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Taking Better Landscape Photos Part 1Taking your photography to the next level - From happy snapper to serious amateur landscape photographerTip 1 - Selecting the right time of daySo you’ve bought a camera (or you’ve had one for years) and now you have decided that you want to go from snap shot taker to serious amateur or beyond. What does it take to go to the next level? I think it comes down to a little more technical know how and a lot of thought, planning and practice. This is the first in a series of articles that I plan to give some tips to help you to better plan your photography so let’s look at tip number one, ‘selecting the right time of day’.What to avoidFirst of all let’s take a look at what the average person does wrong. You’re on a holiday; you are driving along - or arrive at a popular tourist destination - and something in the scenery catches your eye. You pull out your camera and without any planning or thought, you point straight at the point of interest and click, you jump in your car and off you go. What will be wrong with that kind of photograph? Nothing at all if you are happy just to make a note of the fact that you were in that place and have something to jog your memory that you were there. But if you were trying to take a photograph that would be considered a work of art then the photograph will most likely look a little bland and here’s why. It will often be taken mid afternoon with the Sun high overhead. There may be bright and harshly contrasting light with low color saturation (i.e. the colors are greyish instead of vivid). The picture may have been taken using a compact camera with a wide angle lens (even if zoom if available) so the scenery may look a little distorted. Wide angle lenses can give an artistic effect but if it is done without thought of what it looks like, it might not look as good as you would like. The composition of the photograph may have the subject dead center instead of slightly off to one side. A good position to place the subject is about one third of the way from a border of the image and depending on what the angle of the Sun is at that time of day and year you may well be shooting directly into the Sun. Worse still, it may be a day with intermittent cloud where the light is changing constantly and you only took one photograph. It’s a good idea to make the most of changing light conditions. I heard Ken Duncan speak once and he told how he waited hours just for the right moment when the Sun burst through the cloud and produced a golden ray with a rainbow in the background.When you take one shot and jump straight back into your car you could be missing the golden light and the rainbow. Ok so I’ve given you an idea what not to do, but photography is more of an art than a science, so do not be afraid to break the rules and try different things. Ok that’s a list of a few things to avoid, let’s take a look a look at what you should try to do. Planning a shotAssuming that you have the equipment that is of a suitable standard for the quality of photograph that you are trying to take - for example an entry level Digital SLR (DSLR) should be ok for the serious amateur - the next most important thing is to plan your shot. Think about the location, what are the lighting conditions, when will the light be just right to best enhance the location? This could be in the first two hours of daylight or it could be in the last two hours (the golden hours) where the light takes on a golden hue, however bear in mind that the long shadows of nearby hills or buildings can ruin the look of the location. Maybe there is some nice artificial lighting in the area making it look great during twilight or at night. See my article on Night Photo Tips Plan to be at the location in time to set up so that you are ready to take your shot at the perfect moment. If you need to take the shot during the day then try and avoid shooting into the Sun. Think about whether you can you improve the angle that you are shooting from to get a nicer effect. Once you have thought about the time of day consider other aspects of timing. Would the scene look better in the fall or winter? What weather conditions are best for the scene? Clear skies are great for astronomy but they can look plain in a photograph that has a lot of sky. Sometimes flat overcast can be ok but the most striking skies are when broken cloud is covered in the bright magentas, reds and oranges of sunset. By the way sunset is one of those times when you should break the rule of not shooting into the Sun. Try to avoid the cliche silhouette by having a well lit or reflective foreground such as a river or a lake and perhaps some artificial lighting such as street lights or - when the subject is close - flash fill. Always be very careful photographing sunsets. Your camera’s lens is magnifying the (already-blinding) Sun and it only takes a split second to become permanently blind. Think about other issues such as smog or fog.  Self Assessed Project Number 1. To help you to absorb the information that I have given you, I would like to suggest an assignment for you. So here it is. Step 1: Either take a new photograph of a scenic location - deliberately breaking the rules (i.e. take a photograph during midday and with little planning) - or find a photograph you have already taken. Step 2: Critique your own photograph. Write down all the things you feel you did wrong or could have done better. Step 3: See if you can find good photographs taken from the same (or similar type of) location and ask what did the photographer do? Websites like Flikr and Panoramio store the technical settings of the photograph - unless the photographer has deliberately removed them (e.g. see the ‘more info’ links next to the photos on panoramio) so you can work out what settings the photographers used. Not only that but these sites also have a map that the photographs are linked to so you can easily see if anyone has taken high quality photographs of the location that you would like to photograph. (To improve your chances, pick a popular landmark/tourist location). Note: Digitized photographs can easily be enhanced, so bear that in mind when you compare these photographs with your own. Step 4: Plan your improved shot. Ask questions like, ‘What is the best lens angle to use?’, ‘When is the best time/times to take this photo?’ and ‘What is the best location to take it from?’ That is just a few of the things to consider, obviously the more you analyse the shot the better your photograph will most likely be. Step 5: Take the photo. Don’t just take one, take several. Wait for changes in lighting conditions and compare the difference. Since this is a free tutorial and I have limited time, I will not be able to asses this project. But there are ways that you can get feedback on your work such as submitting you work on a website like Panoramio and posting a request for feedback in one of the Panoramio. I would encourage you to help others out by voting for favourite pictures and offering your own positive feedback (unless someone has asked for a critical evaluation) when you feel confident enough to do so. |
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