how to improve your landscape photography in a breeze
Hey there, i´ll just assume that you are as passionate for landscape photography as i am just because i have you here reading this article.
Read on for a bunch of tips that will totally make you improve as a landscape photographer when you put them into practice as soon as you can.
All of these helped me a lot on my creative journey in landscape and nature photography! This article is an extract from my freshly released free Ebook
on exactly this topic. Read through this article and find out how to get your own copy for the full load of tips!
So let´s dive right in…
#1 Focus on composition
In my humble opinion, composition is the most powerful and most important tool in our photographic toolbox. No matter how the conditions will be when out shooting. If you master composition, you will always be abled to go home with the best photographic result possible. Even if you have the craziest sunset of all times or the strongest Aurora borealis- without a working composition the resulting images will never be more than just better snapshots.
On the long run they will not satisfy you and you will always be left thinking about how nice it would have been if you had got a really well working image instead. Believe me… been there done that!
The best way of learning composition is playing around with your camera
No matter where you happen to be living, i am completely sure there are places where you can at least practice. To learn how the elements in a scene can be used to create compelling compositions. Example for people living in cities: A place or plaza with a statue. Use that as compositional anker point and then explore different ways of composing an image. In every city you can find a big variation of places that allow you to learn things that can later help you lots in the approach of a landscape scene.
#2 Watch the borders of your compositional frame
Placing things that call for the viewers attention at the borders of images causes visual distractions.
Of course like anything one can say about composition this will not apply to every single possible composition. Generally speaking it´s a great idea to compose images in a way that invites the viewer to explore the image without getting drawn out of the image.
Best is always if you already work towards this goal in the field while composing your shot
But often this is not possible- you can´t just remove a huge boulder when it is in the border of a composition that you like in all other aspects. You can deal with this in postprocessing by different techniques. If you prefer to not remove anything from your images in Photoshop, you can still reduce the visual strength of these elements with vignettes or selective contrast reductions, dodging and burning and other techniques that i teach you in my upcoming landscape photography postprocessing tutorials.
#3 Explore how the light changes throughout the day
It´s different to read about this topic than to see how amazing it can be when the right conditions suddenly align! This goes hand in hand with some of the other tips in my eBook. But i felt it is an important thing to be mentioned. Instead of only reading about weather, i find it important to get out and experience different weather conditions. So often things happen that can´t be predicted by any weather model.
you will only experience these things if you really go out regardless of forecasts
The more different weather/light scenarios you experience, the more you will be abled to predict what could happen when you are out shooting the next time. And therefore improve your results quite a lot!
Let´s take this image from the Faroe islands as an example. The actual sunrise was a total no show. And i knew it would probably be quite a dull morning from forecasts and my first look out of the window before driving to this viewpoint. But... after almost wrapping it up i noticed a soft glow in the sky. Which was getting stronger quickly.
Out of nothing, the strong wind had created just the right gap in the the thick clouds to let this light beam explode for a moment. Big smiles were the result... and one of my favorite shots too!
#4 Explore different focal lenghts
This is another one learned the hard way during many of my own nature photography ops. It´s quite easy to become used to a certain recipe for images that we enjoy. If we focus too much on this recipe though, the images will become repetitive at some point. Which can make them boring.
If you always just shoot ultra wide angle compositions with a foreground that jumps right at you- you will miss so many other chances of creative expression. And these other chances will only be found by you if you start experimenting with different focal lenghts. While guiding phototours at Lofoten islands, Norway i happen to visit some of the must go places every year and even several times every year.
And even several times during one single tour every now and then. It becomes boring taking the same composition over and over again, because one is stuck in his own routine. It could even get to the point where you don´t feel inspired at all to shoot anymore. Which is kinda sad when you happen to be at a fantastic location far away from home.
My own method of fighting this is setting myself the challenge of only using one lens
Take a supertelephoto lens for example and scan the scene while zoomed far, far in. Suddenly you will have different details catching your attention.
Details that you would otherwise not even realize are there. Play with different focal lenghts! The variation in your portfolio can only increase and you might get fresh inspiration even at places that you have visited over and over again... Another trick is waiting for the right light conditions to take out the camera at such a place. No matter what you felt before, when great light hits one of these places… you will take your camera out quickly anyway and enjoy it, huh!
#5 Play with shutter speeds
Shutter speed is such a mighty creative tool! As soon as you have a camera that allows you to set manual values, you should start exploring the great variation of different optical appeals that you can achieve by only changing the exposure time.
You have surely seen countless images where the main attributes of the image was shaped by the selective choice of a special shutter speed. Generally speaking, to freeze movement you want to have a short exposure time. While you will want to have a longer exposure time to visualize movement and motion.
But instead of telling you everything that i know about exposure times and the resulting images i will here give you the task to find a scene and explore the different image appeals that you can achieve by taking images with changing exposure length.
exposure time has the biggest impact on the look of motion in your image
You don´t need to rush to a lake, river or sea shore in order to get things going. Any place where you have a view of the open sky on a cloudy day will already allow you to start this fun experiment. Now start shooting with very short exposures and gradually increase the exposure time as much as you can. Without completely blowing out the highlights in your image.
At some point you might want to buy some ND filters to allow longer exposures- but if you are just experimenting just wait until the light of the day vanishes (0 $).
#6 There is no bad weather
When guiding workshops i have met a significant amount of people that didn´t like to get out when the weather was not perfect. They were people that were not really passionate for landscape photography- they simply wanted to bring home some nice images as results of their travels to show around. Which is ok of course- you can do that if that´s your thing.
But for me personally experiencing all kinds of weather conditions just adds to the overall feeling during a photo op. I actually just love it to be out the a storm hits.
I like to be out in the rain and wait for that short moment of epic light that a rain system often brings for those that endure. Now… i won´t lie to you and tell you that i love to be out in the rain for 5 hours straight until all my clothing and gear is completely drenched. That wouldn´t be true.
But guess what… if i come home from such a session with an image that i really love. I will have forgot all the struggle i went through in the moment that i see it popping up on my computer.
weather is what massively influences how light unfolds in a scene
In order to learn all those crazy beautyful things that can happen when differnent weather patterns hit, you should go out and experience them. This way you get a feeling for what can happen, and once you develop some experience in reading weather patterns and making your own assumptions on the conditions you can expect will make you profit hugely!
#7 Be inspired by others but then add your own scents
When it comes to inspiration from other photographers one will always walk on a thin line. Because it is quite obvious that every single one of us is constantly inspired by images from other people. It just happens organically due to the way in which we consume images. We can´t escape them for the most part.
Especially in the beginning, when we are just picking up landscape photography as a new hobby, we will most likely replicate images that we have priorly seen somewhere. And this is one of the best ways of learning landscape photography. Or let´s say, regardless of what you are trying to learn, the conscious replication of something that has succesfully been done before will help you improve.
Do people learning an instrument instantly start composing their own music? Instead of learning to play that instrument by practice with the notes of music that has been composed in the past? Or do people that want to improve their cooking skills not typically use recipes that have been written by other cooks?
You get it, it´s something totally normal to replicate things we have seen before in the beginning of our landscape photography journey. Even later on we won´t totally be abled to escape this. No matter if wanted or by coincidence- it will just happen. And in some occasions for some motives we will even have too.
At least compositionally. Because there´s many places where almost every centimeter has been photographed in some way already and the chances for finding something unique are quite small. Often at these places, the „ideal“ angles are the popular ones.
The task of a good photographer in my humble opinion is to at least try it though!
#8 Take pictures instead of talking about taking pictures
I want to do this. I want to do that. I want to take this wideangle image of that mountain. With that nice foreground and the light hitting the peak through some thin layers of low clouds. Above a sea of fog.
Yup… that´s me telling myself what i want to do some day.
Truth is that probably quite a lot of days will pass until the moment comes where i can take that picture. And if i get lost in dreaming about those hard to get shots, i probably don´t take any other pictures in the meantime. As i write this, most of Europe is in harsh lockdowns because of the Corona pandemic.
The chances for travel to some of those destinations of our dreams are not the best to say the least. And it will probably take quite a while until most of us can finally pull off such trips again. I dream about all these things too. I really do!
But it´s not a productive attitude. Instead you should be going out for photography frequently no matter where you live if you are a beginner in landscape photography.
Going out will actually make you improve
And seeing how your photography progresses is much more motivating than pure stagnation. And imagine how happy you will be once you are back on track to some epic destination and when you´re there you have that skill set needed to get the results that you dreamed. Instead beeing standing at that place with epic light and needing to figure out what to do to get the images you want…
#9 Shoot for your own pleasure
I feel like this one is quite important nowadays in these times where even people that just picked up their camera want to run big social media accounts.
Get the crispy IG likes, the good praise etc. Social media is powerful for marketing, but it can also become quite a burden.
You should seriously think about why you would want to spend as much time as it needs nowadays to build social media profiles when you are just starting out.
Would that time not be more cleverly used if you work on your photography skills instead?
All these platforms with Instagram beeing the strongest nowadays tend to influence the way you shoot indirectly. This comes down to the psychological triggers that the online gratification spills on you. Don´t get me wrong, i feel like i have been very guilty of this.
But the moment where you break free from all things that blast on to you when you constantly use social media will be a good moment for your creativity and the way you shoot! This image is a great example for this topic. When i shot this image, the spot was already known and i was far from beeing the first to shoot this composition. But in 2015 this was still not as well represented as it is nowadays. It´s always good to learn how to shoot at such a photogenic place. But there´s more to find on the beautyful Lofoten islands... things that will make it easier for yourself to go chase your own personal approach to a place.
#10 Give yourself time Don´t force things too much
You surely heard often about patience beeing a key ingredient of landscape photography. And it absolutely is.
But not only when it comes to waiting for the best conditions. Instead patience will also play a positive role in your own development as a photographer.
Keep in mind that many techniques and workflows feel intimidating in the beginning. This is only normal, after all we will rarely be masterful in something that we are just starting to learn. Instead of putting too much pressure on yourself and then be dissappointed, allow yourself to learn slowly, but steadily.
If you expect yourself to have perfect results in exposure blending right away from the start most likely you will quickly get quite frustrated.
Instead just go step by step, allow yourself to have bad results in the beginning. But then don´t stop trying and keep doing it.
We all suck in the beginning
Small steps will give you many feelings of success and therefore keep you motivated.
The moment will come that you look at your image and think: Dayum… this is great. I made this. Good job!
And then work on achieving this great result in everyimage that you work on. Enjoy!
#11 Work with the conditions that you get out there
Don´t limit yourself by expecting things to turn out in a certain way. While this makes sense for all kinds of photography, in landscape photography this is especially important.
I get it, we all dream around every now and then and when planning to take a certain shot we often wish for a certain kind of weather, light and so on. But this shouldn´t be overrated!
In fact i have been chatting with friends while they were standing at an incredible view. But instead of making the best of the moment they were telling me how bad the light was. Or how the clouds were not moving in the direction. Or how the peaks didn´t catch the glow as expected. I then asked them to send me a phone shot of the scene and most often was in shock about them complaining.
Make the best of what you get- don´t overthink!
When things don´t work out as you wanted, it´s your job as a photographer to stop complaining and make the best of what you have on the table!
The image used as example here was taken on a day of miserable weather in the Dolomites in Italy. I was quite demotivated because it was pouring down cats and dogs so to say. Bad day for mountain photography- there were no mountains to see! I then remembered that i always wanted to shoot these fantastic earth pyramids. And guess what... this was the perfect weather to capture them in a mysterious moody fashion!
#12 Search for Inspiration off social media
I found this to be a very nice thing to do when i realized that i get triggered to the typical behaviour of a social media user when i browse images of artists that i admire on their social profiles. I will get messages, likes or whatever and therefore can´t totally focus on enjoying the artworks that i see.
Luckily this is easy to avoid- just go to the respective artists website and enjoy the artwork on a big screen.
After turning off your phone... Without any notifications and distractions at all it´s a much deeper connection made and as your mind can rest you will also get inspired on a deeper level!
invest in inspiration by supporting your favorite artists
Even better than artists webpages are books and prints of course. But those will cost you money.
I made it a habit to put some money aside every now and then which i then save to purchase photo books of people that i find inspiring. Both parties profit of this- the artist makes a living and i myself can just lay back on the sofa, have a nice drink and dive deep into the inspiration session.
I recently purchased 4 new photo books by inspiring artists and can´t wait to find the time to turn off all thoughts and get lost in their artworks.
