Landscape photography is a fascinating world in itself. Those who are unaware of it may think that this genre of photography is very easy as all one needs to do go to a beautiful location and shoot. Wrong. In fact, in many cases, you can take liberty with your composition in street or some other kind of photography, but when it comes to landscape photography, you have to be careful about every element in your frame and their composition. Otherwise your images will turn out to be the same Ok-Ok kind of landscapes that we come across everyday on various social networks.
For a landscape to look stunning, a number of elements must be present in the picture and more importantly, they must be in sync. Generally when one goes to a stunning place, people tend to stop thinking and just point the camera and press the shutter. The result becomes evident when we often hear lines like "The photos are nothing, you have to be there to understand the beauty" or "The place was really stunning, the camera couldn't capture it". A photo doesn't become beautiful just by itself. You have to work to make it beautiful. I am a complete novice, but still, during the last few months, I have done a bit of homework and in the process, learnt a few tricks about landscape photography. Just sharing them with you all now as I have always done. Feel free to add some points or to ask any questions in the comments. I will try my best to reply. So now lets get started.
1. Shoot only during the Golden Hours- Golden Hours are a Nature/Landscape photographers best friend. The golden hours last only around 15-20 minutes or you are in a really vantage point, it may last around half and hour but not more than that. It starts from 10-15 minutes prior to sunrise/sunset and lasts up to 10-15 minutes post Sunrise/sunset. Any time other than that, and the light will be too bright or too dim. During this time, you get the warmest, softest and best light to shoot and everything looks just magical. Now you may think, why shoot "only" during this time. Well, if you are content with the flat, boring pictures that everyone else is taking, then go ahead and shoot in the noon, But if you want your images to really stand out, you need to shoot only during this time.
That being said, there may be instances (albeit rare) where you may get good landscape shots during daytime also. That may happen if the sun is not out and there is a huge storm cloud in the sky or there is fog or mist. In those scenarios, your daytime landscape shots may look good.
2. Get a tripod- This one may sound cliche, but you just can't take stunning landscapes handholding the camera. A tripod is a must for landscape photography. Whether you want to take long exposures, or you want to use filters, you can't do so without using a tripod. And when you are shooting at the Golden hours pointing at the Sun, chances are you can't take a shot without using GND Filters (Graduated Neutral Density filters). More on that bit later
3. Composition- We all know what composition means and how important a good composition is for a good photo. When we are talking about landscape photography, this rule applies all the more. For any landscape photo to stand out, you must have a strong composition. I am sharing some basic composition tips here that generally work 90% of the time, but for the rest 10%, you have to figure it out yourself.
a. Have a definite background, middle and foreground in the picture. It will make it look appealing.
Take this picture for example.The Bamboo tree and its base works as the foreground, the hills range works as the middle ground and the sky is working as background. Try to have a composition that has all the three elements.
b. Leading lines ,which leads the viewers interest to the main subject. Think of a flowing river/ zig-zag road leading to a distant hill/forest.
c. Don't place the horizon bang in the middle, neither get the horizon tilted. The decision of placing the horizon depend on whether there is enough drama in the sky to include a good portion of the sky or should you move the camera a bit lower and keep more of the foreground? The easiest way to spoil a good pic is to have a dull sky.
d. Have an anchor point in your picture. It may be anything like a hut or a tree in the foreground. In the above example, the bamboo tree is an anchor point.
4. Get a wide angle lens- Now this is a bit controversial suggestion. A wide angle lens is generally one of the choicest lenses for a landscape photographer, but composing using a wide or Ultra Wide angle lens is not everyone's cup of tea. It requires strong knowledge of composition and placement of objects. Google about techniques of using UWA to know more.
5. Use filters- As already mentioned, to get good landscape photos, you must be having some good quality ND filters and GND filters. Otherwise, you will find that in most cases, the dynamic range of a landscape is far more than what your camera sensor can handle. Quality of the filters is also important as cheap filters will definitely leave horrible cast on the images that is not easy to rectify during PP also.
6. Include some contrasting elements- Sometimes including a contrasting element in a natural scene may look good. By contrasting element, I mean something that is naturally not there in the picture.
This was a normal boring picture of the mountains, but the inclusion of the human form has suddenly lent it a point of interest and an anchor point as well. Use this technique creatively and you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.
7. Some other important points- Apart from all these, these are some random points that you should keep in mind while shooting landscapes-
a. Avoid telephone wires, cables or post like plague while composing. There is no match for them when it comes to ruining a shot.
b. Generally use smaller apertures like f8-f16, to get a larger depth of field.
c. Use manual focusing. Focus somewhere in the bottom half of the image while keeping the aperture smaller.
d. When you are shooting in sea shores/ river shores, try long exposure shots. The silky water hardly looks bad.
e. Wherever possible, shoot at the lowest ISO, to have less grain in the picture.
f. Shoot RAW. Adobe Camera Raw opens up a world of possibility for a landscape photographer.
g. If you are facing a situation where you don't have access to GND filters, but you need to use one, just bracket and shoot. Later you can always manually blend them in Photoshop or some similar software.
h. If you want to capture some vast area like a mountain range or a cityscape, use panorama. Shoot a number of pictures and later stitch them using software.
So thats what I learnt and have been practicing myself all along. If you want to add something more, you are more than welcome. Hope this post help you in improving your techniques for landscape photography. Happy shooting.
For a landscape to look stunning, a number of elements must be present in the picture and more importantly, they must be in sync. Generally when one goes to a stunning place, people tend to stop thinking and just point the camera and press the shutter. The result becomes evident when we often hear lines like "The photos are nothing, you have to be there to understand the beauty" or "The place was really stunning, the camera couldn't capture it". A photo doesn't become beautiful just by itself. You have to work to make it beautiful. I am a complete novice, but still, during the last few months, I have done a bit of homework and in the process, learnt a few tricks about landscape photography. Just sharing them with you all now as I have always done. Feel free to add some points or to ask any questions in the comments. I will try my best to reply. So now lets get started.
1. Shoot only during the Golden Hours- Golden Hours are a Nature/Landscape photographers best friend. The golden hours last only around 15-20 minutes or you are in a really vantage point, it may last around half and hour but not more than that. It starts from 10-15 minutes prior to sunrise/sunset and lasts up to 10-15 minutes post Sunrise/sunset. Any time other than that, and the light will be too bright or too dim. During this time, you get the warmest, softest and best light to shoot and everything looks just magical. Now you may think, why shoot "only" during this time. Well, if you are content with the flat, boring pictures that everyone else is taking, then go ahead and shoot in the noon, But if you want your images to really stand out, you need to shoot only during this time.
That being said, there may be instances (albeit rare) where you may get good landscape shots during daytime also. That may happen if the sun is not out and there is a huge storm cloud in the sky or there is fog or mist. In those scenarios, your daytime landscape shots may look good.
2. Get a tripod- This one may sound cliche, but you just can't take stunning landscapes handholding the camera. A tripod is a must for landscape photography. Whether you want to take long exposures, or you want to use filters, you can't do so without using a tripod. And when you are shooting at the Golden hours pointing at the Sun, chances are you can't take a shot without using GND Filters (Graduated Neutral Density filters). More on that bit later
3. Composition- We all know what composition means and how important a good composition is for a good photo. When we are talking about landscape photography, this rule applies all the more. For any landscape photo to stand out, you must have a strong composition. I am sharing some basic composition tips here that generally work 90% of the time, but for the rest 10%, you have to figure it out yourself.
a. Have a definite background, middle and foreground in the picture. It will make it look appealing.
Take this picture for example.The Bamboo tree and its base works as the foreground, the hills range works as the middle ground and the sky is working as background. Try to have a composition that has all the three elements.
b. Leading lines ,which leads the viewers interest to the main subject. Think of a flowing river/ zig-zag road leading to a distant hill/forest.
c. Don't place the horizon bang in the middle, neither get the horizon tilted. The decision of placing the horizon depend on whether there is enough drama in the sky to include a good portion of the sky or should you move the camera a bit lower and keep more of the foreground? The easiest way to spoil a good pic is to have a dull sky.
d. Have an anchor point in your picture. It may be anything like a hut or a tree in the foreground. In the above example, the bamboo tree is an anchor point.
4. Get a wide angle lens- Now this is a bit controversial suggestion. A wide angle lens is generally one of the choicest lenses for a landscape photographer, but composing using a wide or Ultra Wide angle lens is not everyone's cup of tea. It requires strong knowledge of composition and placement of objects. Google about techniques of using UWA to know more.
5. Use filters- As already mentioned, to get good landscape photos, you must be having some good quality ND filters and GND filters. Otherwise, you will find that in most cases, the dynamic range of a landscape is far more than what your camera sensor can handle. Quality of the filters is also important as cheap filters will definitely leave horrible cast on the images that is not easy to rectify during PP also.
6. Include some contrasting elements- Sometimes including a contrasting element in a natural scene may look good. By contrasting element, I mean something that is naturally not there in the picture.
This was a normal boring picture of the mountains, but the inclusion of the human form has suddenly lent it a point of interest and an anchor point as well. Use this technique creatively and you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.
7. Some other important points- Apart from all these, these are some random points that you should keep in mind while shooting landscapes-
a. Avoid telephone wires, cables or post like plague while composing. There is no match for them when it comes to ruining a shot.
b. Generally use smaller apertures like f8-f16, to get a larger depth of field.
c. Use manual focusing. Focus somewhere in the bottom half of the image while keeping the aperture smaller.
d. When you are shooting in sea shores/ river shores, try long exposure shots. The silky water hardly looks bad.
e. Wherever possible, shoot at the lowest ISO, to have less grain in the picture.
f. Shoot RAW. Adobe Camera Raw opens up a world of possibility for a landscape photographer.
g. If you are facing a situation where you don't have access to GND filters, but you need to use one, just bracket and shoot. Later you can always manually blend them in Photoshop or some similar software.
h. If you want to capture some vast area like a mountain range or a cityscape, use panorama. Shoot a number of pictures and later stitch them using software.
So thats what I learnt and have been practicing myself all along. If you want to add something more, you are more than welcome. Hope this post help you in improving your techniques for landscape photography. Happy shooting.
A few days back I was going through some landscape photos and found an interesting fact. The photos with high frequency texture foreground somehow lacked the universal appeal or so it seemed. Yesterday I watched a critique video on youtube by Serge Ramelli regarding 500px portfolios. In that video even he emphasised that we avoid high frequency textures. I guess that adds to the points you have added for landscapes😊
ReplyDeleteThe link to that video by Serge Ramelli is here https://youtu.be/L1828j3pgOw
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for sharing the link Kinkar. It was an interesting video I must say. Enjoyed watching it..
ReplyDeleteGlad that you liked it. Will always try to chip in with whatever little contributions I can to assist you in helping others to understand photography.
Delete