The study of light is so important if you want to learn to take great landscape photographs. Without light there can be no photos so it only makes sense that we learn about its characteristics and how different light can affect the look of your landscape photos.
By studying light before you shoot a landscape you can determine what sort of mood your photo is going to capture. If the light is a beautiful golden colour then your photo will have a really warm summery feel to it. Similarly if the light is dark then the photo will probably have a cold and eerie look to it.
So if light is so important to the feel and look of our photographs why do people pay so little attention to it when they are first starting out? Studying the light and what its doing well before taking your photo is probably one of the most important landscape photography tips that you can learn when taking your first photos.
In fact its so important that you should probably head down to a favourite spot that you shoot over a few days and just watch what the light is doing. Where are the shadows falling and at what time? Is the spot that you want to shoot going to be better as a sunrise shot or a sunset shot?
What other factors should you be looking for when looking at the light? How do clouds affect the light in the area that you are trying to shot? Quite often light that makes it through the clouds is really soft and diffused and really enhances colours dramatically.
When taking your photos and when you edit them afterwards you should always be conscious of the fact that a persons eye will always be drawn to the brightest part of the image. Knowing just this one simple tip will help your photography out tenfold. Next time you're out taking your landscape shots think about where you want the brightest part of the image to be and see what a difference it makes.
After being drawn to bright spots your eye will next be drawn to warmer colours. Your eyes will be drawn to oranges and yellows before it will be drawn to blues and greens.
Lastly, remember when taking the photo you're trying to capture a moment, not just a photo. You want people to feel what you felt when you took the photo. You're trying to convey to them what inspired you to take that photo at that particular time. What I do now when I see a scene that I like is turn away, then look back and see what my eye falls on straight away, or think what attracts me about this scene. Once I have worked that out I start to use my knowledge of light to try and enhance the scene and produce a stunning shot.
So next time you're out shooting think of how the light is affecting your subject. It is vitally important, for light is everything in photography. The more you start to think about the light when taking photos the better you photos will be.
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