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Have you ever returned from a vacation to a popular city, or to an iconic destination in the great outdoors, only to realize that your images look pretty much the same as those shot by everyone else? In the quick tutorial below you’ll learn simple techniques that are guaranteed to make your photos stand out from the crowd.

The topic of this quick episode from B&H Photo Video is environmental portraiture. Whether you’re a travel photographer looking to go beyond typical tourist photos, or a landscape shooter interested in adding a person within the frame for more compelling results, this two-minute episode is just what you need.

Instructor Maria Perez is a photographer and video producer based on the east coast, and she’s here with some great tips on posing subjects within different scenes, choosing a lens with the best focal length for the job, and putting it all together with attention-grabbing composition.

This lesson includes several effective techniques when shooting with wide-angle, standard lenses (35mm-50mm), and telephotos zooms from 70-200mm to 200-600mm. Perez provides links to her favored gear in the description beneath the video. Some of the poses she demonstrates are dependent upon the specific lens you decide to use.

Wide-angles tend to be the first choice of landscape photographers because of he utility they provide for capturing expansive vistas, but they’re not often considered appropriate for shooting portraits. Perez quickly dispels this myth with some helpful tips and compelling examples.

Normal lenses are not thought of as wide enough for shooting landscapes, but Perez disagrees. She says, “they are amazing for capturing your portrait subject within that landscape,” and she illustrates how to get the job done. The obvious benefit here is that you can still tell a story with your photos, while capturing images that are different from most.

Perez wraps up the lesson by bringing out the big guns, ordinarily used for wildlife photography. She insists that long telephotos are also incredibly useful for “capturing some of the best door portraits.” After listening to Perez’ techniques and viewing her results, we think you’ll agree. 

There’s much more to see on the B&H Photo Video YouTube channel, and we recommend visiting there often.

We also suggest checking out the tutorial we posted on a related subject, explaining a British pro’s secrets to capturing outdoor photos with perfect exposures.

We’ve posted countless landscape tutorials in the past—some with so-called “rules” of composition, and others with tips from top pros. And guess what? Many of these lessons include very similar advice.

Of course that’s not a bad thing because important concepts are worth revisiting. But in the tutorial below, a successful New Zealand pro takes a different approach. In fact, you could almost say he works backwards as compared to more conventional methods.

William Patino specializes in landscape photography, teaching shooting and editing techniques that often have a unique twist. In a sense Patino marches to his own drummer, as you’ll see in the five-minute composition tutorial below.

Along the way Patino reveals, “some embarrassing mistakes I used to make,” so you don’t make them yourself. But the real emphasis of this episode is a selection of Patino’s favorite tips, designed to help you shoot more compelling landscape images with depth, interest, and drama.

Patino begins with this warning that you probably haven’t heard before: “Whatever you do, please don’t set up your tripod straight away.” Hmmm. Sort of the opposite of what you’ve heard in the past, right?

Instead, upon arriving at a destination, Patino works more like a fly fisherman who leaves his rod in the case until he studies the stream, determines what bugs are hatching, and locates probable hiding sport for the “big ones.” In other words, Patino recommends leaving your gear in the bag, until you’ve strolled around (often walking backwards) and thoroughly examined the site.

With this thoughtful approach you’re far more likely to locate an ideal subject, and only then is it time to examine the lenses in your bag to decide which one is best suited for the task. But it’s still not time to start shooting until you’ve carefully determined the intensity, quality, and direction of the light. Now, and only now, is it time to grab your camera.

After watching this video head over to Patino’s YouTube channel where you’ll find more interesting tips and tricks.

And don’t miss a tutorial we posted earlier, explaining how to shoot amazing landscape photos with your phone.