The Lore of the Landscape

When you're making a portrait, you can control the light in a number of ways, including how you position your subject in relation to available light, or whether you set up strobes or simply use fill flash. But when you're taking a landscape photo you can't change the essential quality of light in the scene.

Which is why outdoor photographers work early and late: they want the golden light that occurs in the hours close to sunrise and sunset.

Here's a quick way to tell if you're getting good light: look at the length of the scene's shadows. Any time the shadow of a tree, for example, is longer than the tree is tall, that's a good time to take pictures. Basically, the longer the shadow, the better the light for image making.

Filter Factors
Filters can be a major factor in getting great landscape images. I don't use many, but I recommend two. First, a good quality circular polarizer. It creates deeper blue skies and makes clouds appear more white. It will also cut back on reflections and create a brighter color in water. I used a circular polarizer for the images taken in Fiji on Nuku Balavu beach and Tokoriki island, Images 1 and 2, respectively. (If you're trying to capture a rainbow in your photo, be sure to remove the polarizer, as it will make the rainbow disappear in the image.)

The second filter I typically use for landscapes is a graduated neutral density filter, which helps darken skies when the contrast in an image is too great. This filter works wonders in a situation like the shot of Angkor Wat, Cambodia (Image 3), taken at sunrise when the sky was much lighter than the building.

Had I not used the graduated neutral density filter, the sky would appear too light and washed out. With a 2- or 3-stop graduated neutral density filter, you can create a more balanced appearance of light throughout an image, while the sky retains its detail.

Framing Up
A key accessory for landscape and nature photography is a tripod. Generally, landscape shooting necessitates great depth-of-field, so your aperture choices will often be in the range of f/16 to f/22—and at those apertures your shutter speed will likely be too slow for hand-holding the camera. A tripod will help stabilize the camera, allowing you to capture an image that's tack sharp.

Once you've got your camera mounted up on the tripod, take a careful look through the viewfinder. If you see a flat, white or dull sky, it's a good idea to compose the picture so that you eliminate as much of that sky as possible. That's what I did when making Image 4 at Machu Picchu. With very little white sky in the frame, I was able to emphasize the deep green color and the leading lines of the stonework.

I shot many images of waterfalls at the stunning Iguazu Falls, located on the border of Brazil and Argentina. Image 5 is one of them, and I took it with the 10.5mm f/2.8G ED AF DX Fisheye-Nikkor, which accounts for the unusual view. For images of water that capture its movement, use slow shutter speeds; I'd suggest experimenting with speeds in the 1/15 second to 1/2 second range. If you want to freeze, or nearly stop, the motion of the water, 1/250 second is a good starting point.

The ideal lens for landscapes? There may not be just one.

My most often used landscape lenses tend to be the 12-24mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S DX and 17-55mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkors. The latter is my workhorse travel lens—I can use it for environmental and close-up portraits as well as landscapes and detail shots. And I often carry the 10.5mm fisheye that I used for Image 6, a striking view of Machu Picchu, as well as the picture of Iguazu Falls.

Composition Notes
General rules of composition for landscapes usually suggest applying the rule of thirds, which I talked about in my article Composing Better Images. But you might want to depart from that rule when there's a perfect reflection to be captured, as there was at Tanquary Fjord, Ellesmere Island, Canada, where I made Image 7. It has a centered horizon—something almost always best avoided; but here it works because of the symmetry of the reflection. Image 8, taken in the same area, employs a more traditional rule of thirds composition. I'd recommend shooting a variety of compositions of reflections and choosing your favorite when editing.

In general, when you're visualizing your landscape images, try to use a strong foreground element or leading lines. Images without one of those features frequently look like mere record shots. There are exceptions—an extremely striking subject, for example—but it's usually best to include a strong foreground in an image if you can.

Finally, the landscape may, from time to time, offer views of wildlife, and that's why I try to carry at least one long tele-zoom when I'm photographing in the great outdoors. A lens that reaches to 300 or 400mm is ideal—like the 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR or 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED VR AF Zoom-Nikkor. I used a tele-zoom at 400mm to capture Image 9, cheetahs in Kenya. The long lens allowed me to isolate the pair in the frame. By waiting for good light and a good pose, I was able to get this photograph after the others in my group had departed to search for other animals.

Did I mention that patience often rewards nature photographers no matter what their subject?