Tips for Landscape Photography

It happens more than any photographer would like to admit: You can see a beautiful landscape in front of you, but when it's photographed, the results aren't as spectacular. By following these landscape photography tips, though, you can start to produce stunning professional-looking shots.

• Follow "The Rule of Thirds." The Rule of Thirds states that an ideal landscape photograph should be divided into thirds, meaning you should aim to have a third of sky, a third of horizon, and a third of foreground. An image like this will be pleasing to the human eye, which automatically looks for lines within structures. 
• Learn when to break "The Rule of Thirds!" Once you've mastered the rule, you can think about breaking it. If you're shooting a sunrise or sunset, it would make sense to include more of the sky, reducing the amount of horizon and foreground in the photo, so as to focus on the colors of the sky.
• Don't forget the perspective. Remember to include details of interest in the foreground of an image. Details in the scenery in the distance may look beautiful to the eye, but they likely will look flat and uninteresting on a photo. Focus on the details in the foreground.
• Change your angle of view. Don't just shoot standing straight on to your scene. Try kneeling down or standing on something to give you a different and interesting angle for your shots.
• Watch your depth of field. A good landscape shot has a large depth of field (such as f22 aperture) so that everything, even in the distance, is sharp. This again helps to draw the viewer into an image and helps to give a sense of scale and depth.
• Get up early or go out late. The light at sunrise and sunset is warm and dramatic, and the color temperature is lower in this type of sunlight. This yields beautifully lit images with lovely soft tones. Photographers call the hour before sunrise and sunset "The Golden Hour."
• Use filters. Try using a circular polarizer to enhance blue skies or remove reflections from water. Or, use a graduated neutral density filter to balance the difference in exposures between the land and sky. Carrying a variety of filters can help you achieve a variety of looks in your landscape photos.
• Use a low ISO. Landscapes look best if there is no noise in the image. So always use an ISO of 100 or 200. If you need long exposures, consider using a tripod, rather than increasing the ISO.