These 5 Tips Helped Me Get Stronger Landscape Photos

If you've spent any time watching the videos on my channel, you know I focus a lot on helping photographers maximize apps like Lightroom and Photoshop to enhance their landscape photos. However, an equally crucial step before editing is the composition you establish in the field with your camera. Let's dive into some detailed tips and concepts that can help you improve your landscape photography.

You can start by watching this video where I walk through each of these 5 tips. I then recapped each of them below. Enjoy!

Tip 1. Embracing Leading Lines More Creatively

Leading lines are a fundamental compositional tool that guides the viewer's eye through the image, creating a path to the main subject. They can be natural elements like rivers or tree lines or man-made structures like roads and fences.

For instance, I captured a boardwalk at Death Valley National Park. In this first photo, the boardwalk gently guides the viewer's eye through the center of the frame. It's certainly an effective use of leading lines, but I wonder if there's a more creative way to use them.

In the next photo, I positioned the boardwalk at a more aggressive angle, cutting through most of the frame. This creates a more dynamic and engaging composition, drawing the viewer's eye more dominantly throughout the frame.

Perspective also plays a significant role in using leading lines effectively. In this first example, I kept the camera tilted a bit higher so that the horizon line was just a bit above the middle of the frame. The result is pleasing, but the leading line isn't as pronounced.

By tilting the camera down and raising the horizon line, the composition can become more interesting and effective. This technique can make the leading line more dominant and engaging.

Tip 2. Incorporating Man-Made Structures

As landscape photographers, we often seek to capture nature's beauty. However, incorporating man-made structures can add interesting elements to your photos. These structures can serve as focal points, leading lines, or provide a contrast to natural elements.

For example, this photo of a weathered fence on the Big Island of Hawaii adds character and contrast to the natural elements in the scene. It makes me ask the question, "Would I have taken this photo if the fence was not there?" And I believe the answer would be "no."

Similarly, in Norway, this dock leading into the frame adds depth and a sense of scale to the composition. While I think the photo would be strong without these man-made elements, I can also appreciate including them and feel that they strengthen the composition.

When photographing scenes with man-made structures, challenge yourself to find creative ways to incorporate them. They can enhance the composition by adding context, scale, and interest, making your photos more visually engaging.

Tip 3. Experimenting with Focal Lengths

Using unconventional lenses can breathe new life into your photography. While wide-angle lenses are popular for landscape shots due to their ability to capture expansive scenes, experimenting with different focal lengths can yield unique results. For example, I started my photo shoot at sunrise by taking this photo of Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park with a popular, albeit commonly used lens: my Sony 24-70mm. It performed admirably and helped me get a photo that I'm very happy with.

However, there may be times when you want to change things up or you're in a creative slump and need a way to break free. In this situations, a fisheye lens can add a creative twist. As you can see, capturing Mesa Arch with a fisheye lens created a more dynamic and engaging composition compared to the standard wide-angle shots. That's because the distortion from the fisheye lens can make familiar scenes look totally different and more visually striking.

Tip 4. Creating Panoramas with Telephoto Lenses

I'm definitely the sort of guy who wants to "have my cake and eat it, too." In the case of photography, it means that I want to get wide-angle compositions, but I also want the compression that you get from using longer focal lengths. The solution I found to give me the best of both worlds is to use my telephoto lens to get a series of photos that can be stitched into a panoramic imagae. Panoramas are created by stitching together multiple images to form a single, wide-angle composition using an app like Lightroom. And using a telephoto lens to create panoramic images can provide a sense of compression that you cannot get with a wide-angle lens.

For example, capturing the Dolomite Mountain region in Italy with a 100-400mm telephoto zoom lens allowed me to achieve a sense of compression and presence that wouldn't be possible with a wide-angle lens. By taking multiple bracketed shots and stitching them together in Lightroom, I created a high-resolution panorama with incredible detail.

This technique allows you to maintain the compression and presence of a telephoto lens while achieving the wide-angle composition of a panorama. It's a powerful tool for creating detailed, expansive landscape images.

Tip 5. Incorporating People for Scale

Including people in your landscape photos can provide a sense of scale, making it easier for viewers to grasp the size of the scene. When viewers see a person in a photo, they can use that person as a reference point to understand the scale of the surroundings.

For instance, having a person stand near a massive waterfall or among towering redwoods can emphasize the grandeur of the natural elements. In one example, my friend Brian Bonham stood near a waterfall, which helped viewers understand the immense height of the falls and the surrounding trees.

When photographing landscapes, consider how incorporating people can enhance the composition. It not only adds a sense of scale but can also make the scene more relatable and engaging for viewers.

Wrapping it up

I firmly believe that these five tips can help you elevatae your landscape compositions. By thinking creatively and stepping outside of traditional composition rules, you can capture more dynamic, engaging, and visually interesting images.

If you're excited to improve your landscape photo editing workflow, you should definitely check out my course, Lightroom Landscapes. It offers a structured and repeatable workflow to make your editing process more efficient and creative. Happy shooting!