By Anant Agarwal
Landscape photography is undoubtedly one of the most rewarding and enjoyable forms of photography. Who doesn’t want to get outside more, to breathe the fresh air, and to connect to nature? Everything from basic nature scenes to the photos of woods, ocean, roads, lawns, sunsets, etc. Look though these basic landscape photography tips and tricks to take those breath-taking nature photos.
1. Use a Tripod
The first tip we have on how to take better landscape photos is to almost always use a tripod.
Making sure you have a sharp, clean image is essential when it comes to epic landscapes, and the best way to do this is to take away any chance of having a blurry or high-noise image.
Ideal landscape photography settings* are usually around f/8-f/11 to get long depth of field, and ISO 100, which means to dial this in with perfect exposure (light), you need to adjust the shutter speed accordingly.
2. Capture Breath-taking Panoramas
Panoramas are a great way to show one spectacular view from a very wide angle.
They are perfect from heights if you want to show everything from the same perspective. Especially if you can’t make up your mind over which angle to shoot from.
You can capture a panorama shot from any lens and a tripod. With a little help from post-processing, you can create an iconic, memorable image.
3. Use the Best Lens for Landscape Photography
Your lens should have a wide angle and a big level of sharpness at narrow apertures. But an ultra-wide-angle lens isn’t a must-have to take magnificent landscape photography. A standard lens like 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 with just the right zoom range will be a good and inexpensive variant for beginners.
4. Keep Composition in Mind
As humans, we all have a certain eye level that we are accustomed to. Adding some variety to the perspectives that you experience on a daily basis could help you discover new subjects and landscape possibilities. Sans innovative composition, landscape photography can quickly become stale.
Play with composition by looking for natural frames: in the form of tree lines, for example, or even human-made objects like a door frame. Using leading lines will help add interest to your shot, but also lead the viewer’s eye to the subject in the frame. And remember not to forget to have a subject in your image!
5. Chase the Light
Set your alarm: many landscape photographers swear that the best time to shoot landscape photography is an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. There’s a reason why this is called the golden hour!
Avoid the time right around noon, as the sun’s position leads to a lot of shadows. Also: try to avoid shooting when it’s too sunny. Cloudy weather is best, as clouds act as a soft box, giving your photography a muted effect that results in a warmer colour.
6. Change Viewpoints
As landscape photographers, we can’t really ask the mountains to change poses. Our models don’t move, so we have to. Try as many new viewpoints and vantages as possible. Move around a lot. Try way up high and way down low. Be creative.
7. Compose in Thirds
To use the rule of thirds, imagine four lines, two lying horizontally across the image and two verticals creating nine even squares.
Some images will look best with the focal point in the center square, but placing the subject off center at one of the intersecting points of the imaginary lines, will often create a more aesthetically composed photograph.
When a photograph is composed using the rule of thirds the eyes will wander the frame. A picture composed by the rule of thirds is usually more interesting and pleasing to the eye.
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