5 Framing Tricks to Help You Capture Better Landscape Photos

By: Kav Dadfar

Landscape photography is one of the most popular genres of photography and for good reason. A great landscape photo has the power to wow the viewer and captures the beauty of the incredible planet that we live on. But landscape photography is also difficult to master as not only are you often at the mercy of the elements, but you are also fighting against the limitations of digital cameras versus the human eye.
As advanced as digital cameras are, they are still no match for your eyes and that sometimes means you feel let down when you look at photos you’ve taken. A big part of this could be as simple as framing your shot correctly. So here are 5 framing tricks to help you capture better landscape photos.

1. Add a Sense of Scale

Think about that feeling you get when you first see an amazing landscape in front of you. It’s often the sense of feeling really small compared to those towering mountains or that deep valley. But capturing that feeling in a photo isn’t as straightforward as just taking a shot of the scene. To be able to convey that sense of scale you need to help the viewer by showing them a comparison with something they can relate to.
For example, photograph a large boulder and it will be difficult for someone looking at the photo to know how big it is in reality. But put a person next to the boulder and suddenly there is an instant sense of scale. This is a great way to really make your landscape photos jump off the page and captivate the viewer.

2. Point of Interest

A good landscape photo should lead the viewer’s eyes around the image. Sometimes to achieve this you need to add a point of interest to your image. This is especially true if you are photographing a scene where there is a vast empty area where nothing is happening.
Without a clear point of interest, the viewer’s eyes will get lost in the photo and it won’t work. For example, the photograph below would be pretty uninteresting without the people in it. But by including people not only does it add that point of interest but it also tells a much more intriguing story.
A point of interest could be anything. It can be a rock, person, animal, a tree, or a building. So next time you are evaluating a scene, think if it will benefit from having a point of interest. If so, try to frame your photo using the rule of thirds to capture this in the composition.

3. Zoom In

In landscape photography, it’s really easy to try and capture everything in front of you. After all, that amazing vista is what usually wows people. But sometimes a wide-angle shot of a scene just doesn’t work because there is too much for the viewer to process. On those occasions, you need to zoom into your scene and try to capture a small section rather than the whole thing.
Think about the small section in the same way as if it was a wide-angle shot and frame up your image with the same thought process. The key is to not be afraid to forego the “big wide-angle shot” for the smaller zoomed in section. Remember that you can always try a few different crops and then decide on the best one later in post-production.
But don’t make the mistake of just capturing wide-angle shots and relying on cropping in post-production as the more you crop an image, the more pixelated it will become if you want to print it at really large sizes. Try to actually capture some photos zoomed it with your camera instead.

4. Sky or Land?

One of the best ways to ensure that your landscape photos look dramatic and stunning is by focusing as much of the photo on the part that is going to give you impact. That means really considering where to put the horizon line. If you have a dramatic sky with lots of clouds, beautiful dramatic sunsets or even moody stormy weather, then place your horizon line in the lower third of the image, so you are showing more of the sky.
If on the other hand, your foreground is interesting with a good point of interest, then place your horizon in the top third of the image. Thus maximizing the area showing the foreground in the image. Just try to avoid placing your horizon line in the middle of the image where possible as it can make your photo seem uninteresting.
So always remember, sky or land? Whichever it most important to your image, show more of that part of the scene.

5. Extreme Angles

Most people see landscapes from one particular view only – eye level view. The great thing about photography is that it allows you to capture a photo at a completely different point of view to what most people see. You don’t need to dangle yourself off a cliff to capture unique views, sometimes just being slightly lower or more elevated can have incredibly dramatic results.
For example, set your camera really low (almost on the ground) and you will capture a unique angle from a worm’s eye viewpoint. Put your camera on a tall tripod and lift it up so that it’s higher than normal eye level and again you’ll capture a unique shot.
There’s also the option of using drones these days which can give you even more stunning photos of landscapes. But make sure you always check local laws regarding drone usage. As with any type of photography, the key is to experiment.

Capturing the perfect landscape takes time, effort and usually some luck a well.
You need so many factors to be working together to capture stunning photos and even then you still need to think about how to frame all of those elements into a photograph that will do the scene justice. But once you have a great location, an interesting subject, and the perfect light, follow these framing tricks and you may well capture some stunning landscape photos.

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Photography Challenge Hills and Valleys

By: Darlene Hildebrandt  

This week’s photography challenge is to get out and do some landscape photography. Specifically hills, valleys and mountains – get out into some natural landscape.
Some ideas to get started:

By Centurion

By rachel_thecat

By Justin Brown

By Earthwatcher

By arbyreed

By *Light Painting*

By Daniel Peckham

By Mark Wassell

Show us your mountain and hill images

Simply upload your shot into the comment field and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them. Okay, ready to impress us?

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5 Good Reasons to Add People into Your Landscape Photography

By: Bruce Wunderlich 

Are you looking for a way to spice up your landscape photography? Many times when we think of making great landscapes image,s we try not to include people. Sometimes we even wait for long periods of time for other sightseers (or other photographers) to exit our view. There are many times this is the best technique for shooting a landscape photo, but adding the human element to a scene can be just the extra touch needed to create a great image. Let’s take a look at 5 reasons to add people to your landscape images.

This surfer is done for the day. Normally it is preferable that a person faces into the photo, but 

exceptions may work too.

#1 Tell a Story

Adding a person to your landscape can help your image tell a story. People, or even a single individual, may add mystery and adventure to your landscape, causing your viewers to wonder who, what, and why about the person in your image. When your viewers ask these questions, their eyes will stay engaged with your image, adding entertainment value to the photo. An image of a person standing in front of a grand mountain range may cause the viewer to wonder what that individual is doing there. If the person has a backpack and a walking stick, the viewer may imagine a hike in the mountains is about to commence. Or maybe the person in your shot is carrying a rifle and wearing camouflage, leading the viewer to imagine a hunter heading into the woods in search of adventure. A person can be the subject of the image or interact with the landscape of the image; but either way, if the person fits into the image’s story, your landscape will draw the viewer in and the photo will tell a successful tale.

This image tells the story of a man thinking about his former career working on a river boat.

#2 Composition

Placing a person or persons in an image in negative space can add balance to your landscape. A person in the foreground, or mid-way into your scene, will help create a sense of depth in the image. When you have the opportunity to position the person, take care to place them in the image in a way that draws the viewer into the image. Place your subject off to the side, preferably on a rule of thirds point, with them facing into the open space. It is almost never a good idea to have a person looking or facing out of your image, as this will cause a viewer’s eye to leave the image rather than explore the image fully. Nevertheless, with every rule of composition there are exceptions that will work. Knowing the rules of composition, when to use them, and when to break them, will help you when adding a person to your image.

This couple taking a selfie is placed in a rule of thirds position, and fills a negative space on the beach.

#3 Scale of Size

Adding a human to an image is a great way to reveal the size and scale of objects in your image. Without the person in many images, objects like trees and rocks may lack a scene of scale. The addition of a person immediately gives your viewer a point of reference and scale to the landscape.

Adding the silhouetted figure at the end of the cave gives a sense of scale and also adds a focal 

point to the image.

#4 Drama and Excitement

Silhouetting someone against a sunset or other backlit view, is a perfect example of how a person can help create a more dramatic image. Even the simplest of landscapes can become more interesting and exciting by adding people within the image. Photographing a couple holding hands as they interact with the landscape can add the drama of romance to your image.

A silhouetted father and son playing in the surf at sunset add drama to an image that would otherwise 

be just another sunset along the shore.

#5 Focal Point

A successful photo needs a focal point that gives the viewer’s eye a place to land to hold their attention, and adding people can achieve that. It is important to add a point of interest that will change a boring landscape into a striking one. Most landscapes have natural features or buildings as a point of focus, but adding a person can sometimes make for a much more interesting image. As mentioned earlier, at times you may have negative space in the foreground of your landscape, and by adding a person into your scene that negative space is filled, and your image will benefit from the balance. As a focal point, the person in your image can be the subject of the scene, or a complement to your landscape.

This couple sitting on a rock enjoying the fall colors, placed on the rule of thirds, creates romantic 

drama.

Tip: When adding a person or persons to your landscape, try to keep their face (s) obscure. This will allow the viewer to imagine themselves as the participant in the image.

Many times adding a person to your landscape image can be as serendipitous as people just wandering into your viewfinder, especially if you are visiting a park or popular scenic area. But if you are out alone in an interesting area, use yourself as the person in the scene. Place your camera on a tripod, set the timer, then add yourself into the image. Next time you are engaged in a landscape photo shoot, look for opportunities to add one or more persons to one of your images, and see if you like the results. You may be surprised at the difference you see.
Many landscape locations are powerful enough to stand on their own, but if your image needs a little spice, try adding a human. What other kinds of landscape scenarios do you think could benefit from adding a person to create a more interesting image? Leave your ideas in the comments below.

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5 Tips for Avoiding Boring Photos of Mountains

A Post By: David Shaw

Jagged peaks, precipitous drops, deep and sweeping valleys: mountainous landscapes are unquestionably some of the most photogenic places on the planet. It shows too – take a look at any photo magazine or website, and you are likely to find not just one or two, but dozens of images of mountains.

Mountains are a landscape torn apart by the steady pressure of plate tectonics and erosion, and in that drama is the potential for spectacular photography. Why then are so many images of mountains boring? Because landscape drama does not always translate well into photographic drama, without the right combination of factors. Though there are really too many of these to name, I think five are particularly important: foreground, light, color (or lack of it), juxtaposition, and perspective.
Before we dive in, I want to make it very clear that there are as many different methods for making successful images of mountains as there are mountains themselves. Not every image has to have a compelling foreground, nor does of every image have to contain dramatic color or light. These five points are suggestions and starting places, not a formula. That noted, let’s get started:

1. Foreground

Foreground serves a number of purposes in a landscape; among these are depth and scale, setting details, and to provide a starting point for the path through the image. Foregrounds are tricky, done wrong they can make an image confusing, misleading, or unbalanced.
I’m a sucker for a good foreground. I love the way a well placed element can echo and balance features in the background, provide detail to a larger scene, and lead the viewer’s eye neatly into the photograph.

The autumn colors in the close foreground provide a good starting place for this image, guiding the eye to the winding river and then onto the stormy mountains beyond.

Water is a great foreground subject, and in this image of a wind-tossed lake, the water plays double
duty, providing color and interest, while the texture is reminiscent of the mountains in the background.

2. Light

Lighting may be the single most important aspect of a successful image. While backlight, and front light can work under some circumstances, mountains thrive in side-light. Light from the side brings out the shadows, and detail in the ridges, cliffs, and rolling slopes. It provides contrast and drama.
Images of big landscapes, like mountains, rely on natural light to for illumination, so you are really at the whim of the weather. Cloudy days can flatten the light, while midday sun will drown out shadows and turn pleasing contrast into an eye-squinting mass off whites and blacks. Successful images can arise from these challenging scenarios, but low-angle side-light makes our lives as photographers so much easier.

This detail shot of a mountainside in Alaska’s Brooks Range, despite being front-lit, retains some
drama thanks to the patchy sunlight.

A case where backlight worked to my advantage was when the mountains, darkened to silhouette, appeared to cradle this ring around the sun (caused by high elevation clouds).

Classic side light on Denali peaks of the Alaska Range, from Reflection Pond in Denali
National Park, Alaska.

3. Color (or lack of it)

Bright colors (not artificially saturated) attract the eye. This is particularly true in images of mountains. Sunset and sunrise, colorful foregrounds, and bright blue alpine skies, will help catch and hold the gaze of a viewer.

As I think about it, this goes very tidily with #2 (Light). Good light very often equates to good color. The better the light quality, the more vivid the colors of the scene become. Get one, and you often get the other.
None of this is to say that an image has to have bright colors to be successful. Low-saturation images can be moody and brooding. Storms and winter images are two examples where colors may not be rich, but do not hurt the final image. These photos thrive on the drama of the scene, rather than their colors.

In black and white images, color is absent, and yet can result in a rich portrayal of the mountains. In such images, contrast and mood play an even more important role.
A note on Black and White: when factors like light and color are not in your favor, a black and white conversion can often be a great tool. I’ve made numerous images on flat-light days that converted well to black and white, when a true-color image would have been dull and muted.

I made this image of peaks in the Bolivian Altiplano at mid-morning when the near-equitorial sunlight
was hot and bright. It doesn’t look particularly good in color.

Convert the above image to black and white, however, and the photo comes alive in a way it wouldn’t
otherwise be able.

4. Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is defined as: “two things placed together with contrasting effect”. In photography, that contrast can be literal; light versus dark contrast, colors (bright versus subtle), tonality (hot or cool), or, perhaps most effectively, the subject matter.
All of these are important parts of mountain photography. Contrast, I noted earlier in this article, but tonality and subject matter both warrant some attention.
Juxtaposed color tones combine in interesting ways. Mountain scenes, particularly from places like the Rockies, Cascades, or Alaska, tend to be dominated by cool tones; blue skies, green tundra and forest, glacial streams, or clear blue lakes. These cool-colored scenes often benefit when warm tones, like yellow, red, or pink, are integrated into the scene. Often that warm tone is best presented as a flash of color, a setting sun, a wildflower, the bright jacket of a hiker, rather than as an equal to the cool tones. When the two are equivalent, your brain has a hard time sorting out which to pay attention to, and the pleasing juxtaposition becomes a tangle of clashing color.

Subject juxtaposition is where a landscape images comes alive. When it comes to mountains, the potential for such contrasts are many. So many in fact, that it’s hard to mention just a few. Some, like the image below of the rainbow over the desert mountains of Big Bend National Park, have obvious subject juxtaposition (rain and dry desert rock). But the same image also has contrasts in shapes and texture (the jagged rocks and and smooth curve of the rainbow for example). All of these combine nicely to provide interest.

Snow and flowers is an obvious juxtaposition in this image of the aftermath of a June snowstorm in
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

5. Perspective

The final aspect of mountain photography I want to discuss is perspective. Which is to say, the perspective from which you make the image. For simplicity sake, I’ll break this down into three divisions: bottom, middle, and top. Each of these greatly impacts not just the appearance of the final image, but also its mood and feel.
Photographs of mountains made from a valley bottom looking up, make the mountains appear large and imposing. These low shots provide space for an interesting foreground, and many classic landscapes have been made from this perspective. Though effective, there are drawbacks to shooting from the valley bottom. The low perspective means that the view is limited; there are no seas of mountain peaks spreading to the horizon. Light too is often difficult. The bottom of the valley is the last place to gain sunlight in the morning, and the first to lose it in the evening, so balancing light makes exposure tricky, and by the time the landscape is evenly lit, the sweet light of dawn or dusk is long past.

Exposure was tricky as I tried to capture the storm light on the Red Wall of the Grand Canyon high above my camp along the Colorado River.

Mid-mountain shots can be spectacular, providing views both below and above. This perspective is one of my favorites, allowing for a lot of depth in the landscape, while maintaining the size and drama of the mountains.


Mountaintops are tricky. Images made from the summit of peaks tend to make the surrounding landscape look small. I’ve taken photographs from peaks in which all the mountains look like rocky waves, rather than the towering summits they are. You can make up for this by adding a human to the shot, which provides scale. You remove the focus from the mountains, and place it on the human experience within them. It changes the image, making it less of a landscape, and more of a portrait or action shot, but the results can be effective.

A hiker atop a mountaintop in Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska becomes the subject in this
image.

Without the climbers nearing the top of this peak in Antarctica, there wouldn’t be much to look at in
this image.

One of the great joys of photographing mountains, is simply being in the mountains. A camera is great excuse to go for a hike, or float a mountain river. But, the camera can also be a tool for experiencing the place more deeply. It can make you appreciate how the mountains look in various light and seasons, and from different angles. In turn that appreciation can lead to better images. Now go out and explore.
This week we are doing a series of articles to help you do better nature photography. See previous articles here:

• 3 Habits Every Outdoor Photographer Should Develop to Avoid Missing Shots
• 5 Tips for Better Nature Photography
• 27 Serene Images of the Natural World
• Weekly Photography Challenge – Nature
• 10 Ideas for Photographing Nature in your Backyard
• 6 Tips for Capturing Character and Personality in Wildlife Photography
• 5 Tips for Setting the Focus in Your Landscape Photography
• 7 Tips for Better Marine Wildlife Photography
• Tips for Processing Landscape Photos – from Basic Edits to Artistic Interpretation

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How to Grow Your Photography Business with an Email Newsletter

By: James Brandon 

Sample From My Newsletter

Ready for some controversy? Well, here it goes: One of the most useless things I see a lot of photographers doing with their time is trying to get popular on social media. There, I said it! Now, please let me explain.
There are certainly benefits of having a strong social media presence. I would be an idiot not to realize that. Just look up people like Colby Brown, Chris Burkhard, Nicole S. Young, Trey Ratcliff, Hilary Fox, etc. These people get flown around the world by large and small companies because of their social reach. The fact is, most of them either have unheard of work ethics or had some big breaks along the way to help kickstart their social media presence. And guess what…a lot of them have very successful and large newsletter (email) lists.
So, how much time do you spend every week posting your images to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, 500px, etc? For a lot of you, it’s countless hours. Do you ever feel like you’re spinning your wheels? How much of your income have you earned from doing so?
I started offering workshops through my photography business in January of 2014. I had done a couple local ones before, but never out of state. I started my (email) newsletter in January of 2013 and was fortunate enough to build it up to around 10,000 by the time I announced the first workshop.
So here’s the rundown: At the time I probably had around 40-50,000 followers on Google+, 5-6,000 on Twitter, 1-2,000 on Facebook and of course the 10,000 on my newsletter. When I announced the first workshop I was pretty nervous (stepping out like that and going for something I hadn’t done before on this scale). To my absolute surprise, the workshop sold out in less than 17 hours!
Here’s the crazy part; every single person that purchased a spot on my workshop came from my newsletter. I ran the workshop with my buddy Mike and he didn’t even have a chance to announce the workshop to his followers before it sold out! Not a single spot sold from my social media following, which outnumbered my newsletter numbers almost six-fold.
You can find plenty of stats out there that say newsletter subscribers convert into sales at a rate of around 250% more than social media. In my case it’s much much higher.

Where to Start

As Lao Tzu said so eloquently, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. I highly suggest making that first step by heading over to MailChimp (note from dPS use this link to get a $30 credit when you sign up, disclaimer: yes we get a credit also) and getting your first newsletter set up. Their account is 100% free up to your first 2,000 subscribers, which is quite insane if you ask me! That’s a LOT of free subscribers! After you exceed that 2,000 mark you will have to start paying. In fact, my newsletter is currently pushing well past the $160/month mark. That’s fine though, because it forces me to make sure I send out a newsletter on a regular basis to make sure I’m not throwing that money away. And trust me, that $160 monthly fee is well taken covered.
MailChimp is, at least in my opinion, the absolute best newsletter engine out there. The design is fantastic, it’s easy and intuitive to use, and they recently updating their pricing methods which is saving me a ton of money. That isn’t an affiliate link to their website either, I just truly believe they are the best.

How to Make Your Newsletter Successful

This section is a bit difficult to address considering it’s a bit personal, but I’ll do my best. My experience has been that simply being open, honest, and transparent is what people want. I don’t have anything to hide, I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I think people appreciate that (at least the ones on my newsletter list do). If every newsletter you send out is selling something then you are going to start losing the trust of your subscribers. I don’t sell something through my newsletter unless I know it’s going to benefit my subscribers in some way. Instead of selling stuff at every chance I get, I fill my newsletters with free photo tips, free presets, updates on my life, my travels, my family, etc. I want to make sure that when they see my newsletter in their inbox, it will bring a smile to their faces.

Don’t be irresponsible with it

Another way to make your newsletter successful is by not doing anything irresponsible with it. Everything kind of black hat tactic to getting a bigger list in a faster manner, is shooting yourself in the foot. Subscribers cost you every month, so it would be really dumb to start trying to buy up lists of email addresses from folks who didn’t actually subscribe to your list. These will not be targeted subscribers, and your list’s health will reflect that. Even if the email addresses are industry specific, they won’t be people who actually wanted to be on your list.

Your subscribers are not for sale

Another thing you should never do is sell your subscriber list. You will get caught. There are plenty of people out there smart enough to use unique email address for your newsletter so they can track whether or not you sell their information (check this article out for more info).

Be cautious with affiliate sales

There were rumours going around a few years ago saying that including affiliate links in your newsletters (specifically with MailChimp) would get you banned. This ultimately was not true (here’s MailChimp’s response) but they suggest using caution with affiliate links. Some companies are very clear about doing this when people sign up for their newsletter (think Snapndeals, PhotoWhoa, PictureCorrect) but the basic premise is that when someone signs up for your newsletter, they are signing up to hear about you and potentially purchase things from you, not someone else. If this sort of thing gets abused and your list stats reflect spam, you could easily get your newsletter yanked. All that work, gone.

Give your followers a reason to subscribe

I’m very, very picky about which newsletters I subscribe to. I get enough email as it is already. I also read articles on plenty of websites, and have a tons of things to do for my photography business each and every day. So if I’m going to allow a person or business into my inbox, it had better be worth it. I keep that in mind every time I send out a newsletter. I ask myself, is this worth sending out for the people receiving it? I have deleted three or four entire newsletters when the answer was no.
That being said, how do you make your newsletter worth subscribing to? Well, the best way to entice subscribers is by giving away something free. I put together an entire ebook just for my newsletter subscribers called: 10 Tips For Improving Your Photography Today, and it has consistently gotten great feedback. It’s short, to the point, and each tip is truly something useful that they can put into practice immediately if they so desire.
Another method is to use auto-responders (now called Automation inside MailChimp) to send out a multi-email campaign when someone subscribes. This could be a three part series, or three different ebooks, that get sent out at specific times after a successful subscription. For example, your first free gift could go out immediately after they subscribe. The second could go out a few days later and the third a few days after that. This gets the subscribers pumped up and happy to be part of your list. Just don’t set them up for a newsletter that is non-existent or not worth reading afterwards.

Acknowledge that your subscribers are your #1 fans, and act accordingly

When I click Like on a photographers Facebook page, I’m not really any more committed to them than I was before. I just want to keep up with them more. When I start reading their blog on a regular basis they have really struck a chord somewhere, and I am very interested in what they have to say. For me, to subscribe to their newsletter means that I am a huge fan of whatever they are doing. Be sure to remember that when you conduct your business!
My newsletter subscribers are first in line for everything. They get access to workshops before I announce them publicly. They get exclusive discounts that nobody else gets. They get random free stuff like presets and video tutorials. They get a deeper look into my personal life and what drives me. Essentially, I make sure they are taken care of because I truly, honestly, appreciate and value their time and their willingness to follow what I do.

So What Would You Use a Newsletter for?

I sell products (ebooks, presets, textures, video courses, etc.) and workshops through my newsletter. I realize not everyone does that. But if you are in business (making anywhere from 1-100% of your income through photography) then you have something to sell. Use your newsletter to primarily keep in touch with your clients and keep them updated on the happenings of your photography business. This keeps you in their sights and makes sure they don’t forget about you. Clients love connecting with the people they do business with, and a newsletter is perfect for this. From time to time you can send discounts for photo sessions or on print orders, do giveaways where you send a winner a free print, and so on.

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