Capturing The Perfect Picture Of The Landscape

When you find the perfect scene to take a stunning photo you know and you assume that the beauty that you see in the landscape will come across in the picture all by itself, you’re wrong. Quite often people will take a photo of the landscape that looked beautiful to them but in the picture it looks lifeless and really nothing special. Special lenses and filters or even top quality cameras can’t help you on this one but there are a few techniques that you can bear in mind if you want to grab the shot that’s sure to get the ‘Wows’.

Light is extremely important when taking any kind of photo and although a lot of people aren’t bothered about the light that they shoot in, it’s not very often that you’ll see a photographer shooting in the day though. Photographers prefer the mysterious light of dawn and dusk as they offer different angles and shades over the landscape.

Tripods are an essential tool for the perfect picture. When the light is not great you need to make sure that your picture is and one of the best ways to do this is to keep your camera still. If you’re not a regular photographer and don’t really want to spend the money on a tripod then improvise and use a wall or the roof of your car if you’ve travelled to your destination.

When photographing the landscape the common approach is to capture as much of the area that is in focus as possible; however, if you take a picture of a smaller area then the depth of field will be greater, meaning that your picture will contain a lot more detail.

 When taking photos of any landscape you need something to focus on; without a focus you risk your photo looking bland and empty. A focal point can be anything from a derelict building, a strange tree or particularly big rock. Whatever you choose to be the focal point of your picture doesn’t have to be the centre of your picture; it just has to be there somewhere.

In every picture either the sky or the foreground of the picture are dominant. It’s up to you which you want to be the most striking but without a dominant in the picture it will seem bland and lacking some detail. The best way to enhance the sky in a picture is to use filters so that you can see the immediate effect, or post production using computer enhancements.

A great way to display your great shots is on your computer background. If you’re not sure where to start then take a look at some free desktop backgrounds for some ideas.