Tips on <Making the most of Landscapes>

These are some tips from professional photographers if you want a better chance to get your landscape shots published:

1) Shot Vertical and Horizontals.

Most of the magazines print vertical shots and most calendars use horizontal pictures. For maximizing each scene and if the scene can work both ways ensure you take both.

2) Compose with text in mind

Most of the photos on printed media will include text one way or another, it is wise when composing leave ample space so that editors can build a message or a magazine cover around it

3) Concentrate on the details

Shooting landscape photography is not always about wide angle lenses or huge vistas, focus on the details around you, sand ripples, waves, shells, .

focus on interesting items on the skyline

4) Work with the light

Usually is better to focus on your landscape when is being light sideways, rather than with the sun behind you. This will bring up interesting details

5) Leverage places of interest

While nature shots are very common, focusing on common places of interest like castles, buildings, markets will increase the possibility of editors using your pictures. Try to be creative and capture the building on a different light

6) Use a remote

Minimize camera shake as much as you can, if you dont have one, use the camera timer  for this

7) Develop a system

Some people use landscape in manual that way you have full range of settings. A common aperture would be f/16 as a smaller aperture sometimes sacrifice sharpness on some lenses. Focus a third of the way into the shoot, and dial a shutter speed as recommended from the metering system. Take a shot and check your histogram, remember to keep checking your settings as light can change in a matter of minutes specially at dawn and dusk.

Use a wide aperture, dont go all the way to f/22 and focus a third on the shot

8) Include people in the shot.

As a matter of sense, sometimes a pure shot of the landscape would be more pleasant, however the great majority of shots that get published on magazines include a “living” creature, people, pets, animals, insects, etc.