Nature Photography How To

Some photographers are under the misconception that slow shutter speeds are only required when shooting at night or under less-than-ideal lighting conditions. In this tutorial, you’ll see how to use long exposures during the day to make epic landscape photos.

We can all appreciate the beauty and mystery of a forest enshrouded by mist in the early dawn. But few of us manage to capture the haunting quality of the scene.

“Keep things simple” is great advice for whatever type of images you shoot, but when photographing nature scenes it’s often crucial to simplify the landscape if you want to capture compelling photos without a lot of unnecessary clutter.

One way to improve the overall “feel” of landscape photographs is to adjust white balance to achieve either a subtle or more dramatic effect. You can often do that by selecting the appropriate camera settings, or in the case of this tutorial, by making a few adjustments when processing an image.

Landscape shooters tend to be among the most stalwart of photographers, often carrying heavy tripods, and backpacks bulging with cameras, lenses, and other gear, on long treks into the backcountry. In the video below, a British pro reveals what he considers to be “the best accessories for landscape photography.”

One lesson all outdoor photographers learn is that there’s a big difference between a beautiful location and a great landscape photograph. That’s because no matter how gorgeous the setting, if you arrive on a cloudless day with poor light and drab colors, there’s not much you can do to capture a stunning shot.

The video below is a follow-up to yesterday’s primer on understanding and using a camera’s Shutter Priority exposure mode. In this tutorial, British pro Adam Kappa demonstrates how to make awesome landscape photos using a DSLR’s manual settings.