and think that it’s the best time to go out with their camera – however an overcast day that is threatening to rain might present you with a much better opportunity to create an image with real mood and ominous overtones. Look for storms, wind, mist, dramatic clouds, sun shining through dark skies, rainbows, sunsets and sunrises etc and work with these variations in the weather rather than just waiting for the next sunny blue sky day.
9. Work the Golden Hours
By Dominik
I chatted with one photographer recently who told me that he never shoots during the day – his only shooting times are around dawn and dusk – because that’s when the light is best and he find that landscapes come alive.
These ‘golden’ hours are great for landscapes for a number of reasons – none the least of which is the ‘golden’ light that it often presents us with. The other reason that I love these times is the angle of the light and how it can impact a scene – creating interesting patterns, dimensions and textures.
10. Think about Horizons
By Jon Martin
It’s an old tip but a good one – before you take a landscape shot always consider the horizon on two fronts.
- Is it straight? – while you can always straighten images later in post production it’s easier if you get it right in camera.
- Where is it compositionally? – a compositionally natural spot for a horizon is on one of the thirds lines in an image (either the top third or the bottom one) rather than completely in the middle. Of course rules are meant to be broken – but I find that unless it’s a very striking image that the rule of thirds usually works here.
Related Reading: Getting Horizons Horizontal
11. Change your Point of View
By luigi
You drive up to the scenic lookout, get out of the car, grab your camera, turn it on, walk up to the barrier, raise the camera to your eye, rotate left and right a little, zoom a little and take your shot before getting back in the car to go to the next scenic lookout.
We’ve all done it – however this process doesn’t generally lead to the ‘wow’ shot that many of us are looking for.
Take a little more time with your shots – particularly in finding a more interesting point of view to shoot from. This might start with finding a different spot to shoot from than the scenic look out (wander down paths, look for new angles etc), could mean getting down onto the ground to shot from down low or finding a higher up vantage point to shoot from.
Explore the environment and experiment with different view points and you could find something truly unique.
Also check out our new Landscape Photography eBook.
Too much light Ahmed Saeedth? Also, get an ND filter if one will fit your lens or bracket your shots to ensure a shot with good exposure. :)
Too much light Ahmed Saeedth? Make sure your ISO is set to a low number and check this out.
http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/1157/what-to-do-when-there%E2%80%99s-too-much-light/
Hi ... Thank you for your great article ... I was impressed to much by long shutter speed photography but really up to know I can not treat the problem of tremendous amount of light which coming in through the lens ... All my photos unfortunately overexposed ... Even in the golden hour ... Any recommendations ...
There are great tips.
DPS has a new book all about Landscape Photography.
Here's the review I wrote for it on my blog: http://blog.pedromendes.com/landscape-photography/
No matter if some one searches for his vital thing, so he/she desires to
be available that in detail, so that thing is maintained over here.
Great tips! thank you for sharing
Love this photo, would make a great canvas image for my house! would love it if you had time to check out our photos at www.pixelstockphotos.com :)
Great tips. I really loved this article and can't wait to incorporate your suggestions into my landscape shots. I know they'll turn out so much better!
Re: the photo by curious spider.
To me this photo is a big NO, No. It splits the middle leaving little room for the eye to move around. It is only sharp about 10-15 feet into the photo. The trees are fuzzy and there is a pale sky. This photo is NOT a good example to show others " how to shoot landscapes." It should be labeled , "....this is how to NOT shoot landscapes."
I only have one tip: See the entire frame.
Thanks for the useful tips, especially skies. we get beauties in Cornwall
Useful selection of tips and a good refresher, thanks for sharing.
Very helpful tips. All im ever findng is here. Thank you. :)
Highly useful tips!!! Always nature hides away its beauty from the world but I believe, landscape photographers are the one who have so far tried their level best to bring those nature's beauty into limelight...My salute to all the professional landscape photographers in this world.....Keep rocking..
I hate to hear someone say they NEVER shoot during the day or they only shoot in the "golden hours". Yes, cool stuff happens during the golden hours but if you refuse to shoot any other time, you're missing a LOT of good stuff. Learn to create with the light you have and stop getting handcuffed by the mighty "golden hour". I'm over it.
Yes, a very good article .It was a pleasure.
http://marius-fotografie.blogspot.com
The shot with the rocks... foreground is badly out of focus
please reassure me that you did that on purpose, or included it on purpose to see if anyone would notice... I noticed, and it's an unacceptable shot for that reason....no ??
All were good photos. But that #6....
This tips also a new knowledge to me to take landscape photography. I got some new Ideas from this tutorials. my hearty thanks.
Brilliant series of tips - thankfully I'm doing most of them in my shots but good to use as a refresher and a reminder.
Happy New Year !
Digital photography is becoming the most popular hobby of the world today. The recent developments of smartphones, iphone/ipad has changed the way, how we think of photography. To give professional touch to your photographs, now it is not necessary to consult some professional. One may use various tools and apps to make one’s photographs masterpieces instantly with a few taps, particularly those taken on graduation/wedding ceremony, honeymoon trip or New Year celebrations. I have used many such apps in recent past. One of such app is Photo Splash FX on iPhone/iPad that provides following unique features that you can’t find in any other app altogether. I noticed following notable features:
· Make your shots awesome, no matter if they are old vintage, black and white or new high resolution colorful photos, by applying a plethora of special effects.
· Use selective colors, variety of brush sizes (adjust manually or automatically), gestures like Pan/Zoom/Splash, unlimited Undos, Colorize, Tintalize, Recolor, blend brush to create custom effects and text blending on your photo.
· It supports both landscape or portrait mode and options like loading/importing photo from Cloud, instead of just from the camera or photo library.
· Choice of 135+ built-in effects on different parts of the same photo and still have the option of creating your own custom effects.
· Option to make favorite list of built-in effects to choose them easily for future.
· Share your masterpiece with your friends through Email, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picassa, Dropbox or post it in form of the post card, to anywhere in the world.
Ryan - That's not a lot of information. Did you use a tripod? I would try F11 next time, F16 seems high to me. Was it snowing and maybe you had your focus on continuous instead of single fixed?
Hmm these are some useful tips looking forward to putting them to work in future uploads to deviantart my username is silversfan
I was out this morning getting some sunrise shots in the snow. But none of them really turned out. I was shooting at f16 ISO 100 around 5 seconds and earlier I was at longer shutter speeds. Not really sure what went wrong but I don't have any sharpness. Hmm.
I found these 11 tips interesting and useful. Thank you.
Great landscape tips. I also have had less and less time to shoot landscapes lately. I think another thing to consider is the dynamic range of the scene. Is it more important for the bright details in the sky to be prominent, or the details within the shade? I like to take landscapes at various EV's, and if the scene calls for it, to HDR them (tactfully of course)!
Thanks for the tips ! :)
Having people in the shots can add something
http://wildlifeencounters.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Scenes-from-Almeria-Spain/G0000jFpMNMP99Fs/I0000sZigIatd0U0
I really wanted to be a photographer. and I chose landscape as my theme. Please Im looking for a lot of tips. Thank you. I am a new photographer :)
Love these photos, particularly the dramatic sky ones. I think I tend to let the subject dictate how closely I stick to the rule of thirds. Great tips as always. (I mean the article, Not me)!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7109/7669925436_6caf5eefed_z.jpg
I fail to even take landscape shots, so I feel this is an area I need to work on! I enjoyed the wealth of things to think about in this short, easy read!
I've used the "Rule of Thirds" in a different way during video filming for a local Pulbic Access channel. Now that I'm getting into "still ?" photography, I'm learning to use the rule in a much different manner. I totally enjoy landscape photography and will put these tips to use right away.......thx
If you can't see anything that catches your eye from where you are - go low. tummy on the ground low. then look around. not just in front of yourself but around...see what else is there. you'll be very surprised.
Top tips, even pro's need a reminder from time to time! love the capture by 3amfromkyoto!
Great post! The example photos are stunning! Thanks for the tips! : )
Getting ready to try the next DPS weekly assn: Urban
I know many of the tips in this article, Surefire Landscape Photography Tips by Darren Rowse will help me.
Thank-you so much for sharing all these wonderful "Secrets". Patricia
I'm typically to running a blog and i really recognize your content. The article has really peaks my interest. I am going to bookmark your site and preserve checking for new information.
Awesome article! I plan on using these tips when I photograph my landscaping work! Thanks!
Great tips and examples, thanks for sharing! :)
Great collection of landscape photography. The effects and the editing is wisely done.Anyway, I found lots of excellent landscape photography at this site www.kozzi.com. I've always come there and download great photos. :)
I think most of the blogger should take this site as a model – very clean and magnificent style and design. In addition Pictures and Content is Awesome. You are an expert in this topic!!
thanks for the great tips,
in regards to landscape photography, is the best way to avoid grainy photos a lower ISO?
i am shooting RAW photos but some are still coming up grainy ie http://www.flickr.com/photos/pat_091/6805595890/
any help would be appreciated!
hi most of the pics in here are hdr.. so dont expect this result when u experiment
Was planning a landscape session this weekend, these tips will come in very handy. Thanks!
Taking pictures from a high angle gives you a better view of the landscape. It takes practice to master landscape photography. This kind of photography not only requires state of the art gadgetry, but more importantly the skill in capturing exquisite pictures which can be obtained through constant practice.
If anyone travels to Las Vegas, be sure to visit Red Rock Canyon. You can take the 13 mile scenic drive and landscape vistas open up all over. I have taken thousands of images there over the years. When you exit the park, heading back to Vegas, you will pass the Red Rock Overlook. It gives you a view of the entire park. You can take panoramas, close ups with a telephoto lens, and more. The best times I have found are at sunrise and near sunset for the golden light. Bad weather, such as snow, rain, fog...make for really great shots as opposed to seeing the usual blue skies.
Renowned photographer Simon Marsden, who specialised in gritty b&w images of subjects including mystical landscapes, gothic graveyards and old ruins, has died aged 63.
Simon first developed an interest in photography when his father, a keen landscape photographer, gave him a Leica for his 21st birthday.
'I instantly became hooked on photography. What intrigued me most was the magic of time and light and the enigma of "reality" that these elements conjured up,' Simon wrote on his website.
'Over the years I have tried to portray this in various forms in my work... The first roll of film that I shot was of cardboard cut-outs of ghosts that I arranged in tableaux in the garden.'
One of my favorite places for landscape shooting is the Tyrol district that borders Germany/Austria. I spent a week there in 2008 and I found the valleys, mountains and trails to be wonderful for photography.
Thank you these are inspiring photographs, these are great photography tips!
Great tips. The landscape is my favorite mode of shooting. I'm inspired!
A nice little article, good reminder about the tripod. I have two and often tend to either forget (or not bother) to take one with me. Don't forget the camera self timer is also useful instead of a remote.
Your photo by Curious Spider, of the large-gravel road shot from just above the road, violates the rule of respecting the depth of field as the rocks int he foreground are out of focus. I suspect this was a test, or "plant" done intentionally to see of anybody noticed...
Beautiful article and stunning images, wunderful work, well done.
i love this website....its so inspiring aS AM just a budding photographer with less than a year xperience.....
Another point I would like to make about depth of field is that it is very important to k ow where to focus to maximize the depth of field even if the aperture value is high landscapes are focused one third into the scene to get maximum sharpness. In low light when auto focus does not work it's good to know about hyperfocal distance.
I use a 30d canon. Am I able to produce such great work though. Is it all in the lens, the man holding the camera or what? mokhethi victor from South Africa
Thank you so much. Those suggestions were very helpful.
Any of you have ever try shooting landscapes while its raining? Got any pictures you wanna share? ;)
I carry with me in my camera bag a graduated neutral density filter to help with reducing the bright sky and elevate the bottom portion of the image. This saves me a lot of post editing time as the image looks natural from top to bottom.
awonderful lesson thank you I love photography. I am an artists,and belong to a group of photografers
Wonderful tutorial !
I am using a SLR but find it bulky. I would like to have a upper class point and shoot like the Canon G12. If it is possible to return to a specific spot you can find a variety of different winning shots each with its own mood. It might even mean to return to the spot at a different time of the year.
Thanks for a wonderful website ! ! !
I also find that using an aperature setting of 9 or 11 will usually give complete focus throughout the image.
I am happy to agree with most of your tips however no mention of hyperfocal distance, no lens is at it's sharpest stopped right down. On a prime lens you will normally find a depth of feild guide or look up the chart for your chosen lens online, a lot of modern dslr cameras have depth of field preview button built in. High end lenses tend to be sharpest stopped down a couple of f stops consumer lenses a bit more . Unless you are after a specific effect such as starred highlights in a night scene best not to close the aperture more than is nescessary to ensure sharpness
Excellent tips. Shall try them out today itself.
Great article and tips.I have learned so much through DPS which was recommended to me by a professional photographer
What are the best Nikon lenses for wedding photography?
Excellent advice for beginners or pros. Thanks for that. One suggestion that I might add, is to "seek elevation" . Many of my better images were captured from elevated vantage points. From a cliff top, mountain top., etc. it tends to change perspective dramatically, and may give you an image that others haven't worked hard enough to get. Thanks again for the 11 hints.
Mike Putnam
I only have canon g12 and i really love it. Thanks for sharing some tips.. I am not really good in photography but i love photography.
this was amazing ive never really thought about doing different angles and i really do enjoy landscape photography im going to have to try this soon!!! to bad im stuck in school right now sigh :(
I'm researching and found your article...These are awesome tips and I'll try these with my thesis. Thanks!
Bridging my two loves, Photography and Landscaping. Great post!
thanks for the tips there are very helpful. unfortunetly i am in a desert and i am the tallest thing for miles.
loved it!! will definitely try!! :)
Great photos and some nice tips for one of the most difficult photo style Landscape Photography.
Mike
Those are some very good advices for landscape photography.
We have to remember that besides all this tips there are a lot of types of photography choose from:
black and white photography, analog film photography, digital, sepia, photographs can be printed on a lot of different papers with a lot of different techniques.
Follow your artistic soul and choose what feels right for you and that will help you to impress yourself and others.
Good luck and have a great shooting session.
Rafal Maleszk
http://www.rafalmaleszyk.com
Thank you for all the information and tips, I will definitely keep follow your list.
great and useful tips for me as i love landscape photography.
I find myself looking at puddle reflections, and crouching down to see if something interesting catches my interest: Youd be surprised what can be found reflecting from an innocuous puddle in the middle of nowhere!
Couple more I might add, although you covered one breifly.
Use of ND filters. OK they're an extra expense but ND grads are invaluable especially as you start moving out of the controlable light of the "golden hour" into that severe bright light of the later pre-breakfast time light, sorry forgot we photographers don't get time for brekkies, LOL! The sky can somtimes light quicker than the ground, especially when working with shaded areas, NDs will give you balance without the need for multiple blended shots.
Learn how to use the histgrams to check for light balance across the spectrum, no good shooting 75 shots getting home realising you've blown details out of the skies or the ground is so dark it looks like coal. ( Done this way to many times before I learned! )
Consider using online tools either before you leave or during your excursions. I use three online web tools, Google Maps, great way to scope out some nice places, especially those of us who are hobby photographers with limited time and resources. The next is the local weather reports for the area and finally the world famous Photographers Ephemeris, giving you sunrise and sunset times, and directions of light. If you can get these on your smartphone ( I have these my iPhone and my laptop ) so much the better.
Get some solid walking boots, thick pullovers and a nice wooly hat, I never leave home without these even in the middle of Summer! You arrive before light and usually the chosen spot is bl**dy freezing!
L8rs!
your tips on landscape shooting are great!!!
http://www.brigade-electronics.com/products/thermal-imaging-camera
I really love landscape shotting. These are very great tips. Thanks so much for share
Great tips - Thank you! here's my "work w/ weather" photo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ppdao/5716545704/in/photostream
Great tips - here's my "work w/ weather" version
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ppdao/5716545704/in/photostream
great timing to read this article as I will be heading to the Canadian Rockies in a couple of weeks :) thanks!!
I have found great selection of landscape photography.
http://www.post35mm.com/bygenre.php?index=30&featured=1
I like #7- capture movement. All of my photos are static simply because I don't have a great camera. But I just don't want to be carrying around a huge camera all the time. I'd rather just experience the landscape and save it as a memory.
If I had a tip it would be post-shooting: use Lightroom. And if you could only use one function in lightroom- up the contrast.
I've started a travel blog, here are who I consider the top 2 landscape photographers in the world.
I really love these tips. I have a similar post that talks about landscape photography at http://clickitphoto.net/ . As well I linked to this great article for my readers to enjoy.
not bad. nothing ground breaking but I agree with you on the tripod. A tripod will make you think before you shoot and that is what will make your image better.
The explainations are awesome and interesting... Please do give some more pictures to clarify nicely about different aperture, ISO settings etc..
I hope 2 share some nice pictures of mine with you soon.
Great tips, and excellent images!
I love to travel and take landscape / nature photo's. Perhaps the best advice is to shoot during the "golden hour". Early morning's and late afternoon / evening generally provide the best light
Thanks for sharing your tips. I'll be on my landscaping shoot next week, and this tips would really help me a lot. please keep posting. God Bless.
Am not a photography expert but I loved reading these tips and am sure it will help people like me who have even a very basic point-and-shoot type cameras.
All thanks to Darren for writing these tips in such a simpler language.
When I started learning the best tip I got was switch to AV mode or Manual mode and try to capture something in the foreground, middle and background, and make sure it is the right time of the day, when the light is not too bright. This made such a difference to my photographs. Love your work digital Photograph School, I have learnt so much. Thank you and keep up the great work.
guys m a landscape photographer not by a profession but by hobby, n i can say i clicked much better pics den d last one shown here (pt no. 11), change d angle, u guys can have a look @ my snaps,
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1207564329&aid=2110747
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119979&id=1207564329
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2110755&id=1207564329
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2110753&id=1207564329
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2101517&id=1207564329
All these photographs pictured here seem to follow what you're saying, but I think there's a little bit more to these photographs than meets the eye. Can I assume that the most of these are HDR photos (5 shots crammed into 1)?
The only reason I bring this up is because everytime I go out to find a few good shots I can't seem to get the right lighting because of too great a contrast between sky & foreground. I guess I'm trying to remember what works best for the rule of 3rds and balance out the photo, but lose the quality of what I see in the landscape. Maybe it's because I have 2 eyes instead of 1 that brings the enthusiasm to take the photo in the 1st place, but how do you capture what you see like the pros?
I'm a landscaper, and have just gotten involved with photography. Your photos are amazing, and perhaps these tips will help make me a better photographer. Thanks.
Landscapes, especially mountains are my main point of interest in photography. It may seem to be easy type of photography but today it is difficult to make some interesting photos (sometimes I think that almost everything was already made!).
http://www.tomaszworek.com/gallery-alpy_berchtesgaden--en.html
Yes to the tripod! It'll make you take your time. Fewer but better photographs.
Thanks for all the details. I've just started getting into photography and find your site very helpful! I'm surrounded by beautiful mountains and landscapes are next on my list. I'm going to go test them out this afternoon.
Great tips, there are two that I use for HDR of cityscapes which is
1. great sky and
2. putting the subject properly in the frame but leaving enough space around it to breathe.
It's very interesting finding that most of the points in the article are the ones I follow (not always and not always as explained, of course) in my pictures on my website, even if I'm far from perfection.
thanx person-that-commented-after-me. your tips are helpful with photograhy. im a beginner so any tips are useful. thanx again(smiley)
Wonderful tips -- thank you! Your shots in this article are beautiful!
As usual this is wonderful but we *really* need a good print format here.
so helpful, thank you!
at no.1 "maximise the depth of field" i would mention the hyperfocal distance which gives absolutely top results when comes to landscape photography.
at no.9 "work in the golden hours" i would say that yes, at those times one might have the best light and the soft shadows but it's worth mentioning the "sunny f/16" rule which also have great results.
very helpful tips. keep them coming
these pics are amazing, although i take interest in fashion photograpy-thats what i want to do now. although, teenagers change their career choice almost everyday when they come across something 'cool'. but for now i want to be a fashion photographer and i am taking photography at school so im trying to find cool tips and stuff for photography- any suggestions??
Thanks for these tips. Landscape's not something I do because I like photographing people and lifestyle, but lately I've found it's really refreshing to go out and look for good images without the added impact of putting a face in it. These tips are a great place to start, thanks. Just wondering if you advise getting a screw-on ND filter or the one with the holder that is attached to the front of the lens? Is there a difference? Also, should I block the viewfinder on long exposures and does this make a difference? Thanks again!
Brilliant! I never cease to enjoy reading these articles and this one is no exception and one that I have read more than once for a jogger.
Love it and thanks for the awesome article.
Awesome tips Darren, my girlfriend and I have just started shooting landscapes and seascapes after years of travelling and doing surf and wave photography these tips will come in really useful thanks.
This is one of the most amazing website i have come across ever and every week i am still surprised by the contents and the quality of the articles. Just great... Keep them coming.
Awesome stuff. I enjoyed it..
GREAT STUFF!! :)
These are great tips we all should consider before photographing landscapes. Here are some amazing examples of landscape pictures mostly from Russian artists http://www.photographymojo.com/2010/11/20-outstanding-landscape-photography-examples/
Wow, every shot got better and better. I can't wait to try shooting at the "golden hours". Thanks for the article!
Great ideas!
Article is really great! Photography is undoubtedly the art! And so popular today! These tips are helpful for those aspiring to learn this incredible art!
These tips are great. I think many people forget about some of the simple things when trying to shoot landscape photography. I especially like the tip about using the weather. I live in the Midwest and sometimes the weather is exactly the thing that makes the shot.
There are certainly some good tips her, and not just the usual ones that everyone knows and all the photographic magazines re-produce on a regular basis.
Great tips! You've shown that photography is a fine art that requires a unique and creative eye. Thanks for the post!!
Photographer Detroit
Another possibility to consider in the quest for originality and uniqueness is the abstract image in a landscape. When the light is too contrasty or the vista-type shot seems to much the cliche, for example, the closeup of a small portion of the landscape taken with the wide angle lens really close or the telephoto lens from relatively afar can really get the creative juices flowing.
Midday, high contrast light seems to work particularly well with black and white images-even in digital capture.
Also, the live view function on my 40D really helps me to judge sharpness at various aperture settings and distance from the foreground choices. I put a black cloth over my head if conditions are bright, and I look like the large format photographers of old.
landscape on sunrise in mountain : http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsnk/5249058060/
Darren
Great article - simple tips, that are easy to miss, even if one's been trying them out for years. I did pick up on most of these somewhere along the way, but always good to have a refresher.
I especially like the tip about trying not to shoot everything at eye level. I'd like to add to that and say it's worth trying to break one rule at a time as often as possible, whether the rule of thirds, or using a small aperture etc. I have also tried shooting in portrait mode rather than landscape - some examples at http://sharsidd.zenfolio.com/p145570806
The one rule that I feel should (almost) never be broken is that the horizon should always be level.
Some great basic tips. I agree with Denver about the Rule of Thirds, but you just can't get everything into one article!! This is a great starting point, however.
@larryphoto
I'm suprised that the rule of thirds wasn't more prevalant in this article. It really can't be stressed enough especially when it comes to great landscape photography
Great post. I really like the tip about using the weather as another element to add to a shot.
Thanks for the tips. I've got a friend who's a great landscape photographer and I've often had photo-envy of his work. I'm doing a shoot outside today and will definitely take into consideration some of these tips.
Very useful information. Next time for outside shooting I will keep my camera in hand and these tips in my mind.
Very useful tips. Will remeber these points next when I am out with the camera.
Great tips for shooting landscapes!
Thanks for Useful tips......................
The tips here outline the most important aspects of landscape photography...very nicely written.
I'm a landscape photographer myself and just started a blog on how to do landscape photography specifically. Most of the photos in your examples use some kind of exposure blending and I just wrote a step-by-step tutorial on it <a href="http://thejoyoflandscapes.blogspot.com/2010/10/exposure-blending-part-1-why-to-auto.html"right here. I hope that someday my blog can be a great resource to those who want to get into landscape photography but lack the technique.
Fantastic tips! Some of the best I've seen in a while.
Useful set of tips. Agree with your section on weather. I find the the best times are when the weather is about to change - the edge of a storm for example. Seems to create the most drama
Great tips, very inspiring pictures. Makes me want to go now and take some pictures.
Thanks a lot. I love to travel and take mostly landscapes. But, they certainly need improvement.
rangerbob
What kind of grad filter did you use for the shot in #2? And do you use filter holders or just hand hold the grad filters?
Excellent advice and very timely for me as I was going to start researching how to take better landscape shots. Thank you so much.
Love the tips! I just wish it were easy to lug around a tripod during tips. Happy shooting, everyone!
I have a tendency to get excited and hurry when I come upon great areas to photograph. I need to slow down and take a good look around. This article is a big help. It's something I will read over and over again to get these points imbedded in my head.
great tips, i do a lot of landscapes and am glad of all the above. just remember increasing ISO may mean a grainy shot, may be desirable some times, but not always
Love this post. I have it printed on my wall and always look at it before shooting landscapes.
Hi Darren
This is a great comprehensive overview, thanks for sharing and I look forward to implementing some of your ideas. i would like to see an examination of the Fibonnaci Series as it applies to The Rule of Thirds. I think this would help explain why some shots just look better than others. In this shot, I tried to place the Lamppost lights at the Fibonnaci Point and not Rule of Thirds intersection. http://tinyurl.com/29yt46q
Thanks again, Erik
I would add a #12 : stop over and over and overtreating your photographs. Some of us are really fed up with places that only exist in science-fiction movies (I'm not refering to HDR, which is another thing).
I like Your Advice. I will try this with my photography. Thanks.
I've heard of film people and some other photographers adhering to the dawning hour rule as the only time to shoot. They must have a lot more freedom than we do, or maybe they don't use photography to pay the bills. For us, we just work with what we've got, and make the best of what lighting we have.
Good solid advice but one of the shots was too overworked in photoshop. I like natural images not images that are heavily photoshopped.
There are some great tips there, and here is one of my photos that I believe uses a lot of them!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26431673@N04/3864308943/in/set-72157622043841385/
I love #8. Dramatic weather is always hard to capture. Also practicing good landscape photography helps if you're a portrait photographer!
Dear Darren,
Great tips, I'm a pro lanscape photographer for years and you have nailed it !. The only thing I use on the top of that is bracketting for either HDR or just get more info on the skies :
if you want more info on that check out my urban landscapes from Paris and free tutorials on :
www.sergeramelli.com
Serge
Darren, I've shot you an invite on Linkedin.. I'd like to connect more with you on this, since these tips that you've given here are more of the generic ones I've seen everywhere!
Hence I thought I'd get some inspiration from you on Landscape stuff, some answers to my questions that could help me get going again to shooting Landscapes as I used to.
Thanks.
Arun
wow! love those shots and your tutorial is spot on.. i'm still struggling with geting great colour in mine, but i suppose that means some pp'ing. i'll get better some day. thanks for the great tips.
Very good tips, I find myself using a lot of them and I love doing landscapes.
On the weather one tip I can give is to prepare to shoot while there's a lot of rain. Often right after the heavy rain you'll have an amazing sky.
And a tip I always give beginners is to take photos you like of places around you and try to re-create them. You'll learn a lot doing that. I use HDR a lot but not always, here you can see my landscape images.
http://martinsoler.com/category/landscape/
Timeless lessons on Landscape photography, worthy of the re-post. Landscapes are more difficult than they seem, and a genre I'm still trying to improve on.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lendog64/5072295436/
Checkout:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ste_95/4976528834/in/set-72157623644891751/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ste_95/5104828875/in/set-72157623644891751/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ste_95/5104828875/in/set-72157623644891751/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ste_95/4492146425/in/set-72157623644891751/
great suggestions, and thanks for explaining aparature settings in simple ways that make sense to newbies
Thank you for these wonderful tips! I love the DPS site, and have learned so much from reading the information posted here.
I live in sunny Arizona, USA, and whenever there are clouds, that's when I bring my camera with me. It seems that I get the best pictures, because if the sky isn't cloudless, then there tends to be the big clouds with a lot of drama. I'll just bring my camera with me to work, and I've gotten great sunrises just by pulling into a parking lot and clicking away during my commute.
Keep up the good work!
I like your tips, well written and very helpful. According to your writing you are a well experienced and great photographer.
But what makes me wonder is why the photos you have posted above as examples are photos of different photographers. Are they really yours or they belong to somebody else?
If they are not yours then why use them as examples on this articles? Why not use your own photos as a good example for your tips?
Great tips. Thanks for the reminder.
thankyou for your insite i am new to photograhy (12 months ) and have been studing alot . your infomation was very clear and easy to understand . it was good to go over the basics again . i will be doing my diploma next year and look forward to going to some of your links and reading some more .. thankyou ..
Very cool information and tips. i'll be using them to take more pictures of my clients landscape and lawns
Good examples....wish I had that scenery in south west kentucky....and a better camera
For those who are wondering how to capture such vivid landscapes as the examples, they are some form of HDR technique (excluding the mountain meadow and possibly the last example). HDR stands for "High Dynamic Range." The pictures are a combination of 3 separate exposures, one "normal", one under exposed, and one over exposed. By layering the 3 you can create a picture with 3 times the dynamic range of a normal photograph. For example, picture number one, the sky was taken from the underexposed while the rest of the picture was taken from the normal and overexposures. This creates a surreal look. Your eye would never see it this way, which is why it is so stunning.
Tip #12: Learn HDR. It covers all your flaws.
Great !!
Amazing!!
wonderful pictures...
and very useful tips.
Thanks for sharing!!
I have found a Italian photographer ( Saro Scalia) in a eco design store that works about a little Italian village near vulcano Etna, very interesting!
Thank you for your suggestions! Im just getting into photography and im LOVING it! Of corse i did some pictures there and some pictures there, but somehow my eyes just realize there is soo much out there! And it's just amazin gwhat you can find! My big thing to take pictures of right now are flowers, i love when you focus your camera on that one flower it blurrs out the background and you can se the center spot...I only have a ''cheap'' digital camera right now but im hoping to get a ''high def'' camera a can do soo much more with! Thanks again for your suggestions! ~Kaitlyn
Great advice with some nice examples
Please can you advise as planning to use small UV LED's / tortch to protect costly lenses from Fungus. I am little confused here as contrary to that we are using UV filters to proyect from Light. Hope some one can help!
Just to clear here thr process that these UV lights goes to lenses from camera attachment side for few hours as took details from web.
These are wonderful tips! I try to incorporate them in my photography. Except when I need to break them. When shooting in Wyoming the weather & cloud formations changed every moments. You could set back and wait for dramatic clouds to to roll into your composition. Storms came up quickly over the mountain range. Have found Tip # 8" Work With The Weather" to be especially true. Agree with Ed Hamlin's comment ( Oct 2nd) concerning taking your time. I have started out with one composition in mind only to capture another image, just by taking the time to be in the moment. I've found looking around me not just through the viewfinder to be quite helpful. A good drink always helps! I enjoy "drinking in my surroundings." Thanks to Darren Rowse for the great article.
What a fantastic article! Thank you for the tips, this makes me want to grab my camera and go for a hike. I have been looking to Peter Lik for inspiration lately, if you are not familiar with his landscapes check him out http://blog.peterlik.com/
Awesome post, very well written. Especially true is #9 (Golden Hours), it's definitely true and I know that all of my landscape "keepers" have been from very unusually early or late in the day.
Great photos and great tips.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Darren,
I am a beginner and have just completed a one day beginners course however I came away with a head full of info and the words practice, practice, practice ringing in my ears. That's OK when the concept makes sense. I just couldn't get my head around the basics. I decided to go to the net for some explanations and I found the DPS site. Wow it was a light bulb moment. I know each of us learns differently but by reading the info on ISO, Shutter speed and Aperture it is now making sense to me! The simple explanation of Small Aperture(large numbers) and Large Aperture(small numbers) every time you use the terms is really helpful. I have found your info very easy to understand and very informative. THANKS SO MUCH!! Keep up the good work.
Cheers D
Thank you Darren for your expert tips. I am a beginner and look forward to trying all those suggestions!
Jim
wow .... Great tips, Really amazing i will try from tomorrow ......
This is My first visit
Thank you.
I loved reading your blog and the tips were amazing. I went out and took some more pictures (1 for each tip) and I found that it improved my pictures 10 fold! :) btw I loved the pictures, number 2 was my favorite.
great tips!
mine would be - dont go crazy with photoshop or other processing programs- it looks awful- let the landscape speak for itself!
@tim m: some of the best landscape shots can be taken during winter and the snow, take a look at some of these for ideas: http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveberardi/galleries/72157622840164061
Thanks indeed! I will surely benefit from your tips. For me i think the most important tip is "Change your view point". I will take some shots of the places I've visited before but this time from a different angle.
Thank you for the great information. I can't wait to use them. I'm new to all of this so I have been doing a lot of playing with all my settings. It is winter outside so I'm not sure how great the landscape photos are going to be. everything is white. I will try this weekend to get some shots and will submit.
UV Filters
One poster has asked for an article on using UV filters to enhance skies.
UV filters do not enhance skies. They are not designed for this.
The filters that will enhance skies are graduated filters, and most often the grey grad is used.
See an earlier post by myself on this issue.
A UV filter does what its name suggests, absorbs UV light. Excessive amounts of UV can cause film to be overexposed - I can't comment on the effect it has on digital sensors, but it's likely to be the same.
Generally UV is not a problem unless you're surrounded by lots of snow or at high altitude.
The main reason for using a UV filter is because it's colourless and can be used to protect the lens from being scratched/damaged.
The other filter that comes up when UV filters are mentioned is the skylight filter, 1A, 1B.
This absorbs ultraviolet light too, but also does have a very slight colour to them, the idea being to slightly enhance/warm up the image.
Many peple alledge they are colourless and therefore do not affect the image, however, I have some fantastic snow scenes which have a purple colour cast to them, which makes them look beautiful.
When you place the skylight filter down onto a sheet of white paper, you will notice that the filter does in fact have a slight purple colour cast to it.
So I put down the lovely purple colouring of those snow scenes to the skylight filter that happened to be on the lens that day.
Aperture and Shutter Settings
One poster has asked for details of the apperture and shutter settings to be published.
Unfortunately, it's very common to publish these values but in reality they have little purpose, except for the very novice to gain some idea of what shutter speed settings to use on various subject matter.
Over the years, I learned what shutter speeds to use by experimentation, by taking shots and learning.
I know for example, if I'm going to photograph high speed fighter jets I need to be using 1/500th second or faster. If I'm photographing helicopters then a maximum speed of either 1/60th, or 1/125th is the highest to go. Any faster than this and you freeze the motion of the rotor blades and the picture just doesn't look right: you need some blur in the blades.
When it comes to landscapes, just about any shutter speed will do. You're more interested in maximising the depth of field, and I've mentioned a technique to do that in an earlier post.
You might be interested in the shutter speed for a special effect, such as wanting to create a blur of motion, particurlarly with water, where a long shutter speed can create a foaming/misty effect.
The usual rule of anything below 1/60th second requiring a tripod applies.
Once the camera is tripod mouted, you can then set whatever shutter speed you like, but most of the time, you won't be setting the shutter speed, you'll be setting the aperture and relying on the camera to set the sutter speed for you (aperture priority).
When tripod mounted, you shouldn't have any difficulty setting the aperture down to as low as f16 or f22.
Of course, the shutter speed will be long, (depends on how bright the scene is), so what;s going to be on your mind is movement, is there any movement in the branches of trees which on a long shutter speed will cause blurryness.
So aperture is the most important: go for f11-f22.
Shutter speed, is whatever it needs tobe to give correct exposure.
Or set the shutter speed to deal with motion if you want blurryness in the movement of water, or set a bit faster if you want to avoid blur in trees caused by the wind.
Play around with it.
Polarisers and Neutral Density Graduated Filters for Sunsets
First you need to understand what the problem is when taking pictures of sunsets/sunrises which incorporate a relatively bright sky.
Second, you need to understand precisely what the polarisers and graduated grey (neutral densisty filters) do.
The problem:
The problem is that the sky is much brighter than the foreground. The difference in brightness is so great that the camera - both film and digital, can not capture all the detail in the sky and foreground.
One of two things happens: you have detail in the foreground and it is correctly exposed but detail in the sky is burned out.
Or you can set the exposure for the sky to give detail but the foreground is blacked out because it's under exposed.
The solution is to reduce the brightness of the sky, but not to reduce the brightness of the foreground.
Knowing this, it's immediately clear why a polariser is not suitable. A polariser causes, typically a reduction in the light level of approximately 1.5 stops across the entire frame.
What you need is a graduated filter, which absorbs varying degrees of light. The filter is more dense at the top and less dense at the bottom, absorbing more light at the top where the sky is located, but not absorbing light coming from the ground.
So: the answer is: A graduated grey filter is the answer to the problem.
A polariser could be useful in changing the colour of the sky, deeping the blue, if the camera is pointed in the correct direction, but it won't solve the issue that the range of brightness of the light in the scene is too bright to be recorded by the film or CMOS/CCD sensor.
You mention polarisers, but you've failed to describe how they work and how to them, and under what circumstances they work best.
Maximising Depth of Field.
You've hit the nail on the head about how important the depth of field is in landscape photographs, but yet you have made no mention of the most important concept there is to landscape photographers to maximising the depth of field.
It's called "Hyperfocal Distance". If you're serious about doing landscape photographs then you need to get your head around this simple concept, and you need to use it. And as someone teaching landscape photographs, you need to teach the students it.
A great article indeed! I am interested to know the strengths of using a polarizing filter or a graduated non-density filter for landscape photography during sunrise/ sunset. Which is a better filter to enhance the colors of the sky during sunrise/sunset and at the same time shows the subjects without appearing too dark?
Thanks so much for all advices.
thanks for the tips. the photos are great, and i wish i could take great photos too... im still an entry-level for now.
These example photos are almost always over saturated and the lighting has been edited to the point that these photos look completely unrealistic, like poorly made HDR photos. The photo editing has destroyed the dynamics of the photos and the feel that the original scenery might have had. Sure they look nice in the "MTV-kind-of" way, but it is a bit tiresome when every example photo looks like this.
Wow these photo's are amazing and the tips are a valuable source as I've just started out with photography to inspire my paintings.
Great article backed up by superb photos. I find that a step ladder helps get a different perspective on a landscape. The extra bit of height to be had from standing on a step ladder (where practical obviously) add depth to an image.
I download some great picture from hare. Picture are awesome. Thank you for the Tips . I will definitely follow this.
Thanks for the great article Read more no more imagination
Thank you so much! I'm 14 from australia and i have wanted to be an accountant since i was 4 and thanks to you if that doesn't work out i will be a landscape photographer!!! =P
Thank You!
Putting together a field trip for a class and needed some inspiration in formulating the curriculum. You got me off to a great start. Nice article.
John
There are 3 of landscapes ive made, last one is not quite landscepe, but take a look and say what You think about it.
http://randal01.deviantart.com/art/Landscape-92361875
http://randal01.deviantart.com/art/Wherever-I-may-Roam-95443443
http://randal01.deviantart.com/art/My-1st-HDR-90633228
If you're going to enter the Ansel Adams Gallery competition - please make sure you read the terms and conditions prior to entering, make sure you're happy with them.
Simon
Show off your good work by entering The Ansel Adams Gallery Photo Contest. The theme is US National Parks, Monuments & Landmarks. Contest entry cutoff is 11/15/2009.
http://www.anseladams.com/content/yosemite/2009photocontest.html
Better advice is to do MOST of your photography during the "magic" hours. Don't neclect the midday out of hand, however. Once in awhile you will find the drama there as well; a thunderstorm or dramatic clouds for example. All rules are made to be broken, as long as you know why you are breaking them.
Thanks, these are some great tips!
I have shot thousands of Landscape Photos. I have worked hard for every shot that I have put on my website and you can view those for examples of following the guidlines listed above. They are guidlines that can be pushed ,broken and forgotten at times to produce spectactular scenes. But you need to start with them as a foundation. I learned one day as I was shooting snow covered scene in southern California (we don't get them often) to don the most important thing, SLOW DOWN. I am on a snow covered trail and ayoung man blasts up in his 4-whell drive truck, jumps out scrambles around grabs his rig on a tripod and dashes of through the snow, within a minute he was back and raced off to his next destination. I don't know what he saw but I was able to some wonderful waterfallsa half mile down the trail. I know he didn't see them, because my foot prints we the only ones there. I know that i would have missed some beautiful shots of I continued to be as impatient as the young man.
So when you go out to shoot have everythign ready before you go shoot, clean gass, sensor, clothes, charges batteries, flashlight, extra film/memory cards, a snack or two.. Yes take some extra clothes with you too. I move to the best point of view, standing in the middle of the street, laying down on a trail, wet sand, knee deep in warms surf or freezing water, mud, rain, all during the golden hours.
When you go to a remote location always tell someone where you are going and don't deviate from the plan, leave a map if necessary for them to beable to see the route you are taking in and out. If you see something that could detour you don't! Mark it on a map and go back to it as soon as you can. Happy hunting and feel free to contact me.
I will take away from this article that if there is not an interesting sky, that I had better find an interesting foreground for sure then.
Any recommended tripods for landscape photography?
Great tips! I am coming back to this article again for the same reasons. I am at the Beach with my family, and almost every night we have amazing sunsets off the back deck. However, I can't get the light right in the shot, either too bright and washed out, or two dark. How do I get accurate representation of color?
Great info, I am just starting out and am looking for as many tips as I can get. Thank you everyone for all the great advice!
These shots are STUNNING! Wow! I don't have a "trained" eye in photography, but these shots blow me away. This is a random question, but do you think the Lumix camera line does a very good job with landscape photography in 16:9 ratio?
I have been enjoying and learning a lot from your tutorials. Thanks so much Darren for a great place for a beginner.
I'm interested in the post by Kaamierree Ozanbud from 2007 regarding the graduated neutral density filter. The problem I keep having is trying to get these fabulous cloud formations we are having this summer without having a really dark landscape. If I meter to get the landscape then I lose the intensity of the clouds. I have a filter for my lens, but I think it's just a UV filter and I'm not sure I even understand how to use that.
A few more tips which I swear by. 1. Take your time, compose and recompose your shot. 2. Research, study maps to get an appreciation of the environment your photographing before hand.
Landscape photography is far trickier than photographing places in a town or city as there are far less interesting things to put the photograph. Great tips, will be giving them a try :)
Looks very interesting. Thanks for sharing..
http://fashionshow99.spaces.live.com
Great article, well worth a read.
I wish I would be able to make such beautiful photos.
This is really a great inspired article, thanx so much!! All the best :)
Hamada,
DOF is crucial in most landscape photography. If you are shooting let's say a scene of some colorful rocks in the foreground, a lake in the middle and mountains in the background.....the DOF has to be a large f stop like f/16 or so to be sure you get everything from near to far in sharp focus,,,,some will do f/11 and some may choose f/22. If you tried to shoot the same thing at let's say f/4 or 5.6 you could not get everything from near to far in sharp focus.
I am little confuse about how can the DOF (depth of field) affect in the landscape photos ?
A few more tips which I swear by. 1. Take your time, compose and recompose your shot. 2. Research, study maps to get an appreciation of the environment your photographing before hand.
Good luck and enjoy!
Richard Arran Photography
This is a landscape photography blog...so I really don't understand why anyone (no offense Jim) would disagree with the use of a tripod (photojournalist or not)..................he must not be a landscape photographer. Anyway...for great landscapes I urge everyone...USE A TRIPOD! when you are serious about getting great landscape shots you will most likely be shooting at sunrise or sunset...and that means low light combined with a small aperture such as f/16 or f/22...which means a slow shutter speed. Behold-your best friend...the tripod. Also a cable release, and mirror lock-up are very helpful to get that super tack sharp photograph. One more thing...check your edges and corners very carefully.
great tips, in the article and in quite a few of the replies, thx a lot !!!
Hi Darren,
I have been finding your tips and articles and links very enjoyable. You take the reader in to an issue quickly and clearly and back it up with excellent examples. As someone who still regards himself as a bit of a beginner after 30 years of taking photographs, I am getting real inspiration from you, and feeling I can go on imrpoving a little bit each time I go out with a camera. The section on foregrounds is very helpful. Thanks.
Kenneth
Each of the shot is a beauty. Tips are interesting.
Great tips, just got the 10-20mm Sigma lens and I can't wait to try some landscape shots and use these tips.
DPS rocks California. (no pun intended). :)
Great summary Darren. As usual, your articles are rich without being too long or complicated and the tips are easy to implement. Just a couple of tips that might be of use. 1. Consider using a Polarizing Filter. It is amazing how in can improve skies and clouds in landscapes. 2. Use a UV or Skylight filter, and clean it well and clean it often. It is amazing how often a series of otherwise fine pictures are marred by dust and dirt on the lens. I carry a lens cleaning cloth and try to clean, or at least look at the filter to make sure it is clean before starting a series of shots.
Thank you! I'm finding this website really useful
great tips
lovely pictures
here are some of my landscape pictures where many of your tips are implemented, they indeed improve the pictures :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amirpaz/2829845077/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amirpaz/2830619874/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amirpaz/3276048619/
thanks for the tips, i enjoyed reading and loved the pictures you posted
amir
Congratulations, a comprehensive set of landscape photography tips. An additional tip that could be added is to photograph landscape panoramas, stitching together a series of photographs, even a layered series with more than one row. Many post-processing softwares provide excellent stitching functions. Panoramas allow the photographer to use a more moderate focal length lens which preserves a more normal perspective; therefore, more detail is preserved in the background. There are restrictions of course, such as movement in the scene which prevents accurate stitching, large areas in the scene with no detail or tonal differentiation which confuses the stitching software, and perspective distortion with a large degree of rotation views, particularly if the foreground has linearity in the scene. To optimize the technique: 1. Use manual or locked exposure so that all images are equally exposed. 2. Overlap images by about 20 - 30%. 3. For the purist, pivot camera at lens center axis which requires a special mount plate for a tripod (however standing in one spot and rotating your body usually works well) . 4. Select a moderate focal length to avoid distortion issues. Of course, experiment with different focal lengths. 5. Photograph at least two panoramic series of the same scene. Photos can be exchanged between series in the event a single photo is not satisfactory. 6. For a panorama with a large view angle, a polarizing filter can create an uneven sky color and density. For the DSLR user an important advantage is the large number of pixels that comprise a stitched image, enhancing detail and allowing larger prints. Even stitching just two portrait oriented images can give an outstanding landscape photograph that doesn't even have the appearance of a panorama. A vendor has even developed a robot mount for digital cameras that shoots preprogrammed series of multi-level images that create panoramas that would be difficult to produce any other way.
I love reading and getting these tips. If i might offer one other suggestion when it comes to landscape shots. There are lots of times I've noticed a landscape can look better at certain times of the year than others due to the movement of our planet around the sun. I like to keep a note of when and where i shot a particular shot or if driving by it, do the same so i can return the same time the following year when i have more time to shoot it properly.
What about expose to the right?
thx. for the tips - good to re-remember these, what we all know but need to be refreshed in our minds every so often.
keep 'em coming!
Lovely write up..... Amazing suggestions. Will try to implement the same....
Many Thanks
I was just searching for another landscape article but found yours. Great article! Personally landscape photography is my favorite field. I can agree with most of the points in your article. I would probably add another one – “Do your homework”. Study the location you want to shoot before shooting, find a good spot (is it a sunset or sunrise spot?), have a backup spot, return to the same location back and back, watch the weather. Be zealous and you will be rewarded.
Excellent tips and really well written. I'd add a few more tips of my own, but it's easier to put in a link if that's ok: Landscape and Nature Photography Journal Great photos Darren, really inspiring.
Great comments, these really help a lot, thank you
Impressive pictures
Photo by 3amfromkyoto looks really beautiful, Great tips you have posted for beginners.
Great suggestions. But I have a couple more that may help.
1. Tilt your camera up, down, or side to side. This will give a great perspective to the shot.
2. And most importantly, be creative. Do something very unique that will awestruck your audience.
Thank you for the reminders and great examples.
I think the tips and photss are excellent. I would like to send some photos in for comments.
great images and advice, just out of interest are you using filters with these shots and if so what sort.
I love these shots they're very inspiring can't wait to try them out...
BTW, I am on my way to Cape Town South Africa, watch this space as I shoot with insight. ;-)
Thanks for the tips... it is funny I know all the things you say, but for some reason they all came together. The whole is more than the sum total or something like that. Thanks for a wonderful contribution, and thanks for a wonderful site. Just wish we could link it directly to facebook....
This article is a good collection of useful tips. I like it!
Great points made. I would also like to add it is important to scout a location. Make sure you are get out in the midday to scout possible locations. When you find out when the sunrise/sunset times are for the area also check to see where the sun will rise. By knowing this and having a compass you can plan on where you need to be for the best light or if a huge mountain will be in the way from the light you envision. You can also use the internet to determine the locations in a new city which could be good locations as well as local publications.
Carry extra batteries especially it is cold and keep them in your pants pockets. For those in the northern hemisphere winter is coming up soon and colder temps drain batteries much more quickly.
Using a tripod has actually helped me in more ways than I would have imagines. It is so much easier to take long exposures and capture more light. It works really well for landscape photos.
Like mentioned above, getting away from eye level photography is a great way to capture new looks.
This is a great photo blog. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us. I can't wait to try out some of these techniques.
I'm going to disagree with tripod use. Perhaps it's my photojournalistic training, but I can't get my mind wrapped around using a tripod. the weight/bulk doesn't work for me, and except where you do want to get the photo like the water one near point number 2.
I will really agree with point number 11 though. Don't fall into the 5-10 trap. The world isn't 5'10 up and 5' 10 away. get high, get low just get away from eye level photography
Landscape photography is probably my favourite type of photography. There is something about capturing nature that just appeals to me. I think its also easier then capturing live human subjects which tend to move! LOL!
Great examples and tips once again!
Thanks!
The waterfall shot by hkvam is one of the best landscape photographs I have ever seen (and I have big glossy books by, for example, Joe Cornish and Charlie Waite).
I also love the flowers/mountain range by OneEighteen which is beautifully composed.
Thanks for the article - more please!
I came across this post while looking for some simple advice to share with a friend regarding landscape photography. I think this sums it up in as simple of a fashion as possible. It is well written and easy to understand. Good job.
http://www.bradtroyphotography.com
A great tutorial, plainly written.
I would emphasize the bit above about dust at small apertures. This has ruined a lot of my shots (or taken longer than I would normally need in post-production to fix).
Basically, because you are letting in more twice as much light per stop "up" than the previous stop, the dust you can't see at a low number, as brice says, you WILL see a a high one.
Some great tips with good examples. Can't wait to try a few of these for myself.
A fantastic article here, some very good advice for those starting out in landscape photography.
Hello. My name is Radu Sover, i'm from Romania. I like very much the landscapes and I used some tricks presented in this article. If you want to check it out the results go to my blog at http://rsover.wordpress.com/photos .There are only e 2 pictures from the Black See, and I am very proud of them. More pictures will come in the next days so you better check it out ;)
great tips, i also find that breaking the rules can work wonders for your landscape photos. Now if I can just plan that trip...
Nice tips, I wish I stumbled upon your site before my visit to yellowstone National park
Very good advice for the amatuer or semi-amatuer photographer. I just got into landscape photography and have been reading as much as possible. This advice is what any pro would tell you. One other tip that is extremely helpful that was given to me by my instuctor is to give your shot a name before you take it. It will help give your pictures a theme. Also-make it a habit to shoot in aperture priority mode and keep your iso as low as you can. Oh and Susan...your vocabulary is so...so.....oh I don't know what to classify it as; poop poop poop????? I don't think you fit in here very well. Try going to the people with negative idiotic comments website instead.
Excellent site - really nice tips for beginners !
My word your a talent keep it up ) Any tips for street/building shots ?
Some very useful tips here!
i appreciate your information.
relating to this subject please send the most popular cameras .
realy good site
thanks
Nice images and interesting suggestions - great for people not in the know...Good job!
What is a good, reasonably priced digital camera for taking landscape photographs? I also started out with a 35mm Minolta film cam and haven't yet found something to replace it. I live in the Southwest and want to capture the wide open landscape and take macro shots as well. Any advice?
Thanks :)
very nice tips! they would come in very handy. thanks for sharing them
Really great ideas to try. Thanks for sharing
Good advice
Great article, good to see people helping amateur photographers out.
Incredible and wonderful! Thanks!!
Some great ideas to try out. Thanks!
thx for the great tips!!! my problem has always been too lazy in bringing the tripod with me :P
guest this should be something i have to reconsider
Great photography tips. Thank you!
Great tips. Now I am going on a vacation and I will use these advices. Thank you!
Regards,
William
From Germany Koln. Miaraj
SOO BUTIFUL PICTURE THANKS TO MUCH.
i need like these picture to much thanks from sending these pictures and have a great time.
You take incredible photos of God's creation! Wow!
I also find that patience is a key to some excellent photo ops...I just took a shot today of a hummingbird and I sat at my window FOREVER waiting for it, but now that I have the shot I wanted, it was all worth it!
extremely informative for landscape photographers. Images above displayed r amazing keep going
Very helpful article, great recap concisely done with wonderful supporting pictures. Thanks and well done!
Really great tips, I need to write these down for easy reference. Landscape photography (along with portrait photography) is something I really struggle with, these tips were especially timely for me.
I love landscape photography. It's another passion of mine. thanks for the info and thanks for adding me on stumble. Cheers!
Great tips, that picture by number 6 is amazing.
Someone should point out to "painting portraits with photos" that his "school-boy camera" merely TAKES the pictures. He is the one who MAKES his pictures...by changing position, by waiting for expressions to develop or by taking many images and discarding all but the best. His present camera may well be all he really needs.
Motorcycle Joe suggests only "those of us with a dSLR" have access to aperture priority and misleads others...most advanced P&S digicams offer this and as many more "dSLR features", plus single zoom lens convenience, lighter weight, movies if you're interested, and lower cost. Yes, most dSLR digicams do have larger sensors and can produce larger-than-11x14-prints. So when was the last time you wanted/needed/or made a larger than 11x14 print?
And Susan Tomla's childish "comment" doesn't even deserve your response, Darren.
Great photos and great tips. The difficulty for most amateurs who love taking landscapes is how to get to the great outdoors to take pictures like these at dawn or evening except on holiday.
I try to take as many pictures as possible when I am away but a lot of places I visit are not in the great outdoors.
As with many other aspects of photography your lessons are great.
Wow, those photos are great!
Excellent guide! The lesson convey using the flower was excellent. Although I know what DOF, this article makes it much more clear. I even write myself some notes
f/1.4 = small f/# = small DOF = large aperture = more light
f/22 = large f/# = large DOF = small aperture = less light
thanks a million.
Awesome. Thanks for illustrating with such relevant and excellent shots.
Excellent advice and love the pic on this post!
well...
True and nice.
but these are just some kind of skills.
If u want acheive more, u need to break them.
similar to painting...
I have a LUMIX Z50 lovely easy camera to use,good zoom with Leica lenses. Wondereful for scenery. I am still learning and would like to say how much I have learnt since being a member of your site. You make it so easy to understand and I want to thankyou for helping us out here. Love the scenery write up this week. Also liked your Macro write a time back. I adore macro.
Great tips! Maybe you can as well add UV filters for photographing more vivid skies with rich colors, and for eliminating the reflection of water...
Thanks for the tips! I spend a lot of time while shooting the landscapes and most of these tips are already well known for my, but it is very good to have them at one place.
So Susan - how about you write us something that will help people to something other than 'dull crap'? Easy to take a pot shot like that but how about showing us what you know about photography - if you know what you're talking about I'd love to publish it!
I like to poop,poop poop poop.
I want to poop on these tips.
They are fine/good or whatever, the examples are nice but in the hands of the people they will largely be more dull crap.
A consideration for the digital SLR users out there is that when you use small apertures(16+) it's good to make sure your sensor is free of dust. Dust which can't be seen at F/5.6 suddenly becomes a blob at F/22.
Great stuff! Beautiful shots. Perhaps youcan get some exposure posting on this new site; www.408sj.com. Its new and different. Check it out
These are some of the best, well written, landscape tips I have seen in a long time. Great info here for the beginner as well as a good refresher for those familliar with the subject.
Not just dawn and dusk are important for the light. It's autumn here in Rio de Janeiro, and you won't find a better season to photograph. By far it is the best light. Midday in Autumn is better than dawn in summer.
Great stuff... I was getting bored of landscape photography, but these new tips will help me to get some good shoots out of it!
Wow! I can hardly wait to get home and grab my camera... this is inspiring!
I love, love, love the picture by 3amfromkyoto next to #8. (I only love, love the rest. :D )
It would be helpful if for the example photos you could post the settings at which the picture was taken, and whether or not there was heavy post-processing done.
For a beginner like myself trying to replicate some shots to learn, I find it hard without the settings to base my shot on. As well, sometimes I find out it isn't possible to get the shot without lots of photo manipulation afterwards.
Anyway, those examples were great and the tips quite helpful.
I especially love that last shot where the camera was put down onto the ground. What a great idea. I did that once when taking a picture of myself. I was motorcycling through Vermont and put the camera down on the ground. I angled it up to myself and set the self timer. It's a nice idea. You just have to be careful because the background is all sky. On a sunny day the aperture will adjust for the sky and you'll end up all dark. A fill in flash would help alleviate this. But most importantly you have to watch that exposure. This is where Aperture Priority mode comes in for those of us w/ dSLRs.
Here's the shot I'm talking about:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jozefsk/62112882/
And here's another one w/ the camera on the ground while I stand next to my motorcycle:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jozefsk/62113058/
Another thing to consider for reall sharp focus is using miror lockup along with a remote or cable release (the same results can be accomplished with the use of the camera timer). This is especially important if you are using the center column of your tripod which can make the camera very shaky.
In terms of foreground that yellow lines down on the tarmac shot would be greatly boosted if there were the remains of a coyote in the shot right up close and gruesome...
...or maybe not.
What kind of camera would you like to suggest. People recommend for heavy weight camera's .Hey! brand you use .
I love landscape photography. For me composition is key. Even if the lighting suffers, good composition can save a photograph. I would add that if you happen to be somewhere in the middle of the day and perhaps are not an early riser or late bedtime person, go for infrareds or black & whites. Infrareds require more light and sometimes the extra shadows of midday make great black & white images. Lastly, take lots of images so you get the perfect shot, but DON'T post them all. Pick the best and post it. Nothing ruins a trip album more than multiple pictures where you just shifted your feet.
Salam my friends i hope ok and have a great time good luck.
Great article, but something to remember for point 1 is diffraction. The smaller the apeture, the more likey you are to suffer from diffraction - it's where the light bends oddly around the tiny hole. Essentially, it will be slightly LESS sharp.
Each lens has a sweet spot which is roughly 2 stops down from the maximum f-stop to get maximum sharpness. If you can't get that with a combination of iso/apeture/shutter speed. Then try an ND filter.
Landscape photography is one of my favourite subjects, so I am very pleased to read this article with the accompanying images.It is informative, easy to read and understand.
Thanks & well done.
The pictures that you posted here look so vivid. Are those for real or went under the powerful editing tools of PS? I’m also into photography but sad to say that I can’t afford to buy cameras that go with tripod and magnificent lenses. What I have is just a school-boy camera that I got when I was still 12 years old. I’m 25 now and still loving the pictures that I took using this antique camera.
I love taking pictures of mother-and-child theme. I love the drama behind each picture. The hardship behind each line in the face of the mother show perfect love for the baby or the child she is holding. But my problem is I can’t get the exact picture that captured those lines. Most of the time my pictures lack story. Do you have any suggestion on how to make the most out of your camera though it’s not so hi-tech?
Great tips! For anyone who wants more tips like these, I highly recommend "The Digital Photography Book" by Scott Kelby.
wow, great points! congrats!
Love the article, great images and examples. Inspiring.
Great article, I found it very helpful. Thanks!!!!
One important point not to be neglected in landscape photography is the use of Graduated Neutral Density Filters. If you are shooting with a wide angle lens and want to capture the foreground, as well as, say the distant mountains or sky - an ND filter is essential to limit overexposure of the sky or the underexposed (blackened) foregrounds (depending where you meter). Of course there are other ways to prevent this from happening by using HDR techniques or blending exposures in photoshop.
Some very interesting tips.. I just wish I could go to some of the places that have been shown in the beautiful example snaps :)
Great article with some really good tips (no matter how many times some folks may have already heard them).
@Amar - The SD800is is a great point and shoot, good choice. However, the "wide angle" lens has nothing to do with the width or aspect ratio of the picture. (Cutting off the top and bottom may make it "wide screen" though.) Wide angle refers to the width of the angle of view (how much you can see from side to side, sometimes given in degrees, like 120 degree angle of view). Wide angle lenses are the ones at the low end of the "mm" spectrum, like 12mm to 24mm.
Happy shooting! :o)
Landscape photography is one of the major areas of photography that I haven't dabbled in at all yet.
Mostly because I'm too lazy to get up early and haven't spend much time learning the tips and tricks for it. This is an amazing jumping-off point though, there's tons of useful stuff here.
I'm taking a trip to Saskatchewan at the end of August for my cousin's wedding. I was planning on (at least once) going out at dawn or dusk to find interesting things to shoot.
Great article, I also have the book that is in the previous post, it is great. I have a Canon SD800IS Point and Shoot (Saving up for Canon SLR), but it claims it has a wide lens, but I noticed it just cuts off the top and bottom pixels, the width is exactly the same as normal photos. Isn't that false advertising or is that how wide angle lens work?
Wow, these are great tips, especially for a beginner like me. Thank you.
I agree, great stuff! I also agree with Donncha in that you should try different lenses -- wide angle AND telephoto. You can get many different photos from the same scene by changing your focal length.
This is one of them Must read articles, great job mate! I really enjoyed this one!
Just popping in to say that I just love reading this blog. Keep it up. It's great stuff!
2. Use a tripod ... Also consider a cable or wireless shutter release mechanism for extra camera stillness.
My camera (Canon Powershot S2IS) doesn't support a cable, but it does have a custom shutter time. I set it for a 2 second delay, line everything up, press and go. The delay lets the camera settle down from my shutter press.
One more - "Go wide!" I find that a wide angle lens is necessary especially when trying to get some foreground detail in.
Great suggestions, will definitely give them a try. Nice examples as well.
The tips were good and the example photos are amazing.
Awesome suggestions!!!
Now if I wasn't working I could go right now and give some a try.... :-(