Landscape photography

What defines a landscape photograph

A landscape photograph shows the natural or shaped land: mountains, coasts, forests, deserts, farmland and sometimes cities. People may appear, but the place is the subject.

Good landscapes do more than record what was there. They show light, weather and scale, and they give the viewer a feeling of standing in that spot.

Styles range from grand wide views to intimate details such as a pattern of ice or a single tree in fog.

A short history

Early photographers in the 19th century carried heavy glass plates and portable darkrooms to photograph mountains and ruins. Survey photographers such as Carleton Watkins and William Henry Jackson brought images of the American West to the public and helped build support for national parks.

In the 20th century Ansel Adams became the best-known landscape photographer, famous for black-and-white images of Yosemite and for the Zone System, a method of planning exposure and development. Later, color film and photographers such as Galen Rowell and Fay Godwin widened the genre.

Digital cameras, drones and phone panoramas have made landscape images more common than ever, which makes thoughtful light and composition more important.

Gear and focal lengths

A wide-angle zoom, about 16–35 mm on full frame (roughly 10–24 mm on APS-C), is the classic landscape lens. It exaggerates the foreground and makes space feel deep.

A telephoto of 70–200 mm is just as useful: it compresses distant hills into layers and isolates patterns or lit peaks.

A sturdy tripod lets you use low ISO, small apertures and long exposures. Common filters are a polarizer, which deepens skies and cuts reflections, and neutral density or graduated filters for bright skies and moving water.

Bring weather protection, spare batteries (they drain fast in cold below about 0 °C / 32 °F), and a headlamp for early starts.

Starting settings

Mode: aperture priority or manual. ISO 100 for the cleanest files. Aperture about f/8–f/11 for wide depth of field; going far beyond f/16 softens the image through diffraction (approximate).

Focus: about a third of the way into the scene, or use the hyperfocal distance. With a 24 mm lens at f/8 on full frame, focusing around 8 ft keeps things from about 4 ft to infinity acceptably sharp (approximate).

Shutter speed is whatever the exposure needs on a tripod. For smooth water try 1–30 s with an ND filter; to freeze waves use 1/500 s or faster.

Check the histogram: keep the brightest sky from clipping on the right, and bracket exposures if the scene has more range than your sensor can hold. Shoot RAW for room to recover shadows and highlights.

Light and composition

Light is the main ingredient. The golden hour after sunrise and before sunset gives low, warm, side light that reveals texture; blue hour and overcast days suit calm, soft moods. Storms clearing often give the most dramatic skies.

Find a strong foreground such as rocks, flowers or lines in sand, then a middle ground and a background. These layers lead the eye into the frame.

Use the rule of thirds as a starting point: place the horizon on the upper or lower third depending on whether sky or land is more interesting, and keep it level.

Look for leading lines such as rivers, roads and ridges, and give the picture a clear main subject rather than an empty wide view.

Common mistakes

Arriving at midday and shooting into flat, harsh light; check sunrise and sunset times and arrive 30–60 minutes early.

Using a wide lens without a foreground, which makes mountains look small and distant.

Tilted horizons and blown-out skies. Turn on the level in your viewfinder and watch the histogram.

Over-editing: extreme saturation and contrast quickly make a landscape look fake.

Ethics and safety

Follow Leave No Trace: stay on trails, avoid trampling plants, do not move rocks or disturb wildlife, and take your rubbish home.

Respect closures, private land and local rules. Many parks, nature reserves and heritage sites have their own rules on drones, tripods and commercial shooting, so check before you go.

Be careful when sharing exact locations of fragile places, which can be damaged by crowds. Tell someone your plan, watch tides and weather, and never risk your safety for a picture.

Exercise: one view, three times

Choose a view near home that you can reach easily. Photograph it from the same spot at sunrise, at midday and in the half hour after sunset, using a tripod and the same focal length.

Use f/8–f/11 and ISO 100, focus about a third of the way in, and let the shutter speed follow the light.

Put the three images side by side. Notice how direction, color and contrast of light change the mood, and which time best suits that place.