I love landscape photography, and I'm assuming that if you're reading this article, you do as well.
It's just so satisfying to capture the beauty of nature in a photo.
Well, if you get a good shot, that is!
Sometimes you just need to give your photos a little bit of love to make them more impactful.
Here's three quick tips that will help you do just that.
Pump Up the Contrast
One of the first things that our eyes are drawn to when looking at a photo is contrast.
That is, contrast of light and contrast of color.
So, if your landscape photo looks a little blah, find ways to incorporate either more highlights and shadows, more color contrast, or both.
In the image above, you see a decent shot, but there's not a ton of contrast. Instead, the orange tones dominate the scene.
However, in this example, there's much more contrast with more blue tones on the left side of the shot to balance out the orange tones on the right.
Compared to the first image, this one has much more visual appeal, thanks in large part to the improved contrast.
Editor's Tip: If contrast doesn't occur naturally in the shot, you can add highlights and shadows, as well as contrasting colors to the image in post-processing. Find out how to add life to your landscapes.
Use Filters to Your Advantage
Using lens filters might be a little old school, but they work like a charm.
For landscape photographers, the first filter you should buy and start using is a polarizer.
These filters give you all sorts of advantages that help you create more dynamic images.
For starters, polarizers reduce atmospheric haze. That comes in handy when the background elements of the shot (like the mountains in the image above) seem a little dull and lifeless.
Likewise, top-notch polarizing filters like the Formatt-Hitech Circular Polarizer shown above, give your images incredible contrast and color fidelity.
As noted earlier, contrast is a prime feature of great photos, so using a polarizer can help you achieve a much better look. And since these filters are so well constructed, you get the results you want without flare, ghosting or other aberrations.
What's more, polarizing filters add pop to the sky because they darken the blue tones of the atmosphere and brighten up clouds to make them appear whiter.
Again, that's another way to add contrast to your shots to give them more punch.
And if that's not enough, polarizing filters also reduce glare off of non-metallic surfaces, like water.
So, if you're photographing a landscape that includes a river, lake or other body of water, a polarizer can help bring out the color of the water without any sun glare.
What's not to like about that?!
Learn More:
- Get the Specs and Pricing on Formatt-Hitech Polarizing Filters
- Every Landscape Photographer Needs These Filters
Pare It Down
A common enemy of landscape photos is clutter.
That's because when we look at a landscape with our own two eyes, our brains automatically pick out the most important parts.
Our cameras don't do that. Instead, they record everything they see.
To improve your compositions, look for elements that grab your attention, and make them the focus of the shot, like the interesting rock formation in the image above.
Alternatively, you can use negative space to your advantage to make your compositions more simple.
In the image above, there's a lot going on with the flowers, the tree trunk, the cliffs, and the ocean.
But by framing all of those details to the left side of the shot, thereby leaving a lot of real estate in the image filled with blank sky and ocean, the photo doesn't feel as cluttered as it otherwise would.
Editor's Tip: Learning to create dramatic landscape photos is easy. Find out how.
Final Thoughts
Better landscape photos is often just a matter of making a few small adjustments like those outlined in this article.
But sometimes it's not composition stuff that throws you off, but instead it's the camera settings you should be using that causes you problems.
In the video above, First Man Photography offers a quick tutorial on common landscape photography settings.
Give it a watch, and you'll be even more prepared to snag awesome landscape photos!