Giving Life to Landscapes

Step No.1 - Location


Choose your location... No matter where you are you can find something to give life too. Search for the emotion you want to share, Colors, movement, lighting, and details can all be used to create a story and give your viewers a distinct feeling! Along with location is timing... The light is the soul of a photograph. A mountain will look different from morning to noon and noon to dusk, the milky way is blown out if you let the moon rise, and golden hour changes daily and only lasts for moments if the weather is a miss!

Step No.2 - Compsition


Once you find your subject now you need an angle. a slight change in angle can completely change an image. A little more ground can guide the eyes from starting the bottom of the image moving towards the top. More ground can make the background stand out in size as well! More sky can be used to make a landscape feel more vast, smaller, and free. Decide where you ant the horizon and then place your subject exactly where you want it.

Step No.3 - Focus


Where is your story? What will the eye grab onto and never let go! Focus on the part of the image that means the most to you. Maybe its about the mountains so focus on them, perhaps its the cactus in the foreground BOOM that's your focus! Alternatively maybe you want something sharp across the whole landscape? Try focus stacking by taking several images on a tripod and only moving the focal point!

Marin Headlands • San Fransisco Coast

The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom.

Theodore Roosevelt

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