While landscape photography may seem simple, it’s far from simple, in fact, it’s one of the hardest photographic disciplines to master, everyone can get a beautiful photograph of a great landscape, but becoming an exceptional photographer is a path to go. travel from photo to photo, stumble, gain experience and thus be able to reach the right destination.
It’s not the same taking a picture of a beautiful landscape as taking a beautiful picture of a landscape, do you notice the difference?This is where great photographers stand out from the rest, and you can be a part of it.
- Experience is the name we give to our mistakes.
- And in today’s article.
- I’m going to give you an overview of some of the most common mistakes landscape photographers make.
- So you can shorten the way a bit.
When you start delving into the world of landscape photography, you will most likely soon begin to discover that there are a myriad of accessories that can make your photos spectacular. anxiety and don’t buy the first thing that comes to your hand as the one who pays poorly pays twice.
If you buy a lens, filters, or even a tripod of questionable quality, the loss will affect your photos. Cameras are constantly being updated, but a good lens, a great filter or a sturdy tripod will be with you for a lifetime. Try not to fall into the brand’s trap, and if you did not know where to invest, in the camera or in the lenses, you already have the answer.
Before making your next purchase, take a look at the following items
While you may be tempted to always focus on infinity, to keep your photography of this beautiful landscape as sharp as possible, this isn’t always the best option for quality photos.
If you only focus at infinity, you will lose much of the depth of field and will be forced to use very narrow apertures, resulting in a loss of sharpness and thus a loss of focus. quality.
Keep in mind that lenses perform best at intermediate apertures f / 8 or f / 11, so using wide open or closed apertures will reduce the quality of photos.
If you use intermediate apertures, you still cannot get a perfectly sharp image, you can use two techniques:
Using narrower apertures to achieve a greater depth of field so that everything in the scene comes out sharp, involves increasing the ISO or reducing the shutter speed to get a good exposure.
Increasing ISO is not free: it increases the amount of noise in your photos and therefore reduces its sharpness and quality, which is essential in landscape photography. Reducing shutter speed also comes at a cost: the likelihood of blurry photo loses sharpness, although reducing the risk of shaking is easier: you’ll only need a good tripod that gives you stability and knows how to mount it.
In extreme cases where you have to work with very, very slow shutter speeds, a tripod will not suffice. Have a remote shutter handy or set your camera to delayed shutter mode and raise the mirror – use the screen as a viewfinder to avoid unwanted vibrations. For more information on this, I recommend that you read the article on 24 ways to get sharpness in their photos.
At the beginning of your career as a landscape photographer you may not have the necessary equipment to be able to take your photos in low light conditions, so you will be limited to situations where the light is favorable to you. It can make your landscape photos a little boring due to lighting.
Try to get up early and go out and take pictures as soon as the sun comes up, or wait for the sun to set and take your photos at sunset. You will notice that these two times are excellent for taking your photos because, thanks to the position of the sun, the light affects the scene sideways, creating textures, shadows and very attractive patterns that will make your landscape photographs more expressive.
Some time ago, Mario wrote an article on how to photograph spectacular sunrises and sunsets, I recommend you take a look!
Apart from organizing a photographic trip, it is very likely that you will not have the time necessary to be able to fully exploit the possibilities that a certain place offers you, especially if you have crossed the landscape on a trip to it instead of having planned it. that.
If you do not spend enough time analyzing the scene and evaluating all the possibilities it offers you, when framing the photo, it is unlikely that you will be able to cover all possible frames.
Have you ever felt like you hadn’t noticed the pictures you wanted?Unfortunately, if after photographing a sunset you are not satisfied with the photo obtained, to have the sun back in the same position and be able to correct the frame, you will do it or you have to camp and wait the next day, or return to another occasion with a more complete idea of the result you expect to get in your photograph and this is not always possible
When you find a landscape worthy of being portrayed, do not rush, take your time to evaluate all the possibilities it offers you, the compositional elements that you can include in the photograph, the angles from which to take the shots, etc. The more you work on stage, the better you will come out with your photos. Few things will frustrate you more than leaving a place knowing that you haven’t been able to make the most of it.
Your eye is able to perceive details in situations where it is impossible for your camera, one of these situations occurs when very contrasting scenes are presented, that is, when the difference between lights and shadows is very large.
In these situations, it becomes really difficult to get details in both lights and shadows, so you’ll have to choose the one you prefer and adjust the shooting settings for the chosen one.
Is the ability of your camera?Capture?detail in lights and shadows, is known as “dynamic range”. To make the most of the total sensor capacity of your camera to capture information, you must take the correct exposure. This way you can capture as many lights and shadows at the same time in a photo.
But how do you do it right? The main thing is to configure the parameters of the shot so that the lighter objects that appear in the scene are not overexposed, that is, completely white with no detail. This will ensure that your camera captures as many reflections as possible and at the same time, you will get more details in dark tones. Don’t worry, we’ll see it in more detail in the next article.
As an introduction to the different ways to measure light in photography, I recommend that you read the following article: Examples of ways to measure light in photography.
Generally, in landscape photographs, the main objects tend to appear very far away in them, causing them to be lost among the rest of the landscape as one more element.
As Mario said in article 11, simple tips for taking pictures of stunning landscapes:
“The landscape can be incredibly beautiful, but the whole landscape cannot be the protagonist. Every successful landscape photo contains an element of a star, something that people consciously or unconsciously notice when they look at the photo.
Try using trees, rivers, rocks, roads and anything else you find attractive to help direct the viewer’s gaze and give it a “feeling of belonging,” that is, it’s inside the photograph.
Not everything should be hundreds of meters from the lens, try to get closer and use the elements of the landscape to highlight the foreground and thus achieve more expressive photographs.
Include people? Why not? Take advantage of your creativity and integrate the human factor in your landscapes.
Some time ago Esteban Fabián Gentile, Argentine painter, graphic designer and photographer specialized in landscape photography, received several international awards, collaborated with the Photographer’s Blog and shared his vision and technique in landscape photography in the following article: Trick for enhance your landscape photos. Read more than recommended!
In most landscape photographs that you can find on the Internet, the background is the protagonist of the scene. These kinds of photographs don’t arouse much interest in the viewer unless the landscape is so spectacular that it alone leaves everyone open-mouthed.
In the different places where you are going to take your photographs, be very careful with the background of the photos because in landscape photography the background really matters, remember that sharpness is fundamental in this type of photographs and that the whole scene must be clear. Getting attractive backgrounds will be critical for your photos to get the impact you want.
As I told you at the beginning of the article, being able to take excellent landscape photographs is not an easy task at all and one of the reasons is that you have to combine all the elements present in the image. scene, to make a stunning photo, since you can manipulate them, you can only place them in the frame.
Again, I recommend you take a look at the tips Mario has prepared for all those landscape photography fans: 11 simple tips for stunning landscape photography.
It is very likely that at first you will be tempted to use the preset camera modes for your photos, in this case the landscape mode. It may be quick and easy for you, but what’s fun about letting the camera decide for you?
This mode closes the aperture to gain depth of field (sharpness) and compensates for? Loss of light? product to close it, reducing the shutter speed, in order to obtain the correct exposure.
So far everything is fine, but why not use it ?, because when the camera measures the amount of light in the environment automatically, it calculates an average between the lightest and darkest tones (lights and shadows) that prevents it from capturing all the information that your camera’s sensor is capable of capturing, losing details at the extremes (lighter and darker tones).
Also, why let a machine make the decisions for you?The important thing is you, your photographic eye and your knowledge, the camera is the only way you can capture them in pictures.
In a landscape you will not only find clouds, mountains, trees, rivers and rocks, you will also find, even if you do not notice it at first, endless lines and shapes that, although they do not appear, are there.
All the elements that make up a photograph have meaning and significance and depending on how you act or use them in the frame, your photographs will take on a completely different character or whatever. Use these elements to guide the viewer through the path you have designed for your photos.
As in all other branches of photography, in landscape photography you must also always take into account what you want the message to be communicated and the sensations that are transmitted, so be clear about the purpose, this will help you to use all the means (natural) achieve this.
If you have not read it yet, I recommend that you read: 9 tips and tricks to improve your photographic composition, if you want to break the photographic rules, do it, they are only guides to use or not when composing your photos.
As I told you at the beginning of the article, experience is the name we give to our mistakes!So you know that?
Grab your camera, put on comfortable shoes, and go out and make big mistakes.
I hope you liked today’s article. Cordially