5 Tips voor Landschapsfotografie

Monday 18 April 2022, 20:02 by Nando Harmsen | 5,781 views | 7 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Are you a fan of landscape photography? Then I have a few tips for you. These aren't tips about your camera settings or the equipment you should use. We all know those, I assume.

This is about how you go about taking a landscape photo. Make the most of them.

By now, we all know what equipment you can use and which settings you can choose. None of that is particularly difficult, although it can help if someone points you in the right direction. Sometimes that is simply necessary.

But there is more to it than equipment, or even creating compositions. It is about how you set off, where you go, and your behaviour while taking photos. I have the following five tips for that. And a bonus tip.

Tip 1 - Sit down for a while

This is something that is sometimes overlooked. We live in a fast-paced world where we never get a moment's rest. When you are at a beautiful location, or any location for that matter, sit down for a while and enjoy everything you can see around you.

Forget about the camera for a moment, or put it on a tripod and leave it there. Don't look at it, but look at what there is to see around you. Let it sink in.

Eventually you will start to see things, and hopefully become inspired too. Then pick up the camera and photograph those things. I'm sure you will enjoy taking photos even more this way.

Tip 2 - Go exploring

Are you a photographer who likes to plan everything in advance? Or do you head out on spec, photographing whatever you come across? In the latter case, tip 1 is definitely for you. If you want to make it more predictable, you need to go exploring.

Exploring is best done on foot or by bike. Let yourself get lost and see what there is to find around you. An app such as Photopills is useful for this, as it lets you see the sunrise and sunset using augmented reality.

This is how you discover new places. Make a note of them, and take a photo with your smartphone so you record the GPS locations immediately. Note the conditions and time that would be suitable. This gives you a simple list of places to go when the right conditions arise.

Tip 3 - Don't be afraid to photograph during the day too

The golden hour, the blue hour, twilight, sunrise or sunset. These are the moments that produce the most impressive landscape photos. Or so people would have you believe. Did you know that you can also take fantastic landscape photos during the day?

Beautiful cloudscapes are a joy to look at during the day. Why not photograph them too? With flowers in the meadow and cows standing among them. Or sheep on a dike, with the beautiful Dutch cloudscape in the background?

We are so inundated with the fairy-tale colours of sunrise and sunset that they are actually becoming less special. By breaking with that and photographing during the day instead, you create something unique.

Don't be afraid of so-called harsh light. By making use of light and shadow, you can achieve fantastic results. You could combine this with tip 1 and tip 2, and I'm sure your landscape photo can be well worth taking.

Tip 4 - Be on time

Do you want to photograph a sunrise or sunset? Then be on time. Don't arrive when the sun is already rising or setting.

Make sure you are at the location you have chosen an hour in advance. For this, it is important to know where you want to stand, so take another look at tip 2.

The world begins to wake up an hour before sunrise. Do you have high clouds? Then there is a chance they will turn red half an hour before the sun rises. Low clouds often take on colour when the sun appears above the horizon. The same applies to sunset, but in the opposite order.

Are you going out hunting for a rainbow? Don't wait until it appears, but head out when it is raining. Make sure you are at the location you want to photograph when the sun breaks through. It doesn't matter if you get a little wet. Put on waterproof clothing, and use a rain cover for your camera if necessary.

Tip 5 - Don't get frustrated if it doesn't work

Photography isn't an obligation. No one says you have to come home with world-class photos, apart from yourself at most. If it doesn't work out one time, or the conditions aren't what you wanted, that's not a problem. There will always be another opportunity.

Do you still want to take photos even if the conditions aren't quite what you hoped for? Then try a few things out. Experiment, and who knows, you may come up with ideas for next time. Or you may end up with photos that are still worth keeping.

Whatever happens, if you keep tip 1 in mind, an outing can be enjoyable and relaxing even if you don't take a single photo.

Bonus tip - Chimping is fine, but don't delete anything

What is chimping, you ask? It means looking through your photos on location, on that little screen on your camera. I see many photographers doing it, and I catch myself doing it again and again too. There is nothing wrong with doing it, but don't delete anything.

Some people tend to delete failed photos from the card straight away. As if they are afraid of seeing a failed photo among all the others again, or are ashamed of it. Don't do this, because you may delete the wrong photo.

Do you ever take a bracketed sequence? Then you have several photos with different exposures. You need them for your HDR image, and while chimping you can easily lose sight of that and delete one photo from the sequence.

Or you may think the photo is no good, while it could actually have been used well. Above all, that failed photo can be a learning opportunity. Look at home to see why it failed, and discover how to prevent this next time. Failed photos are the best teachers.

Besides, why delete those photos already? Are you short of storage space? Then buy an extra memory card, or a larger one. Spend your time in the field taking photos and enjoying all the beauty around you. Leave the selecting for home.

Do you have any tips?

The tips I have described are partly focused on a particular mindset. The way you set off partly determines how good your photos will be.

Are you guided by obligations, or are you open to what you find? Do you have to take photos, or are you going out with an open mind? Are you enjoying yourself, or is it a frustrating activity?

Do you have any tips that would fit well in this list? Or would you like to share how you go about taking a landscape photo?

Then I invite you to share them below this post. I enjoy reading them, and it will probably be useful for others too. And for me, for that matter. Because I am still learning too.

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