PHOTOGRAPHY HOBBYIST

There are countless breathtaking landscapes. Just visit a local or national park, you won’t even have to leave the United States! Below are tips to help you take awesome landscape photographs. Both beginners and professionals can use these simple tips to take landscape photos.

1. Take into account light quality. Is the light soft or harsh? Are you photographing at sunrise or sunset, or during the bright afternoon? Are there clouds, is it overcast? The best light will be before 10 a.m. and after 2 p.m.

2. Always be on the lookout for interesting lighting. If you are photographing mountains, look for back- or side-lighting. If you turn 90 away from the sun, you will create side-lighting. For a dramatic effect using back-lighting, you can create silhouettes with the sun behind the mountains.

3. Carefully compose your photograph. With landscapes, often times symmetry works. And don’t forget that simple is beautiful. Do you want to photograph lakes, mountains, streams, or trees? Compose your photograph with the various shapes you see in the frame.

4. Roads, paths, and bridges are great to include. Use their shapes to lead the eye around the photo. To create that effect, photograph them at an angle. You can always have a road or path start in the corner of the photo.

5. Experiment with infrared photography. When using infrared film, it is more sensitive to infrared light. As a result, your photographs will have a dark sky, and leaves and vegetation will be light/ bright. It’s really cool!

6. Make sure you are using a large depth of field (small number, large aperture) so that your entire photo is in focus. Longer exposure time also increases depth of field.

Try both long and short exposure times, specifically when you have water in your photos (lakes, waterfalls, ocean). So, grab your tripod and have fun with landscape photography.