7 Tips for better Landscape Photography

7 Tips for better Landscape Photography

  1. Always use a tripod
    • Tripods server 2 purposes, first and foremost it helps stabilize your shot so even at slower shutter speeds things are nice and sharp.  A second sometimes overlooked benefit of using a tripod is you can take your time and fine tune your composition.
  2. Be mindful of what is and what is not included in the frame
    • This goes along with fine tuning your composition.  Take your time to look around what you have framed to make sure there are no distractions that will take away from the main subject.  Be especially mindful of out of focus or overly bright items.
  3. Use live view for composition and focus
    • Utilizing the Live View feature of most modern DSLR cameras allows you to get a larger view of your composition.  Not only do you get a larger view you can also zoom into specific areas to look for distractions or fine tune your focus.
  4. Use a cable release
    • Using a cable release keeps you from accidentally adding movement to your camera resulting in as sharp of an image as possible.
  5. Use Mirror Up feature if your camera is equipped
    • The first thing your camera does when you press the shutter is to lift the mirror that allows you to see through the cameras lens.  The action of moving the mirror out of the way can cause camera shake resulting in a blurred image.  Set the mirror up so that movement is removed from the process.
  6. Choose ISO
    • Always use the lowest ISO you can to get a sharp shot.  Since you are already using a tripod the only thing left to be moving is something in the landscape itself.
  7. Choose correct aperture
    • All lenses have a “sweet spot” or an aperture where they are at their sharpest.  Learning what aperture is the sharpest for all of your lenses will help capture the sharpest images possible.  Generally lenses are sharpest in the middle so if you have a lens that goes from F/2.8 – F/22 then around F/11 would be the sharpest aperture.  Again this is a generalization and all lenses are different.

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