The ONE THING most landscape photographers DO WRONG

so there's one thing that most photographers get wrong including me and in this video i'm going to give you three tips that'll help you solve it and i guarantee it'll improve your photos i'm here with pebbles as well [Music] oh morning everybody i am so excited this morning because i'm in my favorite woodland and the conditions are pretty good i think there's a little bit of fog hanging around the colours are nice the bracken just looks so beautiful it's literally about 20 minutes before sunrise at the moment so it's pretty dark and we're talking all about this one thing that i always used to get wrong in photography and i still see a lot of photographers get it wrong on my workshops it's something i always point out and it's quite a tricky thing to fix but i'm going to give you three ways of fixing it so we'll just go a little bit further down here and i'll tell you a little bit more about it [Music] okay so let's have a chat about that one thing that we all get wrong and that's when we get to location we're really keen we really want to get the photo and rather than observing rather than looking around we just take our camera bag off we get our camera out of our camera bag and we just start taking photos and we don't look we don't look around we don't observe i'm going to give you three tips that are going to help you do this okay the first point that i want to get onto you can start as soon as you get to your location and start walking and looking for a composition and that's just observation it's just trying to understand things within the landscape that you're walking through this isn't so much about a particular composition but it's just you know looking at things that might be in a composition how's the light hitting hitting the trees does it change the shape of them is the light better in one direction than the other direction the ferns you know do they lay a certain way and does that look good you're going to be walking through lots of types of foliage and trees that you might be photographing it's the same when you're in a big vista you know how's the light hitting the land is there a change in that light so you often in landscape photography have maybe 30 minutes an hour it's a little bit more difficult at sunrise and it isn't sunset but you have time to observe the landscape as you walk into location so use that time effectively make the most of it because there's so many things that you will see if you look if you just try and look and sort of stay in that moment that will really help you when you come to the location and start looking for that composition and we'll get onto that in a minute i'm gonna walk down here it's looking good there's not a lot of mist but oh my word the colors are just so amazing right keep observing keep observing you observing pebbles are you looking around yep well done high five nope just left me hanging so i've just been walking through here and one thing i've observed is that the light looks better in this direction so you can see here there's some nice colors in the ferns the ferns are laying different so the wind's blowing them different when i look in that direction as well so even though i'm walking in that direction i need to make sure that i'm observing all the way around me i'm looking all the way around me just to see if i can see something because actually this little scene here with this tree hanging down there's quite a nice little shot going through there i'm also observing that the wind is getting up which is not good because it's going to get rid of all the fog [Music] i've got quite an interesting area here where there's sort of two types of trees really with a silver birch you can see here on the left of me and i'm quite interested in these silver birch i think they look good you know the right of the camera i think these look really interesting and then i've got these older sort of oak trees here these really interesting oak trees that got a lot of character and it's about then trying to see if i can simplify it a little bit because there's the obvious thing he's trying to include both of them but the better thing might be just to try and separate them out a little bit so is there something just with the oak trees can i just you know create them as a character and what i'm trying to do what i'm trying to think about when i'm looking at this is you know what what the patterns like is there any repeating patterns are there any colors that work together are there any textures that work together there's certainly some interest in the silver birch the problem with this side is as you can see that there's a lot of sky in it and that's going to detract from the silver birch shaft i'm just going to take these silver birch i'm going to have to find a spot to take them that's shooting down into the valley a little bit so that they've got foliage and trees behind them these ochre a little bit easier i think because they're down in this valley already and they're going to make it easier to take a photo but the color is not as good on those and so so now you know what i'm thinking is what how can i sort of fine-tune it i'm getting to the next stage really i'm still observing i'm still trying to look at everything not try and focus just too much on just one thing and the one thing i'm not going to do at this point is get my camera out and that's so important you've got to leave your camera in the bag at this observation stage you really can't observe with your camera as soon as you get your camera out you start thinking about settings you start just looking through that camera and that narrows your vision so leave your camera in the bag really really important at this point okay right i think there might be a shot down here so i'm going to go for the oaks and i'm going to focus in on those so we're going to have a look pebbles down here shall we and see what we can see i'm not going to touch my camera i'm just going to see if i can find a shot with these oaks in okay so i've come around i was over there before and i've come and moved around from what i was just saying on that path i just wanted to try a different angle on it where the lights just coming in from sort of sort of this direction i think that helps a little bit um i really like these two trees and i like these ferns in in the front here um i like that bit of old um oak tree branch there that's sort of broken that looks really really interesting so i think you know we we'll probably move into the second part here and this is um trying to find that composition and what what what we're trying to do when we find that composition we found something that looks good we think okay that's probably not a bad scene is there anything that i can do to improve it so what i try and do is i try and work from um the foreground through the scene so in the foreground you know is are these ferns any good um are they going to add to the to the scene and actually looking at this i'm not sure they are really um so maybe i just need to go a little bit over these dead ferns here and go a little bit further into the scene there's a nice phone coming here which could go onto the onto the trunk of the oak tree there and so so that's looking quite interesting so maybe at this point i might start to get my phone out i don't get my camera this camera's still in the bag and in my phone i'm then sort of looking around so i'm just going to start to look around through my phone and think you know this was the scene that i had i've got this silver birch on the left and then these two trees here and then what i want to try and do is think is that going to make a good shot and i think i can't go too far left because there's a lot of sky there i think that's probably not too bad i've got a little bit of an issue sort of down here which i don't really like and then this isn't fantastic foreground really and this fern here is just catching the light a bit strange so i don't think this is a fantastic shot maybe if i go a bit higher it works a little bit better it does so you can see as soon as i go higher that improves the scene compared to that so i'm starting to try and see if i can find a composition but still not getting my camera out and actually you could do this with your camera handheld but i find it better with my phone [Music] okay that was a an okay shot it wasn't too bad but um i want to move on i feel like there's going to be something better one of the things that i've noticed is um that the foliage we're really we're at the beginning of november now but we're really late in terms of the color changes and the oak trees are still very green and i feel like green where it's just really green just is a bit um it doesn't really go with the rest of some of the much nicer foliage around here the silver birch have lost all their leaves pretty much but there are a few that still captured it so i'm going to keep walking around and see if i can capture a little bit more of that colour because i feel like that's what i want to do i feel that these oak trees are just a bit bit green at the moment so i'm not just thinking about stopping and just spending a lot of time taking a shot you know i spent five minutes there moving on i want to spend the majority of my time really fine-tuning a brilliant shot rather than taking 10 average shots [Music] okay i've found something here that i think is really interesting in fact there's two shots that are really interesting there's one here and there's one here i was just talking about those green um oak trees and how the silver birch have lost all the leaves but the green the oak trees are still very green and then i can tell that story in a shot here i've got this amazing oak tree that sort of curves over this dead sort of silver well not this dead this um leafless silver birch in the background some beautiful colour this other silver birch here and i've got another one here and whilst we're on to that second point i'm just going to get my phone out again and that second point if you remember is is all about just trying to piece together the elements you know look at the foreground the mid ground the background as you're starting to see something you might have a glimpse of an idea you've like i've just seen here what you want to do is is not just rush to take it not put your camera on the tripod but just take your time taking it and setting it up and again what i like to do is use my phone so in this particular example you know what i'm going to do is i'm just going to switch onto video and i've got these two things i've seen a composition there which i think looks pretty good and if i just zoom in about there i think but what i want to do is that's pretty good but i want to be careful about all these little things like these bits of fern here i'm going to do the final bits of fine tuning when i get my camera out but for now i just want to walk around with my phone and see you know if i move down there does that make a difference if i go up here does that make a difference you know where do i want this tree to be you can see that that sort of connects them together a little bit more and brings in this tree behind here whereas down here we go down here you can see that that separates these silver birch and that oak and they're not as connected they're more in sort of lines together which i didn't think looks as good really so i think up there looks better and then if we look at this scene because there's another one here then you can see that i think this is a pretty an easier scene than that in that you know it is going to make a difference moving around i've just got to get the separation between that silver birch and the oak tree right and i don't want them to be too separated and i want this silver birch down here to be pointed at by this tree there's two shots here and i've got a little bit more information about how i want to take them i can i can then get my camera out and before but but when i get my camera out i'm not going to put it on the tripod i'm just going to hold it do the same with my camera think about roughly where it's going to go then get my tripod out and put it on the tripod this is beautiful this is so good this is good pebbles isn't it point three is that when you've set it up you've got it in the right place you've put it on your tripod then just take your time so think about all the edges so for instance in this shot here um you know i've just got to think okay i don't if i just zoom out a little bit i don't want that bit of light up there um there's a branch that's a little bit distracting coming in from the side here so i might be able to just get rid of that a little bit just by zooming in i don't mind a bit of it so i want it about there and then just think look all the way around the edges i'll show you this again i'm going to do some more compositions and i'll show you this again on some of the shots but just taking your time and looking around there is that third point really and that will really make a difference and i'm going to go into a few of the little tip bits around these points in the next few images if you like this video so far then make sure you give it a thumb thumbs up it really helps this video and i massively appreciate it as well um and also if you're not subscribed if you are thanks if you're not then please consider subscribing because again it really helps the channel okay let's see what else we can find i'm going to take this shot on the right it's pretty simple on this other one i'll show you these two shots and we'll see what else can find god i love the woodland it's so peaceful so beautiful being here with pebbles is amazing this is amazing [Music] [Music] okay i've seen something which is quite interesting here so i've got these ferns that are sort of going this direction um so pointing into the scene leading your eye into this scene this is a really nice tree it's just again got some of the leaves left on on this on this really old silver birch gnarly silver birch and then there's some silver birch in the background that sort of give it a little bit of depth a bit layering i think the problem is and what i'm trying to sort of get my head around um and i've been wandering around a little bit um wandering and wondering about how i can deal with this bit in the middle so this this bit in the middle is bugging me because it i just can't connect these two things together and again by observing by not just putting my camera on its tripod and just thinking about it and and trying to sort of piece these things together think okay how does my eye and this is this is the second point again how does your eye go through the scene so how does my eye go through from these ferns to this silver birch which works really well to those of the silver version it has to go across this gap here and i feel like that's a little bit of a barrier what do you think pebbles any ideas you're just bouncing on you brother i really think there's something here so maybe actually coming here maybe i can shoot just sort of down there [Music] okay so me and pebbles thinks by moving around a little bit on this scene that i just said we need to move on we might have found something so just let me show you this there's a really nice scene down here i've got that same gnarly sort of silver birch and there's part of it that's quite dark but i've managed to cover that part that's dark with this bit of fern here and then what's really nice you've got a bit of depth to it so i've got this other um silver birch in the background because we've still got a little bit of mist the fence here are all brown which is a bit of a shame because it'd be nice to pick out some yellows and greens but i like this i think this is quite good so i'm going to take this again i'm just being really careful about the edges i'm going to look around the edges this is point three i just need to check everything all the edges you know is everything balanced right do i i don't want to get back to lightroom which we'll often do and think oh i wish i just moved left a bit or up a bit [Music] there's one way of doing it pebbles you can do the stepping stones levels so i've just come down into the valley there's a little bit of a valley here and just to see what i can find down here and see if i can find some ferns that might have not changed color yet i found these really nice grasses which look fantastic and it's just started to rain which is always better because you want wet foliage it just looks so much better catches the light differently and i've already noticed that the ferns with a little bit of water on them a little bit of dampness just start to look a little bit better um but yeah getting back to that first point i'm trying to you know get away from taking photos again i'm just trying to observe my surroundings um i really like these grasses there's a temptation to think all the grasses are nice i want to take a picture of the grasses but i can't really see anything where they fit in where it's just quite simple so i'm just continuing seeing what i can find i think the thing in my mind the thing i've seen the most as i've walked around is just as little bits of silver birch that have just kept their leaves a little bit and if i can get one of those and just isolate it a little bit i think it could just be quite a nice little composition so i've put my longer lens on i've got my 70 to 200 lens on oh i love this just love it it's great in it pebs ah there's a little bit of a stream here which is nice as well good one [Music] okay so i was just walking [Music] down here and saw a little scene here i set my camera up so i just want to just to show you so i've been trying to capture some of the silver birch with some of the leaves on and there's just a little set of silver birch but you could easily miss them so if i just turn my camera around pebbles has got her eye on them so they're just over here and i've got my long lens on if i just sort of go a bit closer you'll see what i mean so so basically what i've done is i've got my long lens on and i've just sort of focused in on the silver birch here quite nice i think there's going to be a couple of competitions there's a really tight one in in here and then if i go out a little bit you can see that i've got this silver birch here on the right hand side it's broken silver birch and then this set of silver birch here i'm almost going to cut the sky off but i need to go probably about there i cut a little bit of the floor off and a bit of the sky off and obviously i was observing everything i've up to this point i've seen that that's the type of shot that i feel that'll work best so i'm now looking out for it a little bit more i've sort of narrowed my vision a little bit but not too much that i'm going to miss other other opportunities but those silver birch i think are what's going to look best the good thing with this as well is that that the lights coming from the side so it's giving them a little bit of shape um it's a bit tricky because there's no tree here so you can see that there's this oak tree that i've just gotta be a little bit careful of but no i think this looks really good i'm really pleased with it [Music] okay that special tip the secret to everything if you're struggling if you can't see something an apple it's the secret to everything if you have an apple you just sit eat your apple just look around i'm not just joking i guarantee you'll find something you'll see something you'll spot something you'll maybe see light just differently on a tree or maybe or just be some composition that might just jump out at you so whether you're just walking somewhere or you just find you've found an area you think there should be a composition but you can't quite find it just stop take your time have an apple and all will become clear [Music] do you know how pass the paper my desk is on me [Music]

Channel: Nigel Danson

Views: 91,480

Keywords: photography, composition, photography tricks, photography composition, landscape photography, Nigel Danson photography, nigel danson

Id: zqra57kKmmU

Length: 24min 11sec (1451 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 07 2021