5 BEST Landscape Photography Tips for Beginners (VIDEO)
Whether you consider yourself an inexperienced landscape photographer, or you just want to give this popular genre a try, the quick tutorial below is just what you need to up your game. In barely nine minutes an accomplished pro reveals his five favorite tips for those new to the game.
Despite his youthful appearance, instructor Austin James Jackson says he spent years refining his skills to become a professional landscape photographer, and like some of the best pros he’s still exploring ways to improve. Today he shares some very helpful advice that will enable you to become adept at landscape photography.
Jackson posts weekly instructional videos, and his goal with this episode is to provide beginner tips you may not have heard before. As he says, “in this video I want to give you five of the best tips that I wish I could have given myself when I first started out.”
Tip number one tip for accelerating your learning curve is “good light is king in landscape photography.” By that Jackson means a beautiful location doesn’t guarantee beautiful images unless you’re determined to be in the right place at the right time. He discusses why sunrise and sunset generally offer the most compelling opportunities because of the quality of light at those times of day.
Most landscape pros use wide-angle optics to capture expansive vistas, but Jackson says, “I highly recommend all beginner landscape photographers start using a telephoto lens.” He discusses several important techniques, including how the long lenses can deliver “great and creative shots in less-than-ideal light.”
Jackson’s third tip also diverges from conventional wisdom, which is to avoid popular, well-known locations so your images are “unique,” but he explains why this isn’t necessarily the best advice for beginners. His last two tips are equally important, so take a close look and put Jackson’s advice to work.
You can find more shooting and editing tips on Jackson’s instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to pay a visit.
And for five more tips from another expert, check out our earlier tutorial explaining how to capture epic winter landscape photographs.
