Nature Photography How To

Regardless of the type of images you shoot most, it’s a good bet that sooner or later you’ll try your hand at landscape photography if you haven’t already. And whether or not you’re experienced at outdoor photography, you can greatly improve your results by avoiding a few harmful mistakes.

Photographer Karl Taylor has a large following on YouTube among nature photographers looking for a creative edge. And in this helpful eight-minute episode, he discusses five basic mistakes that can spoil an image and how to avoid them.

Before revealing his tips, Taylor presents a selection of stunning work from a number of top landscape photographers that you’ll find inspiring and may even want to emulate. Then to illustrate the mistakes you’ll regret, and provide a few solutions, he critiques several images submitted by fans of his page.

Top on the list is the lack of proper planning. One of the challenges with landscape photography is that you’re at the mercy of the environment, weather, and ever-changing conditions. Taylor explains that you can “give yourself a fighting chances” with some pre-shoot research to check the weather forecast, determine where the sun and shadows will be when you arrive, and other key variables.

Noting that, “composition is everything with landscape photography,” Taylor illustrates simple framing mistakes and provides helpful alternatives for guiding a viewer’s eye through a scene. The other mistakes he reviews include not shooting at the right time of day, choosing the wrong camera settings, and a failure to “consider the viewer’s experience.”

So watch the video and give these helpful tips a try. Then head over to Taylor’s YouTube channel for more great advice. And if you missed the story we posted yesterday, explaining the best exposure settings for landscape photography, be sure to take a look.