LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

 

Landscape photography is the art of capturing pictures of nature and the outdoors in a way that brings your viewer into the scene. From grand landscapes to intimate details, the best photos demonstrate the photographer’s own connection to nature and capture the essence of the world around them. 

Landscape photography shows spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes. Landscape photography is done for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the most common is to recall a personal observation or experience while in the outdoors, especially when traveling. Others pursue it particularly as an outdoor lifestyle, to be involved with nature and the elements, some as an escape from the artificial world.

Many landscape photographs show little or no human activity and are created in the pursuit of a pure, unsullied depiction of nature, devoid of human influence—instead featuring subjects such as strongly defined land-forms, weather, and ambient light. As with most forms of art, the definition of a landscape photograph is broad and may include rural or urban settings, industrial areas or nature photography.

Everyone wants to capture the beauty of new locations.  Even if you are fortunate enough to visit the most beautiful locations on Earth, photography is a never-ending learning and growing process.

Some of the most important and celebrated landscape photographers have been motivated by an appreciation of the beauty of the natural environment and a desire to see it preserved.

Landscape photography commonly involves daylight photography of natural features of land, sky and waters, at a distance—though some landscapes may involve subjects in a scenic setting nearby, even close-up, and sometimes at night.

Photography of artificial scenery, such as farm fields, orchards, gardens and architecture, may be considered "landscape" photography as well. Even the presence of man-made structures (buildings, roads and bridges, etc.) or art (such as sculpture) may be considered "landscape" if presented in artistic settings or appearing (or photographed) in artistic style.

Further, landscape photography is typically of relatively stationary subjects—arguably a form of "still life." This tends to simplify the task, as opposed to photography of kinetic or live subjects. However, landscape photography often overlaps the activity of wildlife photography and the two terms are used somewhat interchangeably; both wildlife and landscapes may be elements of the same picture or body of work.

Lighting and flash

Normally, landscape photography—being focused primarily on natural beauty—tends to be done with only naturally occurring ambient light.

In some cases, however, artificial light is recommended or unavoidable. Careful use of flash, continuous artificial lighting or reflective surfaces (e.g.: reflectors) for "fill" in shadowy areas is often used in close-up landscape photography (e.g.: garden spaces, small areas of dark forests, etc.).

However, given the broad expanses of open space that tend to dominate in landscape photography, artificial lighting is typically ineffective, or even destructive (causing the foreground to be wildly over-lit, and the background to become overly dark).

Light at dawn or dusk, or just before or after those times (especially at sunrise, or during the "golden hour" just before sunset), is often considered the best for capturing detail, showing scenes in the best colors of light, or otherwise generating impressive and attractive images.

Here are the top 25 landscape photography tips on everything from planning to composing the images, and from gear to post-processing techniques:

1. Plan Where to Go

2. Plan When to Go

3. Consider a “Do Over”

4. Choose the Best Camera for Landscape Photography

 

5. Polarize

6. Make it Dark

7. Graduated Filters

8. Wide Angle Lenses Are King

9. Three Legs are better than Two

10. Dramatic Skies and the Importance of Clouds

 

11. Night Shots

12. Add Foreground Interest

13. Try including People or Wildlife in Your Shots

14. Camera Settings for Landscape Photography

 

15. Use RAW Formats

16. Composition

17. Minimalism

18. Change Viewpoints

19. Use Leading Lines

21. Camp Out and Move In

22. Get off the Beaten Track

23. Don’t be Afraid to Try New Things

24. Focus on Small Details

25. Consider Alternatives to Traditional Color Photos

LANDSCAPE SUBJECTS

Flowing Water

Forests

Plains and Prairies

Deserts

Highways

Seacoasts

Mountains