Improve your Landscape Photography

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9 tips to improve your Landscape Photography

Hi Everyone,

There are many reasons why people enjoy shooting landscape. You get to look for and enjoy beautiful locations.  You don't need super-expensive gear. You have time to set up and ponder your composition using a tripod. You get to hop out bed well before sunrise.

So, you can just walk up to a scene and snap away. You might nail a great shot but more often than not, without a little planning and careful technique yours shots will be nice keepsakes but probably won't have that wow factor.

To help you improve your landscapes I've put together some tips you may wish to try.

1. Shoot RAW
Many people shoot JPEG and end up with perfectly acceptable images. Shooting RAW, however improves your opportunity to improve the images dramatically in post-processing. There is a huge amount of data available to you in a RAW file compared with a JPEG. The extra data allows you to improve the dynamic range of your image, alter white balance easily and much more. Shoot RAW!

2. Add some foreground detail
Some object or feature in the foreground turns your photo from flat 2-dimensional into a more interesting 3-dimensional image.

3. Lead in Lines
Look for lines and angles within the scene that take you into the image. A road or a stream can take you into an image and project a feeling of depth.

4. Rule of Thirds
Try not to fall into the trap of putting your horizon smack in the middle. Show 1/3rd sky and 2/3rd foreground or vice versa and your image will appear far more pleasing to the eye.

5. Use a Tripod
When possible use a tripod. Your camera will be much more stable and you'll have more time to think about the composition.

6. Lower your ISO
Using a tripod will take the shutter speed out of the equation so now you can drop your ISO as low as your camera allows usually, 50, 100 or 200. The lower the ISO the better the image quality. Simple.

7. Try a Neutral Density filter
Now that you on a tripod and lowered you ISO there is nothing stopping you from using an ND filter. ND filters are great for lowering your shutter speed even more and producing creative effects. ND filters usually come in 3 stop or 10 stop versions. The following image used a 10 stop filter allowing a 30 second exposure effectively smoothing out the rippled water.

8. Plan your Shoot
Use online tools such as TPE (The Photographer's Ephemeris) and Google Earth  to work out angles and vantage points before you set out.

9. Bracket your Shots
Bracketing is available as an automatic setting on most cameras these days. Simply put, you take 3 or 5 shots at varying exposures. Why bracket? Well, later in post processing you can then combine those shots in programs such as NIK's amazing HDR Efex Pro II to achieve truly stunning images. Give it a go, I'm sure you'll love it.

So there go. A little food for thought.

Above all, get out there and have fun.

Cheers,
Mark