3 Keys to Improving Your Landscape Photography

We've all had the experience of being awed by an amazing landscape, taking a picture of it and then being disappointed when we upload the picture to our computer. What we saw and what we captured are two different things. Let me share with you three quick keys to help you improve your landscape photography so that what you see on your computer looks much like what you remember viewing.

1. Pay attention to light

Photography is all about light. Light is not good or bad, it just is, but knowing what light is doing is critical. Pull up a few pics on your computer and study the effect of the light. How would a different lighting scenario change the picture? You may have already noticed in your pictures that those you took in the morning and evening look much different than those taken at one or two in the afternoon. Or that colors look different on a cloudy day verses a sunny day. Knowing what light is doing will improve your photography.

2. Look for leading lines

The photo above has a subtle leading line that winds with the trees to the right and then snakes back to the left. This line leads the eye deep into the picture. Lines have the ability to add a three dimensional aspect to your pictures. You might consider adding a trail to your photo. Trails have a magical quality of taking you far into a photo, especially if there is a bend or two.

3. Use your viewfinder

There is nothing magical about using your viewfinder verses your LCD, yet using your viewfinder can help you make a critical decision. It can help you determine what you will include and exclude in the picture. The temptation in landscape photography is to try to capture the entire scene. The key is limiting your landscape to what is important. Because your viewfinder crops out all the clutter, it is easier to focus on what to include in your landscape.

In landscape photography there is nothing more satisfying than knowing that the picture you took is what you remember seeing in the beauty of God's creation.

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(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2013 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.