8 Landscape Photography Tips

We have talked about the many dif­fer­ent pho­tog­ra­phy styles for you to choose from. We’ve dis­cussed por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy and how to get bet­ter shots of peo­ple… Now, let’s dive into land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy. Today I have com­piled 8 land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy tips for you to practice.

Just like we talked about what por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy is, I first want to talk about what Land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy is. Wikipedia defines land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy as “com­mon­ly involves day­light pho­tog­ra­phy of nat­ur­al fea­tures of land, sky and waters, at a dis­tance.” Essen­tial­ly land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy is cap­tur­ing and set­ting a mood of a location.

Your goal as a land­scape pho­tog­ra­ph­er is to cap­ture the beau­ty of your loca­tion in a way that res­onates with the view­er.  You know, to make them want to go there!

Now, check out my 8 land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy tips to improve your pho­tos today then head over to the Learn Pho­tog­ra­phy with Dena Face­book Group and share your shots with us!

Understanding Your Camera

Num­ber one of my 8 land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy tips is Under­stand­ing and con­trol­ling your cam­era. This is so impor­tant in all styles of pho­tog­ra­phy. Know­ing how to change your set­tings and what to change them to, lets you con­trol where you want your focal point to be, if you want to over or under­ex­pose your shot, and how much light you want to let into the cam­era. Man­u­al mode will change your land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy for the bet­ter, so fol­low tip num­ber one and under­stand your cam­era and its set­tings.

Know How To Find The Light

Once you learn how to con­trol the set­tings for your shot, under­stand­ing and know­ing how to find amaz­ing light is tip num­ber two in my 8 land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy tips. We’ve all seen those amaz­ing shots with that per­fect soft light. Often times they are shot dur­ing gold­en hour. Gold­en hour is a great time to shoot land­scape pho­tos, and here are some great apps to help you find that mag­i­cal light.

Have The Correct Equipment

Like any oth­er type of pho­tog­ra­phy with land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy, you need the cor­rect equip­ment. You will want to get a stan­dard or wide-angle, zoom lens with a fair­ly long min­i­mum focus dis­tance to cap­ture the best land­scape shots. A tri­pod for those times when you are shoot­ing in low light and a slow shut­ter speed. A remote release to help reduce all cam­era move­ment and var­i­ous filters.

Use The Rules Of Composition

Tip num­ber three on my 8 land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy tips is to under­stand the rules of com­po­si­tion. Com­po­si­tion is the arrange­ment of ele­ments used in an image.  A well-com­posed image makes the view­er want to spend more time look­ing at the image. It doesn’t have too many ele­ments to avoid con­fus­ing the eye, and it fol­lows one or more rules of composition.

You can have a per­fect­ly exposed pho­to, but your image will always be aver­age, nev­er extra­or­di­nary if the com­po­si­tion lacks. Remem­ber to use the rule of thirds, or lead­ing lines to bring your viewer’s eye direct­ly to your sub­ject. And always remem­ber to sim­pli­fy your image so that the view­er’s eye falls eas­i­ly on the subject. 

Don’t Center Your Horizon

On the note of com­po­si­tion, avoid hav­ing your pho­to chopped in two and avoid cen­ter­ing your hori­zon. Use the rule of thirds and either have it on the top third of the image or the bot­tom third. 

Plan Your Shot

A real­ly impor­tant tip on my 8 land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy tips is to plan. Like any oth­er pho­tog­ra­phy style, you need to have a plan for your shoot. Know when the sun hits your loca­tion per­fect­ly. Under­stand when the fog is just lift­ing from a field, and know that often the best shots are dur­ing the calm after or before a storm. Remem­ber to plan your shot accord­ing­ly to get the best land­scape shots. 

Focus

Under­stand­ing what exact­ly to focus on in land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy can be con­fus­ing, but it is an impor­tant tip. If you have a defined sub­ject in mind for the shoot; an ani­mal, a pier on the lake, a moun­tain, then you need to set your focus there. If not you can always focus on the fore­ground as a good way to con­nect your view­er to the image. If you don’t have a defined focal point in the shot, a good guide is to focus about 1/3 into the shot.

Bring Extras

This may be the most impor­tant on the list of 8 land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy tips. Land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy takes patience and some­times requires long hours wait­ing for that per­fect shot. Don’t for­get to bring extras with you. Extra bat­ter­ies, SD cards, snacks and lay­ers to stay warm you do not want to be caught unprepared.

I hope these 8 land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy tips have helped you! If you want to learn even more about land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy, light and com­po­si­tion. And make sure to check out The Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials Class to help you reach your pho­tog­ra­phy goals even faster!