So I’m not a photographer, I’m someone who likes travelling and really enjoys taking photos at the different places I go with my phone. I’m usually really happy with my city photography. Food is ok. But landscapes are terrible.
The mountains look small and not steep. Depth and distance does not come through at all. It just seems flat and underwhelming on camera, when the view I’m seeing with my eyes is the most inspiring thing of all time. I wish I could capture half of that.
Is there any advice you have for me taking photos with my phone (google pixel 7). Is there some type of camera or lens I could look into hiring and learning how to use (2bh I’m pretty clueless on that stuff but would be down to learn). Thanks!
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A lot of the top comments here are spot on. To add to it a bit, Photography in general is so much more about lighting than most people realize. If you are taking a photo at 1pm on a clear day, almost anything landscape wise will look pretty flat and low contrast. That same photo taken 5 min before sunset with a semi cloudy sky will almost always look better. Not saying you cant get good photos in less than perfect conditions, but just to keep in mind how the light is shaping the subjects around you.
While using a proper camera will yield an image of higher quality, you can still take great photos of landscapes with your phone provided you are working with in the limitations of your phone. As others have mentioned, most camera phones by default use a pretty wide field of view which will make things look smaller and smaller the further away from you they are in which case your options are to zoom in/use a different camera on your phone or get physically closer to your subject.
As for tips, the two biggest ‘quickest’ ways to decent shots are to keep in mind the rule of 3rds and leading lines (tons of info on these on youtube). If your subject is placed well and its got something leading the viewers eye to it, should be in a good spot.
Here are a few landscape shots I’ve taken on my phone for reference:
https://twitter.com/tripppage/status/1715743020966900120
https://www.instagram.com/p/CU5VjarJkDG/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/tripppage/status/1715763124949979293The hardest part of good landscape photography is getting there
… At the right time on the right day
It’s interesting reading about how some truly great shots came to be. Revisiting the same place many times until the light was perfect. Sometimes over the course of years.
Imagine getting to Mesa Arch in Canyonlands and you’ve got one day there. You bust your tail getting there before sunrise to get the iconic shot, and its clouds on the horizon blocking the sun. Or the kids aren’t ready so you’re a half hour late. Or you left the ultra-wide at the vacation rental.
It’s because a view doesn’t necessarily make a landscape photograph. If you spot a view it’s a good idea to scout the location and think how the scene could be shot (the composition), the direction (EWSN), what the weather’s doing and the time of day. All these factors come in to make a great shot.
Hey!
Here are three concise tips for you:
Optimize Lighting
- Capture landscapes during the golden hours, around sunrise or sunset, for soft, warm light.
- Experiment with angles to avoid harsh shadows and enhance the overall mood of your shots.
Composition Matters
- Apply the rule of thirds by placing key elements along the grid lines or at their intersections for a balanced composition.
- Utilize leading lines to guide the viewer’s eye through the image, creating depth and interest.
Focus and Depth
- Tap on the main subject on your phone screen to ensure it’s in focus. This helps in creating sharp and detailed images.
- Experiment with the depth of field by using the portrait mode or adjusting the aperture settings if available. This can add a dimension to your landscape shots.
Give these a try and let me know how you get on!
Mike
This reads suspiciously like ChatGPT.
Don’t waste your bland shots, visit the same place again, take pictures in different time or different weather and make a collection. The bland shots could compliment good shots.
Besides what everyone else is saying, work on your perspective as well. Don’t just hold your phone/camera up at face level and snap. Crouch, hold it up high, and shift about. You’ll find the view can change drastically with a bit of movement. Sometimes that will add a bit of foreground interest or clean up the view for a more engaging main subject.
This. If I can tell how tall you are, you’re not making enough effort.
I like to find natural framing for a scene.
I haven’t worked this one up yet as there is a lot of latitude in the shadows. But notice the water leading to the mountains and the trees framing the whole scene? And I love water, so that helps.
I find I’m usually light limited as I’m traveling with the family and we get places when we get there. I’m sure this could look completely different another time of day if I had the time to invest in a truly great shot.
Cool shot😎
Great shot. I think it could be cool if you crop out the bottom so the water appears to be flowing off the bottom of the frame
Glacier?
In Banff along the Icefields Parkway. Short hike.
Leading lines and sub framing nice pic 👍
Nice shot. Is this in Canada?
Affirmative. Banff National Park along the Icefields Parkway. A short hike into the woods.
Climb a mountain use the 70-200 for framing photos. Then go down to 24mm lense
Only 1kg difference between them
They say that the camera adds ten pounds and ten years to a human subject, which is why top models and actors tend to be extraordinarily good looking. An average attractive person in real life, unfortunately and regrettably, looks ugly in a photo. It’s the nature of the medium.
Likewise, the camera turns typical landscapes into something dull and flat in a photo. It takes a truly extraordinary landscape to look better than ordinary in a photo.
At one time, artists and thinkers developed a theory about what kinds of landscapes are worthy of being painted, or photographed, or simply visited, and these are the “picturesque”, and not at all ordinary.
What a delightful bit of history behind what I never considered to be anything other than a simple word. I will be thinking about it all day :)
Unfortunately, your phone is not equipped with a telephoto lens.
Very broadly, the rule of thumb is this; if you are close use wide angle and if you are far away use telephoto. This is a good rule of thumb in most photography. Going wide to ‘get it all in’ (and the pixel 7 has a wide lens) is a recipe for getting a ton of sky and land that looks like it is really far away. A lot of landscape photographers use telephoto lenses.
So what do you do? Get much, much, much, much closer to your subject.
Moment is a company that does lenses for mobiles. You have to buy a case for them that the lens can attach to. They’re very robust little lenses. They should help to bring the view more in line with what your eyes are seeing.
Look at this guy’s mountain photography, he is using long lenses.
Lighting, lighting, lighting. The same boring scene at noon can be fantastic at 5:00. Filters are also very useful: even with a phone, you can hold a filter (e.g. a circular polarizer) in front of your lens and sometimes get good results. The composition suggestions folks have given are also good, but you don’t necessarily need a complex, multilayer scene to create a good image - however, even a complex scene may not help you if the lighting is too poor.
Phoness are great cameras, but this is one of their weaknesses. Having a wide angle lens gives a wide view and pushes the background even further away. That means you are best offsetting it with ensuring the composition leads the eye as u/Sweathog1016 illustrates, or something of interest is in the foreground. Exposure is also more tricky to get right for the whole frame. The advantage to a DSLR here is using a long telephoto lens will compress the field/frame, making distant objects larger and loom over the foreground… I think this is what you are seeing and missing https://www.iphotography.com/blog/what-is-lens-compression-in-photography/
also, how fricken good is the human eye/brain at imaging… amazing stuff
lol I got the opposite problem! Happy with my landscape/nature/wildlife shots but absolutely can’t figure out urban photography. I love looking at urban photography but when I’m in a city I just don’t see it, and I can’t capture what I don’t see. I stopped bringing my camera whenever I go into a city. Not worth bringing it and potentially having it stolen when I don’t get anything out of bringing it anyway.
To your problem, could it be the zoom and depth perception? Different lenses will bring different views. Sometimes I take a bunch of photos and stitch them together in order to get the result I want.
