- Hi, I'm Ross Hoddinott from Nature TTL,
and today I'm going to give you my quick fire tips on how
to take better landscape photographs.
(mellow music)
I've been taking landscape photographs
for over 25 years now, and over that time
I've gained lots of experience through doing things right,
and from making lots of mistakes as well.
And some of the advice I'm going to give
you may seem obvious,
but I always think it's well worth having a reminder
from time to time.
And the first thing I'm going to advise you to do is again,
something which you may already be aware of,
but it's just to shoot in good light.
Light will make or break your image and the importance
of going out either early in the morning
or late in the evening,
when you can shoot those so called golden hours,
when the light is warmer, more dramatic,
there's colour in the sky, and you're just capture more depth
and kind of deeper shade in the landscape.
Your images will instantly improve by
shooting in good light.
And so I'd really encourage you to set your alarm early,
plan carefully, stay out late
and really capture the quality of natural light.
Next up is the importance of capturing depth in
your landscape images.
And one way you can do that is by using a wide angle lens
and getting close to foreground interest,
or perhaps using a lead-in line
to just direct the viewer's eye through the image
and convey a real sense
of like a three dimensional feel to your images.
And it's really important that you kind of give
your images, that feeling of depth gives
so much impact your shots.
And so think about your viewpoint carefully,
use wide angle lenses when you can,
and just try and create a three dimensional effect when
you shoot landscapes.
My third tip is not to get into a habit
of shooting with just one lens.
It's very easy as a landscape photographer to always assume
that you have to use a wide angle lens.
And whilst that is the mainstay for landscape photographers,
don't be scared to vary it,
use a standard lens from time to time,
and certainly use a telephoto zoom
to be able to kind of capture and isolate detail, texture,
and layer in the landscape.
So my tip is basically not to get complacent with
your photography or get into any kind of habits,
but make sure you carry a good range of focal lengths
and be prepared to use them.
Next up is to invest in an ND filter,
ND filters or Neutral Density filters are really,
really handy accessories for landscape photography.
What they allow you to do is create longer exposures,
so the filters absorb a certain amount of light.
You can buy a whole range of ND filters with a variety
of different densities.
And the ability to actually blur subject motion can be quite
a powerful compositional tool.
It works especially well with water,
so waterfalls or rising tides and waves.
It can look fantastic when you're shooting water,
but also foliage, scudding cloud,
and even landscapes where
you have people walking through your landscape,
a longer exposure will help to kind of blur them out
of the shot and clean up your composition.
My next advice is for you to go out
and about the rules of composition.
There are so many rules that will help you
to frame your images in a much more inventive
and creative way.
And it's really important
to become familiar with things like rule of thirds
or the use of lead-in lines, negative space,
there's lots of different tricks and tips that will help you
to really inject some life and interest into your shots.
For more information, have a look at the link
that's just going to pop up on the screen now,
and you can read the article that will give you more advice
on how to take better images
with really strong compositions.
I'm now going to contradict my last tip
because whilst it's really, really important
to be aware of all the rules of composition,
it's equally important not to be too reliant on them.
So when you go out and shoot, think about the rules,
and often your images will conform to them,
but sometimes it's great just to break them completely.
So when you compose your shots,
the most important thing is to just look for balance.
And if your image looks balanced and well composed,
then you don't need to worry about anything else, okay?
So just go out and try and trust your instincts
and don't rely too much on the rules.
For example, you can see in this photograph,
I've placed the horizon really centrally.
And normally you would say
that's an absolute no-no in landscape photography,
but in this instance,
I think it creates a really nice feeling of symmetry,
and the groin to the left also pulls
your eye into the centre of the frame.
My next tip is for you to go
and visit somewhere new with your camera,
because it's so easy to get kind of stale
and complacent with your local locations.
But going somewhere fresh and new really helps
to inspire you as a photographer.
And you can go there with fresh eyes and try
and capture something completely different.
And if ever I'm feeling a little bit stale with
my landscape photography,
this is something that I always do,
I go for a couple of days or even just
to a new location locally,
but it really helps
to get my kind of creative juices flowing again.
There's no point taking a beautifully composed shot
unless it's completely sharp.
And so my next tip surrounds
achieving really sharp images consistently.
So there's a couple of things that you can do
to maximise sharpness in your landscape images.
Typically, you'll want everything from your foreground
to the background be bitingly sharp.
And so it's really important to know where to focus.
A technique I use is called double distance focusing,
and you're focusing roughly twice the distance of
your closest point, and that helps to maximise depth
of field throughout the scene.
Also advise you to use a cable release so
that you're not actually having
to physically depress the shutter,
and obviously use a good tripod at all times.
But for more information about shooting sharp images,
click on the link above.
It's really important to keep things simple,
it's so easy with wide angle lenses
to kind of create compositions which are just too busy
and including too much space,
but actually, you're much better
to be concise with your compositions.
Think about the elements within the landscape
that are really important and just focus on those.
Don't feel that you have to go ridiculously wide
and bring in information
that actually doesn't strengthen the composition,
less is more.
And I'd really encourage you
to really think about your compositions,
just keep it simple.
It's really important that you get into the habit
of using your histogram.
And this may be checking images after you've taken them,
or maybe looking at the live histogram on the back of
your live view or through the viewfinder
with a mirrorless camera.
But your histogram will tell you how your image is exposed
and give you a real indication
of whether it's correct or not.
And if you don't use it,
there's a real risk
that your images might be under, overexposed.
So get into the habit of looking at your histogram.
There's a few telltale things
that can really affect exposure.
Obviously, if your histogram is
falling off one of the edges,
that's an indication that the exposure is poor.
But also look out
for things like a kind of a dip in the mid tones,
like a horseshoe effect,
'cause that often indicates there's a lot of contrast in
your image and that
you might need to either blend exposures or use filters.
And for more information on using graduated filters,
click on the link above.
Think very carefully about your aperture choice when
you shoot landscape images,
it's very easy to assume when you shoot a landscape
that you want to use a really small aperture, like f/22
to create a maximum depth of field.
But in fact, a lot of lenses perform quite badly when
they're stopped right down.
So I would recommend going for a mid range aperture,
so typically my starting point is f/11
and that tends to create a sufficient depth of field
for most landscape shots,
but it's also relatively diffraction free.
And so think very carefully
and don't use a smaller aperture than
you absolutely have to.
I really hope you found
my landscape photography tips helpful,
and for more information and tutorials,
don't forget to subscribe to the Nature TTL YouTube channel.
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