How to photograph a landscape correctly and what you need to know to get masterpieces? Photography life hack: Shooting beautiful landscapes Preparing for shooting.

- a genre of fine art, the main task of which is to display the surrounding nature both in its original form and as modified by man to one degree or another. Since photography is one of the fine arts, landscape photography fully corresponds to this definition. The main visual center of landscape photography is nature in all its manifestations.

Of course, landscape as a genre appeared long before the invention of photography - in painting. And honed over centuries artistic media landscape images formed a number of necessary conditions required for this genre of photography. Linear perspective , tonal (aerial) perspective, optical perspective,frame composition , light space And color - these are the main characteristics of landscape photography, capable of not only very accurately conveying the state of the surrounding nature at a certain point in time, but also highlighting semantic center image without the use of additional manipulation techniques. And despite the fact that in landscape photography the presence of people or animals in the frame is allowed, they are clearly assigned the role of staffage - an element of the landscape that exists to enliven the image and plays a secondary role in this image.

At its core, landscape photography is documentary photography about nature. According to the type of space depicted, landscape photography can be terrestrial, water, astronomical and meteorological. Landscape photography depicts landscape, topography and vegetation and is both rural and urban.

Water landscape (seascape, marina) is an image of the water (sea) element.

Astronomical landscape photography depicts the heavens (stars, constellations, Sun, Moon),

and meteorological - weather and precipitation (fog, rain, clouds, tornado, etc.).

According to the way of depicting space, landscape photography can be chamber and panoramic. Camera photography in this case does not imply a narrow circle of viewers, but expresses a purely technical characteristic - a small, narrow viewing angle of the depicted space.

Panoramic landscape photography is the absolute opposite - it is a photograph, the viewing angle of which can often exceed 180 degrees.

According to the degree of perception by the viewer, a landscape can, by analogy with music, be minor or major. Tragic or solemn. Sad or cheerful. In solving this problem, the photographer comes to the aid of color theory, namely one of its sections - psychology of color. Knowing what colors and how they affect the viewer’s consciousness, the photographer can adjust color balance of the composition landscape to achieve a specific result. At the same time, in a landscape, cold shades cannot always create an atmosphere of hostility, and warm shades can create an atmosphere of friendliness. Small colored vegetation against the backdrop of black thunderclouds looks defenseless, and the picture as a whole evokes a feeling of anxiety, while cold Elbrus evokes awe and delight with its grandeur.

Of course, several of the listed natural spaces and states can easily overlap in one picture at the same time, but in this case it is important for the landscape photographer to decide what exactly in this picture is semantic center, and select this center using visual arts — prospects, compositions, Sveta, colors.

If there is no such center, then landscape photography is purely aesthetic, narrative-specific in nature and is used for decorative, scientific or journalistic purposes. Landscape photography belongs precisely to the category of aesthetic perception - plein air- a true depiction of nature’s colorful richness of color changes in natural conditions under the influence of sunlight and atmosphere.

If there is still a semantic center in landscape photography, then such a landscape will be charged with emotional-dramatic (or epic) energy and will acquire the features artistic landscape photography.

Along with the mandatory conditions for creating landscape photography, there are also a number of conditions that are specific in nature - dynamism , angle , detail. Considering that photography is a static and silent form of fine art, it is in landscape photography that it is most difficult to convey certain atmospheric phenomena with great accuracy. How to show strong wind in a photo of a desert? How can mountain giants be depicted more majestic? It is in these cases that a landscape photographer is saved by knowledge about the dynamics of the frame, the shooting point and the angle.

Has become widespread nowadays tourist landscape photography. Although not essentially a separate genre, tourist landscape photography has become very popular due to both the availability of photographic equipment and the opportunity to visit the most remote corners of our planet.

The main feature of landscape photography is its accessibility. It does not require any scenery or staging tricks; it does not depend on the mood of the model or the preferences of the customer. It depends on the surrounding nature and weather conditions. And in this sense landscape photography unique. Whether it’s a park or an alley within the city, or maybe a mountain range or the quiet expanse of a lake beyond its borders - wherever you are, on vacation or on a business trip, in your own country or abroad, it is everywhere - nature - amazing a natural space capable of changing shape, content and color every minute, day after day, all year round, for thousands of years... And even if the landscape photograph you take does not contain any semantic core, it will always be aesthetic, which means will always remind you of the essence and forms of beauty.

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Greetings, dear readers! In touch with you, Timur Mustaev. Some amateur photographers consider landscape one of the most basic genres of photography. To some extent, I share their point of view: go wherever you like, and shoot whatever comes into your head.

Plus, unlike studio shooting, which requires considerable financial costs, nature will not disappear and will not require anything in return except careful treatment of it, and the situation changes depending on the time of year, giving scope for imagination.

But is the landscape really that simple? Let's figure it out together.

Let's start the debriefing, perhaps, with the definition of this genre and its place in human reality.

Landscape in photography

Scenery is a genre in which nature is the center of the image.

This trend originated in the era of the absence of cameras, when famous and not so famous artists went out into the open air and conveyed what they had seen with the help of brushes and paints.

That is why understanding the meaning of this genre should be learned from realist artists.

Paintings, like nothing else, allow you to experience all the beauty of nature; they are inextricably linked with the inner world of a person, with his feelings, mood and love for life in general.

And in photography, a landscape is not a thoroughly accurate redrawing of this or that corner of nature, but one’s own perception of the world.

Modern landscape photography is quite versatile. Exhibitions of such materials instill in the viewer an artistic taste and develop imagination by drawing associative parallels between real life and photographs.

The relationship between photographic art and life gave rise to a new direction - the urban landscape, in which the dominant element is not nature, but the brainchild of society - the city with its numerous streets, architectural objects, squares, as well as an endless stream of cars and pedestrians.

The urban and classical landscape captivates even the most stingy photographers! And there is an explanation for this: by shooting in this genre you can get excellent shots without using expensive equipment.

All you need is desire, patience, a tripod, an SLR camera, and some skills in using it.

Shooting in this genre, as in any other genre, is, first of all, a creative process, accompanied by your own vision of what is happening, but, oddly enough, there are many rules, the observance of which will save you from failure.

Landscape photography

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine: in front of you are stretched out spaces of unprecedented beauty and it seems that as soon as you press the shutter, the most beautiful image that the world has never seen will appear on the camera display...

Capture this episode in your memory and open your eyes, your fantasy will remain a fantasy, and you will never learn how to photograph a landscape if you neglect the rules listed below.

• Maximum sharpness. Many photographers practice shooting landscapes with an open aperture, however, “many” is not an indicator of good work.

A classic technique for landscape photography is focusing on the entire image (shooting with a closed aperture).

Usually it is enough to make simple camera settings to get a sharp and moderately exposed photo: the slider is around f/11-16, but you can trust the automatic if you shoot at . However, to avoid movement, it is better to shoot landscapes using or.

• Having meaning. For any photo, it is important to have a semantic center of the composition, so that, as they say, the eye has something to catch on to. The center of attention can be anything: an interesting shaped building, a tree, a mountain, a ship in the middle of a sea, etc.
• Rule of thirds in the overall composition of the frame. The location of the semantic center relative to all elements and details of the picture is as important as the presence of sharpness.

The reference says: a photo looks most advantageous when the objects being photographed are conventionally separated by lines that divide the image into three parts, both lengthwise and crosswise.

• Thoughtful foreground. Place semantic centers on the front part of the photo, leaving “air space” in front, this way you will be able to create the effect of lightness and convey depth.
• Dominant element. The secret of successful nature photography has been revealed - either the sky or the foreground should dominate the picture.

If your photos don't fit this description, they'll likely be considered boring and ordinary.

If it happens that the sky during the photo shoot is uninteresting and monochromatic, move the horizon line to the upper third, so you will not allow it to prevail over the rest.

But if it seems that the airspace is about to explode or collapse on the ground with streams of lava, give it 2/3 of the frame and you will see how much the plot of what is happening can change.

• Lines. There are endless ways to capture the beauty of nature to its fullest. One of them is the technique of including active lines in the composition. With the help of lines, you can redirect the viewer’s gaze from one semantic point of the photo to another, while creating a certain enclosure of space.

Lines not only create patterns in a photo, but also add volume. This also applies to the horizon line, beyond which you constantly need an eye and an eye.

• Movement. Many people consider landscape photographs to be calm and passive. But this is not necessarily the case! You can add life to a photo with the help of water or wind, for example, use a DSLR camera to capture the violence of the ocean or a flowing waterfall, the blowing of the wind or the falling of leaves from a tree, the flight of birds or the movement of people.

The influence of weather and time on the quality of landscape photography

The Golden Rule of Landscape: “The scene and subject matter can change dramatically overnight, depending on weather conditions and the time of year.”

It is a mistake to believe that the best time for nature photography is a sunny day.

In cloudy weather, in terms of lighting effects, it’s a pleasure to shoot: hail, sleet and thunderstorms can fill any landscape with an ominous, mysterious mood.

However, there is a side effect - the possibility of getting your feet wet, getting sick and saying goodbye to your DSLR forever, since moisture can have a devastating effect on all electronics.

To avoid this, plan your day in advance, take your preparations seriously: think about what to wear and what to wrap your camera in. For these purposes, it is best to purchase a waterproof case or at least one that protects the lens from drops getting on the lens.

Shooting in the rain doesn't have to be - it's just one way to achieve artistic images.

This creates a very soft diffused light, giving the pictures a lightness and a special sleepy look.

A forest covered in fog will look much more mysterious and attractive than on a sunny day.

Although if shooting takes place in summer or autumn, the light shining through the foliage can create an interesting look at an open aperture.

During sunset, using , you can photograph no less interesting landscapes, especially if the foreground is slightly backlit.

To avoid bunnies, use a lens hood or. This filter is simply irreplaceable in landscape photography.

Night photography is technically the most difficult. Taking pictures of nature in full nature is pointless due to the lack of light. Therefore, you need to go where there are artificial light sources - the city.

In this case, it’s not worth using the flash continuously, raise the value to 800-1600 and go towards the city landscape!

A brief educational program on the topic of landscape photography has reached its point of no return! I hope this article was at least somewhat instructive and useful. I think that I have conveyed to you the meaning of how to photograph a landscape correctly in order to achieve the desired results.

If you are an aspiring photographer who wants to achieve positive success in photography, then everything is in your hands. The best place to start is with the concept of your DSLR camera. And one of the video courses below can become an assistant. Most novice photographers, after studying this course, have a different attitude towards the SLR camera. The course will help you uncover all the important functions and settings of a DSLR, which is very important at the initial stage.

My first MIRROR- for owners of a CANON DSLR.

Digital SLR for a beginner 2.0- for owners of a NIKON DSLR.

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All the best to you, Timur Mustaev.

The famous American photographer Ansel Adams, who became famous throughout the world for his black-and-white landscape photographs, once said: “Landscape photography is the main test for a photographer and often his main disappointment.” And this is, perhaps, the honest truth. How often do we, noticing a beautiful view, think that all we have to do is simply press the shutter button, capture what we see - and the result will be a masterpiece. However, a masterpiece most often does not work out, because for a landscape photographer it is not enough to just be a mirror for nature, he must learn to express himself through the landscape.

Photographer Declan O'Neill shared his 10 secrets for creating expressive landscape photographs.

1. What can you say about the landscape through photography?

It takes time to read and understand the landscape. You just have to stand and watch how the light changes contours and shapes. As the sun moves, forests and rivers are illuminated every minute in a completely new way and sometimes completely transformed. Light creates its own mood and emotion in the landscape. The landscape can be compared to a huge canvas on which light paints its own complex and amazing picture.

In this case, photography is about capturing how light transforms a landscape. Therefore, the decision about what to photograph and what composition to build should be dictated by the question: “Does this photograph say something about the light and the landscape?” This simple question helps you reject many unsuccessful and empty compositions and choose the one that is perfect.

2. Learn to get up early!

If I have a choice between sunrise and sunset, I always choose sunrise. I have nothing against sunset photos, but I think it's hard to add something new and original to the thousands of sunset photos I've already seen. Dawn light, on the contrary, always brings surprises! It is very difficult to predict exactly what you will get while you stand and wait in the pre-dawn darkness.

It's a bit like photographing wild animals - because you're equally likely to get the shot you've always wanted or get nothing. Dawn light can be completely different - from smoky pink to warm yellow.

Keep an eye on the weather forecasts - because if you're lucky enough to live in areas with cold nights and clear skies, you can sometimes catch some amazing cloud and haze effects that are sure to clear by the time the rest of the world wakes up.

3. Imperfection is good.

One of the main challenges of landscape photography is that you have to deal with huge dynamic range. At the same time, it becomes very difficult to control the balance of lighting in the frame. ND filters sometimes help, but are often inconvenient or inappropriate for a particular place and time. Sometimes you have to give up shooting altogether because the dynamic range is too large.

You can, of course, use HDR technologies, but they most often give themselves away and can violate the integrity and honesty of the photo. Many photographs can be light balanced when processed on a computer. However, sometimes a photograph benefits from the inability to capture the full dynamic range. Most likely, such a photograph will not be accepted for participation in various competitions, and there will most likely be areas in it from which it will be impossible to isolate at least some details. Perhaps technically the photograph will turn out to be very poor, but a black silhouette against a light background very often attracts attention in an unimaginable way and seems to invite you to take a closer look at yourself. Sometimes you have to give up the opportunity to capture a perfectly lit photo in order to draw attention to the potential of the subject itself.

4. Look back!

It’s so easy to see the winning shot and forget to look around. When watching a sunset or sunrise, people usually point their lenses towards the sun and again take thousands of pictures, millions of which they have already seen from their friends or on the Internet. However, often it is enough just to look back to see something completely new and missed by everyone! After all, instead of photographing the rising or setting sun, you can capture what it illuminates at that moment.

The obvious shot is not always the best one. Learn to look more carefully.

5. Use scheduling software.

There are many programs that can help you with outdoor photography. Perhaps one of the most useful of them is The Photographers Ephemeris. In short, it allows you to select any location on the planet - and shows you where the sun will be on any given day at any given time. This way, you can choose the best day and time to shoot in a certain location and choose a specific shooting location with the best lighting. If you're serious about landscape photography, this is a must-have tool.

Another tool that can help you a lot is a terrain map. A good map will help you predict what the landscape will look like and give you some idea of ​​what's in your field of vision. Knowing how to understand these detailed topographic maps will help you save a lot of time and not have to drive around looking for that perfect shooting spot!

6. Equipment is not that important.

The best equipment doesn't guarantee you the best photos, any more than the best pen will automatically allow you to write that great novel you've always dreamed of. Equipment is just a device that allows you to convey to others what is in your head. If you have your own opinion and if you have something to say (see point 1) - then you can use anything, from a smartphone to Nikon D800.

Remember that you are the one who builds the composition of your future photo, and the camera just captures it. More megapixels or a faster lens will never help you create a more expressive and full composition.

7. Don't try to "paint" the landscape with your camera.

On the Internet, photographs that have undergone extreme post-processing or were created using ND filters that make water look like smooth silk have become increasingly fashionable lately. Why not let nature express itself naturally? Believe me, she can do this perfectly without using any filters. The same goes for post-processing. If used in moderation, it helps to emphasize the natural beauty of nature, if overdone, we are already beginning to change the landscape and paint it completely different from what it really was.

Real photographs always leave their mark on our consciousness and subconscious. This is why highly photoshopped, idealized images of landscapes often leave us indifferent. They tell a fictional story, not a real one. We immediately notice the falseness of the orange sky and the oversaturated color of the grass. Photographs can be metaphors, but they must be metaphors that appear in the viewer's head, not in the photographer's imagination.

If you still want to convey your vision of what the landscape looked like, perhaps you should try your hand at drawing?

8. Bad weather is good weather.

Clouds and rain are not the most inspiring weather conditions, but they bring with them opportunities far more interesting than any cloudless day. It takes patience and optimism to walk around with a camera in the rain all day, but more often than not, you will be rewarded. If you look around carefully, you will certainly find amazing shots created by clouds and rain!

11.08.2016

Landscape in photography, as in painting, (from the French words “paysage” and “pays”, which means “terrain”) is an independent genre in which the main object for the image is nature: forests and fields, mountains and seas and others its objects and manifestations.

Types of landscape photography

In addition to the usual “natural” photo landscape, there is also an “urban” one, which consists of reflecting the diversity of city life with roads and cars, buildings and sidewalks.

There is also an “industrial” landscape - this includes photographs containing pictures of construction sites, factories, and industrial enterprises.

Sometimes they talk about a “rural” landscape, the purpose of which is to show rural life in photographs: houses, wells, roads, etc.

Of all the genres of photography, landscape photography is the most popular, but not the easiest. The photographer is faced with the task of capturing and combining in one picture the most expressive combination of sky and earth, conveying and complementing all this with surrounding colors, lighting, play of the wind, scale and sense of time, catching and capturing one single, most complete and vibrant moment in the life of nature or the city .

Features of shooting a natural landscape

If we are talking about photographs of nature, then in order to take a good shot, a person must really love and understand nature, be able to see the beauty in it, be observant and attentive.

In all landscapes, regardless of what is depicted in them, there is one common phenomenon that has a special power over the audience and the photographer... this is the sky. A huge variety of skies - cloudy, stormy, clear, colored by the rays of the sunset or dawn sun - allows you to take photographs with a variety of emotional loads from the same single place.

No less favorite for photographing landscapes is water - rivers, seas, lakes. Of particular interest is the dark texture of the water, conveying different moods; water painted with “sunny” or “lunar” paths can give the viewer the feeling of night or evening, and with different lighting, ponds can create the effect of both a warm and cold day.

Shooting in the mountains also attracts many photographers with the grandeur and beauty of the mountain ranges, clean air and the natural play of light and shadows.

It also happens that the photograph contains several plans for the depth of space. So, for example, on a sunny day the forest may look just like a dark stripe, some kind of undeveloped mass, but by changing the brightness or shooting angle, using special filters, you can get a good perspective.

It is a mistake to think that the most favorable day for photography is a sunny day. In cloudy weather, fog, snow or rain, you can find many interesting themes and objects and convey the appropriate mood of nature and the season.

Images of people and other objects in landscape photography

In order to emphasize the depth of the conveyed space and its scale, photographers often place arches or buildings, trees, or even people and animals in the foreground so that the viewer can compare close and distant objects.

When depicting people in photographic landscapes, you must remember the following rules:

• a person should remain against the backdrop of nature, without attracting the main attention;
• a person must enliven the landscape with himself, bring something important and necessary into it, and not be an unnecessary object;
• in both cases, a person should not distract from the beauty of the surrounding nature and should not be the central object.

This also applies to the urban landscape. All objects must be thought out and not interfere with each other.

Interesting publications on the site

Perhaps, looking at the landscapes of famous masters, you wondered how they manage to convey even the simplest views expressively and unusually. You have already received part of the answer to this question in previous lessons, where you became acquainted with the basic compositional techniques (rhythm, lines, symmetry), learned how to work with color and light, and also understood the principles of constructing harmonious and narrative photography. All this information will be useful to you, and in this lesson we will look at specific landscape techniques that will take your photographs to a higher level.

Landscape photography and dynamic range

The camera is in many ways similar to the human eye, but, unfortunately, it is not capable of absolutely identically conveying what you see. For example, it often happens that you want to take a photo of a beautiful view, but instead of a blue sky, the photo turns out to be an overexposed, white spot. Or the shadows disappear into blackness and the details there are not readable. This is explained by the fact that the camera matrix has a limited dynamic range. To put it simply, if the scene is contrasting in light, then the camera will not be able to convey both light and dark areas equally well, something will definitely be lost.

As you can see, the shadows fell into blackness, and the sky became white, that is, it went into overexposure.

In general, gaps in the shadows and overexposure are not a defect. They just don’t always look appropriate and beautiful. Therefore, in order to make life easier for yourself and the camera, you need to look for conditions under which the light will be less contrasting and it will be possible to achieve some compromise between the details in the shadows and highlights. The easiest way is to take photos during regular hours.

Photographing nature during scheduled hours

The camera's shutter speed is limited to thirty seconds in all modes, but often a much longer value is needed. You can use the bulb mode, but then you have to hold the shutter button with your finger, which can cause camera shake and, as a result, blur. This is where the remote control comes in handy. There are simple versions of remote controls with one button (it is locked, that is, you do not need to hold it), and there is also an additional one with a timer that allows you to track the shutter speed value. In addition, there are more advanced models that allow you to set the exposure time, the number of frames, and even the interval between them. All parameters are controlled on the monitor, after setting all you have to do is press a button and wait until the photo is ready.

Another equally useful filter is neutral gray. It has tinted glass, which allows you to limit the flow of light entering the matrix and, as a result, use longer shutter speeds to blur, for example, water. Details about this filter are in this article.

There is also another filter, which is a subtype of neutral gray - gradient. Part of the glass is darkened, and the rest is transparent. This is necessary in order to equalize the exposure if the scene has a large dynamic range. Here it is better to use rectangular filters rather than round ones, since they have the ability, by moving the glass, to shift the darkening border up and down (after all, the horizon may not be located in the center of the picture).

It is better to place the darkening border in some dark area so that it is not so visible. It is more difficult, or rather almost impossible, to use gradients if the terrain has uneven terrain. In this case, a stripe will appear on the photo.

Settings are everything. Basics of photography. Stage 2: Lesson 1 ( 12 votes, rating: 5,00 out of 5)