I feel the need to start this topic with an explanation about the term itself – landscape. It is a disputed one because it is hard to go with a definition when it comes to landscape photography.

Some people consider that landscape photography should only refer to pictures of the land, without including the horizon line or the sea view. Others say that it consists of scenery like a cityscape, night scene, seascape, and mountainscape with all the great details added by water and/or sky.

What is landscape photography?

I believe that the definition of landscape photography is open to personal interpretation, which in my case is a picture showing scenery – rustic, urban, or natural. You can apply different techniques (panorama, time-lapse, long exposure) or immortalize the moment with a fast shoot in each case.

Landscape photography types

Seascape

Referring to the sea’s beauty, the seascape is a picture that indicates its vastness, power of waves or stillness, the fantastic colors of water and beaches, wildlife and maritime vessels, and pretty much everything else related to the sea.

You can shoot the waves and reflections, wildlife – static or inaction, or you can shoot with more prolonged exposure for significant effects.

The seascape is one of the most popular landscape photography types, as the possibilities are limitless. Your creativity may be the limit.

Mountainscape

This can be a challenge as you might need to hike depending on what you want to achieve. You can take shots with mountains simply from a distance, or you can climb to the heights for more spectacular views. There you could find animals on cliffs, or birds roaring or view with lakes and mountain reflection.

You can make good use of the sun hitting the peak or maybe try to shoot against the sun for astonishing results.

Forest

This can be a pretty difficult one unless you are experienced enough. For most people, the forest might not be the best place to take shoots because there are so many obstacles in the way. Like the parable – I can’t see the forest because of the trees.

But there is so much you can have in your picture when it comes to shooting in the forest: it can be fog, sun flare through the trees, autumn colors, or the spring flowers all over. Pretty amazing. Understanding the camera settings is a must for great pictures.

Field

Shooting in the fields can be great if you can find good sceneries. You could meet animals, field wildflowers, or something as great as the Stonehenge.

What about the swamps with their fantastic wildlife? Surely you’ll be able to find a lot of subjects to capture.

Seasons

Returning to life in the Springtime, the green and full of animation Summer, the colors of the Autumn, and the Winter cold with blizzards, snow, and ice will give you a wide range of ideas.

Cityscape

We can refer to the cityscape as a landscape type, especially if you are out of the streets, taking photos of cities in the landscape. Like taking pictures from a hill with an overview of the town. Pretty amazing in the night with all those lights, maybe with fireworks or lanterns.

You can capture architectural details of the city, prominent monuments, or other buildings that stand out.

Rustic (rural and agricultural)

This is a category similar to cityscape photography. Besides, you can take advantage of the agricultural side, traditions, and specific vehicles and tools.

Like villagers going or coming back from work with scythes in their arms, wagons with horses or bovines, and many others, you get the idea. Of course, shots were taken from a distance to include all of this in a landscape.

Night sceneries

The night scene is a very spectacular type of photography. A city from a distance, Aurora Borealis, the sky with the moon and mountains or sea, has many options for a great capture.

With the long exposure, you can have star trails and light trails from cars.

Day time – sunrise, sunset, and golden hour

Sunrise over the sea or a sunset over the mountains are stunning photos that everyone enjoys.

The golden hour is considered to be the best time for shooting landscapes.

This is the time around sunrise and sunset when the light is soft, and it will not result in high contrast in your photos.

Since the landscape photographer has no other choice than to use natural light, this is the best time. It does not last long, so you have to be ready to shoot when the sun breaks through.
It will be a good idea to be at your desired location an hour before sunrise or sunset, so you’ll be ready with setting your gear.

Black and white

In black and white landscape photography, it is imperative to have good knowledge of lighting and shadows because the contrast in textures is stronger.
Not my favorite, but I have to admit that I have seen some great photos, and I can understand why some photographers are bound to it.

Photography techniques

Time-lapse

Time-lapse photography is the way of taking single shoots and add them together to form a video that shows the action of the environment around you. It will show how a scene can change over time. Let’s say you are shooting a flower in the morning when it is closed. You can capture how the petals are opening and show that in a video.

We are using this technique when a single picture can not show all we want others to see.

Long exposure

We are using this technique to expose a scene for a few seconds or more. It gives excellent results when shooting moving water or clouds, for example.

In this situation, you will need a tripod. If you want to find out more, you can read my post about tripods.

Panorama

Used when the opening of the lens is not enough to capture all the scenes we want. With the panorama setting, the camera will shoot several pictures in few seconds and combine them in a wider one.

You just set the camera on panorama, chose a starting point, and move slowly to the right (or up-down) to the desired end of the scenery.

You can do it by taking the shuts and combining them after using software, but our days, all digital cameras got a panorama setting to waste time. If anyone insists on following this way and needs some advice, please comment below, and I will write a tutorial about that very shortly. Happy to help  🙂

As a plus, here you can watch a video about landscape photography by Run N Gun:

Thoughts

Landscape photography is fantastic, and with the right techniques, you can make genuine pieces of art. It is a lovely way to show the world where you’ve been traveling, to share amazing sceneries with your friends and family, and to store your photos for future memories.

Being a photographer is like any other art. You can do a good (technically) job, and no one will argue. But when you want more, you need to let yourself feel. That will be visible in your work and will make the difference between professional and artistic.

I hope you found my article sufficiently clear and enjoyable. Please leave below any comments you may have, and thank you for reading to the end.