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Styles: Landscape Photography
Find the right location 
I suppose this is obvious really - but remember that a wonderful view does not always produce such a breathtaking photograph. So rather than marvelling at the vast panoramic views, stop and look carefully to see if you can see that perfect 6x4 or 10x8 photograph. Looking with photographers eyes is harder than you might think.
Rule of Thirds
Rather than positioning the subject of your picture in the centre - imagine the image frame split into 9 boxes (3x3 using 2 horizontal and 2 vertical lines) and position important objects near the intersections of these lines. Horizons positions a third up from the bottom of the frame or a third down are often more interesting that one running through the centre.
Foreground, Midground and Background
Don't get carried away by wonderful views of distant mountains. As stated in point 1, what can be stunning to look at in person can make a rather dull photograph. Try and ensure you have some foreground, midground and background detail.
Ignoring foreground is possibly the biggest mistake made by beginners. The initial reaction a novice often has when seeing a beautiful scene, such as a snow capped mountain, is to zoom in on the mountain and shoot it. The end result is a picture of a mountain with nothing to put it in context and show how large and impressive it was. Give the subject scale and show it in the context of its surroundings.
Maximize your Depth of Field
In most cases you will want everything in your landscape picture to be in focus. If you followed the previous guideline and have something in the foreground as well as the distance, you will need to maximize your depth of field (the range of distances in front of the camera lens that are in focus). On a DSLR, use a small aperture f/8-f/16 are ideal. Compact cameras naturally have a larger depth of field although you should still use a small aperture if possible. If your camera does not have the option to set the aperture manually, use the landscape scene mode and the camera will do this for you.
Time of Day
See the previous section of the book dedicated to this subject. Although there is no right and wrong time to take landscape pictures, you will find it easier to get dramatic images when the sun is low in the sky - just after sunrise or just before sunset.
Straight Horizons
Getting your horizontals and verticals straight is harder than it looks - you might think you've got it spot on, but when viewed large on the screen it is easy to see a tilt of even just 1 or 2°.
If you have a compact camera that can display a grid on the screen while composing the image, use it. If you have a picture downloaded to your PC and notice it is not straight, use the tools in your software to correct it.
Framing a picture
We don't mean going to Asda/Walmart and buying something to hang on the wall. Use things in the scene to create a natural frame to your image. Overhanging branches work well, as do shots under a bridge.
Leading the viewers eye into the picture
Having an object in the foreground that comes in from the edge of the frame is a nice way of leading the photographers eye into the picture.
Capture the vastness of the scene with a wide-angle lens
Many people zoom in to try and capture detail and although this can work well, landscapes tend to work best when you go wider and capture as much of the scene as possible. This is where compact cameras can be limiting as many of them don't have a very good wide-angle end of the zoom range. You really need at least 28mm (in 35mm equivalent terms) to capture a good wide-angle landscape picture.
Watch out for your own shadow getting into the picture 
A common mistake if shooting with your back to the sun
Coping with a large dynamic range 
Landscapes can often have a very wide dynamic range (i.e. very bright highlights and areas of dark shadow) which a digital camera is going to struggle with. If you want good foreground exposure, you often end up blowing your highlights in the sky. One of the simplest ways around this is to use a graduated neutral density (Grad.ND) filter on the lens which will let you capture more dramatic skies - something that can make or break a landscape photo.
Snow
A camera is not able to make any sense of what is being taken. When a camera calculates the exposure, it does so to create an image with a range of brightnesses that average out to mid-grey. In a typical snow scene, there will usually be a lot more light areas (highlights) than dark areas (shadows). For the photo to look realistic, the picture must also be brighter than normal. To get this brighter than average image, you must overexpose the picture by 1-2 stops. To achieve this, use the exposure compensation on your camera. Better still, set the exposure compensation to +1EV and use auto bracketing set to ±1EV (giving you three pictures at 0, +1 and +2 EV).
Alternatively if there is a deep blue sky take your light reading from the sky (use the cameras AE lock if it has one) as this will typically be the same luminosity as mid grey.
If you have a compact camera, it may have a scene mode specifically for snow. This will over-expose the image for you.
Water
If you have water in a scene there is a good chance it is moving (especially with waterfalls and fast flowing streams). Choosing your shutter speed carefully can give quite varied pictures:
1/500 or faster: freezes the water (the movement of it, not into ice!). You can capture individual drops of spray
1/30 second captures the water moving as our eyes might see it.
1/2 to 1/15 second will lead to some motion blur which can be quite effective.
1s or more and the water surface can appear very smooth - almost like a thick mist over the surface.
Sample Pictures
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Photo by Phil
Lighting played a vital part in this picture turning out the way it did.
Waiting for the water to become completely calm may have taken patience but it was worth it. |
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Photo by Colin
Prime example showing the rule of thirds. The main boat is positioned to the right, the other boats are also on the thirds line as is the horizon. |
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Photo by Colin
A straightforward picture looking towards the Liverpool Skyline. Taken after sunset - a long exposure was used and no additional processing was done - the colours are all natural.
This picture (along with the first one) highlights the importance of picking the right time of day. |
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Photographs
This is a site about photography so I'm sure you are expecting to see plenty of pictures.
For now, why not take a peek at the flickr galleries belonging to the two authors of this site.
Colin's Flickr Page
Phil's Flickr Page
"Never have I found the limits of photographic potential. Every horizon, upon being reached, reveals another beckoning in the distance. Always, I am on the threshold."
- W. Eugene Smith
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