Landscape photography can be tricky, but these tips and tricks will help you out along the way! I’ve included nine of my personal favorite landscape photography tips, from composition to post-processing techniques.
Tip #1: Flip your landscape photos horizontally in post-processing to see them with a new eye.
Tip #2: Bookend your panoramas by taking a photo of your hand before the first shot. That way, it’s much easier to find where each new panorama begins.
Tip #3: Wait for patterns in the natural world. If you missed a shot, chances are good that the same scene will appear again.
Tip #4: Refine your photos. The best time to fix any problems with an image? In the field. Analyze your photos carefully and try to make each one better than the last.
Tip #5: Unify your photo’s emotional message. If the sky is ominous and intense but the subject is peaceful, your photo can feel disjointed. But when the light, subject, and composition are all on the same page, your landscape photos will be more effective.
Tip #6: Ask yourself questions. The more decisions you can bring to the surface, instead of letting them be happenstance, the more refined you can make your photo. Like the previous tip, this also includes your emotional message.
Tip #7: Move your feet. Landscape photography is a contact sport! Don’t keep your tripod at eye level and take 100 of the same composition at sunset. Find higher vantage points, different foregrounds, and unexpected angles.
Tip #8: Know your camera. Even though landscape photography can move slower than other genres, the difference between a keeper and a failure can sometimes be just a few seconds. Know your camera by heart, and you’ll save valuable time in the field.
Tip #9: Be diligent about which photos you display. One or two bad landscape photos in an otherwise amazing portfolio can drag the whole thing down.
I hope you liked this video! If you have any comments or tips of your own, please let me know below!
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First time I watched a Photography Life video. Spencer, you look completely different from what I’d thought.~~
Nicely done! I struggle with number six, however. Mostly because I tend to “see” an image rather than use a methodology to “arrive” at an image. I never feel as if I’m leaving things up to happenstance resulting in a less refined image. I’m going to focus on number six in the upcoming weeks to see what I learn from it. Thanks for provoking thought and stimulating change.
Spencer, my wife is an artist; she paints landscapes, flowers and nature. She rarely paints from a photograph, but mostly from memory of a particular scene that has stuck with her. She sits in front of that blank board and out flows this beautiful scene – I find this amazing. It speaks to the subconscious process happening behind the scenes that you mention above.
My wife and I have some interesting artistic discussions. She shuns artistic license. Sometimes she will ask for my input on one of her works. I say “maybe you could move that tree just a little to the right?” And she says “no, because that’s not where it was.” And I reply “but you can put things wherever you chose, I can’t.” Arrrgghh! How many times have I wished a could move something just a little.
Thank you, Michael! You bring up an important point. Good photos are not just the result of “cold analytical” decisions, but a lot of subconscious processes behind the scenes. To me, there’s a happy median where you photograph scenes that strike you as noteworthy – even if you can’t say exactly why – and then refine the photo by deliberately asking yourself questions. How can your initial, default composition be improved? Better lighting? Excluding an annoying detail? And so on.
Good stuff Spencer! Some things I’ve seen/heard before but you have presented them holistically here.
Thank you, Larry, glad you liked it!