Beginners Guide to Landscape Photography

Landscape photography can be very rewarding, providing you put in a little bit of effort.

Here are my 10 top tips.

1) Planning -

Planning is important when shooting landscapes. Firstly you need to consider where you are going to go. Use things like google maps to scope for locations and find those hidden beauty spots. Also think about the time of day that you are going to go and make sure the sun is going to be in the right place.

2) Golden Hours

The time of day you shoot landscapes is important. Sunrise and sunset are great times of day to capture stunning landscape images. With the sun low in the sky colours are much stronger and more vibrant.






3) Dont be lazy

Patience is key, if you arrive at a destination don't just get out of the car and snap away. Think about your shot, how is yours going to be different from everyone elses picture. If the sun isn't quite in the right place, wait until it is.

4) Use a tripod

With landscape photography we tend to use very narrow apertures (f8 upwards) to maximise the depth of field in the image. This can result in slow shutter speeds. This is why a tripod is a great piece of kit to have with you when out on location.

5) Depth of field

With landscapes we need to have great depth of field in our pictures. Unlike most portraits where we want to blur out backgrounds, landscapes we want to have detail throughout the whole scene. To do this we need to have a very narrow aperture ?(f8 upwards).



6) Focus

Because we want to maximise the depth of field in our landscapes. We need to think about where we focus.
Ideally we want to focus at least a third of the way into the scene to ensure great detail throughout the image.





7) Rule of Thirds


Think about how much sky and how much ground we want to include in the picture. If we have a great sky them we may want to include more of it, if it's pretty grey and flat, then we probably won't want to fill two thirds of the frame with it.
Try to use tracks, roads, fences to lead the viewers yes across the whole of the picture.




8) Filters

Filters can be very important when it comes to Landscape photography. One of the main filters i use is the Circular Polarizer. I use this to make the clouds stand out more against the deep blue sky. Other types of filters include Graduated filters, these are used to even out the exposure of an image.

9) Panoramic

If you use photo editing software like photoshop, you could think about creating a panoramic image. To do this you need to take a series of images in a row, making sure you include some of the previous shot in the next picture so they can be stitched together.

10) Be safe

Lastly, if you are planning to head out to a location early in the morning, or late at night, make sure people know where you are going, an also make sure you have a fully charged phone and a torch.

James Neale runs photography workshops all over Norfolk and Suffolk.
If you have an interest in Photography feel free to browse his website

www.jamesnealephotography.com