Landscape Photography: A Beginner’s Guide to Amazing Photos

In addition to a camera, landscape photographers benefit significantly from the use of a great tripod. Your shutter speeds are slower in landscape shots, and your tripod makes up for the slow speeds by keeping everything stable and sharp.

We also recommend tripods for those still working on their photography skills because it’s not only more forgiving, but it encourages you to play around with the settings.

Lens filters aren’t a must for landscape photography, but many budding photographers welcome the option and find they make their shots more versatile. Filers also take over if you either don’t like or are new to post-production.

Lens filters also offer a look that you can’t replicate in Lightroom or elsewhere, so having them on hand is your one chance to achieve that effect.

If you’re shooting moving landscapes, like beaches, you’ll also benefit from a remote shutter. These allow you to be incredibly precise without inadvertently shaking the camera.

Finally, you’ll want a good SSD card for shooting RAW images. RAW images take up more space than JPEGs, and you’ll thank us later for the extra storage space. Don’t forget a rain cover for rainy days.

To shoot landscape photography, you can leave your exposure settings on A or Av (Aperture Priority) and get an excellent picture. However, one of the benefits of landscape photography is that you have more time to play around. If you feel confident enough to try out Manual exposure mode, do it here.

Our best tip is to play around with Manual mode and see what happens. You will get frustrated, but if you stick with it, manual mode will become a way of life. But don’t neglect Aperture Priority complete because it allows you to remain in control of the depth of field without too much concern for the shutter because the camera sets it for you.

Keep in mind that the Aperture settings need to accommodate the large depth of field inherent landscape photography. Not sure where to start? Set it to f/13 or f/16. The f/22 setting also works here.

Landscape shots are generally hand-held, which means your shutter speed should meet the reciprocal of the focal length. You can slow it down in some cases like if your image stabilizer is on. Generally, however, you should choose focal length or faster.

When you leave the setting on Aperture Priority mode, you risk a slower shutter speed anyway, particularly when you use a filter.

If the speed drops below 1/125, we recommend setting up your tripod and using the shutter remote. A slow speed increases the likelihood of camera shake and your tripod and remote help the image stabilizer handle it.

Filters limit the light through the lens, and they become your best friend in landscape photography. We recommend adding a polarizing or neutral-density filter when you’re working with slow shutter speeds.

Finally, shooting landscape photos is the perfect time to use RAW image files. You want RAW because it preserves more data, which gives you more room to play when you get back to your computer.

The Rule of Thirds is an important style rule that any photograph can benefit from but adds extra focus for landscape photographers. When you follow the Rule of Thirds, you divide your frame by three horizontal and three vertical lines to create nine equal parts across the space. Your goal is to place the most important focus points on the line or at an intersection.

One tip for taking this basic rule further is to focus on what’s in the bottom third of the frame. If you don’t have a specific subject or point of interest and you want to capture the frame as a whole, use your manual focus to highlight the bottom third of the frame. It keeps photo sharp. You can then use this as a jumping off point for hyperfocal distance.

If the Rule of Thirds is a foundation-level trick, and if you’re ready for more, then the Golden Ratio helps advance your photography skills. The Golden Ratio is far more complicated because it skews the Rule of Thirds and leads the eye on a journey to a focus point in the upper right corner of the picture.

Photographers use the Golden Ratio because it’s a less obvious approach to photography than the Rule of Thirds, which features a basic but compelling layout.

As you play with style, remember to adjust your compositional perspective. Perspective in photography is the sense of space between the objects in the photo in regards to each other and to your viewpoint.

We list it third here because perspective is something you alter once your composition reaches a point that already compels the viewer. It’s also a more advanced option because it requires a handheld shot rather than a tripod.

Still, playing with perspective is fun, and it’s a simple way to take a unique shot that challenges your creative vision.