Improving your landscape photography

Frozen river

Hello there. Here are my top tips if you are a happy amateur who is thinking about getting a little bit more serious with landscape photography.

1. Get out of bed – You need to be on the field when the light is the best which usually is around sunset and around sunrise. You want to be on your location of photography before the sun rises. Thats when you will catch magical photos. There are professional landscape photograpers who basically never shots during daytime.

2. Know your area – Get to know your area to figure out the great places for photography. Study maps, figure out where the sun rises and where it sets, ask locals or experienced phoographers from the area, browse internet for photos from the area.

3. Get a tripod – A tripod is a must for anyone who is taking landscape photography close to serious. You will need to use long shutter speed alot.

4. Shoot in RAW – not all agree on this but in my opinion there is no doubt you will be able to get better photos shooting RAW. Maybe most important there is much more room for mistakes when shooting when using RAW, alot can be fixed when you get home by the computer. Just one such simple thing as changing the white balance on your photo can work wonders.

5. Get a polarising filter – Great to have, especially when shooting photos with water.

6. Think about the foreground – So you have that really nice colorful sunrise in the background? Great! Now you need to get some depth in your picture to avoid it from being flat and boring. Find some nice foreground object or texture.

7. Understand the histogram – It takes 10 minutes to learn the basic of the histogram and how to use it. It is a must to know and an eye-opener for the beginner when he realises how to use it.

8. Learn basic rules of composition – If you dont already know something about this, at least learn the Rule of third. It will help. Alot.

9. Get inspired – Browse the internet, read books and magazines with landscape photography to get inspired by professional photograpers and photos. Also take a second to think about how a specific photo have been created by the photographer.

This was 9 really quick and short tips on how to get started with landscape photography. If you have not considered these points before I can assure you that following these will take your landscape photographs to an entirely new level.

Photo credits: Honkamaa.
  • Honkamaa

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Thepiwko

May 14, 2013

Very nice article. Thx for sharing:)

Psilentrain1

May 13, 2013

Thanks for the tips Honkamaa!

Teeimagination

May 12, 2013

Thanks this is a great summary of tips. I actually have a polarising filter and other filters and never use them, this is definitely a wake up call to get to know them better.

Lenutaidi

May 01, 2013

Great blog!Thank you for sharing!

Martingraf

April 29, 2013

Honestly = I like that image :o !!!
so am I now also an amateur? -- which is nothing to be ashamed of as long as I'm not awful...

Maxsp

April 29, 2013

I throuh away all I learned and though about Dreamstime quality after see the image number 30086425 highlited on the first page of Dreeamstime.
I had many refused images and I always use to see it in a positive way...
A very little noise was enough to refuse my images but after see that one I only can say that the procedure of aceptance of Dreamstimes is completely random.
On this image, despite of it´s completely awful amateur image, one can find many spots that certainly was already reason to make your photos beeing refused.
As photographer, designer and buyer of dreamstime for over 5 years, I just can say I´m DISAPOINTED to see it on the first page of the site highlited as featured.

Martingraf

April 29, 2013

I just wondered why you give these tips but in reality you don't seem to be much in landscape photography at all - so is it more something you want to do and that's why you share these tips? On the other hand I do agree to all the points and I try to use them as much as I possibly can - especially the tip with the tripod - I don't really want to invest in a 10 stop ND filter because if I take my pictures early in the morning or later in the evening I just don't really need it anymore - I already am up to 30 seconds or more with f11.

Robinstockphotos

April 28, 2013

I WANT A 10 stop ND FILTER! Have you ever tried one? It gives you supernatural shots, almost. Because you can get a 1000 times slower shutter speed. Imagine, a 1/100 shutter speed scene getting up to 10s at f/11. It can create miraculous results. Combining two 10 stop ND filters...you could do bulb exposure in the afternoon. I'm going to experiment some with a friend and let you know of the results. I'm excited with this idea. :D

Well, try some NatGeo photographer interview videos on YouTube. Real inspiration there!

Marugod83

April 28, 2013

For better results and less postprocessing after, I will add the need for Cokin type filter

Great blog...

Suyerry

April 26, 2013

Thanks for sharing, really great tips.

Missdolphin

April 24, 2013

Very useful! Thanks!

Egomezta

April 23, 2013

Great blog, thanks for sharing.

Joe1971

April 23, 2013

Thanks for your sharing.

Miraclemoments

April 22, 2013

Your other option if not being able to afford a ND filter is to do multiple exposures for the foreground and the sky and the blending them in post processing. More work but still possible.

Tempestz

April 22, 2013

Thanks for sharing, i find that having a graduated Neutral Density Filter helps as well.

Laurasinelle

April 22, 2013

Great tips! Thanks for Sharing!

Rosariomanzo

April 22, 2013

Great tips, thanks for sharing.

Chanevy

April 21, 2013

These are great tips, anybody can follow them without spending a fortune and they do work. Hope you don't mind, I shared a link on my ***.com