Tre Cimi formation and stream, Dolomite Range, Italy.
It’s a perfect time to get out there and celebrate summer – and photograph the landscape. With that in mind, I’m sharing a few pointers taken from the pages of my new book, Expressive Nature Photography – that goes on sale July 25th!
• Try to be there in great light. (Always a great idea, and by great light, it doesn’t have to be sunny! Look for drama in the light for landscapes.)
• Get physically close to things in the foreground. This exaggerates their size in relationship to other objects and elements in the frame behind them. (It also puts the viewer in your shoes…)
• You may need to be at a slightly higher position to show background elements, and keep them separated from the foreground. (i.e. watch for mergers!)
• Find a way to create a flow for the eye by using leading lines, or a repetition of rocks, or tufts of grass, to bring the viewer from foreground to background.
• Make sure you have sharpness throughout the scene. You’ll typically be using f/11 to f/22 for an aperture, but you’ll need to set a hyper-focal focus. Use a hyper-focal app on your smart phone, or printed charts to calculate and set the hyper-focal focus to get foreground to background in focus.
That’s it – as if it were that simple, right? But keeping tips like these in mind when you do find a great landscape will help you create more impact in your photographs, something we all want.
Thanks for visiting, and have fun out there!
