You don't take a photograph, you make it. - Ansel Adams

In order to take a great landscape photograph I believe you have to capture the spirit of a location. But in order to do that you have to use different techniques to truly achieve this.

I always say that nature is rarely perfect. Your images need a helping hand and with the right technique you give yourself the best chance of taking one of those shots you want to show off to the world.

The landscape photography tips below will help you make more of the photo opportunities that you'll come across when you are in search of that perfect landscape photograph.

1. If you have a DSLR camera that gives you control over settings such as shutter speed, aperture and exposure values “EV”, set your camera on “Aperture Priority” and use a small aperture of f/16 or f/20. This will let you keep everything in focus and the camera will set your shutter speed automatically. For the advanced photographer, use your manual settings and adjust your EV setting to achieve proper exposure after you set your aperture and desired shutter speed.

2. Early morning and late evening are the best times for shooting landscapes. Blue hour photography and golden hour photography are the only time I venture out to take my landscape images. The reasons; the sun is not as harsh as a stronger high sun and the low angle of the sun reveals shadows and textures.

3. The best landscapes are rarely found at the side of the road. So be prepared to go for a hike with a map or a GPS Unit in an effort to seek out the most interesting locations that not everyone takes a photo of. You can also download Photographers Ephemeris and do some pre-planning before you leave home.

4. Wide angle lenses are commonly used for landscapes because they will allow you to include more in the frame and open up the vertical perspective. But, the wide angle lens pushes the scene away… you can also consider using a longer focal length lens and compressing the depth of just a part of the entire scene.

5. If shooting the entire scene before you, whenever possible, place something of interest in the foreground of the shot to create a sense of depth. At the same time, ensure that you use that small aperture to keep everything in focus.
If you do not have something to ground the scene, focus one third up from the bottom of the image. This way you will maximize focus of the entire scene.

6. Another great but simple landscape photography tip is to anchor your camera to a tripod to slow down your pace of working when shooting landscapes. This means you'll take fewer but better pictures.
Also, if you are shooting in low light your exposure times will be elongated, forcing you to mount the camera to eliminate camera shake.

7. Carry a cable release. The timer function on the camera is no substitute for a cable release, BTW. The cable allows you the release the shutter when YOU want to release the shutter, not 2 sec or 10 sec or 15 sec from when you want to release. The release makes it so you don't have to touch the camera at all which will definitely minimize camera shake...especially important for those longer exposure shots. As an aside, if your camera allows it, use the mirror lock up function.

8. Keep on the lookout for scenes that will let you crop the top and bottom of the image to produce a more dramatic panoramic composition.

9. Use a circular polarizing filter to darken the sky and saturate the colors in the landscape (this is the one must-have filter for landscape photographers).

10. Meter your scene and use graduated grey or neutral density filters to darken the sky and reduce the contrast between the landscape and the sky. Polarizing filters aren't much use for bright cloudy skies but graduated filters are. Frequently, the sky looks burned out in photos because your digital sensors don't have the range to record the brightness differences between it and darker foreground scenery.

11. Use color correction filters to change the color of light on a landscape. These filters can either warm up the landscape or cool it down, depending on the filter color used. In this image, a sepia graduated filter was used upside-down to color the foreground rocks only.
You can either do this in the camera or you can do this in Photoshop later.

12. Try using a soft focus filter to add an ethereal quality to the scene. These filters blur the bright areas of a scene into the shadows to give the image a glow.
Again, you can do this in the camera or apply the soft focus after with gaussian blur in Photoshop

13. If you’re up for experimentation, try making your own filters. There's never a guarantee you'll get good results, but your photos will certainly look different. You can make a filter out of anything that's at least partially transparent - a bit of old stocking, Vaseline rubbed on an old filter (don't ever rub Vaseline directly onto a lens - you'll ruin it permanently!) Or you could try breathing gently on your lens (in cool conditions) to get a soft-focus effect.

14. Use the Hyperfocal distance to obtain the fastest shutter speed with greatest depth of field. Hyperfocal allows you to get everything sharp, from things close up to the camera to those far away. It's more reliable than just setting the focus at infinity. You will need a camera that allows manual focusing though. Click here to learn what Hyperfocal distance is.

15. Shoot RAW images rather than JPGs. The RAW image will take up more room on your memory card but the RAW image will give you greater latitude for image manipulation in post processing. This is a “Must Do” in my opinion. I shoot all my images in RAW.

16. Be original! Develop your own style and unique vision. Any competent photographer can duplicate someone else’s work. Truly great photographers produce unique images and avoid cliché photography. Go for non-standard viewpoints, say from ground-level rather than eye-level. Imagine the world as seen from an animal's viewpoint rather than a human's! Think what the scene would look like to a flying bird or a ground dwelling squirrel.

17. Tell a Story! People who look at pictures will enjoy looking at a story over a snapshot any day. Telling stories with your camera forces you to slow down and think about what you are doing. What is it about this scene that makes you want to make a photograph? What moves you or attracts your eye? Is there a theme, a phrase or a point of view that you want to capture and preserve? Where is the beginning, the middle and the end?

Happy Shooting!

Exposure Compensation Tip for Landscape Photographers

When I want to be inspired my default is to head out and take landscape photos. There is something about being out in nature with only peaceful thoughts in my head to keep me company. Mind you, it took a few years to get there. As I learned more about photography I realized that there is so much more than raising a camera to your eye and clicking a shutter.

I can remember this one scene with a dark blue sky and bright sun kissed mountains in the background and a shadow filled grassy foreground split by a meandering river with bright reflections of the mountains behind. If I metered the camera on the shadows, the brighter parts of the photo were blown out, if I metered on the brighter mountains the shadows were too dark. Using an f/22 made everything appear in focus if it was a bright scene, but the exposure time for my early morning landscape photo was so long I could not hand hold the camera. (Insert visual of me sitting in front of my computer pulling my hair while I see my improperly exposed images) That was an outing I wanted to forget. But back I went armed with the proper exposure info. This time I got the photo I was after.

To learn proper exposure you first must understand that there are basically three universal metering choices. They are matrix or evaluative, spot metering and center-weighted. Your camera manual will tell you what modes you have and how to change between them. I won’t go into those details; instead, I’ll explain what each of these modes do and what photos to use them for.

Matrix or Evaluative Metering
This is probably the most complex metering mode, offering the best exposure in most circumstances a landscape photographer will encounter. Essentially, the scene is split up into a matrix of metering zones which are then automatically evaluated individually. The overall exposure is based on a closely guarded algorithm specific to that camera manufacturer. Often they are based on comparing the measurements to the exposure of typical scenes.

This setting is generally what I use for landscape photography, with modifications using exposure compensation. (We will get to that in a minute)

Center-weighted Average Metering
Probably the most common metering method implemented in nearly every digital camera and the default for those digital cameras which don't offer metering mode selection. This method averages the exposure of the entire frame but gives extra weight to the center and is ideal for portraits. Think of this as a balance between spot metering and evaluative, where the “spot” is much wider and has a softer transition.

Spot (Partial) Metering
Spot metering allows you to meter the subject in the center of the frame (or on some cameras at the selected AF point). Only a small area of the whole frame is metered and the exposure of the rest of the frame is ignored. This type of metering is useful for brightly backlit, macro, and moon shots. Take a landscape photo and meter on a bright sky and the rest of the photo will be dark. Meter on the shadows and the rest of the photo will be blown out.

For the nature photographer, it’s ideal for situations where you have a lit subject (such as a leaf in the sun above) and a darkened background where you want the subject to stand out. If you were to take this photo in evaluative mode, your light meter would average the exposure needed for your lit subject (the leaf) against the exposure for your darkened environment (with more weight given for the background since it covers more area than the leaf). In short, your end result would be an image with a blown out subject and a not-so-dark environment

Another great tool for photographers is the exposure compensation feature. This allows you to instantly adjust the exposure in either direction without having to input the changes manually. You can select to adjust your metered exposure by 1/3 of a stop increment (whether you’re in a priority mode or in full-auto).

I use this often because it’s so much easier than adjusting your settings manually. I mostly shoot in aperture priority mode and there are times when my light meter will over or underexpose my photo a bit. Instead of making note of my settings, going into full manual mode and inputting a different exposure, I can simply adjust my exposure compensation dial and get a different exposure.

So basically, this is a way to instantly override your light meter. Your camera will meter your image and give you an exposure based on its own calculations, and exposure compensation allows you to trump this function without having to go into full manual. It’s very handy, especially since my camera will often underexpose an image by 1/3 to a 1/2 of a stop.

People often ask me what my camera settings are when I am taking landscape photos. So here it is…
• I typically shoot in aperture priority around an f/20.
• I set the camera to evaluative mode.
• I meter the focal point that is as close to a mid-tone colour as I can find and lock the exposure
• I then set the camera on manual focus and focus 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the frame.
• I watch my histogram and make any EV adjustments needed.
• I take three photos, one at the original camera default, one slightly over exposed, one slightly under exposed.
• My camera sits atop a tripod, generally lower to the ground for a more interesting POV and I use a shutter release cable to eliminate any camera shake. (if your camera does it, lock the mirror up as well)

My suggestion is to establish your own workflow that you can follow before every photograph. Yours may differ from mine, and you may have some suggestions for us on your workflow. So please comment below and let us know your workflow when taking landscape photos.

Happy Shooting

Kev