5 Outdoor Photography Tips for Better Landscape Shots

Whichever end of the spectrum you fall on, and all the spaces in between, this article may just help you with your outdoor shoots this season. As a bonus, I’ll also share some of my favourite editing tools inside Luminar Neo to help you get the best out of your landscape shots. So, from beginners to pros who may need to dust off the rust, let’s get started!

Tip 1: Work With Light, Not Against It

There’s something that sets seasoned photographers apart from beginners, and that’s understanding light. It isn’t uncommon for professional photographers to avoid certain types of light altogether, and they know exactly what kind of light they prefer rather than simply shooting whenever they can.

Outdoor photography gives us a wide range of lighting conditions to work with. The biggest benefit is that it’s all free, but the huge downside is that we have no control over it. Therefore, we need to work around it.

The biggest issue lies in the midday sun. I personally avoid it at all costs. You see, when it hits midday, the sun is at its highest point. This results in short shadows, which means low contrast, which then results in flat images. There’s just no depth or impact with this kind of light, and it’s the main reason photographers avoid shooting at this time. Not to mention that harsh sunlight can bleach colours, which can ruin the overall tone of your shot.

So instead of opening up your landscape photos later and trying to conjure up some editing wizardry to get them looking even half-decent, we work with better light instead.

Golden hour is king. It happens when the sun is lower in the sky, and as a result, shadows are much longer, which creates more contrast and therefore more depth.

There’s also that beautiful golden hue the name comes from, and it makes everything look wonderfully rich and saturated. When you get these images back home, you’ll barely have any editing work to do because the light is already working for you.

You may wonder about cloudy conditions too.

I love shooting on cloudy days, as long as I lean into the mood they create. I won’t try to force bright and joyful landscape shots from this kind of weather, but darker and moodier tones work wonderfully with the lighting on offer. Speaking of tones, colours often look rich and deep on cloudy days, which can be great for flowers, autumn leaves, fruit, and similar subjects.

If you feel like the light worked against you slightly and your subject doesn’t stand out as well as you’d like, don’t worry, Luminar Neo has you covered with its brand new Light Depth tool.

It maps your image in 3D space, and you can literally move light through your image as it shapes and contours naturally, just like real light behaves. So you can absolutely bring attention to your subject and even darken the foreground to help guide your viewer’s eye through the frame. It’s an absolute must-try.

So even though you may be itching to get out during the day and shoot, just remember to take a glance at the clock. If it’s lunchtime, stay home and eat rather than going shooting. As the day winds down, that’s when it becomes a much better time to grab your camera and head out.

Tip 2: Control Your Exposure Properly

I’m not afraid to admit this, but I made this mistake recently. I haven’t had much time to shoot over winter, and on a lovely spring day I forgot the cardinal exposure rule that works across a multitude of genres, not just landscape photography. And that is: always shoot for the highlights.

Let’s jump back to golden hour for a quick example. It’s still a fantastic time to shoot, but one slight drawback is that the light is gradually fading, and as a result you may notice that your shadowed areas look too dark. Naturally, you might think you need to increase your exposure so those shadowed areas become more visible. Well, that could be the worst thing you can do for your shot.

Have you heard of RAW mode? It’s a file type, similar to JPEG, except it offers a much wider dynamic range. What this means is that more information is stored from shadows to highlights compared to JPEGs, with particularly stronger recovery in the darker areas. And as photographers, we can take full advantage of this.

So that golden hour shot you have that looks a little dark? Don’t worry. We can open up Luminar Neo and lift the shadows using the Develop tool.

You can then get a really nice balance in your image using the Supercontrast tool, giving you precise control over the depth of your shot.

It works especially well in situations like this, and I’ve found it incredibly powerful for night photography too, where the difference between shadows and highlights is even more extreme.

And the reason we always say to shoot for the highlights is that, even though RAW allows us to retain more information in the brighter parts of the image, it’s not always fully recoverable. Any blown out areas may remain bright white patches in your photo, and that is exactly what we want to avoid.

So make sure the brightest parts of your image look good, maybe even a stop or two underexposed just to be safe. The darker parts of your image still need to be considered, and you’ll develop a feel for what becomes too underexposed as you gain more experience, but shooting for the highlights is always the safer approach.

Tip 3: Simplify Your Composition

As you notice a nice landscape composition to shoot, you should always ask yourself: what is it that I want my viewer to look at? Is it immediately apparent? Because this could make or break your shot.

Your subject, whether it be a mountain, river, or a farmhouse tucked away in a valley, needs to stand out and not compete for attention. How to achieve that we will talk about more in the following section, but simplifying your composition deserves special mention on its own.

Too often in beginner work, there is simply too much going on. The eye scans around the image for a while, never really settling on anything of substance, and as a result the viewer loses interest.

So think of this section as subtracting from your scene. What is it that you can take away? It may be difficult to decide, but not everything can try to stand out, or nothing will.

I like to make use of negative space. This refers to an area of your image that contains very little, which in landscape photography is often the sky. I like to include it in at least one third of my image, and I’ve even gone beyond that at times. Use it creatively. If you have a beautiful sunlit sky, all that negative space may actually become positive space, which is when that previously empty area becomes the main subject of your image.

If your scene doesn’t suit negative space, then opt for tighter framing instead. Let’s use that farmhouse nestled in the valley as an example. Don’t let it get lost in everything else happening around it. Bring the viewer closer to what matters.

If you get your work back home and feel like your scene is still too busy, but you like the shot overall, there’s a tool inside Luminar Neo that may help. Check out GenErase, which allows you to remove unwanted elements in your scene and intelligently replace them with surrounding textures to patch up the area seamlessly.

Tip 4: Use Your Scene Creatively

Whereas the previous section was about subtracting, this one is about adding. It may sound like it completely contradicts the previous point, but we are going about this in a smart way.

This will help you get the attention your subject needs. We’ve removed the distracting elements, and now it’s time to make sure your viewer’s eyes stay exactly where they need to be.

Leading lines, the rule of thirds, frame within a frame, the golden ratio, and more are all compositional techniques that subtly guide the eye towards the subject without you needing to put a massive red arrow showing people where to look.

Leading lines can be created by winding rivers leading up towards your mountain. The rule of thirds can be achieved both horizontally and vertically, such as a mountain flanked on either side by forests. Frame within a frame could be a beautiful lake shot through the branches of a tree, with those branches acting as a natural border.

Then there’s the golden ratio, which is one of my favourites. I’m going to refer to the farmhouse in the valley again. We could crop tighter to the farmhouse, but then we may lose the scale of the valley surrounding it, and that’s something we want to keep. So instead of centering the farmhouse in your composition, place it towards the bottom right third of your frame. If you search for the golden ratio, you’ll see how the spiral naturally works its way around the image, and that final resting point is exactly where we place the farmhouse.

For some reason, our brains just can’t get enough of the golden ratio, and the eye will instinctively travel through the frame and settle precisely on your subject.

So try out a wide range of compositional techniques, and before long they will become second nature as you train your eye to recognise them naturally in the scenes around you.

A quick editing tip as well: try using vignetting in Luminar Neo. It subtly darkens the corners of your shot and helps stop the eye from drifting away from your subject.

Tip 5: Be Ready For The Moment

I went on a trip back to my home country of England last year, and one moment stands out to me above all the shoots I went on. It’s a shot I completely missed because I wasn’t ready.

We were walking through the rolling countryside on a very misty, foggy morning, passing through sheep fields. I thought to myself, I don’t really have much interest in shooting sheep, so I had my lens cap on and my camera switched off.

On the side of a particularly steep incline, silhouetted perfectly against the sky, was a sheep, and hand on heart, it had a crow sitting on its head. It was the most bizarre scene I have ever seen. I fumbled for my camera and lifted it to my eye. As I switched it on… pure darkness. The lens cap was still on.

I quickly pulled it off, and by the time I looked through the viewfinder, the sheep had moved and the crow had flown off.

So don’t make the same mistake I did. Always be prepared, even if it feels like you’re just walking through a mundane area. Keep your camera on and your lens cap off.

The Bottom Line

Hopefully these tips help with your upcoming shoots this season as you head out for some fresh air and outdoor photography. Remember to work with light rather than against it, and always shoot for the highlights. When you are lining up your shot, ask yourself what you can take away, and what elements will help create a stronger composition. And don’t be like me and miss golden opportunities because your camera is off and your lens cap is still on, that is the exact opposite of how your camera should be. Enjoy shooting!