15. How to Take Photos 11: Landscapes

Before reading this lesson, there are several others on the blog that will help you. First you should go through all the lessons on composition here. Pay special attention to the lesson on landscape composition. I wrote it for painters, but much of it applies to photography. Additionally, check back to the lesson on basic photo tips, as much of that also applies to landscapes. Those lessons will give you a basis for how to take good photos. Beyond that, there are a few more things to consider:

1. If you find the perfect composition, you should actually zoom out a little bit - you can put the photo into Lightroom later and play with different ways to crop it, so you get it just right.

2. One of the most important tasks of landscape photography is simply being there. Shots like this aren't so hard to accomplish. 

Cahoon Hollow Beach Sunrise with Seal, by me, 2022

The hardest part is simply waking up at 4:30 AM, hopping into the car and driving to the beach before the sun rises.

3. Consider your lenses. I find that most of nature consists of wide open spaces, and the best way to capture them requires a wide angle lens. I also often carry two cameras with me for shooting - one wide angle, and one telephoto. Each one has it's strengths and when the right subject appears, or flies overhead, you want to have the camera set to take the shot before it gets away. The idea of switching lenses on location with one camera is absurd. You will miss too many opportunities for a shot.

Nigel Danson has some great advice for landscapes, you can watch here:

1. Don't just accept the first view of a subject you come across. If it's worth shooting, it's worth exploring first. Walk around it, look for different angles and backgrounds (you can shoot while you explore!).

2. Place your elements/subjects carefully. You don't want things to feel random or lost.

3. Don't just look at the big scene. Especially, when it's hard to adjust for bright skies and dark ground, just zoom in and focus on details of the scene.

4. Look at the light. Consider how the contrast is, if it's too much, and how the light hits different textures. If you find a great scene, but the light isn't right, plan to come back later when it is. Good photos take planning. Here's an example from my photo shoots in Slovakia, summer of 2023. I took this first photo because after a day of hiking, I finally got here:

Beautiful location, but not the best photo, right? Everything's backlit and hidden, the sky's overexposed. It wasn't what I wanted. I need the sun behind me. So, I returned the next morning, and this is what I found:

It's not perfect, but I think it's much better lighting. This is how planning makes a great photo.

5. Use your midday light wisely. Most photographers consider this the worst time for shooting (the harshest light), so use it for scouting around, for places you could shoot later.

6. Consider your focal length. Low numbers (a wide angle lens) make the foreground dominate, as the background shrinks. Larger focal lengths help increase the size of those backgrounds, pulling them forward, as the foreground shrinks or gets cropped out.

7. Get out of your comfort zone.

Here's some advice from Mark Denny:

1. Shoot more. Take more photos on location.

2. Arrive early and stay late - and keep shooting. The blue hour before sunrise and after a sunset also has great lighting.

3. Turn around while you shoot (this is also in my basic tips lesson). Be aware of your surroundings and what's worth shooting. A great composition could be right behind you.

4. Shoot RAW, because they have to be edited. They are generally dull and flat. It forces you to edit and consider the contrast, highlights, colors, and shadows. It helps you edit much better. Jpgs can look fantastic and not need editing, so you might skip it. But, the better you are at post processing the more control you have over your images, and the better a photographer you will be.

5. Change your camera angles - shift your perspective. Don't always shoot at eye level. Maybe it's better low to the ground? Or if you climb a ladder? At least check.

6. Research and plan your shots. Scout in advance. Spend several days at a location. Consider what you might want, to get the right angle/height/etc.

7. Focus more on the foreground - the background will mostly be in focus. If you focus on the background, the foreground will be too blurry (Chris Bray says the same thing).

8. Flip the camera to a vertical orientation. It works great for landscapes, especially for showing depth. Don't get locked into one orientation without checking the other.

9. Enjoy the process, slow down and be patient. Don't run around, worrying about "the perfect photograph".

Mark Denny also discusses bad landscape advice you should ignore:

1. "Always shooting in manual mode" - this is silly. You should know how to use manual mode, but no, you don't need to use it to be a professional photographer. It's not a badge of honor. It really depends on what you're shooting. For landscapes, when nothing is moving around, you can relax more with your settings.

2. "You need a set of graduating ND filters". A circular polarizer is all you really need to have because its effects cannot be replicated in any post processing software available today. Every other kind of filter you can fake in post. Meanwhile, if you put on an ND filter and it's crooked, the photo is ruined. There's no way to fix it.

3. "You should always expose to the right" - meaning as bright as possible without blowing out the highlights, so there's as much detail as possible. And you can always darken it in post. But, cameras today have such a great dynamic range so you get great noise-free shadows. Mark Denny actually exposes to the left, to preserve details in the light.

4. "You should always shoot on a tripod." In reality tripods are only for slow shutter speeds. You can easily handhold faster shutter speeds, especially when your camera/lens has image stabilization.

5. "You have to wait for the golden hours" - at sunrise and sunset. Those are great times to shoot, but you can shoot great landscapes at any time of day. Overcast afternoons have great even lighting - nature's "soft box".

6. "You have to buy a full-frame camera." Expensive cameras won't improve your photos. It can be really hard to tell the difference. They're really only helpful for night-time photography. The sensor collects more light.

7. "People may say you don't need an L-bracket, it's a waste of money, and it makes your camera heavier and bulkier." This is foolish. You should definitely get an L-bracket to work with your tripod. It's so much easier to switch to portrait orientation without changing your composition.

8. People say to "never crop your photos, but get it right in the camera." Nowadays, the cameras have such high resolution you can and should crop your photos in post processing. Learn to love the crop. Don't worry about losing resolution.

9. People say "you need to get lenses to cover the full focal range from 18mm to 300mm". You end up buying so many lenses, and you only use one or two. Instead Mark says you should just get one lens, like a 16-35mm and use it for a year. Then figure out what you're missing. (I still say use two cameras with different lenses and switch back and forth on location).

Here are Mark Denny's worst habits in landscape photography:

1. Editing photos too quickly. Mark worries about SD Card failure so he gets them backed up ASAP. He then starts reviewing and picking favorite images, and is editing them. But, it's good to pause and come back with fresh eyes and a different perspective.

2. Single lens shooting - Mark will take too many photos that look identical, from the same angle, the same composition. 

3. Not chimping enough - this means reviewing the LCD screen to see how the photo looks. If you're a sports or event photographer you shouldn't chimp. But it's slower with landscape photography, so you have the time to look at your LCD and see which photo/setting looks good.

4. Avoiding "bad weather". In reality, storms can give you very dramatic, moody images. I can say, having shot in a lot of bad weather, you don't want to get an expensive camera wet... Waiting for "good weather" is an issue. It keeps you from shooting.

5. Lazy Lens Changing. Sometimes Mark will take off a lens and leave his camera sensor exposed to the elements for over a minute or more - to get dirty/dusty/etc. The best way to change a lens is to face the camera down, have the next lens ready, and change lenses quickly!

6. Sleeping in - this is an awful habit for landscape photography. Having to rush around later is awful. Realizing the light was best twenty minutes ago while you were driving to the location is another awful feeling.

7. Pixel Peeping - In editing your photos, there's no need to zoom in so much that you can see individual pixels. No one else will do that to your image.

8. Assuming you can fix something in post. You can't always fix it in post.

9. Sensory Overload. This is worst at new locations. Mark rushes around, trying to find a good shot. It's better to slow down, relax, and enjoy it.