Light is arguably THE most important part of landscape photography. There are many kinds of light in nature, but I’ve distilled it down to three main types. When we begin to recognize the light on the landscape, and how it can aid us in our compositions, we can begin to take better photos. I hope that this photography tutorial encourages you to become a student of light. Which I believe helps us tell the stories, and find the freedom to express, what we need to express in our landscape photography. When I began landscape photography, I was told that the best photos came at either sunrise or sunset. So, I would get up early and stay out late to chase dramatic colour and light, capturing different foregrounds under colourful skies. Believing that better, more colourful conditions would yield a better photograph and my next colour high.
After a season of this, someone asked me why I kept taking the same, formulaic photograph over and over again. I needed to recognize that great landscape photographers take advantage of light in all hours of the day. Initially, I didn't understand why they would ask such a question and insult my work that way. Looking back, I see that they weren't trying to ruin my colour high, or insult my work, but instead pointing to the fact that there is more to landscape photography than photographing in gold hour. I was doing my art a disservice by ignoring other hours of the day. Photography is an art, and art is a means of expressing yourself. So, I think it's important to become a student of the different types of light, so we can find the freedom to express a piece of ourselves in our landscape photography.
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All photos were photographed with a Nikon D800e, a Tamron 70-200 2.8 lens, and a Tamron 15-30 2.8 lens.
MUSIC:
Kai Engel - Headway (
Kai Engel – Wake Up (
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