Picture sales and an open notebook of thoughts from Orginal Robart
I was recently looking for a good list of tips for a short landscape photography session for a course I was teaching and as a result came up with these. The tips are specifically not about camera functions, the members of my course owned a wide range of cameras and I needed tips that were specific to any level of camera technology.
1) Take advantage of foreground detail – something close to you can really help if you have objects of interest in it. A foreground object can lead the eye into the picture of assist in giving an idea of depth and scale.
2) Play with perspective. Lines that flow and carry your eyes through a photograph can be a big help in giving a sense of both perspective and emotional depth.
3) Generally avoid the sun, however a sun low on the horizon can help fill the sky and add emotion to a picture. This helps explain why there are so many sunset pictures.
4) Don’t worry if the light is dull when you take a photograph. This can always be improved in Photoshop providing the rest of the composition is good.
5) Using a tripod with a slow shutter speed can help you freeze a subject in your landscape whilst softening elements like clouds and moving water.
6) Watch out for the shadows of clouds. Shadows in the right place can add atmosphere. In the wrong place – they can just dull out or ‘smudge’ an image – by making it look dark or taking the emphasis off your main subject.
7) Experiment with low and high viewpoints. You can often get a better effect by looking along, up or down rather than restricting yourself to eye level.
Watch the skies – birds in the right place can really add to the atmosphere of a photograph.
9) Play with the focus when looking at a landscape. By putting different parts of the landscape in or out of focus you can gain some interesting effects.
10) Use details or features in the landscape to emphasise your main subject.