Many landscape photographers make the same mistakes in their early days. These errors are a necessary learning curve, but they also needlessly hinder results.
In this guide, we outline the most common landscape photography mistakes and tell you how to fix them.
What Are the Most Common Landscape Photography Mistakes?
Before looking at any solutions, we will identify the most common landscape photography mistakes. In the sections below, you’ll find a selection of frequent errors.
1. Prioritizing Your Photography
You wouldn’t have bought a camera if you didn’t care about photography, but focusing purely on the picture-taking aspect can sometimes hinder your results. If you’re only concerned with capturing an amazing shot, you can put too much needless pressure on yourself.
Your photography should be a byproduct of having an enjoyable day out, rather than the main event. You’ll have a much more interesting story to tell if you relax and let things flow.
2. Focusing Purely on Your Surroundings
Yes, landscape photography is largely about your surroundings. However, you should try to include several additional elements to give your pictures that extra something and make them stand out. Again, you want to focus on telling a more interesting story.
3. Not Dressing Appropriately
When you take landscape photos, you’ll want to put yourself in stunning natural environments. However, you should keep the natural elements in mind—many such locations have notoriously volatile weather conditions.
Regardless of whether you’re shooting in the winter or another season, conditions can change quickly. If you’re unprepared, your experience will be ruined at the very least; in other instances, you might put yourself in danger.
4. Forgetting Extra Batteries
Landscape photography often involves long days out, and in some instances, you might not have access to charging ports. If you only take one battery with you, you’re asking for trouble. Cameras usually have a good battery life, but several factors can drain your battery faster—such as cold weather.
5. A Skew Horizon
Not having a level horizon is one of the most common beginner landscape photography mistakes. We’d argue that almost every photographer has made this mistake at least once, and seasoned pros are still guilty of doing so occasionally.
You’ll usually skew your horizon when you don’t hold your camera straight, and the same can happen when you put it on a tripod.
6. Not Using a Versatile Lens
You might find it tempting to bring all your lenses with you when photographing landscapes, but you’ll spend a lot of unnecessary time faffing between them if you do. As such, you risk missing out on the shot you wanted.
7. Too Much Negative Space
Negative space is a powerful way to enhance your photography, but you can overdo it if you’re not careful. If your subject is too far away, the viewer might not get a good idea of what’s going on.
How to Avoid Common Landscape Photography Mistakes
Now that you know some of the most common landscape photography mistakes, we can discuss some of the solutions.
1. Focus on the Experience
When you go out to take pictures, you should focus primarily on having a good time. Too many photographers rank their days based on whether they got a cool photo; relying on external factors like that will only make you feel bad when you inevitably have a day when you captured nothing.
If you focus on the experience, you’ll naturally want to capture your day—resulting in better pictures.
2. Include Props
In addition to the landscapes, try to include objects like backpacks, hats, and anything else you think might contribute to your story. By including more elements in your images, your pictures will look less one-dimensional and have more coherence.
3. Invest in Good Walking or Hiking Gear
If you’re serious about capturing landscapes on the regular, and you know that you’ll frequently visit areas with questionable weather and terrain, you should invest in good walking or hiking gear.
Make sure that you have enough layers to keep you warm and a good pair of walking shoes. Consider buying shorts for the summer, too, as hiking trousers can get pretty warm. And try not to cheap out on rain gear either.
4. Buy Additional Batteries
You should purchase additional batteries if you plan to take landscape photos regularly. Camera manufacturers sell extra accessories, and you can find a selection of third-party suppliers. Be careful when buying third-party batteries, though, as some drain quickly.
5. Use the Right Lens
When going out and capturing landscapes, take the lens that best fits your needs. You’ll want to keep a good distance between your subject and yourself, and also take into account whether you plan on incorporating leading lines or negative space into your images.
Prime lenses work in multiple scenarios, but a zoom lens might be better if you want to experiment with a diverse range of pictures.
6. Keep Your Camera Straight
Keeping your camera straight is easier said than done. But if you don’t want to skew your horizon, you need to make a conscious effort. If you shoot handheld, keep one hand on the bottom of your camera when you pull the trigger. Alternatively, you can lay your camera on a flat surface or bring a tripod.
Landscape Photography Is Fun, but It’s Trickier Than You Think
Landscape photography is fun and diverse; even if you spend your entire life doing it, you’ll always find something new to capture. But to reduce your learning curve, keeping the most frequent mistakes in mind is a good idea.
This guide is by no means exhaustive, but you should have more than enough solutions to deal with the most basic errors.
