Outdoor Photography How To

"Think outside the box" is an overused expression to get you to change established behaviors that might be holding you back. This is never truer than in photography where familiar compositional habits can start to make your landscape images look dull as dust. There's a way to change that immediately, however.

In the below video, landscape pro Mark Denney shares five "non-typical composition tips" that he says will "transform your landscape photography."

"I firmly believe the best way to improve one's landscape photography is by focusing on improving one's compositional skillset," Denney says. "And, if you're anything like myself then you're already well aware that there are tons of tips and best practices available for improving one's landscape compositions. What I love most about the tips in this video is that these are not tactical things like 'move this way' or 'place this here' rather these are more big picture things that has really changed the way I look at landscape compositions."

Here are Denney's five unusual composition tips to help you think outside the box to improve your landscape photography.

#1 Identifying the Puzzle

#2 Solve the 2D Problem

#3 The Optical Journey

#4 Finding Balance

#5 Removing the Competition

"These five tips or suggestions have really changed the way I approach my compositions and I hope they'll help you the next time you're on-location as much as they've helped me," he says.

Watch the video below where, as usual, Denney shares many of his own landscape photos to emphasize his five points. Then visit and subscribe to his channel to see all of his free tutorials.