Secrets to Improving Your Landscape Photography
If your compositions are falling flat, take these tips to heart -- and learn how to make your landscape photography absolutely unforgettable
We've all suffered that landscape photography rite-of-passage: the one where we take what we think is a masterful shot, and then, when we download the pics to the laptop (or develop the film), we make a horrifying discovery.
It's not that the photo's bad, or even that it's boring. It's just that, well, it's no different from a million other landscape photos you've ever seen. In other words, you thought you were making an artistic statement... but it fell flat.
Well, you don't have to take that lying down! In this article, we'll tap the knowledge of talented photographer Jennifer Wu, and learn a few simple ways to bring your landscape photography to vivid life.
Get down -- or get up
One of the biggest problems with amateur landscape photos is that people tend to just get out of the car, point, and click. We're so used to seeing things from eye-level, Wu points out, that it's easy to forget that most pictures shot that way will end up perceived as bland and ordinary.
Instead of what doing everyone else does, crouch down low and shoot up at your subject; failing that, get up high and shoot down at it. Sure, people might think you're weird for climbing on top of your car before taking pictures, but your landscape photography will be the better for it.
And don't stop there; experiment a bit. Climb a hill, or go down a slope a bit to shoot up at your subjects. "If you have trees," Wu advises, "point the camera straight up and get the view of all the trees coming up to the top of the sky."
Big landscape, little human
When you look at most landscape photography, it can be difficult to grasp just how big the subject is -- unless the photographer has included something as a scale. People are ideal, since we all have an idea of how big a person is. Seeing a human speck beside a glacier, for example, can give you an idea of the sweep and grandeur of Mother Nature.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a human, Wu says. "By putting [in] this little boat or some other object that we're used to, something that we can recognize as the subject, then we can say, 'Oh, this is large -- wow, that's amazingly big.'"
With some landscape photography, it's possible to get away with the exact opposite. "Oftentimes I'll put my hand in a small scene, or something that's recognizable like that, so that you could say, 'Wow, this is really tiny.' That definitely gives it perspective in terms of size ratio."
A matter of life and depth
A sense of depth can make a big difference between a photo you hide and something you hang on your wall, especially when you're dealing with the great outdoors.
To avoid the flat look that dooms so much amateur landscape photography, Wu recommends including a foreground subject as a contrast against the background landscape. Your best bet is to get very close to your foreground subject, and to use a wide-angle lens to capture the larger scene behind it, too.
By doing that, Wu observes, "you get more of that sense of depth, and more of a sense of the place. We can look at it and our eyes can see everything in focus, from the foreground to the background -- we can see everything."
To learn more about Jennifer Wu and her brilliant landscape photography, take a look at her in-depth interview here.
