Landscape Photography Tips and Techniques

Tap to Read ➤ Dhanashree Patane

With the love of nature and photography, landscape photography has a million enthusiasts. Read more for some of the best landscape photography techniques...

There are so many magical moments in nature that are worth relishing for a thousand years. There is something about landscape photography, that makes the vision melt in the colors of the rainbow or the fresh dew on leaves.

For photography lovers, capturing the many moments of stunning views of the nature, is like passion infused in blood. There are many that have been more than successful in mastering this art.

Landscape Photography Techniques and Tips

With your skills and talent, these photography techniques are a small effort to expose you to the magic of breathtaking landscape photography!

Equipment

Using a good quality lens is the key to excellent photography. This is a 'but obvious' element in photography that most of us know, but is also not worth a miss in landscape photography tips.

Use a tripod that can hold the camera in place and still for the entire duration of the exposure when implementing a shutter speed for a long time. One cannot afford a shaky picture when capturing backgrounds like sky and the horizon, most of the time the picture rules with too much of contrast.

A solution is to use different types of filters and adjusting the exposure well. This also narrows down to adjusting the ISO to the most suitable unit for that particular picture.

Using different filters can give your picture a completely different look. Some of the graduated, neutral density, color correction, polarizing filters, etc., can get you some perfect blends and balance in the picture.

Focus and Aperture

A landscape photograph usually rules with silence in the picture, however you do not want the photo to be a blank scene and without any element in focus. So look for that striking element, it may be a leaf or a plank of wood too.

What is landscape photography without the traditional element of depth of field. Though you may want to create some breathtaking views with a narrow fields, engage as much of the scene as possible in focus.

For achieving maximum and apt focus, small aperture setting can help you focus on the scene (unless you want to highlight a particular element and diffuse the background). Exposure is the most important element and keeping shutter speed apt creates a lot of difference in the quality and the output of the image.

Try and bracket your exposures, like when shooting contrasting backgrounds, use a exposure level that is recommended by the meter. Then take another one that is slightly higher than the recommended one and the next that is lower than the recommended exposure level. You can then compare the outputs and can decide on the shutter speed and exposure.

Weather, Location, and Time

While most of the photographers will hunt for perfect places, shadow and light exposure. It is wise to understand what time of the day will the picture give you the most of admiration. Sunrise, that is early dawn, and sunset are the saviors of bad focus and light.

Capturing nature before exposure to sharp lights can help a lot with the overall result you get. Another point is that during dawn and sunset, the moderate sunlight will dilute the shadow, and give fine detail in the picture.

You will be amazed with the results of capturing during sunrise and sunset with the variations in the depth, angle, patterns and more. It is usual to get going for some amazing shots of nature, on a clear and bright day, but the true emotions of nature can be captured on most rough and windy days.

Bad weather is the best for aggressive and expressive landscape photography. Heavy rain and thunder, winds and cloudy skies, fog and mist will give you many moments worth a click.

Composition

A good composition is the most important aspect of the picture. Consider the scene like you would be creating it on your own. How would you set the view, with placing each aspect of the scene in a particular position or an angle.

Decide which elements need to be in your picture, and adjust the view accordingly. Keep in mind the 'Rule of Thirds' while clicking the photo. It will help you capture a well-balanced and focused picture.

The magic of shapes and lines is another trick to capture a breathtaking visual. Lines and other shapes such as curves of a river-bed, slopes of mountains give a lot of depth and scale to the image; and let the audience travel into the scene.

A bland image can also be refreshed by adding any object, that creates motion in it. For example, capturing a flying bird or moving cloud in the foreground, with a beautiful and serene background will make the picture more alive and interesting.

Reflections can be a good part of the picture. They add more depth to the image.

Miscellaneous

Understand and study the place you are going to capture.Remember, you may not be living right in the lap of nature; so you will have to hunt for those stunning views. Start with your favorite place and try different angles and view of the same picture.

You will have to be patient and study the scene till you get that exact shot of excellence. Do not click many shots in the same angle and then choose the best. Take fewer, but high quality shots, so take your time to observe and compose.

Avoid shooting in jpeg mode. Some photographers have their digital sets tuned in to jpeg mode. The quality of shooting in a raw mode cannot be compared at all, so get your images shot raw. It gives you room for correcting and enhancing the final output of the picture. You may convert them later into jpeg.

With these landscape photography techniques and more additions as you master this art, create those moments that truly make nature, a blessing to the world of photography! Keep clicking...