How to make a beautiful photo of the landscape?

Landscape Photography - a supreme test for the photographer, but often higher his frustration.
Ansel Adams

How to make a beautiful photo landscape? Everything seems obvious. You see a beautiful picture - click button. But in this case will emotionless picture. She did not express your thoughts, feelings and attitudes to what you saw. Before the camera shutter clicks, you need to hear the "voice" of the landscape, and then your pictures will be unique and will learn from the thousands of other photographs.

In this article are some tips from a professional photographer Declan O'NeilaWhich will help to understand how to make a beautiful photo.

1. The landscape should be "speaking"

You will need time to understand the landscape. You just have to stand by and watch as the light changes the contours and shapes. The sun moves, and the forests and streams begin to look very different. The light gives the landscape a unique sound, light makes the mood and emotions, and the land - it's a huge canvas on which the sun creates its subtle patterns. For me photos - this is a story about how the light changes the landscape. That means deciding whether it is necessary to photograph the landscape and how to build a song, I accept, ask yourself: "Do I tell in this picture of as the interaction between the light and the landscape? "This question makes me give up many shots, which, despite its beauty, is still not open my selected theme.

2. Get up early

If I was given the choice of what to shoot: the sunrise or sunset, I would choose the former. I have nothing against the sunset pictures, but I understand that I can not add anything new to the millions of photos that have already been made.

But the dawn - it's always amazing. You never know what you will see while waiting for it in the dark. It looks like a photoshoot: You can get a snapshot of which you dreamed of for many years, and you can not remove anything. Dawn light can vary from pink to warm ash yellow shades.

Keep an eye on the weather forecasts, and if the night will be very cold, and the sky is clear, you will be able to catch the morning very unusual clouds and a few effects which disappear by the time the rest of the world wakes up.

3. Look

So easy to see a clear picture and forget to look around. Photo ive been made at Lake Wanaka in New Zealand. This lake - one of the most beautiful scenery in the world, but at sunset the sun sets over the surrounding mountains, and they look beautiful, but somehow typically... Deciding that it is not necessary to do photos "water / sunset," I went to the car and suddenly saw these trees.

Obviously a beautiful picture - not always the best. Take a look around.

4. Use the software to schedule your photo shoot

I always use two programs. first - The Photographers Ephemeris. Its operating principle is as follows: The desired anywhere in the world, day, time, and it shows where the sun will be at that moment. You can plan a photo shoot and pick up point shooting. If you are a serious landscape photographer, it is necessary for you.

The two pictures below show how the sun's position can change the appearance of the landscape and the atmosphere of your photos.

First make the evening in September (early spring in New Zealand). The sun reflected on the river, making it silver.

The second photo was taken on the morning of July (midwinter in New Zealand).

It is also useful to map the scale of 1: 50,000, which is specified terrain.

In New Zealand, I used MapApp NZ South Island for the iPhone. Sat Nav - not detailed enough and does not indicate a relief. A good map will allow you to understand how the area looks, and choose point shooting. If you're perfectly good at cards, then save a lot of time, by selecting the right endpoint of the way, rather than running on dirt roads in search of the best shooting locations.

5. The equipment is not so important

The best equipment will not help to make the best photos, as well as the best handle does not help you write a grand affair. Of course, every photographer is needed equipment, but you have to treat it as a writer refers to their instruments: it is just a means of transmission of what is going on in your head, others. You will need their own point of view, no matter what happens in this moment in the hands of: a smartphone or a Nikon D800.

You - the creator of images, and the camera just does it. If you think that a higher resolution or faster lens will allow you to create a cool pictures, then welcome to the techno-circus!

6. No need to dorisovyvat photo

On the Internet, thousands of pictures taken using the ND filter or processed in the editors so that the water they looked like a smooth silk.

Why do not you let nature speak for itself? She does this just fine without any effects and filters! When editing photos, you seem to decide how to actually should look like landscape. You are telling a story that is not where this emerald-green grass and bright orange sunset sky? These artificial fotoshopnye pictures often leave the viewer indifferent.

Photo landscape should invite us to the viewing and research, it should refer to our innermost thoughts. It can be metaphoric, but this metaphor has to be born in the mind of the viewer.

Well, if you want to create your own version of how a lawn should look like, why do not you do painting?

7. Bad weather - it's great

Clouds and rain - not the most encouraging weather, but in fact it provides a much more exciting opportunities than cloudless day.

This photo was taken in Marlborough (New Zealand) on a rainy evening, after a long tiring day in the search images. It will take a lot of patience and optimism in the rain to go for hundreds of kilometers, but believe me, you will be rewarded. The main thing - keep your eyes open and you will always find what to photograph.

Interestingly, when I submitted this photograph to the image bank, it was rejected on the grounds that I edited it, making monochrome. In fact, it is not. Nature surprises us sometimes very unusual phenomena, such as, for example, in this photo.

8. return back

Luck plays a big role in getting beautiful pictures. If you've found a place has good potential return there again and again. And almost certainly will be able to make pictures better than they were before.

These photos of the lake Tanichva in New Zealand have been made with a difference of five days. I am sure that when I get back there again, it will again look different.

9. Do not listen to the advice that you are given!

And so, after a given 8 tips to give the latter - do not listen to any advice! Or rather, listen to him and understand clearly what advice for you, and what - no.

For example, there is a widespread belief that there must be some object in front of the landscape plan. This is due to the opinion that the landscape itself is too boring, and it is imperative to put in it a cowgirl or a herd of cows to more interest.

But if you put an object between the landscape and the viewer, then the object must also tell a story, rather than just being there.

Best photographers violate all accepted rules.

In general, all of the above can be combined with a single sentence: decide what is interesting for you in this landscape, and then take the picture so that the picture itself tell the audience about what you thought.

Good luck!