P#17 Q1: What is the One Mistake People Most Often Make When Taking Landscape Photographs?

Don't Spill it All

Bill Neill: The first mistake that comes to mind is that a lot of photographers try to include too much information, too much of the landscape, and try to say too much in one image.

To me, good landscape images are a distillation of the important elements within the scene.

If you try to tell the whole story in one frame, your images and your intention for that image could well be more vague than you would like and have a diluted impact. My approach has been to zoom in and try to tell the story in segments.

Maybe the foreground element has something exciting. Zoom in there and maybe not include the sky in some photographs. Maybe another part of that landscape, there are some trees against the sky that have more impact if you isolate it.

I try to make a range of compositions that are parts of that overall view.

Another mistake that I wanted to mention really quickly is quite simple. It's kind of obvious, but people don't always choose the best light. When you're traveling and moving around, you're there when you're there. A lot of people just accept that.

The photographers that do the best work are ones who are very patient and wait for the best light. These photographers will come back to a location after having scouted it out and know a good time to be there to catch the best light or the best weather.

I think it's important to be highly selective regarding the quality of light to use in your images.

Audri Lanford: How do we avoid these mistakes?

Bill Neill: You might start out with a scene. Take a wide angle lens and capture the overall view. That's a good memory and it may be the best image you take, but then switch lenses, change positions, pick out segments, and try creating very simple snippets -- sections of a landscape that you can also look at later and decide what works the best.

A lot of people take one lens, take a few shots, and they're off to another composition. It's important to really work a scene.

The same applies to light. They accept what they've been given. It may be the best light you'll ever see there when you happen to arrive there, but chances are you'll still have to come back. It's just a matter of persistence and patience.

In Closing

It seems that the trick to great landscape photography is patience and precision. According to Bill Neill, the best way to get great landscape photographs is to break your photographs down into sections of the landscape and have the patience to wait for -- or come back for -- the best lighting for that particular landscape location.