Landscape Photography
By Diane Bohlen
While I was researching Landscape Photography, I started to notice, that while photographers agreed on certain elements that make a good landscape image, they all had slightly different ideas about what gives impact to an image. I will share some of these ideas and then you can experiment using these ideas to create your own personal style of landscape photography.
NZ photographer, Todd Sisson, tells how to shoot Dynamic Landscapes
The term Dynamic Landscape was coined by well known photographer, Gaylen Rowell to show how his work differed from everyday landscapes.
Sissen says that composition is the backbone of all great photos but it is essential for a strong landscape image. Successful composition draws the eye into the photo and keeps it there as long as possible.
Personal interpretation must be injected into photography but here are some guidelines:
Leading Lines and Converging Lines
Shoot converging cliché lines until it hurts and until you get used to looking for lines. Look for leading lines in water, hills and the sky.
Perspective
Composition seems to get better when you are not standing but when you are closer to the ground, mud, snow and cow-pads especially with a wide-angle lens. Leading line become more powerful.
Go higher too, especially with a zoom lens. Climb up on banks, rocks, walls, cars, your partners’ shoulders.
Strong Foreground
Dynamic landscapes almost always have a strong point of interest in the lower half of the photo. If it has leading lines, then all the better. Just having a coloured sky isn’t dynamic. Move around to find a foreground.
Visually Stimulating Background
It is a balancing act, which element is the main focal point? Ideally it is in the background with the foreground being the secondary one.
Vivid Colour and incredible light
You need to be patient and wait for the light. Morning and afternoon are best. You need balance and not saturate the colours too much.
Vision Locking Control or Vignetting
The eye is drawn towards the light and is held there by the dark edges.
Suggested Motion
You can use both frozen motion and blurred motion to enhance landscapes.
Landscapes Can be Black and White
They rely heavily on strong elements like lines.
Photographer, Declan O’Neil’s Tips on Landscape Photography
Have Something to Say About the Landscape
Declan believes you have to do more than take a shot of a scene because it looks beautiful. A photographer needs to find a voice through landscape. Take time to stand still and watch how the light changes the contour of the land in dramatic ways. Light gives landscapes its own voice. Light creates emotion and mood in landscapes. The land is a huge canvas of which light paints a complex and delicate picture. Landscape photography is about the way in which light transforms the land. When shooting and composing ask, “Does this say something about light and landscape?”
Chase the Light
Both early morning and late afternoon are good times to catch the light but early morning is best as it is always surprising. Also remember to look behind you to see what the light is doing.
Weather
Clouds, rain, fog and mists often present exciting opportunities.
You don’t Need to Go Far
Practice around your own area. What might be ordinary to you can be new and different for others. Go at different times of the day to catch the different light.
Keep Going Back
If you find a good place keep returning and get different shots, different light, different weather, different angles, different seasons and different focal lengths,
Equipment Isn’t Important
Every photographer needs equipment but it is only a vehicle to transmit what is in your brain. You need a point of view and then you can use anything from a smart phone to the top of the range DSLR camera.
Don’t Try to Paint a Landscape
It is in vogue for heavily processed or filtered photos. Heavily processed or idolised versions of landscapes leave us cold. Silky water, orange skies and super saturated green grass don’t speak with their own voice. Let nature speak for itself and have its own voice.
Don’t Listen to All the Advice you get
Finding your own voice as a photographer means choosing carefully what advice to take.
For example ”Have a Point of Interest in the foreground.” This presumably is based on the idea that landscapes are too boring without a gazing human or a grazing cow to grab your attention. If you do use a foreground element it should tell a story, not just be there for the sake of it.
Decide what Interests you and compose and edit your shots in a way that allows the land to speak with its own voice.
Photographer, Rick Berk’s Tips on Landscape Photography
It is very easy to get lost in the grandiosity of the overall view. Rick uses an ultra-wide lens to emphasize the foreground and use the beautiful expanse as a background.
Keep It Sharp
The foreground should be sharp but everything you want in a photo should be sharp. You need to figure out the hyper-focal distance(where you should focus). There are maths equations, charts or a smart phone app that will help you do this. You should use manual focus and a tripod.
Filters
You can use a Neutral Density Filter to deal with high contrast scenes and a Polarising Filter to make the sky bluer and decrease reflections of the water.
Framing
Framing with trees or buildings helps give context to where you are.
Exposure
Expose for the sky by letting less light in. Use the exposure compensation setting and dial down a few negative stops. This stops the sky burning out and keeps the rich colours.
Negative Space
This is the area where there isn’t anything interesting. The point of interest should contrast with the negative space and point to or face into it.
Photographer, Elliot Hook’s Tips on Landscape Photography
How To Make Landscapes Sharp
Take three photos of the scene from a tripod. Using tour sharpest aperture, usually F8 on the foreground. Then the next shot focus on the mid ground and take another shot focusing on the background. Then at home open the three images into Photoshop and merge the three.
Extra Tips
Camera Modes
Use SCN scene to choose a variety of types of scenes: Snow, Sand, Foliage, Night, Sunset etc.
Go into menu and set a vivid colour.
Use the stitch function.
Focal Length
Short focal length will give you a wide field of view. A long focal length will give a narrow field of view isolating a small are of scene.
Use a zoom rather than a prime lens. Zoom offers a range of focal lengths where as a prime lens is fixed.
Make Shots Personal
Add a family member, car, pet or other personal objects.
Photographer, Linde Waidhofer’s View of Landscape Photography
Landscape photography is a personal or poetic expression rather than just a copy of everything that is out there. Search for unusual perspectives, unique light, strong composition, geometric forms and have a ruthless elimination of clutter.
We appreciate a photograph, not for the ways they precisely render reality but ways in which they transcend it. We respond to images that show expression of something other than a replication of the world.
Final words by Eric Leslie
If you struggle with creating dull and insignificant images, the recurring theme through all of these tips is simply to do something new that you aren’t doing now. Growing your craft is not a checklist, it’s a process that takes time. Get out of your computer chair and experiment, keep making mistakes, and don’t forget to have fun! For me, each new image is a thrill of the hunt. Images created by overcoming the biggest hurdles with the most blood, sweat and tears always move people the most.
Get Inspired
Go on line and check out Landscape Photographers to get inspired.
Cheryl Nancarrow
Tom Mackie
Lars Van de Goor
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