If you’re a nature photographer, you should probably be passionate about mountain photos like any other. Most of the time, this means that a hike, camp, snowboard or just a panoramic view become an opportunity to take pictures of stunning mountains.
In addition, any type of tour like this will be much more rewarding than any other type of photography and I think you quite agree with me, logically living in a small village surrounded by powerful mountains and an infinite horizon of gigantic summits is already an excellent initiative to enhance your results with mountain images.
- However.
- You still need to know other techniques and balconies to get along.
- Having scenarios available whenever you want is not able to bring pictures of mountains as you need them.
- However.
- These stunning views are the reason why many photographers have fallen in love with them.
- Photos of the mountain.
- And perhaps the main reason why most people venture into great heights.
However, mountain photos are sometimes difficult for photographers, especially in terms of creativity, after all, photographing large landscapes concerns the landscape itself, limiting the interference and creative points that the professional can get. In another type of photography, such as macro or close-up photos, the photographer has a virtually blank canvas for painting with light, an infinite palette of colors, selective focus and a bokeh, while mountain photos are more related to the reality of the scene, the vagaries of time and light.
The purpose of this article is to explain how you will be able to get more professional mountain photos while using your creativity as much as possible, and not just hiding behind the DSLR camera and pressing the shutter button.
As you know, any landscape photograph is more related to the place, the location, that is, nature itself, so you have to choose the best location to capture your mountain photos and I do not mean the most popular tourist sites, these are shots that do not have fun and do not attract the attention of viewers.
When it comes to a good place for your mountain photos, it actually means a place of your choice, your favorite and secret corner, capable of rendering photos of unprecedented, eye-catching mountains with all the glamour you’ve always wanted for your images. .
Since we’re talking about creativity, choosing the right location for your mountain photos is a good start to success, because if you choose your images right, they’ll be amazing, otherwise you’ll collect a lot of outdated and useless photos. Nothing can be added to your work or the viewer’s life. For those who cannot live on a paradise island with the most devastating mountains in the world, then they will have to seek their inspiration elsewhere.
Just keep in mind that this can mean taking a path by the bushes of your nearest home or small forest, the easiest and easiest way to get away from it all, find your own place and start your creative process for your mountain photos. The biggest bonus a mountain photographer can get is, without a doubt, to be able to reach their own places, that is, places that have not been photographed, where they can see landscapes with a fresh look and choose compositions never seen before.
However, choosing the location to capture your own mountain photos can become an adventure, you can spend a lot of time searching for new routes and remembering past hikes and views, while trying to imagine potential scenes for your mountain photos. Easier and faster work, there are three very powerful tools you can use to do this:
1) Topo National Geographic !? Mapping software with all USGS topographic maps to a certain state in an easy-to-use application. You can choose your own routes and the app returns with mileage and travel altitude, the best way to plan your mountain photos with all the necessary maps on your computer. Unfortunately, it’s expensive, but there are free online alternatives like Caltopo. com, Hillmap. com and Mappingsupport. com.
2) Photographer Ephemeris (TPE)? It is a fantastic tool to plan the lighting conditions of your mountain photos. This app, created by artist Stephen Trainor, displays maps or satellite images with an overlay of where and when the sun/moon comes out and sets. These are valuable knowledge for planning excellent mountain photographs. Will the sunrise shine directly in this mountain valley or will it remain cloudy all day?Will the moon rise behind this summit or somewhere out of sight?TPE makes it easy to search.
3) Google Earth: just fun. Who doesn’t like to fly around the world looking at all the 3D topography from a bird’s point of view?But it is also a powerful tool for planning great mountain photos. Before Google Earth, most photographers had to carefully study a map and imagine what the image would look like from a certain point.
Google Earth does it for you, and it does it well!Let’s say, for example, that you want to shoot from a high hill. Usually you will have to go there, so you will have to spy on the best place to get your mountain photos Sometimes I had to do it the day before starting your photo shoot, then return the next morning to capture the images.
With Google Earth, do it before you even go! You practically fly with Google Earth, find the perfect view of a great mountain, mark it on the map, then head to this place in the dark, knowing exactly where you want to be when the sun comes up, it saves you many hours of hiking.
Then, using these tools, as well as weather forecasts and an experience knowledge reserve of previous trips (depending on where you are), you can discover new perspectives for your mountain photos and also increase your chances of being in the right place in the right time.
What I don’t recommend doing is seeing an awesome photo and thinking, “I want to go!”Some photographers do this, see a photo and fall in love with it and try to figure out where it took to get there. take the same mountain photos again. This kind of motivation is no different from trying to play photos of renowned photographers we’ve already talked about, except it’s harder to achieve!
Again, find your own places to compose your mountain photos. It doesn’t have to be a place where no one has been before, after the whole planet has already been fully explored and photographed by someone, especially with the exponential growth of social media. On the other hand, do your own research, look for your own ideas and then move on to designing your mountain photos, this is part of the creative process!
If you follow in each other’s footsteps and try to copy other mountain photos, you’re wrong and create a long-term creative block. In fact, you’re running someone else’s original creative vision!Of course, you can create your own, composition variation and you may be lucky, even with better weather conditions, but the end result will always be less rewarding than a photo you created from start to finish.
Of course, it won’t be possible to have an original location for all your mountain photos, but if most of them follow this rule, then your work will be well done and most of the time, these photos will be more meaningful to you. and your family spectators.
Similarly, we cannot say that creativity in mountain photos is only related to the original or unprecedented location chosen by the photographer, after all, anyone could discover it too and take similar or better mountain photos, however, the fundamental point of creativity is the personal touch that the photographer himself can bring to his mountain photos , that is, that a place can even be shared between two or more images, but when the?Photographer’s footprint is different, you’ll have stunning mountain photographs.
Always talking about the originality of his mountain photos, most of the time this will be a known and appreciated factor only by the photographer himself, it is true, to some extent, to say that viewers do not value or perceive much this point. but for you the feeling will be valid.
Regardless of these judgments of originality and creativity, the truth is that, finding original perspectives for your mountain photos, it’s much more fun and easier to put your imagination on board, remember that it’s a muscle and that you have to work it out. to evolve and grow. In addition, it’s easier to create your own mountain photo performances when you look at a place with new eyes, without images of previous photographers that crowd your head and influence your motivations.
The basic idea here is to think outside the box, find your own inspirations to find unique places to photograph. Instead of looking for portfolios of other photographers to inspire you in their mountain photos, look for a map and use your imagination. much of the creative fun of photographing great exotic themes.
The next step is to look for “something special. ” Any image of stunning mountains must have something special, something out of the ordinary. A good sunrise or sunset is the right bet for a good photo, as long as the weather permits. splashing of sun radiating through clouds or trees, a mist swirling over the peaks becomes a reflection with perfect symmetry with composition. Things like this add an extra touch to mountain photos and set them apart from a normal snapshot. They elevate a scene to more than a static landscape, but a single piece of time, an event in nature with all the feeling it deserves.
There are two main ways to increase the chances of finding special weather and lighting conditions: the first is to take pictures of the mountains when there is good light, the safest way to do so is to get up and be there at sunrise and/or sunset Not only that, but to be there for half an hour, or before sunrise and after sunset. Sometimes the best light for some landscapes is that purple glow of dawn that illuminates entire landscapes and reveals topography better than artificial light. This often involves walking and waiting in the dark, so make sure you have warm clothes and a bright headlight. It is often necessary to wait in the same place for hours to get the best light; but this doesn’t have to be boring, take this time to relax and enjoy the view.
The second way is to leave in unstable weather, when you normally prefer not to leave, when the weather forecast indicates that there will be a week of bad weather, unlike most ”normal”, you can go take your mountain photos. Why does cloudy weather bring a great sunrise or sunset to your mountain photos?
However, clear weather also offers unique opportunities, especially for night shots. Did you know that a moon that comes out or sets projects the same kind of red light as sunrise or sunset?It is not visible to the naked eye, but is certainly visible by a high ISO DSLR camera sensor with long exposure. Or maybe there’s only one moonlight and you can capture the stars over the mountains. Only moonlight or stars don’t always add a special touch to mountain photos, but they’re ingredients that can help drive an image in that direction.
In any landscape it is important to look for those special moments of light and time, and integrate them one way or another into mountain images, remember that photographs of a great landscape are never as impressive as being there in person. be on the edge of the Grand Canyon in the middle of the day and be totally impressed by the scene, but it won’t transfer the same emotion to two-dimensional photography, unless the light or something in the atmosphere is special.
The frame of the photo is without a doubt the most important part in terms of creativity for mountain photos.
Photographing great landscapes is a somewhat traditional topic, and by that I mean that it is difficult to be creative, after all, the theme is the landscape in front of you and you have to take what is given without completely controlling the possibilities. , you still have a lot of options on how to present mountain photos under your responsibility.
Choosing the shot is perhaps the most important aspect of the creative framing of your mountain photos and can have a profound effect on the image. Is it important to have a solid plan, if any, to give the viewer a place where?Stay at the scene. A close-up provides a better context of the reality and scale of the scene, and it’s easier for people to imagine they’re there in person.
Rarely capture mountain photos with your tripod fully unfolded. When the camera is closer to the ground, you can get much bolder lines, compositions, and larger, more dynamic foreground objects. In addition, with the camera lowered, you can move a few feet or inches to radically change the composition. With this technique, you can enhance a prominent composition that complements your mountain photos.
Some people greatly appreciate the close-up in mountain photos, with compositions where the foreground completely dominates the scene. Ideally, these close-ups will have strong main lines that direct attention to the subject in the background. When done well, it can result in very dynamic compositions. , when it is poorly done, can actually block the viewer from the scene, divert the subject’s attention or simply look at an enigmatic plain.
In other words, when taking pictures of mountains, try framing the photo in such a way that it draws attention to the subject itself (the top of a mountain, for example). The foreground is complementary and is used only when it complements the theme and pattern. Therefore, in many mountain shots, the peaks will be large and the foreground enough to land on stage and take the viewer there.
As for the rules of composition, it is better to forget them to get more creative mountain photos. They are important to be part of your learning, but your practice needs to speak louder when composing mountain photos. Trust your instincts and frame the composition in a way that looks good. A simple exercise to frame the composition is to consider it as a copy already on the wall. If the image were an image on the wall, seeing it day after day, what would you change to make it more enjoyable?, more interesting, more balanced? If you can think in terms of final printing even before taking the photo, you can improve better compositions in the field.
Another key point for creative composition of mountain photographs is to try to choose the exact composition before setting it up. Some cameras make it difficult to install on a tripod, the configuration can be too complex and cause a lot of discomfort. For this reason, it would be interesting if you learned how to compose your mountain photos first, using only your eyes, before setting up the camera.
With digital technology, it’s tempting to immediately install the camera and move the tripod and take pictures while perfecting the composition, but it will be faster and more effective to try to learn how to choose the first composition, so you don’t have to. Worry so much about the tripod configuration and you’ll be able to take fewer photos, with much higher quality and performance.
Of course, you will get better compositions for mountain photos if you are looking for the best place to capture the images instead of just fixing your tripod in the first place it appears. Walk around the scene, visually test angles and perspectives, go down yourself, move to higher levels, etc. No doubt you’ll find things you can lose at first sight.
First of all, thank you for reading this article so far, we hope these tips have been helpful in helping you use your creativity in mountain photos, to summarize everything we’ve talked about in this article and help you refresh the information in your mind. , we can say that the essence of mountain photos is not just pressing the camera shutter and collecting a few hundred photos.
In fact, as you’ve seen before, you need to know other topics important to this style of photography, that is, you must get involved in the whole photographic process, including finding exclusive locations, having your own mountain photo ideas, arriving at the right time and place, framing and composing correctly, etc.
That said, tell us your own balconies to increase your creativity with mountain photos and share your opinion on this article It’s always interesting to know what you think!