Outdoor Photography How To

Sometimes simple is the way to go, particularly when it comes to landscape photos. In particular, that means outdoor images that are less cluttered, more organized, and cleaner overall to create a more impactful scene.

“Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of outdoor landscape photographer has to do with simplicity,” pro landscape photographer Mark Denney says in the below video.

“But more specifically how do we simplify a busy scene, or the more common phrasing is how do we create order from chaos? In this video, I discuss the seven techniques that have greatly helped me simplify busy landscape photos over the past few years. I used to always avoid complex compositions, but once I put these seven tips into practice it opened up an entirely new world of photographic possibilities for me.”

Watch below as Denney shows you these seven techniques to help you simplify a landscape image including color contrast and separation, dodging and burning, and other methods to create order within chaos. These techniques can be used to create more simplistic images with less distraction and more focus on the subject.

One of the most common ways is by introducing fog or mist either from nature or during post-processing to help soften an image. But you can also use a shallow depth of field to remove distractions.

“The vast majority of the time the thing in an image that is going to create that feeling of chaos or a busy or complicated scene is going to more than likely be behind your subject,” Denney notes. “By paying attention to backgrounds will help you to create a more simplistic photograph.”