Better Landscape Shots

There are some very basic things you can do to achieve a decent landscape shot.

1. Time of Day
Shoot your landscape in the mornings and evenings. The light temp is warmer hence casting long shadows that give a three-dimensional feel to the shot. You'll want to note where the light falls at different times of day on the different scenes you'd like to capture.

2. Location, Location, Location
Before shooting a scene, get the lay of the land and potential shots. I like to do a 'dry' run shooting a landscape, then go back another day after I've assessed where the ideal locations are for shots. Then when you go back try and achieve some interesting angles and perspectives by putting yourself in shooting locations someone may not necessarily think of. Perched in a tree, down on the ground or perhaps jetting the camera off of a cliff on a monopod with the timer set. Typically you will get a more even exposure with the sun behind you, try to avoid that — it will over-expose the light making your shot dull.

3. Highlights and shadows
The exposure for the sky and foreground often differs by a wide gap and most meters in point-and-shoots will be fooled into optimizing the settings for the foreground which burn away the highlights in the sky. If your shooter has manual exposure mode or exposure compensation, try underexposing the scene by one stop to retain more information in the sky. It is better to lose shadow details than highlights. Use a tripod when you leave the shutter open longer.

4. Skies and clouds
You can't control when clouds are going to roll by or what shape they'll be in. But when they do, there is an intense sense of depth to your picture insighting childhood imaginations of cloud shapes. For a more intense-looking blue sky, attach a polarizing filter to your lens. They are inexpensive and will also serve to protect your lens'.

5. Silky waters
Waterfalls and streams are tricky elements to photograph. Although a tack-sharp shot looks nice, it doesn't represent fast-moving nature. If your shooter allows, reduce the shutter speed and use a tripod. Depending on what you're trying to achieve, these settings will make the water appear to be smooth and silky, thus making it more visually exciting.

6. Animals
If possible try and capture animals in their environment to add movement scene. Birds, deer or any mammal will add life to the photograph.