Landscape photography tips for all seasons
Don’t believe that there is any subject that can’t be photographed in an interesting way—it is just a matter of knowing enough to be able to take advantage of each situation and keeping an open mind.
Landscape images can often suffer from the ‘boring’ label, so we have some tips to help you get the most out of your landscape photography, whatever the season.
This photo was taken on a beach on Snæfellsnes peninsula, which is unique for its pale sand and contrasting black lava. The snowy mountains in the background were an added bonus. Several long exposures of 20–40 seconds at ISO 100 and ƒ/22, using an ND400 filter, came first. Then the aperture was opened up to ƒ/13 and the exposure time reduced to nine seconds. This was enough to blur the water, but not to the extent of hiding the paths it made around the rocks, which makes this photo.
Dettifoss is one of the most magnificent waterfalls in Iceland and a truly amazing place to visit. It’s a popular tourist attraction, so a good time to visit is in the middle of the night, when you can relish having the place to yourself. The only way to cram the huge waterfall and the river flowing from it into one frame, is to use a fish-eye lens. Thanks to the cloud cover, the ‘midnight light’ wasn’t too bright, making shooting for four seconds with no filter possible.
Sometimes a lovely sunset is all you need for a lovely photo. This was taken at around 11:30pm in early August, on the fourth day of a week-long backpacking trip in the Hornstrandir nature reserve in northwest Iceland. Other hiking gear took precedence over a tripod, so a long exposure wasn’t an option. To make the most of the scene, note the small reflecting pool and how the shot comes low enough to include the white flowers surrounding it.
This photo is a good example of how a faster shutter speed can sometimes work perfectly when photographing water.
A fish-eye lens allows you to get very close to your subject. The fish-eye distortion from a 15mm lens gives the scene an otherworldly feel, emphasised by the photographer lying down in the grass.
In Moodscapes Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir shares her unique approach to capturing breath-taking fine-art landscape shots. Her work has caught the eye of editors the world over, leading her to be named Web’s Top Photographer by the Wall Street Journal, and here she reveals the techniques that will make your landscape photography stand out from the crowd and win a place on a gallery wall.
Moodscapes
Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir
RRP £19.99
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