Surefire tips for amazing nature & landscape photography

Landscape photography is a genre of photography devoted to capturing and sharing vast open spaces all around the world. It is an area that specializes in seizing the true essence of life the way nature has intended it to be, with little or even no human obstruction or involvement.

There is no absolute rule that defines a landscape photo. Landscape photography is a broad term that could include seascape, nature, urban, industrial, and even macro photography.

On the other hand, nature photography is known to refer to capturing natural outdoor elements such as landscapes, seascapes, wildlife, plants, and the like.

So as you see nature photography and landscape photography are pretty well connected with each other (to be honest with you I can’t tell the difference, except that landscape photography could be considered as a more specialized branch of nature photography).

Nature and landscape photography gear

1. A wide angle lens: This could be something between 16 or 24 to lets say 70mm. A wide angle lens is essential for nature and landscape photography for it encompasses a broad area of the scene, and includes sufficient information within your frame. It also adds a hint of dimensionality giving more depth to your photographs, contrary to long lenses that tend to compress perspective.

2. A shutter release cable or a remote control: This would come in very handy especially in long exposures, cause the tiniest camera shake can cause your shot to appear soft and blurry. If you don’t have one, you could just easily use your camera’s timer, so you wouldn’t have to touch the cam at the moment of taking the shot.

3. A sturdy tripod: A tripod is a tool that will be needed often in nature and landscape photography, especially for long exposure shots. You would need a way to secure your camera while taking the shot, and a rigid tripod can very efficiently do the job.

4. Lens hood: A lens hood can really come in handy for stopping direct sunshine from spilling onto the lens, causing unwanted flare. To be honest with you I’m very much of a flare person so I don’t really bother much with lens hoods. But if you don’t like flare, a lens hood is the tool for you.

Tips for amazing nature & landscape photography results

1. Consider the time of day: When shooting outdoors, try to wake up early at sunrise or free yourself around sunset to capture sweeping landscapes at their glory. During those times, also known as the golden hour, the sun would be low in the sky and the light would be soft and diffused instead of direct and harsh which would cast hard shadows onto your scene and bring up the contrast to a higher dynamic range than you could possibly capture with one shot.

2. Shoot with the smallest lens opening and slowest ISO setting possible. This is to ensure that your photographs are stark sharp and noise free.

3. Whenever possible try placing an interesting object in the foreground of your landscape and nature shot, for more intriguing and unique results.

4. Consider shooting with a polarizer filter to darken the skies and saturate colors of your scene, for more dramatic effects.

5. Shoot RAW whenever possible for greater latitude in image manipulation.

6. Always give your landscape and nature photographs an interesting focal point, such as: a dramatic looking tree, an interesting rock or other sort of structure in the sea, a silhouette… and pay extra attention where you place your point of focus within the frame just as well.

7. Consider your skies: If the sky is dramatic and colorful, try giving it 2 thirds of your frame. In the same sense, if the sky is dull and lifeless consider attracting more attention to an interesting foreground.

8. Look for drama: Don’t go shooting only when the skies are clear and the seas are calm. Stormy clouds, dramatic skies, wavy seas, rainy days, and rainbows all present great opportunities that can end you with interesting, colorful, and dramatic results.

9. Make sure your horizons are horizontal: Sure everything can be fixed in Photoshop, and sure who cares about a few lost valuable pixels, and unnecessarily wasted time? Well you should!

10. Experiment with perspective: get down low, find a high vantage point, experiment all you can with your angle of view. This will not only yield unique interesting compositions, but will also make you a better photographer in the long run.

11. Capture movement: Yes nature is calm and serene, but that doesn’t mean you cannot convey dynamism in your shots. Seize a flying bird above your head, or silky blurry waters, or moving clouds… You might wanna consider using a neutral density filter (ND filter), to further accentuate movement and create dramatic results.