The Common Scenario
You see a beautiful landscape and you immediately grab your camera and start shooting. STOP. You’ll do that scene a justice (or something like it) if you read these 3 simple steps in creating powerful landscape photographs.
Step #1: Survey the Scene
Study what makes the scene beautiful. Is it the dramatic sky? The colorful expanse of tulips? The crashing waves? Find a way to best capture it. Or you could opt for a more unique way of thinking, like “what makes this scene beautiful aside from the colorful expanse of tulips?”
This leads us to the second step…
Step #2: Recall Basic Composition
In photography, composition is how a photographer presents an image. Used wisely, it can turn even a dumpster into something beautiful.
There are a lot of compositional elements, a dozen, give or take, but let’s place our focus on these 3 that will most likely create the most impact on those landscape photographs:
Rule of Thirds. When taking a photograph, you always have to imagine that the frame is divided into 9 equal squares
— with 2 lines cutting horizontally; another 2 lines cutting vertically. In landscapes, planes and lines are best off following those 4 lines. And those points where those lines meet? Those are the spots where you ideally place your subject.
The ‘bigger half’ of the image should be dedicated to the area you want to emphasize. When shooting a desert with a full moon for instance, it would be wiser to dedicate the ‘bigger half’ to the moon, letting the sky occupy the top 6 squares, and leaving the 3 squares to the sand.
Point of View. An apple on the table can be shot 50 or so ways— that is how perspective and angling gives your shots endless possibilities. There are 3 basic ways of shooting images— eye-level, worm’s eye view, and bird’s eye view. Eye-level is the most typical of all 3 views, but it is quite useful for when you want to invite viewers into your photographs. Worm’s eye view is from the perspective of— you guessed it right— a worm. Shooting from the ground and straight up gives emphasis on the subject’s size and power. Bird’s eye view is shooting from above and straight down. This
emphasizes dominance over the subject.
So in shooting, say, a field of lions, do you shoot from above to show their number? Do you shoot eye-level to capture the hot midday sun? Or do you shoot from below to emphasize… you get the picture.
Leading. Leading refers to the visual path you lay out for your viewers. It gives the photograph depth. This can be
very tricky at times, but it always pays off.
It has something to do with picking a foreground that will lead to your background. This could be done by focusing on, say, a small, wrecked boat in a lonely beach. And then there’s lines. Lines (literal or invisible) lead viewers into your actual focus. A crooked pathway, for instance, leads the eye to the strange-looking house in the forest.
Step #3: Set-up and Settings
And then we come to the 3rd step (which is more technical).
With landscapes, you would normally want to keep much of your scene in focus. The way to do this is to choose a small aperture setting—that means a large number. Small apertures let in less light so compensate by choosing a higher ISO or using a slow shutter speed, or both. It can get real slow so you might need a tripod to keep things steady; even a cable when the slightest movement like the pressing of the shutter can ruin your photograph.
Learn the rules. Then break them.
Since you’ve been so dear to have read all the way to this point, I shall share the 4th Step to taking powerful landscape images: break composition.
Sounds crazy? Bear with me. While the compositional elements provide a nice guide for taking photographs, breaking
some lets your images to stand out. The elements are not fixed rules— when you see that there’s something to be gained from shooting a coconut smack center, go right ahead.
But do this with caution. And do this after you’ve aced your elements.
For more photography lessons turn to our digital photography tips .
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