You’ve made it to the top, but how do you document it? Bill Fuller has been hiking and backpacking in east Tennessee for over 20 years and has been taking photographs along the way. Here are a few of his tips on how to take a perfect landscape scenic photo:
TIMING
The best time to shoot is in the mornings or evenings. The shadowing is better. You don’t have that harsh, bright light. The timing is important.
LENSES
I usually take about 3 lenses: a wide-angle, a macro for flowers and plants, and a general zoom lens. I definitely carry a tripod.
ANGLES
Get a lot of angles of the mountains or the valleys in your photographs.
RULE OF THIRDS
The big mistake a lot of people make when they take a landscape photograph is they always center the horizon. One good thing is to follow the rule of thirds. It’s good to either put the horizon a third above the bottom or a third below the top of the photograph. If you are taking a sunrise, don’t put the sun directly in the center of the shot. Draw a tic-tac-toe board in the photograph, and put whatever is going to be the center of your attention where the intersecting tic-tac-toe lines are.
FRAMING
I try to use things to frame my image, such as two trees that I’m shooting between that are in the foreground. I use those two trees to frame what’s in the background of the shot.
FOCUS
Always use a high F-stop on your camera. You want to shoot at F/11 or higher. It keeps everything more in focus.
LUCK
A lot of it is just luck with the sky light and conditions. Some days you just don’t have that beautiful low humidity that you really need for crisp, clear images.
