How to Take Better Landscape Photos

Landscape photos are some of the more common pitchers retake, especially when traveling. However how often have you taken a picture of a beautiful vista only to be frustrated by her inability to capture the beauty of the scene you witnessed in the photo. Here are some tips on how to take better landscape photos so you won't have that frustration again.

1) Wait for Proper Light

In general, the best time to take a picture is in the early morning as the sun is rising in the late afternoon and evening as it is setting. The low angle of the light creates more shadows and adds depth to the scene, plus there's a certain soft quality of the light at the beginning and end of the day that helps as well.

This is not to say that you happen to be at the top of a mountain at noon you shouldn't take a few pictures before you move on. Just don't expect the results to be optimal. Professional photographers often return to the same scene repeatedly waiting for just the right light. You don't need to do that but you should pay attention to how the light at different times of day affects the quality of your pictures

2) Framing the Scene

With digital editing programs it's easy to crop and edit a pitcher after it's been taken. However, it's always better to start with a pitcher that is properly framed in the viewfinder or on the LCD screen as it is taken.

3) Use a Wide-Angle Lens

You probably are aware of this, but a wide-angle lens usually gives the most satisfactory results for photos of distant landscapes.

4) Have a Deep Depth of Field

When you're taking a landscape photograph you generally want everything in the scene to be in focus. That is you want both the blades of grass right in front of you in the mountains in the distance to be clear. That means you need a deep depth of field.

Without going into details, that means having a small opening in the camera lens. Digital SLR cameras usually allow you to make this adjustment manually. Even many simple point-and-shoot cameras have a "Landscape" mold accomplishes the same thing.

However, if you have a small lens opening (f-stop) that means you need to have a longer exposure, a slow shutter speed, to let in enough light for proper exposure. This raises the possibility of camera shake, which brings us to our next tip.

5) Consider Using a Tripod

using a tripod allows you to take very clear pictures even with long exposures. Also, if you're using a standard tripod you can use it to take a series of pictures that you can later combine in a photo editor to make a panoramic picture.

To do this, set the camera up on your tripod and determine what you want to include in your photographs. Let's assume that you going to photographs from left to right. Begin with the left edge of the scene you want to include on the left side of the image on your camera. Note what part of the landscape is on the right side of the screen or viewfinder.

Take a picture, then rotate the camera on the tripod until what was previously on the right edge of the viewfinder is now on the left edge.

Take another photo and repeat until you've captured the entire vista.

6) Include Elements to Give a Sense of Proportion and Depth

Often you can improve a landscape photo by including something in the foreground that gives a sense of perspective and depth to the picture. For example, let's imagine you're visiting the Swiss Alps and you're walking through a wildflower meadow with majestic mountains in the distance. If you simply stand and take a picture of the mountains and the image of capture is not likely to reflect the scene you're witnessing.

However if you squat down and framed the picture so that some of the wildflowers are included in the foreground while the mountains rise up in the distance, the final result is likely to be much more pleasing.

This picture isn't a great example because the depth of field isn't deep enough to have the flower in the foreground in perfect focus. But the pitcher does give you the idea of what I'm talking about. And it illustrates the importance of a deep depth of field.

Follow these tips and I think you'll see an improvement in your landscape photography. One the great things about digital photography is that it's so inexpensive to experiment so go ahead and take a lot of pictures. When you do, it's a good idea to take some notes so if you have a particularly successful result you know how to do it again in the future.