Improve Your Landscape Photography

When you first take your digital camera home, there is a brief moment where you can't think of anything but positioning yourself in an awesome landscape setting - camera at the ready. It is great to have such enthusiasm, but without some basic prior knowledge, you are putting limits on the technique and the quality of the images captured. It will only take a few moments to read through this guide on improving landscape photography - then you can happily venture off to experiment with what you have learned.

First Step To Success - Choosing The Landscape

The first part of our guide isn't technical at all, but it is a tip that you would benefit from no end. It can be exciting just to leap in the car and set off across the country, cameras in tow and in search of the 'perfect' spot, but you won't appreciate the costs on fuel to get there! The easy solution is just to spend a little time researching the area and discovering places that could have a lot of potential.

Second Step To Success - Let There Be Light!

Getting the right amount of light for the photo will make all the difference and yet the majority of your shoots will be using the one source of light - the glorious sun. For the most beautiful landscape photos, you should try to be ready with your cameras for sunrise or sunset; although some professionals will argue that the midday sun of a winter's day has the most favorable lighting effects. Try them all, be up at the break of dawn and be back on point for sundown. Over time you can make your own preferences, depending on the mood or image you wish to portray. The key is to experiment and explore all the possibilities; although do remember that the sun should be lighting from behind or from the side of your focal point.

Third Step To Success - Creative Compositions

So you have reached the location in which you planned to be and you made it a little time before the sunrise/sunset. Now it is time to think about creative compositions and choosing a scene to capture with your cameras. Have a think about landscape imagery that you have observed and felt a connection with in the past - what made it stand out as being a successful photo? Could it be that the focal point of the image was an interesting landmark or perhaps it had been taken in such a way that the eye is captivated throughout the entire shot - being led from one point to another along a babbling brook for example. You might want to research more into the subject of landscape photography and read up on techniques employed by other photographers.

On Last Leap To Success - The Perfect Set Up

You should be equipped with a tripod to rest your cameras upon - make sure you have it set to a good height in accordance to the landscape ahead of you. Being too high or too low will distort any foreground perspective when shooting the image if you are not careful. In a manual set up you can play around with the exposure to create certain moods in a frame - think of lengthening the exposure and you will have a slight blur that can be eery, captivating and unique.