Landscape Photography Guide

Everything you need to know about landscape photography, start to finish 

BY NASIM MANSUROV 

LAST UPDATED ON DECEMBER 18, 2022

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 18.5mm, ISO 64, 20 seconds, f/5.0

Landscape photography is a popular genre among many photographers for a number of

reasons. It is relatively easy to get into due to the fact that even the most basic cameras
and lenses can capture stunning landscapes. It works greatly as a hobby for those who
like getting out and immersing themselves into nature. And lastly, landscape
photography is simply a lot of fun because there is always something new to learn.

My landscape photography journey has been a big learning curve and I have been
enhancing my skills so much during the last few years, that I realized I could spend the
rest of my life learning. In this article, I decided to share everything I know today about
landscape photography, with plenty of tips, tricks and techniques to get you started.

Preface

It is amazing to see how quickly the world is changing around us. What seemed to be
intact and perfect just a few years ago is getting destroyed by us humans.
One of the reasons why I fell in love with photographing nature is because it is my way
of showing people that the beauty around us is very fragile and volatile. And if we don’t
take any action now, all this beauty will someday cease to exist, not giving a chance for
our future generations to enjoy it the same way we can today.

Hundreds of movies have been filmed, thousands and thousands of great pictures taken
and yet the world is not listening. What can we do and is there hope? It is very
unfortunate that we only act when a disaster of a great scale hits us and the
unbalanced force of nature enrages upon us.But we as photographers must continue to
show the world the real picture out there – the deforestation of our rich lands, the
pollution that is poisoning our fresh waters and causing widespread diseases, the melting
of glaciers, the extinction of species and many other large-scale problems that are
affecting the lives of billions around the world. Therefore, it is our responsibility as
photographers to show the real picture.

Dead Horse Point Sunrise

SONY SLT-A77V + DT 16-50mm F2.8 SSM @ 20mm, ISO 100, 1 sec, f/8.0

What is Landscape Photography?

Landscape photography is a form of landscape art. While landscape art was popularized
by Western paintings and Chinese art more than a thousand years ago, the word
“landscape” apparently entered the English dictionary only in the 19th century, purely
as a term for works of art (according to Wikipedia).

Landscape photography conveys the appreciation of the world through beautiful imagery
of the nature that can be comprised of mountains, deserts, rivers, oceans, waterfalls,
plants, animals and other scenery or life.While most landscape photographers strive to
show the pureness of nature without any human influence, given how much of the world
has been changed by humans, depicting the nature together with man-made objects can
also be considered a form of landscape photography. For example, the famous Mormon
Row at the Grand Teton National Parkhas been a popular spot for photographing the
beautiful Tetons in the background, with the old barns serving as foreground elements.

Photographing landscapes involves three key elements: photo equipment, skill/technique,

and light. Let’s look at all three elements one by one.

Photo Equipment

Good and reliable photo equipment is extremely important to achieve the best results for
landscape photography. If your camera can take exceptional photographs, but cannot
withstand extremely cold or hot temperatures, it will certainly limit you in what you
can do. Therefore, it is best to have a camera that can both take good pictures and
withstand tough weather conditions.

Why is the latter important? Because some of the best landscape photographs are taken
in very challenging weather – during a storm, after a heavy snowfall, early in the
morning at below freezing temperatures, etc. Take a look at the following picture of
sand dunes I captured a while ago:

NIKON D700 @ 50mm, ISO 400, 1/640, f/10.0

At first, you might think that the weather was nice and pleasant when I captured this
photo. But the reality of the situation was quite the opposite – it was extremely cold
and windy, with sand hitting my face like those icy snowflakes hit you when you ski.

The Nikon D700 I carried that day suffered pretty badly, with the sand piling up in its
every dent and hole. My Nikon 24-70mm zoom ring was full of dust and I remember
the screeching sound I had for months, because I could not get sand particles out of
it.Thankfully, both survived, and I was able to capture many more images like the one
above afterwards. And this is just one example; I abused my camera gear like that
countless times and always relied on it in the most challenging situations.

What about camera capabilities? No matter how weather resistant your camera is, it
must be able to deliver images that are sharp and vibrant, and provide sufficient
features for you to be able to capture even the most complex scenes. That’s where having
a camera with a large sensor, rich in-camera features, good support and a wide
selection of solid lenses / filters are important.

Let’s now talk about gear in more detail.

Camera Selection – Film or Digital?

The question of digital vs film is a never-ending debate and I do not have any intentions
to bring up another heated debate over which one is better and why. I will simply state
what is true for landscape photography today and what works best. For most people, a
high-resolution digital camera is the way to go, because it is going to be simpler to use
and one can get pretty amazing results. With digital, one can instantly preview images,
take many exposures and combine them in post-processing, and even shoot multiple
images to create an HDR or a panoramic image. Modern digital cameras today have
excellent dynamic range that far surpasses that of film and it is very easy to nail things
like focusing and exposure, especially with the right gear and technique. However, some
photographers prefer to shoot landscapes with film using medium format and large
format film cameras and if it is done right, it is possible to create spectacular images,
with extreme detail and resolution. Film is certainly not for everyone, and the cost of
owning and operating a large format film system can get quite high overtime, which is
why most landscape photographers tend to use digital.

Yellowstone Lake Sunrise

NIKON D700 + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32mm, ISO 200, 1/30, f/11.0
Film Systems

There are many different film systems out there at different price points. If you shoot
medium format, Mamiya, Rollei and Hasselblad medium-format systems are quite
popular. There are many large format systems out there and the more popular ones
seem to be by Sinar and Linhof, but there are many more great choices and sizes. The
selection of lenses for both medium and large format systems is also huge with big name
brands like Nikon, Rodenstock and Schneider providing choices from wide angle to
telephoto.

Digital Systems

Easiness of use, low cost, relatively short learning curve, immediate results, free
unlimited exposures and much shorter post-processing times are the reasons why full-
frame and cropped sensor camera systems became so popular. An entry-level DSLR or a
mirrorless camera with all required accessories for photographing landscapes can be
purchased for under $1,000 today. If one wants to step up to a full-frame camera,
there are plenty of different high-resolution options from a number of different
manufacturers such as Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Pentax and Leica. And if that’s
not enough, there are also medium format digital cameras available from companies like
Fujifilm, Hasselblad, Phase One and Mamiya. There are plenty of choices for different
needs and you will need to look into different options depending on your needs and your
budget.

For those on tighter budgets, cheaper cropped sensor cameras are going to be less
preferred, but most popular choices for landscape photography. Most popular because of
lower cost, and less preferred due to typically minimal weather-sealing, potentially
decreased dynamic range and a smaller feature set compared to higher-end options.
When photographing landscapes, you are often faced with harsh and extreme conditions,
and you will need to be extra careful when photographing in dusty, rainy / humid,
snowy and sub-zero temperatures in order to keep your equipment functioning. In
comparison, higher-end cameras are often specifically designed with superb weather
sealing to withstand the toughest weather conditions without negatively affecting their
performance.

To sum it all up, here is how I would categorize cameras, in the order of preference for
landscape photography:

1. Medium format digital cameras

 2. High-resolution full-frame digital cameras with premium features and
weather sealing
3. Low cost full-frame digital cameras with sufficient weather sealing
4. High-end cropped-sensor cameras with sufficient weather sealing
5. Entry-level cropped-sensor cameras

NIKON Z 7 + 10-18mm @ f/8, ISO 100, 0.6 sec

Let’s now move on to lenses – a key part of the photography setup for landscapes.

Lenses and Why They are Important

No matter how good your camera is, if the lens you have mounted on it is poor, you will
get equally poor results. Lenses are like your eyes – if you have bad vision, the picture
you see is going to be blurry. Therefore, it is extremely important to use lenses that have
high levels of sharpness across the frame, good contrast, minimal ghosting and flare and
other lens aberrations that can hurt your images. It is also important to make sure that
your lenses are free from decentering issues that could damage all or parts of your
images. When photographing portraits, the corner performance of lenses is typically not
important – your subject is going to be close to the center of the frame most of the
time. However, when it comes to landscape photography, corner sharpness becomes far
more important, since foreground elements can be located on the lower part of the
frame and sometimes even touch corners. That’s why it is important to look beyond
center performance of lenses when evaluating them for landscape photography.

While selecting lenses, you have two selections – zoom lenses and prime / fixed lenses.
For landscape photography, prime lenses used to be the number one choice (and still are
for medium and large format cameras). However, with the latest advancements in
optical technology, manufacturers are able to produce exceptionally good zoom lenses
that can match and sometimes even surpass the quality and sharpness of some prime
lenses. Zoom lenses have a big advantage over prime lenses due to their ability to zoom
in / out, which I personally find very important for landscape photography. I have been
in many situations, where I had to stand at a particular spot and could not physically
move to frame my shot. In such situations, it is helpful to be able to use a zoom lens to
get proper framing. I personally often carry both with me, which gives me greater
flexibility, but if I were to choose only one lens, it would certainly be a zoom.
Unfortunately, for medium format and large format systems out there, prime lenses are
often the only choices that are available.

NIKON Z 7 + 10-18mm @ f/8, ISO 200, 1/40

Best Lenses for Landscape Photography

So, what are the best lenses for landscape photography? With so many different prime
and zoom lenses available from a variety of different manufacturers, it can get quite
difficult to make the right selection, especially for a beginner. Personally, instead of
focusing on one do-it-all lens that covers everything from wide-angle to telephoto, I
would recommend to go for a set of high-quality lenses that will cover most of your
needs. A good landscape photography lens kit should be comprised of a set of lenses from
ultra-wide angle to telephoto. An ultra-wide angle lens will allow you to get close to
subjects and show their grandeur; a normal range lens will probably be the most used
lens in your arsenal for photographing most subjects, whereas a telephoto lens will allow
you to focus on a particular feature of the landscape in front of you, or to perhaps
photograph distant subjects.

To cover these needs, landscape photographers come up with their set of “trinity”
lenses, such as 14-24mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses. Such
lenses are typically of very high quality and are considered to be professional-grade
lenses. Those on tighter budgets or who want to stay light often end up going for slower
f/4 lenses such as 16-35mm f/4, 24-120mm f/4 and 70-200mm f/4, which can
also be excellent choices for landscape photography. And those who shoot with cropped
sensor cameras often end up with smaller and lighter lenses that cover similar equivalent
focal
lengths, such as 10-24mm, 16-85mm and 50-150mm, depending on sensor
size / crop factor.

While such a “trinity” of zoom lenses can be very useful to cover most landscape
photography needs, some prime lenses can be still very useful to have in the field. For
example, if you want to get into astrophotography, you will need a high-quality lens
that is both wide-enough and fast enough to be usable for capturing the night sky.
Zoom lenses, especially those that are f/4 and slower, are typically very limiting for
astrophotography, which is why it is also helpful to have at least one prime lens in your
camera bag. Personally, I really like the Nikon 20mm f/1.8G lens and find it to be an
excellent, lightweight lens that can be very useful in the field for this reason. Those who
prefer the quality of prime lenses to zooms will often end up going for a kit that is
comprised of the following focal lengths: 14mm, 20mm, 35mm and 50mm. For
telephoto needs, most prime shooters still opt for something like a 70-200mm f/2.8 or
f/4, since prime telephoto lenses are often quite large and expensive.

Canon EOS 5DS R + EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM @ 35mm, ISO 100, 3/10, f/11.0

If I was limited to choose only one lens for landscape photography, it would be
something like a 24-120mm or a 24-105mm. Out of all the different lenses I have
used over the years, I came to conclusion that the focal lengths I use the most for my
landscape photography are between 24mm and 100mm. If I was limited to two lenses,
I would add a 70-200mm and if the limit was increased to three, it would be a fast
20mm f/1.8 prime…

Camera Support – Tripods

A landscape photographer without a tripod is a handicapped photographer. Although

modern digital cameras are capable of producing amazing results at higher ISOs, some
images are difficult and sometimes even impossible to capture without proper support.
For example, it is impossible to photograph the night sky without a tripod.
Photographing colorful clouds and the high dynamic range of scenes before and after
sunsets would be extremely difficult without keeping camera mounted on a tripod.
Another example is taking pictures of moving water (such as a waterfall) at slow shutter
speeds. Basically, for any photography involving shutter speeds that are too slow for one
to be able to hand-hold a camera without introducing camera shake, it is a good idea to
use a tripod. Take a look at the below image that would have been impossible to capture
hand-held:

Maroon Bells at Night

NIKON D3S + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 29mm, ISO 800, 30 sec, f/3.2

As you can see, the image was captured with a shutter speed of 30 seconds – there is
no way I could have held the camera in my hands for that long without making the
image look blurry!

I personally consider a tripod to be a must-have tool rather than an optional accessory.

I once talked to a well-known landscape photographer about camera support and he
stated that he could not think or compose his images until he put his camera on a
tripod, even when shooting on a bright sunny day. If you struggle with badly aligned,
blurry or noisy images, you might want to invest in a solid tripod – it will pay for itself
very quickly, especially once you factor in your travel expenses and your time!

Don’t go for a cheap, flimsy tripod either. If you are still trying to figure out if landscape
photography is for you or not, then by all means, go for a cheap, plastic tripod when
you start out. However, if landscape photography is something you are genuinely
interested in, then skip everything in the middle and go for a high-end tripod. Over the
years, you will go through many cameras and lenses, but a solid tripod is something you
will always keep reusing – it is always a worthy long-term investment. Don’t make the
mistake of buying several tripods. Not only will you end up wasting more money, but
you will also end up with a lot of frustration in the field.
If you want to find out more about tripods and if you need help choosing a good tripod
for your photography, check out my detailed “how to buy a tripod” article.

Filters and Why they are Important

Let’s now move on to filters. Any experienced landscape photographer will tell you that
filters are an essential and integral part of their landscape photography kit. Some shots
are simply impossible to capture without specialized filters. There are three types of
filters that I personally recommend for landscape photography: Circular Polarizing
Filter, Neutral Density Filter and Graduated Neutral Density Filter. Let’s take a look at
each one individually.

Circular Polarizing Filter

Landscape photographers heavily rely on a Circular Polarizing Filter (CPL) for a number
of reasons. CPL filters help reduce reflections, which helps in bringing out the subject.
For example, if one photographs a scene after rain, reflections from the moist areas can
really spoil the image, making it look rather distracting. With a CPL, it is possible to
reduce and sometimes even eliminate most reflections in the scene, boosting colors and
contrast. Take a look at the below image, captured with a polarizing filter:

Rainbow at Sunset
NIKON D850 + 24-120mm f/4 @ 28mm, ISO 64, 16/10, f/8.0

The use of the CPL helped drastically reduce water reflections in the foliage right after
rain, resulting in enhanced color and contrast. The CPL also helped bring out the colors
of the rainbow, which glowed with deep red colors at sunset.Here is an example of a
waterfall that was captured with the same filter:
Waterfall in Sri Lanka
NIKON D750 + 24mm f/1.4 @ 24mm, ISO 50, 5 sec, f/11.0

While you can see some reflections in the water, those reflections are actually heavily
reduced, thanks to the CPL that I had mounted on my lens. If it wasn’t for the CPL, the
brightness of the reflections coming from the rocks would have competed with the white
color of the falling water, making the image look much worse in comparison.

Another reason why CPLs are useful, is because they can help significantly reduce
atmospheric haze in images. Haze can be a real problem when photographing
landscapes, so if one uses a CPL in the field, it is possible to cut it down quite a bit in
camera and then reduce it even more in post-processing software. Take a look at the
below image that I captured in Jordan with a CPL:

GFX 50S + GF23mmF4 R LM WR @ 23mm, ISO 100, 1/5, f/16.0

It was a very hazy day in Wadi Rum, so using a CPL was essential in order to bring out
the features of the mountains in the distance.

Polarizing filters can be a bit challenging to use, especially for those who have never used
them before. You also have to be very careful when deploying them on wide angle lenses.
If you want to know more about polarizing filters, I have written a detailed article
on how to use polarizing filters, with plenty of examples and useful information.
Neutral Density Filter

Do you know how images of waterfalls with silky and smooth-looking, milky water are
captured? For many of such images, photographers intentionally use Neutral Density
(ND) filters that only let very little light through, which basically increases the length of
the exposure. While one could stop down their lens to a very small aperture in order to
reduce the amount of light reaching the camera sensor, doing so often does not block
enough light to make the water look smooth. Plus, small apertures result in less detail in
images due to the effect of diffraction, so it is best to use a proper filter instead, while
using the best aperture.

Using a dark neutral density filter requires a good support system, since shutter speed
will decrease significantly, based on how much light the ND filter lets through. For
example, a 6-stop ND filter that I use only transmits 1% of the light. With this little
light getting through, the scene looks very dark when I look through the viewfinder and
yet surprisingly, autofocus is still operational. 6 stops means that if I were shooting a
scene at 1/250th of a second without a filter, the shutter speed would drop down to
1/4th of a second as soon as I mount the 6 stop ND filter on the lens. Here is an image
that was captured using an ND filter in order to slow down the shutter speed of the
camera to 6 seconds:

Bridge Falls
NIKON D3S + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32mm, ISO 200, 6 sec, f/9.0

Some polarizing filters are dark enough on their own that you could just use them
instead of using an ND filter to create beautiful waterfall images, instead of a
combination of an ND + CPL.

Graduated Neutral Density Filter

Graduated ND filters are similar to regular ND filters, except they gradually go from
dark to completely clear. This gradual transition is important for landscapes, because it
should only darken the brightest area of the scene without touching the darker parts of
the scene such as the foreground. Although a lot of photographers seem to be utilizing
HDR and blending techniques to capture the full dynamic range of the scene today, I
personally prefer to use Graduated Neutral Density (GND) filters whenever possible. For
example, if I am photographing a sunrise or sunset and the sky is several stops brighter
than the foreground, I will use my 0.6 (2 stop) or 0.9 (3 stop) Graduated ND filter to
darken the sky. Take a look at the below image of a filter holder with a GND on it:

As you can see, the filter transitions from dark on the top to completely clear on the
bottom, with a gradual transition in the middle. This is what allows some of the light to
be blocked by the filter. Now let’s take a look at how it can affect an image:

ILCE-7RM2 + FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM @ 40mm, ISO 100, 1/10, f/5.6

The above image would have been very difficult to capture without a GND filter, because
the sky was so much brighter compared to the foreground. By holding a 3-stop GND
filter in front of the lens, I was able to bring down the brightness of the sky and
preserve its colors. Without a filter, I would have been forced to bracket my shots in
order to create an HDR or blend images in Photoshop, which would have taken me
more time and effort.

One major hassle with GND filters, is that they take up more space than CPLs do, since
they are larger rectangular filters (there are some circular GNDs out there, but you
should not use those). Why? Because with rectangular filters you are able to control the
point from which the scene will turn from dark into clear. In one scene, the sky might
take up 20% of the image, while in another one with beautiful clouds it might take up
50% or more of the image. That’s where you will need to move the graduated filter up
and down to accommodate different situations. In order to be able to do this, you will
need a filter holder system with rectangular filters. I personally use the NiSi Filter
Holder system (see our review), but there are many others to choose from.

Recommended Filters

Here is the list of the filters I recommend and personally use:

1. B+W 77mm Kaeseman CPL MRC Nano Glass Filter

2. B+W 77mm ND MRC Nano 3.0 Filter (10 Stops)
3. NiSi Filter Holder System + Built-in Polarizer
4. NiSi Graduated Neutral Density Filters

Photo Technique

Now that you know what camera gear you need, let’s move on to the fun part – photo
technique, which is comprised of three parts: Camera Gear Technique, Composition and
Post-Processing. These three elements are all equally important in landscape
photography and you have to master them all in order to be able to produce great-
looking images that you could potentially showcase and even sell.

Camera Gear Technique

The first thing you need to learn how to use properly, is obviously your camera. If you
have never used a DSLR or a mirrorless camera before, get prepared for an intensive
learning process. First, you need to master the three pillars of
photography: Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. Once you get a good grasp of these
individually, you will then need to understand how they work together. Next, I would
start reading up on such basics as Exposure Stops, camera modes, metering
modes and RAW vs JPEG. From there, visit our “Learn Photography” page and start
reading other beginner-level articles that will bring you up to speed on the most
important photography topics.

If you are able to comfortably shoot in Manual Mode while being able to adjust the
exposure by increasing/decreasing the ISO, your basic knowledge of the camera is pretty
solid.

Camera Settings
What are the optimal camera settings for photographing landscapes? Here are the
settings that I personally use and recommend (good for most DSLRs and mirrorless
cameras):

 Camera Mode: Manual. Learn how to shoot landscapes in manual mode. Use

the built-in camera meter to see if you need to increase or decrease the
shutter speed.
 Aperture: Start at f/5.6 and stop down based on how much of the
foreground and background you need to keep sharp. Try not to shoot beyond
f/8 (on APS-C sensor cameras) and f/11 (on full-frame) to avoid
diffraction.
 Shutter Speed: Doesn’t matter, since you will be using a tripod and adjusting
the shutter speed based on what your camera meters. In some cases, when
you need to freeze or blur movement, you will have to adjust the shutter
speed accordingly by changing aperture and / or ISO, or by using a filter.
 ISO: Whatever your camera’s base ISO is (typically ISO 64 or ISO 100). If
you have a setting for “Auto ISO” on your camera, turn it off.
 Image Format: Obviously RAW, Lossless Compressed or Uncompressed (if
Lossless Compressed is not available). Set camera bit-rate to the highest
number (if available). Many professional cameras allow shooting 14-bit RAW.
 White Balance: Auto, since it doesn’t matter if you shoot RAW – you can
easily change White Balance in post-production.
 Color Profile: Doesn’t matter, but you might want to choose AdobeRGB for
slightly more accurate histograms.
 High ISO Noise Reduction: Off, you should not be shooting at high ISOs
anyway.
 Long Exposure Noise Reduction: On, since it helps reduce noise when shooting
long exposures. This setting affects the actual RAW file, so it is a good idea to
keep it on by default.
 Vignette Reduction and Other Lens Corrections: Off, best to deal with it in
post-production.
 Back Button Focusing: Move your focusing from the shutter release button to
a dedicated button on the back of your camera (see focus and recompose).
Some cameras might not have this feature, but most do. Most DSLRs and
mirrorless cameras either have a dedicated AF-ON button or an AE-L/AF-L
button on the back of the camera that can be programmed for autofocus. By
switching focusing to a dedicated button, you can focus just once with your
thumb, then continue taking pictures without needing to refocus each time.
 Keep in mind that if you change the focal length of the lens by zooming in /
out, you will need to re-acquire focus each time!
 Autofocus: It is up to you whether to keep autofocus on, or switch to manual
focus. No matter which focusing method you choose, make sure to use your
camera’s live view screen to zoom in tight and focus accurately.

Depth of Field and Hyperfocal Distance

When you photograph landscapes, it is vital to understand the concept of depth of

fieldvery well. One of the biggest challenges of landscape photography is to master lens
focus and make everything look acceptably sharp. Why is that a challenge, you might
ask? Because optics have certain limitations and it is not always possible to bring
everything from foreground to background into perfect focus, especially when some
objects are very close and others are very far. A good way to illustrate this is to do a
quick experiment with your eyes. You will need two objects that can stand on a flat
surface – a small and a large object (like a dice and a box of playing cards). Place the
larger object vertically about 10 feet away from where you are on a straight surface like
a table. Then move back to your position and while holding the smaller object with your
index and thumb fingers, extend your hand half way, pointing it towards the larger
object. Focus your eyes on the smaller object. Note how blurry the background is and
how blurry the larger object is, almost to the point where it blends with other
background objects. Now, take the smaller object and place it by the larger object and
move back again to your position. Take a look at the smaller object from this distance
now. This time, you will notice that both objects look sharp to you and even if you move
the smaller object a little away from the larger one, it will not make a difference. The
larger object will not get completely blurred like it did when you looked at the smaller
object from a close distance. This very simple experiment demonstrates how lenses focus
and how subject distance impacts sharpness.

While our eyes work like a fixed 50mm lens, camera lenses allow us to capture much
wider perspectives, or allow us to get “closer” to our subjects. Without understanding
the relationship between lens focal length, aperture and camera to subject distance,
focusing for landscape photography can get rather difficult. For example, if you were
photographing a starfish on a beach from a close distance and wanted to get the
background horizon to be equally sharp as the starfish, which would you focus on – the
starfish or the background? Would you be using a wide-angle or a telephoto lens to get
both in focus? What aperture would you be using? A good landscape photographer
should know answers to all of these questions and come up with the right solution to the
problem. For example, I would have certainly used a wide-angle lens (since longer focal
lengths would only isolate the subject more), a relatively small aperture between f/8 and
f/16 and would have focused on an area somewhere between the starfish and the
background. Where exactly would I focus? This is where you need to understand
hyperfocal distance and how to find it.

What is hyperfocal distance? Basically, hyperfocal distance is the focusing distance that
gives your photos the greatest depth of field. When you focus your camera on the
hyperfocal distance, everything from half of the distance all the way to infinity will be in
focus. For example, if my hyperfocal distance is 50 feet, everything from 25 feet to
infinity will be in focus. Why is hyperfocal distance important? In the previous example
with starfish, if I focused my camera on the starfish or the background (infinity), either
the starfish or the background would have been blurry. I want both to look sharp, so if I
knew where the hyperfocal distance is and I focused on it, I could potentially get to the
point where both appear sharp. Obviously, my camera to subject distance, lens focal
length, sensor size and aperture are all variables that play a huge role here, so I will
need to look into those very carefully in order to reach my goal. The camera to subject
distance is especially important – if the subject is way too close, no combination of
aperture and focal length will lead to a sharp photo…

The best way to calculate hyperfocal distance is to use the “double the distance
method“, where you approximate the distance from your camera to the nearest subject
you want to be sharp, then simply double that distance. In the example with the
starfish, if I knew that the starfish was 5 feet away from my camera, the hyperfocal
distance would be at 10 feet (double distance), as simple as that! From there, I would
have to roughly estimate where the 10 foot mark is for me to focus on (say a piece of
rock in sand), then use my camera’s live view screen to focus on that rock and I’m set.
With my hyperfocal distance in the right spot of the frame, I would have to play with
my camera’s aperture to get to the point where everything looks reasonably sharp. If I’m
maxed out on aperture and the scene is still not sharp, then I’m simply too close to the
subject. I either have to use a wider lens, or physically move away from the subject.

Some photographers give advice to focus somewhere in the middle of the frame or a
third of the way, without knowing all the variables mentioned above. I would be careful
listening to such advice, since you will often end up getting yourself frustrated with
blurry images. The double the distance method works very well and it is easy to use in
the field.

Bear in mind that hyperfocal distance calculators are not designed for modern high
resolution digital cameras, so I wouldn’t recommend them for landscape photography
(see Spencer’s article on why hyperfocal distance charts are wrong). In addition, why
waste your time looking things up, if all you have to do is estimate the distance to your
subject and then double it? It is simple and it works!

Bracketing

When you face tough lighting situations, where you have a huge difference in contrast
between the darks and the whites, shoot in brackets of 3 to 5 (depending on your
camera capabilities). Bracketing not only allows you to try post-processing techniques
like HDR, but it also gives you options for better exposure (see Iliah Borg’s excellent
article “when in doubt, bracket“). You might choose one exposure over another and then
further work on it in Lightroom or Photoshop. You might pick some parts of one image
and merge them with another image using masking and other blending techniques in
Photoshop or other software. Simply put, you will have more options to recover
information from your images.

Composition and Framing

Composition is a key element of every type of photography, including landscape

photography. Without good composition, pictures can look plain, lifeless and boring. How
should you compose your images and are there any rules for composition? What is good
and bad composition? How should you frame your shots? I get these kinds of questions
from our readers all the time, so I decided to write about it in more detail in this
article.

When it comes to composition and framing there are no real set “rules” per se.
However, there are some tips and suggestions that might help with composing and
framing your images better. Here are some of my guidelines:

 Communicate through your photographs – every photograph should have a

particular message attached to it. What are you trying to say? What is your
story? What is the mood of your photograph? Will the viewer feel amused by
the power of nature that you are trying to show, or feel crushed by the
dark, dreadful clouds in your image? Or perhaps the viewer should just enjoy
the beauty of the colors you are trying to show? Your image needs to be able
to communicate and bond with the viewer, triggering their emotions.
 Identify your subject(s) – every photograph should contain the most
prominent / important subject you are trying to show to your viewer, which
is your primary subject. There might be other secondary, tertiary and
supporting elements in the scene as well. Learn how to properly identify the
most important subjects in your images. Once you do that, you will be able
 to compose your images better, because you will be paying close attention to
your subjects.
 Scout the area beforehand – you never know what might be around you.
Scout the area before the best light kicks in and find the best spots to be in.
How many times have you been in situations where the light is perfect, the
subject is perfect, but you are standing in a bad spot? Avoid those kinds of
problems by doing the homework early.
 Slow down and be patient – if you are not photographing wildlife or other
fast-moving elements, slow down and take the time to compose your shot.
Wait for the right moment, the right light and be patient. Take pictures,
then wait more – your best photo might be minutes or seconds away.
 Align / level your photograph before taking a picture – while composing,
make sure that your frame is properly aligned. If it is not, you will have to
align it in post-production and you will ultimately lose some of the image. I
personally use the horizontal and vertical lines inside my viewfinder to align
my camera most of the time, which works great.
 Avoid always placing your primary subject in the center – many beginners
do this a lot, and while there is nothing wrong with center composition,
placing your subjects off center might make your image look a bit more
dynamic and interesting. Check out the rule of thirds and give it a try. Here
is an image where I used the rule of thirds to compose it: 

Sunset at the White Sand Dunes National Monument

DSC-RX100M4 + 24-70mm F1.8-2.8 @ 10.15mm, ISO 200, 1/13, f/11.0

 Shapes and curves – try to locate curved shapes (especially the ones with an
“S” shape) as part of your composition – they look much more pleasing to
the eye. Here is an example of a curved road that has a beautifully curved
road as part of the composition:
Colorado Fall Colors Road
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV + EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM @ 39mm, ISO 200, 1/4, f/8.0

 When photographing mirror reflections, make sure that nothing disturbs the
primary subject or its reflection – I remember when I posted one of the
images of Maroon Bells with a log in the reflection in a photography forum a
long time ago, one well-known photographer criticized the image, saying
that I should not have included the log in the frame. Here is that image:

NIKON D700 + 24-70mm f/2.7 @ 28mm, ISO 200, 1/320, f/8.0

Besides being an over-cooked / over-saturated image (back then I liked the Saturation
slider in Lightroom way too much), the big straight log that cuts through the image
destroys the essence of the photograph, becoming an ugly part of the image (which at
the time, I thought was a nice composition element). The attention of the viewer is no
longer on the primary subject (which is the beautiful set of triangular mountains and
their reflection), but rather on the large log. Now take a look at the below image that
does not have any disturbing elements in the reflection:
NIKON D700 + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32mm, ISO 200, 1/30, f/8.0

Looks much better, doesn’t it? You can concentrate on looking at the beautiful
mountains and their reflection, without getting disturbed by other unnecessary objects
in the scene.

 Balance your shot through symmetry – one more thing to keep in mind
when photographing landscapes, especially reflections, is to achieve a
“balance” – one part of the image should not heavily outweigh the other.
You can achieve this through symmetry, as shown in the above image of
Maroon Bells.
 Fit main subjects in the frame – if you have trees, single bushes or other
objects in your corner frame, try to either fit them into the frame, or
exclude them completely. There will be situations when it is too difficult or
impossible to do that, but try your best to fit everything in the frame.

Split Rock
NIKON D810 + 24mm f/1.4 @ 24mm, ISO 100, 6/10, f/11.0

As you can see from the above image, I tried my best to fit everything that I considered
to be important in the image, whether it is the elongated rock on the bottom left side of
the frame, the bush below it, or the yucca on the bottom right side of the frame. Since
the large rocks to the right side of the frame were not the key elements of my image, I
felt that it was OK to cut into them with my framing. The primary subject here is
obviously the split rock, followed by the large green plant below it that serves as my
secondary subject, whereas other elements in the scene serve as tertiary and supporting
elements. See my Dissecting a Photograph: The Split Rock article for more information
on what went into making the above image work.

 Carefully frame your shot – when I started out my journey in photography, I

rarely ever paid attention to proper framing – I would just point my
camera and take a picture. I ended up with thousands of useless pictures… It
is very unfortunate, because I had very unique moments with beautiful
sunsets, cloud formations and good light, but just because of my own errors,
those pictures are all useless. Learn how to properly frame your shots and
think before you press the camera shutter. Don’t just point and shoot like
you used to before, but think about your subject, lighting, composition and
framing.
 Don’t get stuck with horizontals – I personally prefer taking horizontal
images of landscape, but I do take a lot of verticals as well. In some cases, try
doing both and give yourself a chance to choose which one is better later.
Sometimes vertical shots communicate better than horizontals. Also, when
you print your work, you might want to have a mix of both verticals and
horizontals.
 Don’t let tall trees and other large objects touch the frame – leave some
“breathing” space. Even very little free space is better than none. Take a look
at this example:

NIKON D3S + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 56mm, ISO 400, 1/80, f/8.0

The tip of the mountain is almost touching the top frame, which is not good. If I had
some clouds that day, I would have probably included more of the sky, but I purposefully
reduced the sky to have the viewer concentrate on the old building with the walking
man. While I still left some space in between the mountain and the top of the frame,
there isn’t enough “breathing space” between the two.

 Be careful when using ultra-wide angle lenses – ultra-wide angle lenses

always make the foreground objects much larger than they are and make
the background look much smaller. For example, take a look at this shot:

Racetrack Playa at Sunset

ILCE-7R + FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS @ 16mm, ISO 100, 6/10, f/16.0
Do you think it is possible for the rock in the foreground to be larger in size than the hill
in the distance? Of course not! But that’s what wide-angle lenses do – they make
subjects at close distances appear enormously large compared to everything else in the
background. Step away from your subjects and they become minuscule, disappearing
with the background and leaving a ton of empty space. Wide-angle lenses can create
stunning images, but you need to know how to properly use them by getting closer to
your primary subject and paying close attention to the background and framing. Lastly,
be careful when using fisheye-type lenses – if you don’t pay close attention and you
angle your camera a bit too low, you might end up with your own feet in your images!

 Keep it simple – avoid adding too many distracting and busy elements to
your images. Sometimes simplicity is the key to a good composition:

A very simple, yet effective composition

NIKON D810 + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm, ISO 64, 1/800, f/5.6

 Diagonal compositions – if you come across straight lines in a landscape,

experiment with diagonal composition. In some cases, you might be able to
 convert an otherwise boring scene to a more dynamic and interesting
photograph:

Diagonal Composition
SLT-A65V + DT 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 ZA @ 20mm, ISO 100, 1/400, f/11.0

 Try multiple lines for composition – sometimes a mix of straight and

diagonal lines in the scene at different angles can give a different feel and
dynamic to an image:

Grand Tetons at Sunset

NIKON D810 + 24-120mm f/4 @ 40mm, ISO 200, 4/10, f/8.0

In the above scene, two lines are formed by the evergreen trees, which I also used as
references for establishing a horizon line. The third line is formed by the small stream in
the foreground, which helps add interest to the foreground of the scene.

 Use elements in the scene to add depth – when thinking about your subjects
in your compositions, you might want to position them in a way that adds
depth to your photographs. This is especially important when using wide-
angle lenses:
Sunrise at Joshua Tree National Park
NIKON D750 + 24mm f/1.8 @ 24mm, ISO 100, 1/15, f/16.0

One can easily tell that the large boulders in the above image are located in different
areas of the scene, which adds depth to the photograph.

 Look for patterns and lines – always be on the lookout for patterns and lines
in the scene.

Moving Rock, Death Valley

ILCE-7R + FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS @ 21mm, ISO 100, 1.6 sec, f/16.0

 Use tighter framing – if you have a zoom lens, you can often improve your
composition by moving away from your subject and zooming in tighter in
order to eliminate other distractions around the subject.

NIKON Z 6 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70mm, ISO 100, 1/2000, f/5.6

For the above shot, I zoomed in to 70mm with my Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4 S lens to
focus on the part of the mountain that was visible. If I used shorter focal length, other
parts of the mountain would have become visible, which is not what I wanted.

 Get those “S” curves – as I have already pointed out above, curves always
look better than straight lines, especially the “S” curves:

NIKON D700 @ 70mm, ISO 200, 1/200, f/13.0

 Recurrence of objects/elements – another interesting concept that you can

apply to your composition, is recurrence of objects or elements in your
photograph. The element of recurrence itself is not always important – you
can do this with fences, electric poles, trees, buildings, etc. Here is an
example of recurrence:

NIKON D3S + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40mm, ISO 200, 1/60, f/14.0

 Try taking panoramic images – rather than being stuck with square or
rectangular images, try shooting panoramic images. You can either crop
images to be panoramic (see below on cropping) or you can shoot a bunch of
vertical or horizontal frames and then stitch them together in Photoshop or
other third party software. I have a detailed guide on how to photograph
panoramas and you can find plenty of information on how to properly
photograph panoramas there.
While the above composition guidelines are there to help you, feel free to play around
and do something different – after-all, photographs are created by your vision
and yourcreativity.

Post-Processing Technique

Post-processing is an integral part of landscape photography. I remember once seeing a

small photography contest online and one of the rules said to submit only original,
untouched photographs. Apparently, contest organizers thought that post-processing
images was an unfair practice and they did not want one person to have an advantage
over another, just because of better Photoshop skills. I personally think that such rules
are silly. Is it unfair when one photographer can use Photoshop better than another?
Ansel Adams, the master of landscape photography was a darkroom magician. He spent
countless hours working on his images and I am sure that if he was alive today, he
would have loved Photoshop! How are Ansel’s post-processing skills in the darkroom
different than someone’s Photoshop skills? Knowing how to post-process images is a big
part of every photographer’s life today. And that’s a fact.

At the same time, you hear many photographers say “do everything right in camera”. I
mostly agree with this statement – when it comes to landscape photography, it is best
to minimize post-processing efforts and do as much as possible in the camera. It is one
thing to photograph a scene with a heavily overexposed sky, thinking you can fix it later
in Photoshop and another to use filters and other tools to expose the sky at least
partially right, so that you could finish it up in Lightroom/Photoshop. Some things like
the effect of a polarizing filter cannot be replicated in post-processing. Other things take
enormous amounts of time to fix. Just learn to balance your workflow and you should be
in good shape.

Cropping

When it comes to cropping, I highly recommend minimizing your cropping efforts for
landscape photography if you shoot digital. The main reason is that cropping results in
smaller images, which results in reduced resolution and smaller prints. If you are just
posting images for the web you can certainly crop as much as you want, but what if
somebody gets interested in buying a large print of your photograph after seeing it
online? That’s where cropping might hurt your image. If you shoot medium format or
large format, you have a lot more resolution, so slight cropping is generally not a
problem. But I would still frame your images right from the very beginning, instead of
having to resort to cropping later. The type of cropping you certainly want to avoid, is
cutting verticals out of a horizontal image and vice versa – you will lose half of your
resolution (if not more) by doing that. Aligning and leveling images also results in
cropping and losing resolution. Therefore, as I have recommended above under
“composition”, you should always align and level your camera before taking pictures.

Other than that, very slight cropping to improve your composition and remove clutter is
quite normal. I personally do crop some images when necessary as well.

Sharpness and Why it is Important

While sharpness does not matter as much for certain types of photography, it certainly
carries a lot of weight in landscape photography. A sharp landscape image is always
better to look at than a blurry or a fuzzy image – it communicates good technique by
the photographer, gives a more realistic feeling to objects and just looks more pleasing to
the eye. Having good sharpness across the frame requires the following:

1. A good lens that is able to resolve a lot of detail and is sharp from center to
corners.
2. A high-quality film or digital camera with plenty of resolution.
3. Good camera technique by the photographer that can set proper exposure,
acquire correct focus and eliminate camera shake.
4. Good post-processing skills by the photographer for adding additional
sharpening for printing/publishing.

All of the above depend on each other. You might have the best post-processing skills,
but if your lens is soft, you will never be able to get sharp results. Similarly, you might
have the sharpest lens in the world and yet if you cannot set the right exposure settings
and focus correctly, you will end up with a blurry image that you cannot fix by
sharpening in post.

If you have the right gear and camera technique, sharpening images in post-processing
is easy. Take a look at my article on how to sharpen images in Lightroom to get an idea.
You can also use special plugins in Photoshop for selective sharpening, which work great.

Post-processing Images

Other than sharpening and cropping, there are many different ways to improve your
photographs. You can darken the sky and make it look more blue, you can saturate
some of the colors, you can add more contrast to your images, you can convert images
to black and white and much much more. I am not going to go through all of these
techniques, since there is just too much to cover, but you can get started by checking
out our my Landscape Photography Post-Processing Tutorial in Lightroom and Five
Ways to Improve Your Photos in Post-Processing, where I share some simple techniques
to make your landscape photographs look better. You can find some other tutorials in
our growing “Post-Processing Tips” section.

Here are some additional post-processing tips for landscape photography:

 Be careful with dark shadows in the scene – while shadows are a normal fact
of life, don’t let the shadows steal your viewer’s attention. Make sure that
shadows do not occupy too much space, or they will spoil your image. Also, if
your shadows are too dark, try to lighten them up either by adjusting the
exposure or in post-production. In Lightroom, you can use the “Shadows”
slider to add some light to the shadows. Don’t overdo it though – you still
want shadows to look like shadows. That’s one of the biggest problems with
HDR photography – the shadows rarely look real. Here is an example of a
shadow eating up half of the image: 

NIKON D3S + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 36mm, ISO 200, 1/250, f/8.0

Although I did brighten up the shadows a little, the image still looks unbalanced and the
shadows are too distracting to the eye.

 Don’t oversaturate your images – it is very common for photographers to

purposefully oversaturate images. I personally used to oversaturate images a
lot in the past. Now, when I go back and look at them, I realize that I should
have taken it easy on colors. In some cases, you might actually need to
desaturate some colors or the entire image. Here is an example of an over-
saturated image that I shot a couple of years ago:
NIKON D700 @ 35mm, ISO 200, 1/200, f/8.0

It is actually not just over-saturated, but also underexposed. Sometimes underexposing

can result in too much color saturation as well.

 Don’t overexpose – always make sure to expose to the right correctly, so that

you don’t end up with overexposed images. Overexposed parts of images are
impossible to recover in post-processing, since there is no information in
them. If a scene has too much contrast, always bracket your images.

Monitor Calibration

When you work on your images, make sure that your monitor is calibrated. You do not
want to be editing images using a non-calibrated monitor, because your colors might be
way off. I have an article on “How to Calibrate Your Monitor“, in case you do not know
where to start.

Light

Let’s move on to Light – the third most important element of landscape photography. I
know many photographers will argue that it is the “first” in terms of importance – and
I agree. Although photo equipment and skill/technique are certainly important, no
photograph can look good without beautiful light. Portrait photographers can work with
pretty much any light, because they have powerful external flashes that can imitate
natural light. Landscape photographers do not have such luxury – we have to work with
the available light all the time (except when painting some foreground objects with
flashlight).

NIKON Z 6 + NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.8 S @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/200, f/5.6

What is the best light? What are the best times of the day? Or best times of the year?
Let’s see if I can answer some of these in more detail.

Sunrise and Sunset

The best landscape pictures are either taken at sunrise or sunset. I personally prefer
sunrise/early morning light than sunset/late afternoon light, because it seems like there
is less haze in the morning (obviously depends on many factors, pollution, wind,
wildfires, etc). But it all depends on the direction of the subject I want to photograph. In
Colorado, some mountains are best photographed at sunrise, while others are best
photographed at sunset. Before you decide when to be at a particular location, I would
highly recommend scouting the area first. Mid-afternoon is a good time to scout and
estimate where the sun will rise and where it will set. I personally rely on some apps for
my iPhone to tell me when the sun rises/sets and where in the horizon the sun will show
up and where it will set. My favorite app is PhotoPills – I simply set my location and it
tells me everything I need to know.

New Zealand Shore at Sunset

Best Light

When people ask photographers about the best light, the typical answer is “early in the
morning or late afternoon, with the worst light at mid-afternoon”. While it is true for
many locations around the world, the statement is not necessarily correct for some
regions. For example, if you live in Nordic countries or shoot in Antarctica, you could
shoot all day long with great light. How? It is all about the angle of light in relation to
the sun. Direct sunlight that we typically see in the mid-day is the worst, because it
creates straight and ugly shadows. But if sunlight is always at an angle, there is no bad
time for taking pictures. Sunrise and sunset times are the best, because you see the most
amount of colors. So if you asked me when the best light is, I would say “it depends on
where you are located”.

Seasons
What about seasons? Again, it depends on where you are. In Colorado, for example,
mid-summer is a great time for landscape photography because of wildflowers that
bloom in mid-July at high altitudes. In other places, summers are horrible due to heat,
too much haze and harsh light. Winters in Colorado are typically hard to photograph
due to harsh weather, snow, ice and dangerous road conditions. And yet winters are the
best in terms of haze and angle of the sun. Spring and Fall are typically my favorite
seasons to photograph landscapes everywhere, not just Colorado. The fall season is
something you do not want to miss, especially in places with lots of non-evergreen trees.
Some trees and plants go through dramatic color changes. For example, aspen changes
its colors

several times before the leaves fall off – from dark green to light green, then from light
green to yellow, then from yellow to red. In some cases you might even see brown
leaves, if there is no wind.

I
LCE-7RM2 + FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM @ 63mm, ISO 100, 0.8 sec, f/11.0

Spring is also great in many ways, with fruit trees and flowers having the most beautiful
blooming season: