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10 Tips to shoot better landscape

June 11, 2008

Landscape photography, one of the oldest and most popular subject for photography. Each time we saw a great landscape photos we will always tell ourself “I wish I can shoot like this” and now you can. Keep on reading my 10 tips on how to shoot great landscape photos.

1. Go for smaller aperture

Normally, you’ll want your landscape photos to be sharp all the way from foreground to background and thanks to aperture, you can by setting to smaller aperture (f/11,f/16, f/22, f/32) which will give maximum depth of field.
Below are the depth of field table to help you guys…

Taken from Digital Camera Magazine

look for the focal length and aperture you intended to use, the distances on the table shows you the hyperfocal distance. So when the lens is focusing to the hyperfocal distance, the depth of field will extends from half the hyperfocal distance to the infinity. And what is hyperfocal distance? Hyperfocal distance is the point of focus where everything from half that distance to infinity falls within the depth of field (John Shaw, 1994). Example:

2. Foreground

Interesting foreground is an essential part in landscape photography. It provides the sense of depth and scale. It also help to lead the viewer’s eyes into the pictures. Example of interesting foreground are such as rocks, trees, boulder, sand, dead woods etc. Use wide angle lens to get the best effects of foreground.

3. Leading lines

Leading lines will help the viewers eyes move through the pictures. Example of leading lines are river from the mountain, railway, roads, footpath, clouds etc.

4. Put movement into your pictures

A picture with a sense of movement will be seen alive. So put long exposure and record the movement such as flowing river, traffic, people walking, wind blown trees, waves and etc

5. Give mood to your pictures

How? by using natural light. Shoot at interesting weather such as mist, fog and don’t forget the best light of the day, dawn and dusk. Dawn and dusk give a dramatic sense into your pictures.

6. Pre dawn and Pre dusk

Yup, that means before sunrise and after sunset. You may find interesting light coming out during this short period of time. It may worth getting up early and don’t pack your camera yet after you shoot sunset, wait and you may find some stunning lights after that.

7. Put flare to your pictures

Sometimes it’s best to put the flare inside your pictures. It give the dramatic sense. Get to smaller aperture (say, f/16 to f/22) and longer exposure and you’ll get a perfect flare.

8. Silhouettes

Silhouettes always give some kind of feeling to a pictures. How to get it? just put the subject against the bright background and put your camera to aperture priority mode and select smaller aperture to give you sufficient depth of field and click the shutter. Normally you’ll get perfectly exposed silhouettes.

9. Search for a better viewpoint

It is normal to see people take photograph the moment they arrived at the scene. But that is not a good practice. Go walk around and find a better viewpoint. Remember, the scene you are shooting might have been photographed before, so if you want to be different from other photographer try to find several other viewpoint.

10. Get the sense of the place

Go walk and feel the place that you want to shoot. Find out what is interesting about the place. Find out what is important about the place. Some tips: after you walk around the place, ask your self how to describe the place in one word or ask yourself what you want to tell your friends about the place you are shooting. It might help. When you get the sense of place, you pictures will have a story to tell.

Thats all for now. Hope you enjoy reading it and any comments or tips you want to give, I would really apreciate that. Thanks..

Entry Filed under: How to shoot Series. Tags: How to shoot Series, landscape.