6 Tips for Planning the Perfect Landscape Photo Shoot

I came across this article written by Luigi Trevis. I am quite fond of people, photography aficionados and journalists who share so much wonderful information surrounding digital photography especially when photographing our beloved pets. Luigi goes into great detail explaining the following six tricks/tips. He covers landscape shots in this blog post but much of the information can be utilized and put into practice with any medium.

Enjoy the article and please leave any comments below this post. :-) Roxanne

How many times have you shown your pictures to someone and said, ”You should have seen that sunset in person to understand how magic it was!” We can make many excuses as to why the photo doesn’t look the same, complaining about our equipment, settings or post-production, but let’s face reality, maybe there was something wrong with our landscape photo!

Before you open Photoshop, and even before you press the shutter button, you need to plan the kind of image you want to create. Planning plays a key role in landscape photography. Here are some things that are useful to think about if you want to capture the perfect light and transmit some feelings with your images.

 Tip 1: Check the weather forecast

 Calton Hill – Edinburgh, Scotland

Now Luigi discusses how important your weather schedule and Mother Nature have to be as to not get in a bind!

 

Landscape photography is one of the most difficult genres, or at least among the most unpredictable, as you don’t have any control over the weather at the scene.

What kind of atmosphere do you want to create with your image? The weather can completely transform a landscape, so think carefully about what mood you want to evoke. If you want to create a bright, cheerful image you might already know that a blue sky with fluffy white clouds would be better than a flat blue sky, or even worse a grey one.

So, before you drive for two hours and you arrive to see is a dull landscape, use the only weapon at your disposal: the weather forecast.

Tip 2: Choose the right time of the day and year

 The perfect weather condition alone is useless without proper light. In landscape photography, the light is given by the position of the sun in the sky in relation to your subject. Fortunately, this is something more predictable than the weather. Calculate where the sun will be at particular times of day, and it will be easier for you to foresee how the scene will be illuminated. Again, think about the atmosphere you want to create.

Light and peaceful? Dark and moody? Are there any particular landmarks you want to highlight? The answer to these questions will inform where you want your light to be, and consequently what time of day to shoot.

 Groningen, Netherlands

Bear in mind that the sun’s position doesn’t change only during the day, but also throughout the year. As a result, in one year there are many different lighting conditions for the same place. It would be a shame not to use them to your advantage. You can use many websites and apps for this; the one that I use the most is PhotoPills, which is very well outlined in this article.

Tip 3: Be inspired by other photographers
 
When you plan your holiday, after booking the tickets and the hotel, you may buy a travel guide with detailed information about the location. Like where to go and what to eat, to make sure you won’t miss anything. Or you might just ask some friends who have been there before. In both cases, you’re relying on someone who went there before you, and who therefore knows what’s worthwhile to visit, or what’s a good typical (local) dish to try.

Even if you can’t do exactly the same thing with photography, you can get pretty close, thanks to the multitude of photography websites and social networks full of pictures from all over the world. The ones I personally use most of the time are; Google Images, 500px, Instagram, Flickr, and Pinterest.
Obviously, the list doesn’t end here.

Feel free to use whatever sites you want, as long as you do it. It doesn’t matter if the picture isn’t the best quality, after all, you don’t want to copy it, but you’re just looking for some inspiration so just as Michael Jordan and Nike used to say, "Just Do It"!

Zaanse Schaans, Netherlands

The following YouTube video has much more and just adds to this article. Enjoy.

For more information on landscscape photography and Luigi Trevis peruse the complete blog post here: http://digital-photography-school.com/6-tips-landscape-photo-shoot

Related information on landscape photos on Blogger.