How to take good landscape photos

Taking great landscape pictures seems so easy compared to shooting action photography or taking pictures of children or animals. However, any photographer that’s lugged their equipment to the top of a beautiful vista only to end up with sub-par photos can tell you that there’s a lot more to great landscape photography than simply showing up. Here are a few things to keep in mind that will help your photos turn out fantastic.

“Devils Kitchen” captured by Mark Broughton

Think Details

With landscape photography, it’s all about the details. The more you can shove into your image, the better it’s going to look. Detail and depth of field are both increased by longer exposure times, so try to use the highest F-stop value (f/22 on most lenses) whenever possible. This will allow less light into the camera and give you more flexibility in exposing the film. If you want to use a slower ISO film (around 100) this will also pull in more detail but be careful as slow films may not be the best for all lighting situations.

Hold ’em Steady

While slower shutter speeds will add to your detail and depth of field, lengthening the exposure time has its own risks. Even the most steady-handed of photographers begin to run the risk of hand “shake” blur at a shutter speed of about 125, so skip this headache altogether and mount your camera on a tripod, sandbag, or flat rock. If you’re using a very low shutter speed or the bulb setting on your camera, you may also want to consider picking up a cable release. This will prevent the image from being compromised by the movement of your hands pushing the shutter button.

Aim for Something

Picture an empty room with no windows. Pretty boring, isn’t it? Landscapes are exactly the same as any other photograph. You need a subject to make it interesting. No matter what kind of landscape you’re taking, you want to have some type of focal point framed in the image. This may seem strange, but simply pointing a camera at a mountain and hitting the shutter isn’t going to automatically result in an amazing photograph. Think of the “story” of each photograph, and try to tell it in the frame.

“Walking…” captured by Kyaw Min Htike

Always Be Ready

Unfortunately, as a landscape photographer, you don’t have the option of scheduling the perfect shot or creating the perfect lighting when you want it. You have to be willing to work with factors outside of your control and capitalize on these factors when they work in your favor. Photographs taken in the early morning hours are much different than those taken near dusk, and those beautiful thunderstorm clouds outside your window aren’t going to stick around while you decide whether or not you feel like shooting. If you want to take incredible landscape photographs, it’s a good idea to keep your gear bag packed by the door in case something interesting starts happening outside.

Be Patient

Although it may seem strange that landscape photography requires grabbing an interesting shot on short notice, landscape photography actually requires a lot of patience. The moments in time captured by a landscape photographer’s lens will likely never happen again in quite the same way, so be prepared to wait for the perfect shot.

“On the road” captured by Alberto Roseo

It should be no surprise that landscape photography can be deceptively complex. It seems that all a landscape photographer would need is a camera and some nice scenery, however, a good photographer really needs a bit more. A photographer needs the right equipment, a patient mindset, plus an understanding of how the time, weather, and composition all come into play into creating an outstanding image. With those couple of things, you can start taking great landscape pictures that you’ll be proud to display.

About the Author
Autumn Lockwood is a writer for Your Picture Frames. They have a selection of silver plated picture frames in a variety of styles, sizes, and colors.

Image: jbwilder75 / CCo

Generally, most of us tend to avoid shooting in the midday sun.

Noon is when the sun’s rays are at their brightest and harshest, resulting in lighting that can be challenging to work with. Additionally, with the bright sun comes harsh shadows, and plenty of contrast; resulting in images that are often overexposed and blown out.

But while shooting in the midday sun may not always be ideal, sometimes we don’t really have a choice! We can’t always find ourselves on-location during the morning or late afternoon golden hours, and being able to work with the midday sun can help you to walk away with some amazing shots that you would have otherwise missed out on. Additionally, there are some exciting photo opportunities to be had in bright lighting conditions that are different than what’s found at any other time of day.

If you’d like to learn how to take great landscapes when the sun is overhead, here are a few tips that will help you to capture some amazing images –no matter how bright the sun!

Image: / CC0

1. Adjust Your Settings

One good thing about shooting in the midday sun is that for the most part, you shouldn’t have to adjust your settings very frequently. Unless there are a lot of clouds interfering with the sun, or you are adjusting your angle a lot, then you will be working with a steady amount of light for a good chunk of time. With that said, you should still adjust your settings to help balance out the amount of light that your image will be taking in.

Consider starting with the Sunny 16 rule that suggests an f/16 aperture, 1/100 shutter speed, and 100 ISO to get a decent exposure. Of course, this won’t apply to every situation, but it gives you a good starting point to work from.

Image: Petr Kratochvil / CC0

2. Change Your Angle

When it comes to getting great images in the middle of the day, you’ll probably find that you have to do a lot of adjusting to find an angle that’s optimal. We all know the benefits of shooting with the sun at our backs. While this can be challenging in the midday sun, shooting with the sun behind you can help to prevent some of the harsher rays from disrupting your image. In other cases, you may find that you’ll want to get lower to the ground when shooting, as it’ll help to block out some of those harsh shadows that would otherwise find their way into your picture.

3. Use an ND Filter

Another way to work with the midday sun is by using a neutral density (ND) filter. An ND filter acts like sunglasses for your lens, and will block out some of that bright light. This can be ideal for those times where you’d like to use a slow shutter speed to blur the movement of a waterfall or the clouds –something that, due to the length of the exposure, would ordinarily be limited to darker conditions.

Image: Robert Emperley / CC BY-SA 2.0

4. Bring a Polarizer

Speaking of filters, a polarizer can be another useful tool when you’re shooting at midday. A polarizing filter can help to render a clear sky as deep blue, drawing the clouds out as well, giving them more definition. Just keep in mind that polarizers are strongest when used at a right angle to the sun, and you may need to dial yours down to avoid creating effects that are unnatural looking.

5. Underexpose Slightly

Highlights can easily be blown out during full sun. To save your images, consider underexposing your compositions slightly –rather than overexposing. It’s easy enough to add more light to dark areas in post-processing, but recovering blown-out highlights is a far more difficult task.

6. Consider Bracketing

One safe way to underexpose is by using bracketing –creating a series of images; multiple shots of the same scene that are taken using different exposures. This will allow you to save the best image, or do some exposure blending to create one perfectly-exposed image in post-processing later on.

7. Work With It

If you can’t work around it, then work with it! Shooting in the midday sun might not be the easiest, but it does offer some good opportunities to capture some unique and fun images nonetheless. Here are a few compositional tips for creating unique images during the midday sun!

• Capture Reflections
  One great way to work with harsh lighting is to look for interesting or unique details that only appear when the sun is at its highest point. Capturing reflections, while possible at other times of the day, is often easier when the sun is at its peak. Look to create glass-smooth reflections by using a tripod, and a fast shutter speed to freeze the surface of the water.

Image: / CC0

• Look for Shadows
  Midday is a great time to find shadows. While there is nothing worse than an unsightly shadow in your image, if you are aware of the shadows and incorporate them purposefully, you can use them to add interest and drama to your compositions. Look to incorporate shadows in places where they can add compositional interest –like leading lines, for instance.

• Look for Details
  The bright sun can sometimes bring out fascinating details that wouldn’t otherwise be seen. Look for interesting cloud formations, unique shadows casting patterns on the landscape, or different textures to include in your compositions

• Look to Create Lens Flare
  If you’d like to incorporate lens flare into your images, full sun is the time to do so. Start by using a small aperture, like f/22, and then position yourself so that an object in front of you is partially blocking the sun. When you see beams of light spilling around, or through the obstruction, take your shot!

Image: Jay Woodcock / CC0

While shooting with the overhead sun isn’t always the easiest, being able to work in harsh, overhead lighting conditions is a great skill to have. No longer will you have to pack up your camera when the sun’s out, instead, you’ll be able to take advantage of photo opportunities that you would have otherwise missed out on, and capture some amazing and unique images.

One of the questions I get asked most often about my landscapes is “What settings did you use?” Beginner photographers often feel that there is some magic combination of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO that will make their photos amazing. While there’s a lot more to it than that, understanding what settings to use makes it easier to take photos that match your vision. Let’s dig in.

What Gear You Need for Landscape Photos

Landscape photography is incredibly accessible. All you need is a camera, any lens, and a landscape for your subject. Most landscape photographers favor a wide angle lens since it lets you better show the scale of the landscapes you’re photographing.

The good news is that the 18-55mm kit lens that comes with most DSLRs is, at the wide end, pretty firmly in the range of focal lengths that work really well. It’s equivalent to about 28mm on a full frame camera. If you get really into landscape photography, you can invest in a wider lens but, at least to start with, any standard lens will do.

With that said, you can even take landscape shots with long telephoto lenses. They will have a different look, but that doesn’t mean they’re not great shots.

When you’re taking landscapes, you are often working in the low light around dawn or dusk with narrow apertures. This means, as we’ll see in a moment, you can use a slower shutter speed than you can use handheld without getting blurry shots. Your first purchase if you get into landscape photography should be a good, stable tripod. It will open up a wide range of shots you otherwise wouldn’t be able to take.

There are lots of other smaller accessories for landscape photography like remote shutter releases and neutral density filters that you may want to investigate as you get better, but you certainly don’t need them when you’re starting out.

Aperture for Landscapes

Like with lenses, there aren’t as many hard and fast rules when it comes to camera settings as there are with some other areas of photography, like portraiture. There are circumstances where pretty much every aperture will be appropriate. In general, however, with landscape photography, you’re trying to maximize the depth of field and sharpness, and this means working in a very specific aperture range.

Most of the time when you’re taking landscape shots and using a tripod, you should use an aperture of around f/16. In most cases, it strikes a great balance between depth of field and sharpness. Almost everything in an image you shoot at f/16 will be sharp.

This isn’t to say you can only use f/16. Both f/11 and even f/8 give a deep depth of field with wide angle lenses while letting in more light so you can use a faster shutter speed. This is important if you’re handholding your camera or don’t want things to move in the frame.

Shutter Speed for Landscapes

In landscape photography, shutter speed determines how moving objects look. If you’re using a tripod, you can extend your shutter speed far beyond what you could use handheld. This lets you creatively blur water, people, and anything else that moves in a static landscape.

If you are not using a tripod, then you’re limited by the reciprocal rule: you should use a shutter speed no slower than 1/[the full frame equivalent focal length of your lens]. For example, if you’re using an 18mm lens on a crop sensor camera, you should use a shutter speed of at least 1/30th of a second (18 x 1.5 crop factor = 27; for more check out our guide to sensor size).

If you are using a tripod, then the only limit is the light. In broad daylight, you won’t be able to use super long shutter speeds without the neutral density filters I mentioned earlier.

My go-to working range for landscapes when I’m using a tripod and not trying to do any creative long exposures is between about 1/10th of a second and 3 seconds. At f/16 and ISO 100, these are the values you’ll normally need to use for a good exposure around sunrise or sunset.

ISO for Landscapes

ISO selection rarely comes into play in landscape photography unless you don’t have a tripod or are shooting at night. If you do have a tripod, the best thing to do is just set your camera to ISO 100 and use longer shutter speeds if you need brighter images.

If you’re shooting handheld, at night, or otherwise have some limit on shutter speed, increase your ISO as far as you need to. Just remember, doing so will add digital noise.

Landscape photography is pretty flexible when it comes to what camera settings you use. A good general guideline, however, is to use a tripod, a shutter speed between 1/10th of a second and three seconds, an aperture of between f/11 and f/16, and an ISO of 100. Those are the settings I have in my head any time I start to set up my camera.

Editor’s note: This month only – Use the code december5 at checkout to buy the 5 Steps to Using Lenses Creatively and 5 Steps to Better Photos Of Kids ebooks for just $5 ! Click the links to learn more. Thanks for reading, Andrew.

But if that sounds a little disheartening then please don’t despair – there are plenty of things you can do to help you take better landscape photos. Let’s take a look at them.

Landscape photos need beautiful light

Most photographers are aware that landscape photography requires beautiful light. That means being on location either early in the morning or late in the evening to capture the raking light of golden hour.

The results are always worth it. I made the photo below around sunset. The mountains and clouds have caught the golden glow of the fading light – you only get landscape photos like this by turning up at the right time.

After sunset is another productive time for landscape photography, especially if there’s a colorful sunset and you’re photographing a large body of water like the sea or a lake. The water reflects the light and colors in the sky, creating dramatic landscape photos. Artificial lighting, if present, adds to the atmosphere.

Landscape photography and bad weather

Sunny days create a predictable and often fruitful type of light for landscape photography, especially if you’re on location during the golden hour. But the dramatic light created by bad weather is often more exciting.

By its nature the light created by bad weather doesn’t last long and is difficult to capture. You have to act quickly and take appropriate precautions to protect you and your gear from the elements.

Sometimes you can create better landscape photos in cloudy weather or even when it’s raining. The soft even lighting of a cloudy day is perfect for revealing textures and hidden details in photos of forests and waterfalls.

I made the photo below in New Zealand’s Milford Sound. This area receives a lot of rain and shooting in these conditions captured the gloomy atmosphere and waterfalls that cascade down the steep cliffs when it’s raining.

Cloudy days are also idea for practicing long exposure photography. Clouds and water become streaked and blurred by the long exposure, helping you create surreal images that look very different from those taken in sunlight.

Always remember that if the light isn’t good enough when you’re on location your only option is to return when it’s better. That’s the nature of landscape photography and something we just have to deal with.

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Give your landscape photos dramatic focal points

There are lots of ways of composing landscape photos, so this is a generalization, but it helps if you give the photo a strong focal point that becomes the center of the composition.

For example, the yellow boat is the main focal point of the landscape photo below. I emphasized this by moving in close and simplifying. This helped eliminate distractions and create a stronger composition.

Make better landscape photos by adding foreground interest

So you’re on location, the light’s beautiful and you’ve figured out what to make your main focal point. The next step is to find something to guide the eye through the frame.

A good technique is to include foreground interest – something interesting in the lower third of the photo that guides the eye through the frame to the main subject. It’s even more effective if you can use line.

This landscape photo is a good example – the sandy beach in the foreground adds depth and gently pushes the eye towards the rocks in the sea.

Make better landscape photos by capturing movement

We’ve touched on this already with the mention of long exposure photography, but one of the interesting things about landscape photography is that you can use slow shutter speeds to capture movement in various ways.

These two photos show how it works. I made the first (left) with a shutter speed of 2/3 second. It’s slow enough to blur the water, creating a sense of movement and energy.

I made the second (right) with a shutter speed of 250 seconds (and the assistance of a neutral density filter). This much longer shutter speed has smoothed out the water and clouds, removing texture and energy from the scene, giving it a more peaceful feel.

Shutter speed, and the way it renders movement, is an important tool for the landscape photographer to master.

Find a muse

One of the most effective ways to put together a portfolio of stunning landscape photos is live in an area with lots of beautiful and dramatic landscapes. The obvious advantage of this is that it gives you the opportunity to photograph the changing landscape over the seasons and the years. You can make up for the times when the light isn’t beautiful by returning when it is.

Local knowledge is a tremendous advantage in terms of understanding where the sun rises and sets and what angle the light comes from at different times of the year. You’re also far more likely to have the time to explore and find the unappreciated gems that visitors miss.

Landscape photographers like to travel, and once again it helps if you visit the same regions several times over the years, perhaps at different times of the year. You won’t be a local, but it’s the second best thing.

Either way, the idea is to find a muse – a landscape, region or geographical feature that you come back to again and again, photographing in different lighting conditions and with different compositions, building up a body of work.

For example, I used to live five minutes walk away from a beach with a distinctively shaped island. I was able to go and take photos of it any time the light looked suitable. Here are some of the photos I made of that island.

Use curves, lines, and shapes to guide the viewer’s eye.

You can change angles and viewpoints until your picture elements all fall into place.

Use a gradient neutral filter to balance a brilliant sky with the less-bright foreground.

These filters are dark on top and clear on bottom.

Position your camera on a tripod.

Tripods are a valuable tool for landscape photos because they steady the camera to help you take razor-sharp images that you can blow up to mammoth size.

Position your camera on a tripod.

Tripods are a valuable tool for landscape photos because they steady the camera to help you take razor-sharp images that you can blow up to mammoth size.

Avoid splitting your photo in half with the horizon.

Place the horizon a third of the way down from the top if you want to emphasize the foreground or a third of the way up from the bottom if they want to focus on the background and sky.

Don’t necessarily use landscape mode.

Try shooting some verticals. If you incorporate strong vertical lines, such as trees, off to one side of the shot, your landscape photo can be naturally converted to a vertical orientation.

Manually focus, if you must.

Autofocus systems sometimes have difficulty finding enough contrast to focus automatically, especially if you have a lot of sky in the photo. Just turn your camera’s autofocus off.

By Autumn Lockwood | Submitted On January 19, 2010

If you’re like most camera owners and have a digital compact, this is your camera’s time to shine. For most serious photographers, an SLR or DSLR is the obvious camera choice, but when it comes to landscapes, compact cameras rule because they offer 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 one of the most important keys to taking good pictures is the quality of light.

• 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.
• For dramatic shadows, shoot under a cloudy sky.
• Enhance the qualify of your image and add drama by photographing a landscape scene with contrast; for example, red and gold autumn leafed trees against a strong blue sky.
• To get an ultra soft effect, almost ethereal effect, shoot on a foggy day.

The next most important element of any good picture 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 frame with the subject of most interest, whether it be a dramatic sky or an interesting foreground.
• Look for lines. These could be anything from the obvious road or river to a shadow running along sand dunes. If your image has lines, try framing your shot so that the major lines lead the eye toward the main point of interest, for example, a road winding its way to the mountains that are the subject of your photograph.
• Frame the composition 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. The focal point won’t be the main subject (the landscape is),but it adds depth, draws the viewer into the image and gives the eyes a place to rest, thus engaging the viewer longer with your photograph. 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.

That’s it! There’s always more to learn with photography, but just by following the tips above you can start taking really good pictures of your favorite landscapes.

Here’s How to Take Great Landscape Photos with Your Smartphone (VIDEO)

Yes, there are times when you may not have your trusty DSLR or mirrorless camera, tripod and a bag full of lenses with you, and want to capture a gorgeous landscape. What do you do?

Well, you could break out a pencil and notebook and try to sketch it. Or, you could just pull your smartphone from your pocket and snap off a few shots.

But how can you capture a memorable scenic vista with something as limited photographically as a smartphone? Fortunately, the cool folks at COOPH have some great tips in the below video on how to shoot awesome landscapes with your phone.

“Landscape photos are the one thing that are quite difficult to shoot on your smartphone,” COOPH says. “Although the shift in technology has made taking pictures with your mobile device easier than ever this one topic still remains quite challenging.”

Here are COOPH’s tips on taking better landscape photos with your smartphone that are demonstrated in the video.

#1 Wait for Better Light

#2 Choose the Right Spot

#3 Compose with Care

#4 Add a Human Element

Watch the video and then go visit COOPH’s channel for helpful photography tips.

Last Updated: October 15, 2020 References

This article was co-authored by Richard Engelbrecht. Richard Engelbrecht is a Professional Photographer and the Owner-Operator of Mr.E Photography of Conesus, New York. He specializes in nature photography of the Finger Lakes, Genesee Valley, and Southern-tier regions of New York State.

There are 24 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

This article has been viewed 10,228 times.

Mountains are a beautiful subject for landscape photos. To photograph a mountain, use the best equipment to get the job done. Experiment with taking photos through different lenses to give yourself options to choose from. Make sure to plan ahead and shoot during hours when the lighting is best. Try shooting from different angles, and include interesting landmarks and people to make your photos unique!

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Not sure how to frame your shot? Consider the rule of thirds and the rule of nine. Or Gozal, photographer, tells us: “Try breaking up the shot into different quadrants so no single part of the shot is overwhelming and so you keep the viewer engaged with the image. For instance, you might have the sky take up a third of the shot, the mountain the middle section, and a subject the bottom third.”

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u00a9 2020 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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Richard Engelbrecht
Professional Photographer Expert Interview. 1 October 2020. Bring a tripod with you on a hike if you’re going to be shooting mountains. [8] X Research source

• Make sure the tripod is adjustable so you can take shots from different angles.

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u00a9 2020 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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u00a9 2020 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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Richard Engelbrecht
Professional Photographer Expert Interview. 1 October 2020.

Photo by LUM3N / CC0

Forests are an integral part of many landscapes. While they can often accent the mountains of a landscape photo they are also excellent places to create landscape photographs centered around the trees themselves. It only takes some minor adjustments in thinking over traditional landscape photography. So how do we capture stunning forest landscape images?

What Will the Seasons Bring?

Forests are not static entities. They shift in species composition and often foliage as the year moves on. What is a stark winter composition in January may be a warm summer scene in June or a cheery, colorful autumn wonderland in October. So not only are forests worth exploring but worth doing so several times a year. Winter snow melt can also lead to swelling streams in spring that enhance our forest landscapes. And orange autumn leaves in those same streams also create photo opportunities that others may not even consider.

Photo by jplenio / CC0

We Want Depth of Field and Good Exposure

When shooting forest landscapes we will tend to use narrower apertures because we want to ensure we have a large depth of field. Depth of field is how much of a given scene is in sharp focus; with a shallow depth of field, only a small portion of the image is in focus. The background will tend to be blurred if there’s lots of space around the main subject. With a larger depth of field, we can keep both our foreground and background sharp and in focus. Since we’re shooting trees in a landscape we will almost always want to be using a large depth of field. But this requires a narrow aperture, which means we’re letting less light strike our camera’s sensor.

Photo by 12019 / CC0

Coupled with the low light levels found in many forests, this means we need to be especially aware of exposure control. A tripod is essential for landscape photographers in general, but even more so here.

Forest landscape photographers will sometimes want to use slower shutter speeds than other landscape photographers because they have less light to work with. This makes shooting handheld tricky, especially if your camera does not have some sort of in-lens or built-in image stabilization. You can also increase your ISO setting. However, boosting ISO can create unacceptable amounts of image noise depending on the camera and how far you boost it.

Photo by valiunic / CC0

Consider Where the Light is and Will Be

A scene that doesn’t have much interest to you now may become far more beautiful later or even the next day. As the sun shifts across the sky, the lighting in a deep forest will shift dramatically. The mornings may bring a hazy mist with the sun struggling to reach the forest floor. Perhaps the afternoon sun creates a brightly lit forest scene. And the evenings may have the red rays of sunset filtering in or perhaps a dark cast from the lack of moonlight.

Some of the best times for dramatic forest images are when the sun is lower on the horizon. This gives us chances to capture light rays between the trees easier as well as use trees to capture starburst patterns of the sun via occlusion.

Photo by Seaq68 / CC0

But the lack of light is just as important as its presence. Consider how shadows permeate the scene and alter the ambiance. We can also expose for the brighter lit parts of the image which will turn our shadows extremely dark. This creates emphasis exactly where we want it, be it a brightly lit subject or a deep, dark wood. Exposure compensation and ISO also affect the lighting levels without adjusting aperture/depth of field or shutter speed.

Photo by Greyerbaby / CC0

Pick Up a Book on Trees

This may seem like an unorthodox mention for a photography article but a little book knowledge will go a very long way in helping you find subjects to photograph. For example, there’s a lesser-known phenomenon among trees known as canopy or crown shyness. As trees grow they can somehow sense when their neighbors draw close. The trees will leave gaps that look almost like the dendritic patterns of leaves when well lit. It’s incredibly obvious but not all tree species display this. And it can make for stunning photography in the right lighting. Being able to identify trees also means you can pick out species that are of special interest for an area.

Photo by Free-Photos / CC0

Get Creative with Composition

Forests offer a staggering array of leading lines. Leading lines are lines and paths in a composition that naturally draw the eye. In city and architecture images roads, power lines, and the edges of buildings can all be used to guide the eyes of a viewer towards portions of an image or the main subject. In the forest, we can use leading lines to follow roads, lead towards the sky, or add emphasis to mountains and other elements of the landscape.

Use the trunk of a tree as the foreground and let the tree point towards the sky or even stand in the middle of a grove and see just how different the scene feels through a viewfinder rather than just using your eyes.

Photo by tripastute / CC0

Conclusion

Forests are a great place to take a tripod and wide angle lens, those two essential tools of the landscape photographer. Just remember to expose properly for the lower light levels and you’re sure to capture stunning imagery. Last but not least, a nature guide or handbook is useful if you want to properly identify your targets or know where to search for special interest trees. Happy forest wanderings!