Nature Photography How To

There are worse things than being a beginning photographer. After all, you can make big improvements in your skills in a relatively short time. But if you consider yourself a more advanced shooter, and you still make beginner mistakes, that’s a cause for concern.

With the foregoing in mind, we encourage both novices and more experienced photographers to watch the tutorial below. This episode is all about landscape composition and you’ll see how a simple shift in camera position, perspective, or vantage point can mean the difference between a so-so image and a great one.

Mark Denney is a professional landscape photographer and a really good instructor, and he reveals a common mistake he’s made along the way so you don’t have to make it yourself. If you’re just getting started you’ll have one less mistake to make, and everyone else can avoid advertising that they’re not as experienced as they think.

As Denney explains in the intro, “This one mistake is the single most common thing I see beginners do while composing images on location.” The good news is that it’s really easy to resolve. For example, we’ve all heard that shooting from a low camera position can create a unique perspective. But as Denny demonstrates, there’s “low” and then there’s “too low” depending upon the scene.

Another issue occurs when you’re not mindful of how key foreground elements relate to the horizon in the background, even though a simple shift up or down will easily correct the problem. Likewise, a slight move to the left or right will often create separation between objects in a scene, and eliminate the bad empathy that occurs when they converge.

Denney offers several more important examples in this video, and by taking his advice you’ll elevate your landscape photography to the next level.

There’s much more to learn on Denney’s YouTube channel and in another of his tutorials we posted, explaining how to use what he says is the only “essential” lens filter for landscape photography.