Trying to improve with landscapes

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Harry Woodford

Harry Woodford

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I have been trying to branch out more into landscape photos, as I have recently moved to Scotland so have plenty of it to photograph. I feel like I have started to pick up more as I go, but never quite think the photos are "good".
I am trying to remember the rule of 3rds, leading lines, framing etc. I also seem to have trouble in how to properly edit landscape photos, I understand roughly what to do with wildlife and how to make the photo better, but landscapes are still daunting.
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Those are all very nice landscape images but to your question of things to think about:

- The advice above about light is really important. Edges of day are great but there can also be fantastic light at the edges of storms or during some storms even mid day.

- Same basic thing, but along with light I find weather, especially moody weather can really hit a landscape image out of the park, sometimes that's rain or snow or swirling clouds, sometimes just a peaceful spring or autumn day in good light for the right kind of image but weather can take an iconic image captured thousands of times and make it really jump out as your own.

- You're doing a great job using foreground elements, mid grounds and far background to create depth. But often you can take that a lot further with a very wide angle lens and something like a compelling formation of small rocks or lilly pads or just about anything visually interesting in the really close foreground with the same mid ground and background ideas. The stream shot with the trees is along those lines but when I see an interesting landscape I often start by searching around for some small to medium size visually interesting object in the immediate foreground to anchor the image.

Great first set, keep 'em coming!
 
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First all very pleasing photos. I would be happy to come home from a trip with any of them.

since you asked for constructive advice, here is mine:
Photo 1, I would try cropping out some of the sky so it only takes up about 1/4 of the frame. Rule of 3rds is meant to be broken. Also, it would be cool next time to try focus stacking so the yellow flowers are more in focus.

Photo 2: Not a lot compositionally to critique. I like it. I would try to brighten up the rock and the grass in the bottom part of the photo a bit. Mask it and lift shadows a little.

Photo 3. I think the 2 waterfalls are the star of this show. I would crop off some of the left and about half the water at the bottom to accentuate the close and distant waterfall. This is a cool shot.

Photo 4: I would make that a 16X9 crop and eliminate the out of focus grass in the bottom. I think the 16X9 format would really give a sense of vastness here.

Photo 5: I would leave it just the way it is. Maybe darken the two trees in the middle some but that is really nit picking. It’s a keeper.

hope this is helpful.
Jeff
 
Since you asked for critique, number one is unnaturally blue to my eye. Did you use a polarizer? If so maybe turn it a little to tone it down. If not, using vibrance instead of saturation might be worth a try. Also I'd remove those tall weeds, or shoot to avoid them. Finally, portions of the sky are blown. You could pick up texture from other parts of the clouds to patch it.
 
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Thank you all for your feedback and critique! To some points I completely agree with lighting and time of day, at the moment it is just difficult as the sunrise/sunset times are so early and late it makes it difficult with work etc, but I plan to utilise them more in a few months when the timings are more palatable.

I have since these photos purchased a Tokina 11-16 2.8 UW DX lens to hopefully give a little more room on the D500 as well as some better quality. This should also help with the points that DRwyoming and Jeff made with highlighting foreground elements.

There is also some fantastic advice about choosing what to bring the photo to focus on, as well as some compositional feedback which I am grateful for. I will try to put these into work and bring some more, hopefully improved shots from my next outing!
 
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That Tokina is a good move and will open up some fun opportunities. Some good stuff here, sorry I wasn't very verbose yesterday, was just busy. I hope you liked my re-crop! In that image, I would either omit or actually increase the amount of space the yellow flowers take up - they're sort of a distraction when there's just a shallow row at the bottom of the frame.

A word of advice with the 11mm -- which is about 17mm full frame equivalent. Avoid any temptation to stand back and "fit more stuff in" because your angle is now wider. Instead, try using the wide angle to get *close* to a foreground element that is really interesting, making it swell up in proportion and becoming a primary element of your composition. Also, strong straight lines and big curves will look amazing. If you have one, I would avoid using the polarizer on big skies, because the colors will get all goofy. :)

Have fun and look forward to seeing another set!
 
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Soopahmahn said:
That Tokina is a good move and will open up some fun opportunities. Some good stuff here, sorry I wasn't very verbose yesterday, was just busy. I hope you liked my re-crop! In that image, I would either omit or actually increase the amount of space the yellow flowers take up - they're sort of a distraction when there's just a shallow row at the bottom of the frame.

A word of advice with the 11mm -- which is about 17mm full frame equivalent. Avoid any temptation to stand back and "fit more stuff in" because your angle is now wider. Instead, try using the wide angle to get *close* to a foreground element that is really interesting, making it swell up in proportion and becoming a primary element of your composition. Also, strong straight lines and big curves will look amazing. If you have one, I would avoid using the polarizer on big skies, because the colors will get all goofy. :)

Have fun and look forward to seeing another set!
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No worries at all. I understand what you mean and I look forward to playing around with the tokina, and a more true UW on a DX body.

I am hopefully out to another loch and Glen next week if the weather holds out so I'll hopefully get some good ones then with all the tips and advice from people here.
 
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To add I would say look also at your editing. I do not know if it is because of re-sizing or compression on this site - but watch out for halos. Specifically between a dark mountain and the sky.
I am not a Landscape photographer's arse - I tend to migrate to shoot more of the sky when I see a nice landscape with great clouds / sunrise / sunset etc)
I read once someone said to lay off the sky somewhat - as you don't go a place to photograph the sky - you go there to photograph the scene and the sky just rounds if off. If that makes sense to you.
 
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I'm not what anyone would call a landscape photographer so take these comments with a large amount of skepticism :)

  • Lighting as others have said would make these work better
  • My personal feeling is that a lot of these have the river/creek/inlet lined up right down the middle of the frame at a 90 degree angle to the horizon. I think having them come in on a diagonal would add a bit of interest. Something like #3 draws my eye in to the scene a bit more than the others. My eye starts with the brighter reflections in the lower left and move towards the upper right which allows me to see more of the scene. Maybe that's just me.
  • Might be just me but I think that a polarizer to cut down on the reflections on the water would be nice.
 
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