What is it that today’s top landscape photographers are doing… that we aren’t?

Quite a lot, as it happens…..

This is a long post because there is a bunch of ground to cover. I was going to break it into several articles, but I decided to keep all the information in one place and make it easier to find in the future. Becoming an accomplished landscape photographer doesn’t happen overnight. For many, it will take a lifetime. For some of us, just one lifetime won’t be nearly long enough. So, with that depressing bit or reality out of the way, let’s spend a little while considering what the experts are up to and see if we can’t borrow a few of their time-tested practices to improve our own landscape work. I’m hoping that this will be a good starting point for anyone just getting started, and a valuable refresher for more experienced photographers. Either way, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did putting it together.

The very last moments of sunset on the Magnolia River

Have you ever experienced that awful sinking feeling? You know… the one that comes with the realization that the flat, lifeless images on your screen don’t look anything like the stunning vistas that left you breathless and awestruck during your trip to that mountain, desert, or coastline. I’m betting that this isn’t exactly a rare occurrence for most of us.

While I am sure they have all experienced their fair share of disappointments, what are the best of the best, like Thomas Heaton, Simon Baxter, Nigel Danson, and Joshua Cripps, all doing, that the rest of us aren’t? How can the photographs of Max Rive, Michael Shainblum, and Matt Donovan so consistently stir our senses and fire our imaginations, while our own images consistently disappoint, are seldom shared with friends, and are soon forgotten? And what can we, as weekend amateurs, learn from these modern masters of the art?

As a young surgeon, I quickly learned that consistently excellent surgical outcomes demanded planning, patience, perseverance, and passion. As an old codger, I have come to understand that these are the four critical ingredients for any and every successful endeavor. And I suspect, based on many years’ observation of great landscape photographers and their work, that they might agree that these core attributes have contributed much to their success.

But how do these essential traits translate into practical guidance for the up and coming landscape photographer? In this post I will discuss some of the practices employed by our most successful landscape photographers. Great landscape photography is high art. So I will be the first to admit that it is unrealistic to think that I could suddenly become a gifted virtuoso, simply by incorporating a handful of the pros’ practices into my own photography. Raw talent is not something we can acquire and no picture of mine would ever be mistaken for a Heaton landscape. But, that being said, I do believe that by incorporating some of the following practices into our own work, we can take better advantage of the talents that we do have.

These are practices that I believe in and incorporate into my own photography. But be aware that, while I was inspired to write this by observing the collective practices of many great photographers, I am not suggesting that each of the artists named above engage in all of these practices. This is my own interpretation of what makes these photographers so successful. Further, I have not independently verified that any of them would endorse these suggestions, or necessarily agree with any of what follows.

But they might…

f/1 - Plan every shoot

As obvious as this probably sounds, it is a good idea to know where you are going and what you intend to photograph. As is the case in virtually all human endeavor, things seldom work out according to plan, but plan we must. It is rare to find oneself in the right place, at the right time, and with a camera. But it does occasionally happen, so when it does, knock yourself out, be flexible enough to seize the moment. Far more commonly, we have time to plan. We know what we want to photograph and may even have some idea of the story we want our image to convey. Now we must figure out how to overcome all of the real world challenges and obstacles that lie between the idea (“I want to shoot the Grand Canyon”) and a successful photograph (“Amateur photographer wins National Geographic best landscape of all time award with single photograph of Grand Canyon”).

In this step, we need to deal with the logistics of the shoot. How far do I need to travel, what time do I need to leave, and where will I park the car (or tether the camel)? Depending on the trip, you may need to allow for road conditions and traffic. Look at the weather forecast and adjust your wardrobe accordingly. I have lost count of how many of my early morning adventures have been spent spent shivering and cursing because I failed to anticipate the wet cold of pre-dawn in autumn, or forgot to grab hand warmers, gloves, or a wooly hat. By the way, I have started keeping all that stuff in the car, year round. It can be a lifesaver!

When does the sun rise at your location, and from what direction (relative to your planned shot)? How will your elevation effect the quality, timing and direction of the light illuminating your scene? To help with answering those questions, I strongly recommend using one of the many excellent photography apps designed to help you take advantage of the light conditions at your planned location. One in particular, PlanIt! for Photographers, stands out from the competition. This amazing app, created by landscape photographers, provides incredibly accurate and detailed information about the lighting conditions for the date, time, and precise location of your shoot. It is an indispensable tool for planning my outings. It works everywhere on earth and, if you load the location map in advance, does not require an internet connection to use in the field. The app contains 100 photography tools and features, runs on IOS and Android, and costs only $10. These guys don’t sponsor me, so trust me when I say you need to get this app!

What gear do we need to take and what gear can we safely leave at home? Anticipating the right lens for the shot, and having that lens on the main body when you walk out the door, may prevent exposing the guts of your D850 to a Kalahari dust storm or a coastal sandblasting. What about filters, a cable release, cleaning stuff, extra memory cards, and batteries (allow for even more reserve power in extremely cold locations)? If you have several tripods, make certain that you have mounted the correct quick release plate for the tripod you will be using (you WILL be using a tripod - don’t forget the tripod).

Always carry a flashlight and a headlamp, with an extra set of batteries. The headlamp has kept me out of trouble on countless occasions, especially at locations with precipitous falls waiting around every corner.

One other factor to consider when planning a trip is how much time do I want to allow for setup and for shooting. This is important enough to get its very own section. Virtually every aspiring landscape photographer that I have known has had to learn this lesson the hard way. Arriving at the location without enough time to carefully set up the shot and adequately test the gear must be the number one unforced error (OK… forgetting your camera might be number one), virtually guaranteeing a disappointing final image.

Depending on where I am going, and on how well I already know the location, I allow anywhere from one to three or more hours to prepare for the shoot. I allow even longer if I am headed to popular spot, where I expect to be joined by a few dozen other photographers, and want to pick a prime spot for the image. Even when shooting a favorite location, one that I visit often, I still allow a bare minimum of one hour. This is enough time for me to walk around the site, checking for better vantage points and improved angles. I can find new or different foreground features to add to the composition. There will be plenty of time to setup the tripod, mount the camera, attach release cables, check memory and battery status (you would be amazed by the mysterious things that can happen to batteries and memory cards between home and location), and enjoy a leisurely Starbucks dark roast from the thermos (that was remembered, for once). Camera settings can be carefully checked, re-checked, and re-re-checked. If needed for the planned shoot, filter systems can be assembled and mounted. And all this can be done before the first pale glow of morning touches the eastern horizon.

By the way, this setup time doesn’t change for an evening or daytime shoot, even though the preparations are less tricky when you can actually see what you’re doing.

Preparation is everything. The more you do, the more natural it will become. So, with all the pre-trip and on-site preparation complete, we are ready for the hard part, composing the photograph (see f/4, below) and waiting.

f/1.4 - Slow down

A sunset long exposure on the Gulf of Mexico

I have talked about slowing down in many of my macro photography posts and, as important as it is in that discipline, it is even more critical in landscape photography. The landscape is not a subject over which the photographer has much control. The view from our carefully planned perch is in a state of never-ending flux. The sun, moon, clouds, mists, waves, and treetops are constantly in motion and present the viewer with an infinitely complex dance of light and shadow. Colors flare and die slowly or suddenly, at the mercy of the rising or setting sun’s position in the sky and the ever-changing composition of our insubstantial atmosphere.

To capture the landscape as it appears in our mind’s eye calls for patience and perseverance. The flash of gold that ignites a distant butte and brings the desert landscape to vivid life may last for only a second or two. It may not appear for hours. It may not appear at all. Few photographers have the kind of patience and determination to keep their camera motionless, thumb poised over the trigger release, throughout an entire sunrise, only to pack up and head for home in hopes of better luck tomorrow. Or the next day. It is that willingness and ability to wait for that elusive and perfect light, resisting the pull of any other potentially photograph-worthy distractions, that separates the landscape photographer from the rest of us.

A momentary flash of morning sunlight ignites the midpoint of the cascade

For this image I had to wait for just over an hour, from the moment the rising sun first touched the trees in the background until the light momentarily caught the small stack of stones at the center of the frame.

Slowing down and waiting for the light, which may never come, is a real challenge for a type-A person like me. Which reminds me of one of my late mother’s favorite sayings, quoting from a Scottish author to take a dig at my hopeless lack of equanimity…

“Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can, seldom found in woman, never found in man”

— Jonathan Morris

f/2 - Eliminate the shakes - always use a tripod

Autumn at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham

This is a pretty basic requirement and absolutely essential for high quality landscape images. Many of the most striking landscapes are captured during the early morning and late evening, often demanding that longer exposures be used to compensate for lower ISOs (less noise) and smaller apertures (greater depth of field). The use of a sturdy tripod, along with a cable release and shooting in mirror-up (Mup) mode, are fundamental to capturing sharper images.

While I am sure there have been some very good photographs captured while the photographer was hand-holding the camera, none of them were mine. The use of a high quality, sturdy tripod is essential in most landscape situations (the view from the summit of Mount Everest being one notable exception). There are other options for stabilizing the camera that can be useful in certain specific circumstances. A bean bag, supported by the ground or some other stable surface, may be one option. I have used them for long-lens wildlife shots but find them a bit cumbersome and inconvenient for most landscape applications. But if you want maximum flexibility and reliable stability (you do, trust me), pack a tripod. But not just any old tripod.

You have probably heard this a thousand times, but if you are serious about your landscape photography, buy the very best tripod that you can afford. It really does make a huge difference, especially if you are out taking pictures on a windy day, or expecting your platform to remain rock solid with 20 pounds of gear attached. It is true that a top of the line Gitzo or RRS (Really Right Stuff) tripod will set you back a thousand bucks or more, and that’s not even adding in the (high) cost for a tripod head of comparable quality. But the alternative of sequential tripod upgrades, which I think a great many of us end up doing, can be just as costly in the long run. We start with a cheap tripod because, deep down, we don’t believe the hype. What can the $1,000 legs possibly add that could justify the insane price? Before long, we figure out that our blurred images probably are coming from the toothpick legs on our $50 tripod. No big deal, we just saw an ad for a tripod with much fatter looking legs, and for only $120! That’ll fix the problem. Nope. It didn’t. You see where this is going. As our photography continues to improve, we keep overtaking the current tripod’s ability to keep up. Stick with landscape photography long enough and, I promise, the day will come when spending $1,000 on a RRS tripod seems like a logical investment. So, do yourself a favor, sell that lens you never use, or put off your switch to mirrorless for six more months, and go buy a great tripod.

Getting back to the real world, few photographers have the budget to plonk down a grand for a tripod, regardless of how good it is. To buy the best tripod that you can afford you will need to invest some time and energy into research. If you are lucky enough to live in one of the very few cities that still have brick and mortar camera shops, the best research is to go and look at your options. Unfortunately, most of us have to make these purchases online, forcing us to rely on descriptions, photographs, and reviews. I only read reviews by individuals who can state, categorically, that they do receive compensation, be it monetary or in the form of free gear, for reviewing the product. You may be shocked, and frustrated, to discover just how rare it is to find someone that can truly qualify as an independent and unbiased reviewer.

Not all good tripods are super-expensive. But at every price level, except at the very top end, there is quite a bit of variability in terms of quality and features. The first thing to do is decide what kind of tripod you need. Seeing as we are talking about landscape photography, some of the options can be taken off the table. You wouldn’t want a very heavy aluminum tripod, something you might use in the studio, if you have to lug it halfway up a mountain, for example. Good tripods are usually made from thick aluminum or multi-layered carbon fiber. The metal ones are usually less expensive, but heavier. Both materials offer a comparably stable platform, provided they are well constructed and the thickness of the leg walls is substantial enough to bear the load. You also need to consider what you intend to put on top of your tripod. The weight of big pro DSLRs and high-end lenses, not to mention the battery grips or whatever other accessories you have on board, put a strain on the tripod’s legs. So make sure your tripod is rated for the load you will be expecting it to bear.

Then there is the number of sections in each leg to consider. The more sections you have, the thinner the lower sections have to be to fit inside the higher ones, and the less rigid the overall platform. You could go with longer sections, but then you have to compromise on the size of the collapsed tripod. This can be a deal breaker if you will be trying to take it in your baggage when traveling, especially when flying. Think about how you will use the tripod. Do the legs lock in multiple positions and can you get the tripod head close to the ground? Does the tripod offer the ability to change between soft and spiked feet? Does the tripod extend to a height that will be comfortable for your height? Do you want a center post extension (no, you don’t)? Does it include a case or a sling? Do the legs have twist or lever locks?

With so much to consider, take your time, do the research, know what features you must have, and, whenever possible, get your hands on the selected tripod before you buy it.

For what it’s worth, here are my recommendations at a couple of different price points:

If price is no object, think about getting the RRS TVC-33 Versa Series-3, Mk.2 and slap a BH-55 ball head on top of it. At $1,500, it is all the tripod you will ever need. It is gorgeous and built like a tank.
If that is out of range, go with the Gitzo GT2532 Mountaineer. It has three-section legs, like the RRS, but sells for a paltry $700. The Gitzo GH1382QD ball head pairs nicely and is a mere $350 more.
At half the price, but still a high quality platform, consider the Pro-Master SP528CK Professional. It is not as sturdy as the more expensive options, but it comes with a very nice ball head, is light enough to carry around all day, and only costs $400. It is a full-featured tripod that is a better value than most.
Another fantastic brand that fills this middle ground is Induro. Their CLT302 carbon fiber tripod is a real value at $325 and I know several professional photographers who swear by it, especially when traveling. The Benro G2 triple action ball head can complete the setup for another $200.
At only $200, the Manfrotto 190X Pro-4 is a pretty good tripod for the money. It is made of aluminum and provides acceptable stability without too much weight. I’m not sure I want to be using it on a windy day, mind you.

I wouldn’t recommend going much lower than this, especially if you are serious about your photography and plan to be using your tripod for years to come. But, at the end of the day, any tripod is going to better than no tripod for your landscape photography. It makes that big a difference.

f/2.8 - Focus on focus

In landscape photography it is often desirable to have the entire scene in sharp focus. The best way to accomplish this consistently starts with an understanding of the concept of the hyperfocal distance. It sounds intimidating, but it is really fairly straightforward. The hyperfocal distance describes the distance between your sensor and the closest point at which you can focus while ensuring acceptable sharpness all the way out to infinity. When we focus on a point at the hyperfocal distance, our depth of field will extend from half the hyperfocal distance out to infinity. The hyperfocal distance varies based on the focal length of your chosen lens, the aperture of the lens, and the size of your camera’s sensor. To maximize your depth of field (DOF), you would want to minimize that hyperfocal distance. This can be done in three different ways: by using a smaller aperture, (which means a higher aperture number like f/16 or f/20), by selecting a wider lens (which means a lens with a smaller focal length, like 11 or 16), or by picking a camera with a larger sensor.

Unless you are ready to upgrade from your Nikon D3400 to a Fujifilm GFX 50S, and have the $5,000 that Adorama will want in the trade, you will have to rely on adjustments of the focal length and aperture of your lens to control the hyperfocal distance. There are several phone apps available that will calculate your hyperfocal distance for you. One that I like goes by the catchy name of “Depth of Field Calculator”, which is available on the Apple App Store for about $5 (for the full app). You can also get little tables that give you the hyperfocal length for most common focal lengths and aperture settings. For example, when I am using a D850 (full frame sensor) with my trusty 24-70mm f/2.8 (at 24mm) and an aperture of f/16, the hyperfocal distance is just under 4 feet. So, with that setup I would focus at a point 4 feet infant of the camera to ensure that everything from 2 feet in front of the camera, all the way out to infinity, will be in acceptable focus.

By the way, if you are using a camera that offers a DOF preview function, and if you don’t mind using live view, you can check the focus at any point in your image before taking the photograph. I am not a huge fan of live view and don’t use this feature as much as maybe I should.

Of course, you won’t want every landscape to be in focus from back to front. There are plenty of creative reasons to open up the aperture and blur parts of the image, drawing the viewer’s attention to a particular part of the image. Feel free to experiment, but know how to use the hyperfocal distance first.

f/4 - Compose yourself

The difference between a good landscape photograph and a great one often boils down to how the image has been composed. This is where the art of photography takes over from the science. We have all kinds of formulas and rules that allow us to nail exposure and focus on our images, but composition is a different matter completely. There are all kinds of composition “rules”, like the rule of thirds, leading lines, cropping, filling the frame, the rule of odds, balancing, perspective, symmetry, movement, space, triangulation, and the one that looks like a snail (the golden ratio, I believe it’s called), and we should take the time to understand the importance and application of each. I have read several books dealing with nothing but photographic composition (I would strongly recommend that you pick up Michael Freeman’s “The Photographer’s Eye”), but studying the theory of composition is probably not enough for most of us. To best understand the importance of composition, and apply that understanding to our own photography, we must first learn to appreciate it in the art of others.

We all know when we are looking at a great photograph, one that is powerful, that sucks us in, tells a story, and stirs our emotions. We have all been profoundly moved by images, even when the subject of the photograph holds no particular interest for us. This is how we perceive brilliant composition. Understanding why we perceive some works more powerfully than others is the key to becoming a better photographer. By carefully examining the photographs of the best landscape photographers, we have an opportunity to reconstruct the process of composition, see which rules were followed, and which were adapted, and we can begin to understand why their techniques work.

Putting this knowledge into practice is a lifelong process, and at times it can be slow going. Starting out, there is nothing wrong with copying the composition of a specific landscape that was used previously by another photographer whose work you admire. Soon enough, though, you will want to portray the scene as seen through your own eyes. A critical element in any process of improvement is a way to measure and track our progress. In such a subjective discipline as photographic composition, this can be difficult. There are a couple of specific practices, sharing and printing, that can generate valuable feedback and accelerate our acquisition of composing insights. I think they are both important enough to get their own sections (f/5.6 & f/8, below) …

f/5.6 - Share the love

In f/4 above, we looked at the central importance of composition in landscape photography (it’s no less important in any other photographic discipline) and touched on how we can improve our composition by studying the work of others. In this, and the next section, we are going to consider a couple of the practices that many successful photographers consider indispensable. In case you haven’t already learned this fact of photographic life, we are not the most objective judges of our own work. Sure, we have some tools that will confirm we chose the right exposure settings, or nailed focus, but when it comes to the less tangible elements, the WOW factor, for example, we are usually far too intimately connected to the image to be able to give ourselves any meaningful feedback (you should see some of my 5-star Lightroom rankings to know how true this is!). We really need for our work to be seen by another set of eyes if we can expect to get some honest and constructive feedback.

Let me hasten to clarify that I am not talking about seeking feedback from just anyone. I would immediately disqualify any individuals who, for one reason or another, may harbor an ulterior motive for giving your picture a raving review. Avoid seeking feedback from your spouse (unless he or she is the creative editor for a major photography publication - but even then it’s risky), a child (who may leverage the review for an increased allowance), an employee (same reason), or an elected official (who may need your vote). I would also shy away from non-photographers. That is not because you can’t get honest feedback from, say, a lumberjack or a nuclear physicist - they will react to a great photograph the same way you do - but more because they may not be able to tell you why your image does, or doesn’t, work for them.

Which eyes can be trusted to look at your images critically and provide useful, honest feedback? I would urge you to consider joining one, or more, of the numerous online photography sharing communities that have sprung up since the digital revolution. These communities are not all equal and it is worth doing some homework to find the one(s) that best meet your needs. Many of these sites are free to join while others charge a nominal fee for membership. Some are sponsored by camera companies or other corporate entities, who use the platform to advertise products and services to potential customers. The best (in my opinion) are member supported, may have specific requirements for membership, and are more likely to charge you to belong. Some of these communities offer a sharing platform for any type of work, while others are exclusive to one particular genre.

I am particularly fond of the Ugly Hedgehog - Photography Forum which provides a sharing space for all kinds of photography. In addition to being a venue at which you can show off a few (or a ton) of your recent pictures, it also supports a sub-group where members offer critical review of photographs submitted for that purpose. It is usually the better photographers who take the time to carefully review images and provide well thought out, constructive suggestions. The site is moderated, which helps the various forums to stay focused.

A couple of other very popular forums that provide a place to have your images critiqued by photographers include Flickr (not the most user-friendly option and not always the most consistent quality of feedback) and 500px (a really fantastic site for serious photographers, membership is about $9 a month, but worth every penny). I would avoid going to Instagram or Reddit in search of useful feedback, though they are both great ways to get your images seen by a large audience.

Other ways to have your photographs evaluated by people that know what they are talking about could include joining a local photography club or starting a MeetUp group in your area. These groups usually have relatively small numbers, which is great for getting to know other photographers, so it could be hit or miss whether you end up with members having the experience and talent to give you reliable feedback.

Lastly, you might be lucky enough to personally know one or more professional photographers. This can be a tricky one and I would suggest seeking feedback from a working pro only occasionally, if at all (unless you are willing to compensate them for their time). It may put the pro in a difficult position, pitting frankness against friendship.

But regardless of how you do it, show your pictures to photographers and listen to the feedback you are offered. Asking for critical feedback is hard enough. Actually listening to it (and learning from it) is even tougher. Being open to criticism is a skill and, like any other, requires dedication and practice to master. Start now and it will pay off royally down the line.

f/8 - Put it down on paper

This is the other step that we should take if we are serious about improving our landscape compositions. While I would make this suggestion to improve any type of photography, it is especially crucial in the world of landscapes.

Invest in a high quality, dedicated photographic printer and use it often.

I don’t recall who said this first, but a photograph isn’t complete until you can hold it in your hands. The permanence of pigment on paper changes a photograph, gives it substance, and brings it to life. But that’s not all it does. A large print, made on a quality printer, using good paper, does not leave many places for our mistakes to hide. Detail that was easy to overlook on the screen becomes conspicuous in print. Motion blur and focus issues are magnified. Colors, even after careful calibration of screen and printer, can be subtly altered by the medium. But it isn’t only the details that are uncovered. There is something about the scale of the print that amplifies the impact of the composition. Foreground elements gain substance and heft, spaces appear more vast, and horizons stretch on forever.

And that is precisely why we should be printing our work and looking closely and carefully at the finished product. I am constantly amazed and sometimes perplexed by how dramatically the character of a landscape photograph morphs between the iMac and a large scale print. Printing has become an indispensable learning tool that I incorporate into my regular workflow. Of course, I don’t print every photograph that I create. Not even close. I would estimate that I print less than 10% of my images, though it might be slightly higher for landscapes. I print a ton of photographs only to use them as tools to help me improve my technique and composition.

I am going to resist the temptation to launch into a detailed discussion of printers and printing here, though it is a part of photography that I find enormously satisfying and endlessly fascinating. I will briefly touch on my current printing setup. Thanks to the generosity of Laura, my long-suffering editor and Moral Supporter In-Chief, I was recently able to bring most of my printing in-house, with the acquisition of a brand spanking new Canon Pro-10, large format photo printer. This is an absolutely superb printer (not easy for a Nikon guy to say, I might add) and it has performed flawlessly since day one. It’s a big machine, weighing in at around 40 pounds, that prints on media up to 13” by 19”. Unfortunately, it cannot print to rolled paper, so panoramas still have to go to the lab. It uses ten ink colors, three of them being different shades of black. The ink is costly, at about $130 for the full set of 10 cartridges, but the printer is very efficient so printing is surprisingly economical. Even so, I choose to use replacement inks from Precision Colors, which are supplied in bulk containers for refilling the original Canon cartridges, and at a fraction of the cost. I really can’t see any difference in quality between these inks and the original Canon ones.

I use a number of different papers, depending on the photograph and how I plan to display it. My favorites are all from Red River Paper, located in Texas. The first is their Arctic Polar Luster, a heavy premium satin paper with a wonderful surface texture. I also love Red River’s Premium Matte PLUS for some applications. I hardly ever use gloss finishes but have some UltraPro Gloss 2.0 on hand for when I do. They also carry two of the best fine art papers I have ever used, Aurora Art White and San Gabriel Baryta SemiGloss 2.0. These papers are not cheap but neither are the original Canon papers (which, though good, are not up to Red River standards). In recommending these inks and papers, let me assure you I am not sponsored by either company and purchase all my supplies at full retail price.

I should mention that this recommendation to evaluate samples of your work in print does not mean you need to go out and buy a printer. There are plenty of photo printing services available. Most of them do excellent work and some are probably more economical than printing on your own machine. Get a few of your images printed from time to time. Order prints of a decent size (at least 12”x18”, or so) and on good paper. You will be surprised by how much you can learn from a careful study of the prints.

f/11 - Tame the light

If you are new to photography, and even if you have been taking pictures for years, but are just getting interested in landscapes, you may not yet have had much experience with lens filters. That needs to change. Filters, usually made of glass or photographic resin, are placed somewhere along the path of light streaming towards the camera’s sensor, and are used to modify the intensity and/or character of that light. In so doing, they become powerful tools in the landscape photographer’s arsenal. With a little practice, these simple devices can help you tame bright skies, remove unwanted reflections, correct colors, give a sense of movement to clouds, and turn flowing water to silver silk.

Let’s take a look at the various types of filters and consider when and how we can take advantage of each. Using filters is another subject about which entire books have been written, so please know that this will be a little more than a brief introduction. But, we gotta start somewhere.

Best of the best - Wine Country Camera’s 150mm filter holder

As mentioned above, photographic filters are usually, and preferably, made of glass. Some inexpensive filters use other, less costly materials like transparent resins or plastics, but the savings come at a cost. Cheaper filters have a tendency to leave your photographs with unwanted color casts which can be very difficult to correct during editing.

From a mechanical standpoint, the filter can be placed anywhere in front of the camera sensor, but from a practical one, they are almost always positioned immediately in front of the foremost element of the lens. The exception is seen in some long lenses where filters can be placed into the lens barrel, close to the rear element, through a little trapdoor. This is mostly seen in lenses with focal lengths of 300 mm and up. In landscape photography, we rarely, if ever, find ourselves needing a long telephoto lens, and most of our compositions will call for lenses in the normal (50mm) to wide angle range.

The filters that are placed before the front element are either square, rectangular, or circular. The round ones screw directly onto the lens while the rectangular ones are placed into a holder which is clipped or screwed to the lens, usually with an adapter. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. The round, screw in filters are more compact, often less expensive, and do not allow light to leak around the filter and into the lens. However, the round filters may be difficult to stack when multiple effects are needed, and they do not offer the flexibility of positioning that is needed for some filter applications (this will make more sense in a second). A decent quality, basic set of rectangular filters, along with a filter holder, can set you back hundreds of dollars. An entire set of the best filters on the market can run into the thousands. Wine Country Camera arguably makes the best, and definitely the sharpest looking, filter holding system on the market. The stuff that looks like wood in the photograph above actually is wood. Hand carved. Gorgeous.

Whether round or rectangular, filters come in several types, each type designed with a very specific function in mind.

Circular polarizing filters (actually circular polarizing/linear, or CPL filters) are used to reduce distracting reflections and can add color and contrast to uninteresting skies. Without getting bogged down with the optical details, these filters work just like your RayBans and function best when your line of sight is perpendicular to the sun’s rays (and have no affect at all when the sun is directly behind or in front of you). As is true of all filters, the cheaper ones have a tendency to add odd color casts that can ruin the image. You can get a very fine CPL for about $100.
Ultraviolet filters (UV filters) are simple glass elements that block UV light from entering the lens. It is a surprisingly contentious issue among photographers, with many using them all the time and others never doing so. About the only purpose for using a UV filter, that everyone agrees with, is to protect the front element of your lens. This may be true for some minor mishaps, but the best UV filter in the world isn’t going to protect your favorite lens when you drop it 20 feet, onto the rocks. But it will keep dirt and splashes of liquid away from the front element and may protect it from scratches. But none of the other claims made by UV filter users are very compelling. They are supposedly able to reduce some of the bluish color cast from photos taken on bright days. While that may be true with some UV filters, it is just not a feature that makes sense, given the fact that the sensors in today’s digital SLR cameras are largely insensitive to UV light. Film, on the other hand, can be quite sensitive to UV light, so a UV filter may be worth considering if shooting film is your thing. The same is true for most common types of chromatic aberration, though there is some evidence to support the claim that a UV filter can reduce the less common longitudinal aberration. But Lightroom can do that too. I don’t use UV filters except when I am shooting macro in the field, and then it is just to keep dirt and bugs off the lens. For landscapes, I see no advantage to using one. But if you think it is worthwhile, make sure you are using a filter that is at least as good as your lens. It makes no sense to slap a $5 UV filter on your $2,000 lens.
Neutral density (ND) filters are a must-have accessory for my landscape photography. They are basically just a piece of glass that is coated with a material that partially blocks the transmission of light without altering the hue or saturation of colors. They come in a whole range of strengths (their ND number) allowing you darken the image from a single stop all the way up to 16 stops. The most commonly used ND filters are the ND2, ND4, and ND8, which provide f/stop reductions of 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Another popular ND filter is the ND100 which provides almost 7-stops of blocking power. These filters are used to give you more options in terms of aperture and shutter speed when composing your photograph. For example, with an ND filter in place you could use a larger aperture to get a shallower depth of field than you otherwise could in bright conditions. Another popular application of ND filters is to use the decreased light transmission to allow for slower shutter speeds than otherwise possible, letting the photographer capture a pleasing motion blur to clouds and moving water. Good ND filters can be very expensive, costing as much as $200 each. But this is not an item to skimp on. Cheap ND filters are notorious for adding ghastly color casts. There are plenty of great filters on the market, with brands like Lee, Singh-Ray, and B&W topping most lists. I recently started using Haida ND filters and have been extremely pleased with their quality and value. Three thumbs up for Haida.
A modification of the ND filter, very useful to the landscape photographer, is the graduated ND filter (GND). This is just as it sounds. The filter is only tinted over a portion (usually half) of its surface. When the transition zone is aligned with the horizon, the tinted portion will reduce the brightness of the sky while leaving the rest of the frame unaffected. This effectively reduces the dynamic range such that detail can be preserved in the brightest parts of the sky. These filters require a filter holder. The rectangular filter can then be positioned vertically, or at an angle, while the transition zone can be moved by sliding the GND up or down as needed. Most holders have slots for more than one filter so that ND and GND filters can be used in combination. Square or rectangular GND filters are available in many different different types, some with a sharp transition zone and others with a much more gradual change from light to dark. These are generally the most expensive filters and, if you go this route, you are going to need at least a couple of different types and a good filter holder. Some of the most popular GND filters are made by Lee Filters and the company makes a very fine landscape starter set for a mere $1,000. Gulp.

You will likely come across advertising for variable neutral density filters (VND), so let me give you my two cents on using them. The VND is made of two pieces of glass that are polarized in different orientations so that when they are rotated against one another the overall effect is to block more or less of the light getting through the filter. The idea is that you get one of these $300-500 filters instead of a set of individual NDs. I don’t use them. To be fair, I haven’t tested all the brands out there, but the two I own, a Hoya and a B&W, both cause artifacts to appear in areas of the frame that are out of focus. I’ve never had this problem with individual ND filters.

There are other types of filters, including those designed for color correction (a warming orange tint, for example) and some that are used to create special effects, such as starbursts. They have limited utility in basic landscape photography, compared to those described above, so we won’t dwell on them here.

If all of this talk about thousand-dollar filter sets is making you think twice about landscape photography, remember that Lightroom and Photoshop, as well as every other photographic processing software that I have heard of, offer numerous filter tools that can be used to emulate most of the filters described above (with the exception of the CPL).

f/16 - Learn your lenses

I am going to assume, for the sake of this discussion, that you have, or have access to, a camera with the ability to accept interchangeable lenses. Let’s also assume that you have only the kit lens that came with your camera. If you have an entry-level camera with a crop frame (APS-C) sensor, you most likely already have something like the versatile 18-55mm, f/3.5-f/5.6 lens. If your camera is a little closer to the high end for crop frame bodies, you might have a lens with a slightly larger focal range, like a 18-140mm, f/3.5-f/5.6. Either of these lenses are all you need to get started and will give you enough flexibility to explore landscape photography to your heart’s content.

Firstly, we’ll look at what you can do with each of these basic lenses, and then I’ll offer a few suggestions for lenses you might want to consider adding to your bag, and why.

For most of the landscape work you are likely to be doing, you will be using a fairly small aperture (say, f/11 -f/16), so the fact that both of these lenses are limited to f/3.5 shouldn’t be a problem. Both lenses also offer a useful short focal length, meaning a nice large field of view, of 18mm. The smaller lens, having a maximum focal length of 55mm, is not going to be able to provide the same reach as the 18-140mm. What does that mean in terms of taking a landscape photograph? In a very rough approximation, our eyes (you are human, right?) show us the world with a field of view similar to that of a 50mm lens. As the focal length drops below 50mm, the field of view expands, and the sensor is able to capture more of the scene. Shortening the focal length also introduces more distortion, pulling the center of the resulting image closer and pushing the periphery of the picture into the far distance. The opposite is true as we increase the focal length. In this case, the field of view shrinks, showing the sensor less of the scene. At longer focal lengths, the subject appears magnified and the perspective flattened.

The sweet spot for shooting landscape images depends on what you are trying to convey in your photograph. If the aim is to portray the vastness of a wide open space, select a shorter focal length. To further exaggerate to the perspective, try to bring a compelling foreground element into the composition. This anchors the viewer’s eye and enhances the sense of scale. But be careful, objects in the foreground will be subject to greater distortion. By convention, any lens with a focal lens of less than about 50mm is called a wide angle lens.

On the other end of the scale, lenses with focal lengths greater than 50mm, called telephoto lenses, offer the landscape photographer the option to isolate interesting elements in the scene by magnifying the feature while shortening the perspective and removing distractions from the periphery of the image.

With this in mind, you can appreciate that the 18-55mm lens will limit the user to broader perspectives and make it impossible to bring distant features into prominence. Even 140mm can be inadequate for some landscape applications. As you can see in the images below, some landscapes can benefit from a significantly longer focal length.

I should mention the difference between zoom lenses and prime lenses. Both the kit lenses we have been talking about are zooms, meaning that the focal length of the lens can be changed (18-55mm and 18-140mm) without changing the lens. Prime lenses, on the other hand, have a fixed focal length and need to be changed to alter the perspective of your photograph. There is a tradeoff though. The prime lenses, lacking the complex moving elements of a zoom lens, often result in sharper images with more accurate color reproduction. When comparing them to the best quality zooms, I am not convinced that there is much optical advantage to using primes, given the amazing accuracy of today’s high-end zooms. The same is probably not true for lenses at the lower price points. There is a significant image quality advantage to using a 50mm prime lens (great 50mm primes can be picked up for less than $100) over either of the inexpensive (though not cheap!) zooms mentioned above.

So where does that leave the kit lens owner who is trying to improve their landscape results? I would suggest either sticking with what you currently have, the kit zoom, or picking up a 50mm (or a 35mm) prime lens, and learn to take great landscape images by concentrating on all the other recommendations we have been talking about. But while you are learning with what you have, start saving up your pennies.

There are three Nikon lenses that I use for all my landscapes (and almost all of my non-macro photography). They are the 24-70mm f/2.8, the 70-200mm f/2.8, and the 14-24mm f/2.8. All three are absolutely superb and well worth their hefty price tags. There is a reason they are known as the “holy trinity” by Nikon owners. For non-Nikon users, almost all the other lens manufacturers offer high quality zoom lenses with similar focal distance ranges.

While understanding the lenses you have is undeniably important for planning how to compose your photograph, the quality of that lens is far less so. I love gear as much as the next guy, but it is good to remember that it is not the gear that separates the great photographers from the rest of us, it’s what they do with it that matters.

f/22 - Become a scout

If you are stuck in a landscape rut, and if it feels like you are taking the same photograph over and over again, it might be time to try a new approach. Let me explain.

I became interested in landscape photography from following the amazing work being done by the new generation of great photographers. This interest grew as my macro photography started taking me to new and exciting locations. In the early days, I would get in the car with a backpack stuffed full of gear and drive to a promising location. Then I would start hiking, stopping whenever I saw a possible composition and taking a few hundred pictures before repacking the gear and walking another 100 yards, and then doing it all over again. I would spend countless hours walking and shooting, walking and shooting, starting in the pre-dawn and soldiering on until I had to shoot in bulb mode to get an image. I loved every minute of it and, to this day, it is still my favorite way to pass a long Sunday. But my pictures were terrible. Not all of them, but most.

I don’t think of myself as an impatient person but these photo hikes were bringing out the worst in me. I would be setting up the tripod to get a few shots of this ridge or that pond, but my mind was already around the next corner, wondering how I would photograph a scene I hadn’t even seen yet. The more I pushed, the less satisfied I was with the result. I was getting very discouraged.

I finally got a break when circumstances conspired to separate me from my camera. I had done the unthinkable and gone on a short business trip without my camera bag. Unthinkable, because I take at least one camera with me wherever I go. Always. But here I was, in a lovely part of Tennessee, with a whole afternoon to myself, and no camera. Not wanting to waste such a lovely day I set off to walk a trail that looped through the foothills of the Blue Ridge and passed by several gorgeous waterfalls. Without a camera, that sense of urgency to capture everything that caught my eye was gone. I was still looking at every feature of this new location like a photographer, but I wasn’t setting anchor at every promising point along the trail. Instead, I was scrambling up and down hills, checking the compass, making a ton of notes, and taking copious snapshots with the iPhone. After a few hours of creative rambling, I was exhausted but had something entirely new to stick in my camera bag when I got home. I had a plan.

After returning to the hotel, I took all my notes, measurements, snapshots, and compass headings and started to plan how I would photograph this lovely area. I relied on PlanIt! for Photographers, mentioned earlier in this series, to figure out the position and angle of the sun. A couple of online topographic maps helped me to select ideal vantage points for the shots I had in mind. Pulling it all together, I came up with the best sequence for the shots, the order that would maximize the efficiency of the shoot, and optimize the lighting conditions.

I would love to be able to tell you that everything went like clockwork when I returned to the site a few weekends later, but it didn’t. The weather, promised to be ideal according to the forecasts, must have been working from a different plan than mine. It started raining as I climbed out of the car, turned into a downpour by the time I got on the trail, and was throwing down a few uncomfortably close bolts of lightning by the time I made it back into the car. The storm lasted just long enough for the sun to get bored and dip behind the next mountain over. But that’s photography for you!

Since that time, I have taken the time to scout new locations whenever possible. Of course, there are still plenty of places that I don’t get an opportunity to visit more than once and, when that happens, I make the best of what I find and try not to let myself rush. But when I am planning to shoot closer to home, especially in areas that are entirely new to me, I will set aside an hour or two to walk around the area and make a solid plan for the shoot. And it isn’t a chore. On the contrary, it is relaxing and exciting to think through all the creative possibilities without the pressure of a camera getting in the way.

So, if you are having a hard time jumpstarting your creative side, give this exercise a shot. Let me know how it goes.

f/32 - Try, try, and try again

Looking west on Dauphin Street in Mobile

In the previous section, I described being in a creative rut and how I felt like I was shooting the same landscape, over and over again. Let me elaborate on what I meant by “shooting the same landscape” so that this recommendation makes sense. I was going to different physical locations but my compositions were stilted and formulaic. I was doing what worked, staying in my very limited comfort zone, and not really seeing what I was photographing. What I am going to suggest now might appear like a contradiction, but hear me out.

Have you ever found yourself at a perfectly stunning location, carefully composed the shot, and rushed home to excitedly download and admire your work, only to find the resulting photograph a huge disappointment? If you have taken more than a handful of landscape photos, you have experienced this letdown. And if you are like me, you may have been tempted to blame it on the location and start thinking about where to try next. This is precisely the wrong way to react to a disappointing photograph.

A disappointing result from a landscape shoot is one of our most powerful learning tools. What, exactly, didn’t work in the photograph? Was it the composition, the light, the color, the sky, the perspective? And how could the image be improved? Sometimes it is as simple as lowering the tripod, moving ten feet to the left, or waiting five minutes for the sun to drop another couple of degrees. What if we took this picture at sunrise instead of at the end of the day? In fall instead of the springtime? How would adding a filter and slowing the shutter speed affect the image? This is only scratching the surface. The possibilities are infinite, but only if we open our eyes and our minds to them.

I would argue that there is no “bad” location for an arresting photograph, only days when the conditions were less than optimal, or our inspiration and creativity were were taking the day off. If we want to grow as a landscape photographer, if we want to see our world like a Shainblum or a Danson, we need to embrace our disappointing results and learn from them. Don’t be afraid to return to the same spot often, in different seasons, at different times of day, and with new creative ideas to try.

There is a spot, not far from my house, that just begs to be photographed. I go there at least once every month, in all conditions and through the seasons. The place never looks the same way twice. Neither do my photographs. But I learn more and see more with every visit. I would urge you to find a place, maybe within walking distance, and go there to take a single photograph every month for a year. Vary the time of day and don’t wait for perfect light, just use what you find when you get there. Before you go back, look closely at your previous photographs and think about how they could be made more engaging. Experiment with camera settings, like white balance, depth of field, and shutter speed. Vary the exposure, try out your new $1,000 filters, or shoot a series of exposure bracketed shots.

In the words of the English photographer, Matt Hardy…

“Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.”

f/45 - Shoot RAW

Last, but by no means least, this one is so fundamental that I almost forgot to include it at all. Set your camera to store your images in RAW format, not as JPEGs, and never change that setting again. Ever.

So what is RAW and why is it so important? To understand the power of saving your images as RAW files, it helps to first know what a JPEG is. When you take a photograph and store it as a JPEG, your camera takes the image data and processes it into a finished photograph. Part of this processing includes compression of the data, resulting in a smaller file and loss of all the data that the camera decides that you don’t need for the image. When you download the JPEG to your computer or pump it out into cyberspace for your friends to admire, it is already a complete photograph. Sounds good, right?

Actually, no. That is not how you want to store your images. Shooting JPEGs is a little like summoning an Über car to your house and telling the driver to take you wherever she thinks you want to go. Relinquishing control of how your finished photograph should look might work with holiday snapshots and cat pictures (no offense intended), but it is never going to work for a professional looking landscape.

When you shoot in RAW, the camera saves ALL the data that is collected by the sensor during the exposure. It doesn’t get compressed and no data is lost. RAW files can be huge! A RAW file is stored in 12- to 14-bit, so at the high end, it can store more that 16,000 discrete levels of light intensity. That makes for imperceptibly smooth transitions between the darker and lighter areas of the image. A JPEG (8-bit) can only render light using 256 levels. Too much mumbo jumbo? Hang on, there’s more.

RAW files can be edited without losing any of the original data. This is called lossless, or non-destructive editing and it can be a lifesaver, especially if you are just getting started with Lightroom or Photoshop. Oh yes… you are going to need a photo storage and editing platform. RAW files are not actually photographs. They need to be converted into an editable format, DNG if you are using Lightroom, and can be saved in any number of formats (including JPEG) from there. From a practical perspective, this means you can retain all the original data while exporting the image as a JPEG, for use on the internet, or as the uncompressed image for printing (prints from a JPEG are significantly inferior).

Finally, by saving the data in a RAW file, we can go back and adjust the white balance and even switch from one color space to another, depending on what we want to do with the image (web or print, for example).

So it really is a no-brainer. If you use Nikon, go into your camera menu and look for the Image Quality sub-menu. Select RAW (not RAW and JPEG - just RAW) and never touch that setting ever again (I will be checking).

f/64 - That’s it…

Below the Demopolis hydroelectric power station

You now have a full bag of tools to put into practice. Pace yourself. See which of these suggestions sound like they might be useful to you and give them a try. Progress takes time and, like everything else that is worth having, becoming a better landscape photographer takes patience, perseverance, and passion. Now go out there and take some awesome pictures!

Thanks for dropping by. I hope you found something worthwhile in this post. While you are here, why not take a look at a few of my earlier articles, there is plenty of useful information waiting for you there.

We are going to be getting back to macro photography very soon, now that the weather is waking up our bugs here in the deep south. In the meantime, if you have a question, comment, or suggestion, please leave it below and I will get right back to you.

My YouTube channel is almost ready to launch, so keep an eye out for that.

Until next time…

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