10 Tips for Stunning Landscape Photography

[Reyed Mia (Apprentice, DIU)]

10 Tips for Stunning Landscape Photography

1. Basic Equipment

There are whole books on cameras and lenses, but I'm going to keep it simple. Choose the best you can afford, but don't be tempted to buy a really expensive camera and then fit it with a very average lens. The results will be ¦.well ¦very average. Better to buy an average camera with a first rate lens, as the lens is the bit that does the most important work. I can personally recommend the Sigma 10-20mm and the Nikkor 16-35mm . Both are brilliant wide angle landscape lenses.

2. The Basic rules

The only rule I tend to try and follow is the "rule of thirds.  I nearly always find that placing a subject close to the third intersections, works well, even better if you can get a near and far focus point in diagonal corners of the thirds (See "Old Red and The Lighthouse" image below) but I will say a bit more about composition in section 5.

3. Timing (choosing the right time to take photographs)

Without doubt, early morning late evening is the very best times to take photographs, the light is much more forgiving, and can be much more dramatic, so be prepared to stay up late or get up early and sometimes both!. That's not to say that you can't take photographs in the bright mid-day sun, you can! But it's far more difficult to achieve good results and I usually tend to avoid these times of day.

4. Location

Of course a location can be the difference between an average shot and a complete stunner. My advice is, get to know your area, have a look at your local art galleries and online information. Just type in the name of your area into your browser followed by the word "photographs  or "Images  and you will be surprised at the amount of information that will turn up. Even if you live in a big city, there are parks, rivers, docks, and canals that can all offer great photo opportunities.

5. Framing the shot

Things to avoid getting in the frame: your shadow, telephone wires, electricity pylons, cars, litter (coke cans, plastic bags, etc can be a real pain when you notice them later and have to try and clone them out of an otherwise great shot). When taking long exposures, avoid anything that moves, people, ducks, cars etc.

6. Features

Above I mentioned, a few obvious features to look for above are lighthouses, water mills, etc but people with an "eye  for photography will often be the ones that can find the less obvious features and make a beautiful landscape from them. A lone tree on a hill, a person within the landscape, (See "the Other Photographer" image below) or a section of the landscape that can be selected through your lens and isolated to create another a less obvious landscape with in a landscape (see "One Fell Over").

7. Technique & Camera Settings

Again I keep it simple, the following settings are typical but variable to different conditions

    RAW format
    Aperture Priority: F11 to F22 (Variable)
    ISO : 200
    Focus : Auto Focus
    Metering : Matrix
    White Balance: Auto

8. Scale

Scale is something worth considering when taking landscape shots. Tt's not always vital, but there are times when I look at some shots and wonder just how vast the landscape is, as there is nothing within the image that is recognizable to give the image scale.

9. HDR

A thing to remember about HDR is that not everything looks good as a HDR image, it is easy to get carried away with HDR and bracket every shot you take; but in my experience, this inevitably ends up clogging up your hard drive with hundreds of images that you will never use. So think about what you want to achieve before you start.

10. Processing

After Tone Mapping in Photomatix, you will need to complete the process in photoshop to get the best of the HDR effect. At this stage, I will make sure the image is straight and do any necessary cropping. I would also check for blemishes, flys, and anything else that requires cloning out of the image and make the necessary adjustments on a new layer.

Source: https://www.slrlounge.com/10-tips-for-stunning-landscape-photography/