5 Important Elements For Great Landscape

5 Important Elements for Great Landscape
1. Lighting
Good lighting is essential, and this is especially true with landscape and nature. It
doesn’t matter how beautiful the location is, if you’re trying to capture it in bad lighting
conditions, the results are not going to be great. And amazing lighting can turn even
average scenes into beautiful photographs/scenes. Of course, lighting and weather aren’t
exactly within your control, but you can put yourself in position to have the best chance
for good lighting and to be ready when the situation occus.The best lighting conditions
usually happen around sunrise and sunset, when the sun is hitting the earth at a nice
angle. Golden hour (after sunrise and before sunset) will usually produce a warm golden
glow that makes just about any landscape look better, and blue hour (before sunrise and
after sunset) will often produce the best and most vibrant colors in the sky.
Generally speaking, you can get the best light by taking advantage of golden hour
and blue hour. Try to avoid harsh midday light, which will not be flattering for your
photos/subject.
2. A Subject
The best landscape and nature scenes will have a clear subject or focal point. This
may sound obvious, but I think most of us often fall into the trap of capturing a beautiful
landscape without giving much thought to the specific subject of the photo.
Masterpiece without a clear subject can be boring and forgettable. If you want to
have an impact with your photos/masterpiece, make sure to take your time and establish a
clear subject. Don’t simply rely on the beauty of a scene to lead to a great
scenery/photograph.
3. Composition
The same scene photographed/captured in different ways can produce very

different results. If you want to take your work to the next level, work on improving your
composition skills.
In my opinion, composition is one of the harder things to learn if you struggle in

that area (like me). Fortunately, there are a lot of tricks and rules that you can use to help
you create interesting compositions. Here are a few things that you can try:
Foreground Interest – Look for things that you can use as foreground
elements in your compositions. It could be a rock that is close to you in a stream when
you are photographing a waterfall, some wildflowers in a field with impressive
mountains in the distance, or anything else in the foreground that will catch the attention
of viewers.
Leading Lines – You can use lines in a composition to guide and direct the eye of
viewers. The lines can be natural (like the peaks of sand dunes or lines in a stone) or
man-made (like a bridge, fence, or building). Find angles and perspectives that
use leading lines to make your images a compositional masterpiece.
Rule of Thirds – The rule of thirds can be helpful for aligning the objects in a
way that will create a visually pleasing composition. If you were to lay a grid over the
photograph/scene, the rule of thirds says that you should place the focal point of subject
one-third of the way into a composition, rather than directly in the center. The red crosses
on the image below show the sweet spots. Most cameras have a setting that will show a
grid overly to help when you are taking a photo.
4. Focus
The sharpness and focus of a landscape is absolutely critical. In most cases, you’ll
want as much of the photo as possible to be in sharp focus. You can do this by an
aperture that gives you the greatest depth of field.
Of course, there may be times when you want to use a lack of focus, like background
blur, for a creative effect. For example, if you are capturing a flower subject and you
want the background to be blurred.
5. Lack of Distractions
While it may not be the most obvious element of a successful landscape, a lack of
distractions is important.
First, unimportant details or clutter around the edges of your composition can be very
distracting. Try to compose the edges are clean and free of distractions.
Second, pay attention to the background of your scene/composition. The subject tends to
get the most attention, but be sure that the elements in the background are not distracting
or taking away from the subject. If they are, find another angle or alter the composition to
get rid of the background distractions.
Some Other Optional Elements That Can Create
Powerful Landscape Scenes.
The five elements listed above are a must-have for just about any good landscape,
but there are some other elements that can be extremely powerful and effective as well.
The three elements listed below will be essential for every photo, but they can be very
effective when used at the right time.
1. Mood
Mood can be a very powerful way of creating landscape and nature photos that stand out.
There are several different ways that you can create mood, like:
 In the fog
 Using a minimalist approach to composition
 Processing in black and white
 Working with shadows
 During storms
2. Color
Color can be used in a few different ways. You could capture during lighting
conditions that were mentioned earlier (golden hour and blue hour) to get beautiful color
in the sky. You could capture or photograph during peak fall foliage to capture stunning
reds, yellows, and oranges that will transform a landscape. You could capture in spring
when everything is green and vibrant. Or you could process in black and white to remove
the color.
3. Movement
With most landscape, you’ll probably want sharp and crisp. For example, you may
want to blur rushing water, moving clouds, or running wildlife.
While landscape scenes can be overwhelming at times when you are trying to learn, if
you break it down to the essential elements, there really aren’t that many things that you
need to worry about. Pay attention to the five important elements and you’ll see that
creating beautiful landscape isn’t as complicated as you might have expected.
Thanks! Module for Tuesday..October 6, 2020

5 Important Elements For Great Landscape

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5 Important Elements For Great Landscape

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5 Important Elements for Great Landscape

The same scene photographed/captured in different ways can produce very

In my opinion, composition is one of the harder things to learn if you struggle in

 Processing in black and white

 Working with shadows

Thanks! Module for Tuesday..October 6, 2020

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