Author: Beatrice Bisais Page 11 of 32

Landscape photography can be a tricky thing to master. Unlike portraits, there’s often not a clear point of focus that you can train your lens on. Much is left to the photographer’s discretion, which can be freeing, but also challenging.

To help you develop your own landscape photography, here are a few tips from the pros.

Try to shoot during the golden hours

The golden hours – the hour just after sunrise and the hour just before sunrise – are coveted among all kinds of photographers (filmmakers too), but landscape photographers in particular take their best shots during these times of day.

It requires a good deal of planning, of course, to be on location just after sunrise, so make sure you map out where you want to shoot the day before. If you can catch this magical time, your photos will be suffused with a warm, golden light that can make even the most mundane landscape look almost otherworldly.

Keep an eye on the weather

It goes without saying that the weather has a huge effect on outdoor photography. And we’re not just talking about rain or snow.

Sunny days can be good if you want a lot of light and you know how to keep your photos from being overexposed. However, remember that high noon is rarely a good time to shoot, as subjects – even inanimate ones – tend to look best when the light is hitting them from the side, rather than directly above.

Slightly overcast days can also make for great outdoor photography days. A softer light can give your photos a moody quality, perfect for shooting remote or barren locations.

Scope out your position beforehand

While it’s certainly possible to get a great landscape photo just by showing up at a beautiful spot and taking out your camera, you’re a lot more likely to get a high-quality photo if you scope the area out beforehand.

Take some time to walk around the area you want to shoot, keeping an eye out for the best perspectives. Often, it’s tempting to simply stop at the designated “photo spots” or lookouts and shoot from there. But remember – that’s the exact same photograph that everyone else is taking.

To keep your images unique, look for views off the beaten path and find the ones that speak to you.

Incorporate a focal point

Even though landscape photos can work without a specific focal point, in general it’s a good rule to include one. Focal points help give your viewers a place to fasten their eye, which generally means that they’ll keep looking at your photo for longer.

A focal point could be anything in landscape photography – a flower, a rock or outcropping, an animal, a person, or a building. Make sure you think about where you place that focal point, using the Rule of Thirds to create the best composition.

Maximize your depth of field

Maximizing your depth of field means that your entire shot, back to front, will be in focus. This is the standard approach for landscape photographs, because it’s generally most pleasing to the eye.

To do this, you want to choose a small aperture and focus about one-third into the shot. This will ensure you get a sharp focus throughout the entire picture.

Use a tripod

Using a tripod is a good idea no matter what kind of photo you’re taking, but especially in landscape photos, which can necessitate slower shutter speeds and therefore suffer from even the most microscopic of shakes.

If you shoot outside often, you may want to invest in a lightweight tripod. That’ll make a big difference when you’re lugging your equipment up trails and along beaches.

Shooting landscape photographs requires some different techniques than portraits or action photography. But with a little practice, you can begin taking beautiful landscape photos, too. Then make sure to share them with friends and famliy via your Nixplay WiFi Cloud Frame.

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.

For whatever reason, when many of us travel, we find ourselves automatically taking standard, posed – dare we say boring – photographs.

Even those of us who are fairly adventurous with our day-to-day snapshots can fall into the trap of taking images that do little more than offer proof that “We were there.”

That’s an important part of taking travel photos, of course – deep down, we all want to be able to prove to ourselves that we took that exciting trip.

But if you’re someone who likes sharing your photos with friends and family, whether through social media, during family get-togethers, or on your Nixplay WiFi Cloud digital frame, then you may want to liven things up a little bit.

These tips will help you take those vacation photos to another, more exciting, level.

Skip the poses – most of the time.

Now, there are some landmarks that just beg for posed pictures of you and your family. The Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Canyon, Stonehenge – there’s nothing wrong with gathering your travel companions together and getting a shot of all of you smiling at the camera in front of these iconic locations. In fact, if you don’t do that, you’ll likely end up wishing you had!

But during the rest of your trip, consider focusing more on capturing the natural, candid moments that occur. Doing this will not only make for more interesting photos. It will also let you better capture how the trip actually felt, and how you spent your days.

Include people in your shots.

While photos of beautiful scenery have a certain appeal, they’re not a very interesting way to illustrate your recent vacation.

Shots that include people, on the other hand, give your viewers a place to anchor their eyes – especially if they’re people from your group. So instead of taking a picture just of that waterfall, try taking a candid shot of your son or daughter looking at the waterfall, or pointing out one of its incredible features.

Of course, you don’t have to take photos of only the people in your group. Including images of local people will give your photos a real sense of place.

Take decent selfies.

However you may feel about selfies, they’ve become a quintessential way to document the places we go.

When it comes to travel selfies, a good rule of thumb is to try to include as much background as possible. After all, you’re in a new, beautiful place – why not let it shine through in your selfies, as well as in the other photos you take?

An effective way to accomplish this is to place yourself off to the side, so that the setting you’re in is still visible. Some people opt for placing themselves low in the frame, but that usually doesn’t capture very flattering images.

Include identifying markers – signs, landmarks, etc. – to remind yourself of where you took the photo.

While you can always turn on the geotagging feature on your smartphone camera so you know where you took each photo, a less technological approach is to include something in the picture that will remind you of where you were and what you were doing.

Did you catch an amazing sunrise while drinking coffee at a charming beach cafe? Try including your coffee mug, or the cafe’s awning, in your shot so you remember which sunrise you were looking at.

Did you see a gorgeous vista while driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway? Make sure you include that rustic mile marker sign, or that highly distinguishable mountain peak in your photo, too.

Taking great travel photographs is an art, and we don’t always get it right. The good news? You can always go back and make your photos a bit better with some subtle photo editing. Read our post “How to Make Your Smartphone Photos Look (Almost) Professional” for tips!

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.