Taking Landscape Photos – Tips for photographing scenery

How To — By christopher

landscape photography

Landscapes have always been my favorite subject to photograph. The beauty of nature is something that can never be rivaled and the opportunities of capturing a completely unique scene still remain limitless. While the temperament of Mother Nature will always be most dominant factor in taking a stunning landscape photograph, there are a few conceptual and technical elements specifically tailored for this style that I would like to go over.

Composition

Landscapes is one of the most beautiful, yet overdone, subjects in photography. With this in mind, you need to think outside-the-box when composing your photo. Using a lighthouse as an example, I think we all can agree that taking a photo of a lighthouse face-on from the beach is not going to make the most exciting picture because it’s a composition we’ve seen a million times over. The trick here is to explore new angles; crouch down between two rocks and use them to build a frame around the lighthouse, or climb up the side of a cliff and photograph the lighthouse from above. Depending on your environment, the possibilities to change your point-of-view can be endless.Another compositional element to landscape photography is what we call “foreground interest”. That photo of the lighthouse on the beach I mentioned earlier is boring not only because it’s an exhausted composition, but because the only interesting subject in the photo is the lighthouse. However, if you were to crouch down in the sand and line up your shot with a piece of driftwood in the foreground with the lighthouse in the background, the entire photo is transformed. Look for these opportunities when you find an interesting subject to photograph, and also make sure to follow the rules of three and not center the primary subject.

Technical Issues

One of the most important rules of true landscape photography is to remember that on a sunny day, the sky and the ground will never be properly exposed within the same photograph; either your camera will meter for the sky and underexpose the ground, or meter for the ground and overexpose the sky. If you set out to take any photo where sky and ground meet, you need to bring a tripod along as two photos will need to be taken: one exposed for the sky and one for the ground, and a tripod will ensure that the images will line up correctly when combined. Lens filters do exist which will intentionally underexpose the top portion of your photo (the sky in this example) by a good number of f/stops (imagine tinting only the top portion of your lens), but these filters are not only expensive but awkward to set-up and carry around. While I’m not discouraging you from purchasing an ND (neutral density) grad filter, my experiences with combining two differently exposed images in post process (Photoshop, etc.) have been highly successful, and also allows you more control over the end result. However, somewhat advanced knowledge of how to properly combine sky and ground images in post process is needed to have a flawless image, so you may have to either take a few quick-and-dirty lessons or purchase the ND grad filter system.

Once you’ve set up your tripod and have focused in properly on your subject, it’s time to choose an f/stop that will not only give you the sharpness you want, but will have enough depth of field to have all elements in clear view. Setting your zoom lens to f/8 or f/11 will cover both these concerns and, unless you’re going for a special effect (blurry foreground, for example), should always be used for landscape photography.

Below are some landscape images of mine that illustrate the points I’ve outlined for you. However, keep in mind that these tips, much like your camera, are just tools to give you a leg up; the end result ultimately depends on you and your environment. So get out there and take some photos, and if you don’t like what you see, fret not. Decipher the problem and get right back out there, as your talent with photography, much like any hobby, will constantly improve!