Blog: 4 Common Mistakes Made In Landscape Photography
When it comes to photography, there is nothing more fulfilling than exploring the wonders of landscape photography. When you see the beauty of nature and experience the bliss it has to offer, you want to translate that overall experience into photographs.
Know that landscape photography can be a bit tricky, as you won’t be able to necessarily capture the best of the natural scenes all the time. If you’re a budding photographer, it’s possible that you are committing a few mistakes when taking pictures of landscapes.
If you want to have the perfect landscape photographs to print out for your home, here are four common mistakes you should be wary of so that you can avoid making them:
1. Failing to focus on a subject
Sure, there is so much that you wish to capture in a given landscape, where you probably want to have a picture of the entire panoramic view, the mountains, rainforest, and the greeneries in one frame. When all these minor details translate into photographs, however, they may not make sense to tell a wonderful story. For this reason, make sure to have a clear, interesting subject in your photos by focusing on it and blurring the rest. That way, you will be able to draw in the attention of your viewers to the main subject.
2. Capturing uneven horizon
When it comes to landscape photography, you will most likely capture the entire horizon. Unfortunately, many budding individuals make the mistake of capturing a picture that has an uneven horizon. Either you lack photography skills, or you don’t bring your tripod for stability, as you may think that you can simply edit your images later on. The rule of thumb, however, is that you ought to get the shot right in camera first, and only add the final touches in post-production. That’s why, when capturing, you have to ensure that your horizon is straight from the onset.
3. Lacking stability
Another problem is when you have a lack of stability during the entire shoot, simply because you don’t use a tripod. As a result, your images end up blurred due to shaky hands. Remember that using a tripod is the best way to ensure that your images are captured as sharp as possible. There is a wide range of tripods that you can invest in, so make sure to choose a heavy-duty one for your landscape photography.
4. Utilizing the landscape format only
It makes sense to use the landscape format for your landscape photographs. However, this doesn’t mean that you are strictly confined to using that format alone. In fact, a portrait orientation can sometimes work well, particularly if you wish to shoot a vertical landscape than a horizontal one. Think about the forest or mountain scene — they are best captured in a portrait format!
Conclusion
Landscape photography doesn’t merely entail performing ‘point and shoot’ just because the sceneries are overwhelmingly beautiful. There are a few tricks that photographers pull up their sleeves, and there are certainly photography mistakes that they also try to avoid as much as possible. Remember to have a clear subject, capture a straight horizon, use a tripod for stability, and go beyond the landscape format to bring your photographs into life!
It's about time to take your landscape photography into the next level. If you’re looking for a landscape photographer in Baton Rouge, Los Angeles, get in touch with me to see how I can help!