Photography Landscape Composition
Mastering Landscape Photography - How To Take Good Pictures
If you have a digital compact camera, then taking landscape pictures is your camera's time to shine. For most photographers, an SLR or DSLR is the obvious camera of choice, but when it comes to landscapes, compact camers work wonders because they have a much better depth of field. All you need to do to get some great landscape photos is to set your compact to landscape mode and follow these tips.
Remember that the quality of light is one of the most important elements of photography.
- For lighting that is soft, even and has a touch of warmth, take your landscape photos during the Golden Hours: the first hour after dawn and the last hour before sunset (unless you're taking sunset pictures).
- For intensified colors and subdued highlights, shoot under an overcast sky.
- If you want dramatic shadows, take pictures under a cloudy sky.
- You can add drama and interest to your landscape scene by adding contrast. For example, you could have red and gold autumn leaves against a brilliant blue sky.
- To get a very soft light, shoot on a foggy day.
The next most important element is composition. Here are some composition tips for perfect landscape photos.
- Compose your landscape picture so that the horizon appears straight. Creative, fun angles have their place in photography, but not when you're taking a horizon.
- Fill two thirds of your viewfinder with the landscape you want to be the subject of your photo.
- Look for distinct lines. Lines could be anything from the obvious river or road to a shadow running along the sand dunes. If your image has lines, try to have the major lines lead the eye toward the subject of the image. For example, a road winding its way up the mountains and the mountains are the subject of your photo.
- Compose your photo with a point of interest in the foreground. This focal point could be a road or other line as mentioned above, a tree, person, animal, house, etc. Although the focal point won't be the main subject, it adds depth and draws the viewer into the picture so they'll look at the picture longer. In short, a focal point makes your landscape photo more interesting and more enjoyable to view.
- Look out for clutter. In a landscape photograph, clutter could be something like an airplane or power line overhead or a pile of branches or rubbish can on the ground. If you can't get the shot you want without the clutter, use a decent photo editor like Photoshop to remove it.
There's always more to learn with photography, but just by following the tips above you can start taking great pictures of your favorite landscapes.
About the Author
Autumn Lockwood is a writer for Your Picture Frames and loves taking photos. Shop online and see our huge selection of sizes like our small picture frames to our super large picture frames.
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