A good landscape photograph is an image that can translate every impression that we see in the real life. Only by seeing a picture, a viewer is expected to feel the ambience like the warm or the cold temperature and also the wind inside a beautiful visual work. Every single piece of landscape photography should be designed to achieve a certain result based on the expectation of the photographer himself. It is not an easy thing because there will be obstacles for us to face in order to live it up. Here are some common mistakes usually made by photographer in the process of landscape photography that we should avoid:
1. Oblique Horizon Line
Most of landscape photos always include the horizon line that transverses from the left side to the right side of the frame. Landscape photograph will appear odd and unnatural with oblique horizon. The line that divides the land and the sky will look interesting if it is placed at the off center side but it must be straight. There are some alternatives you may choose. One of them is by using a photography accessory like bubble level, or using grid overlay through viewfinder screen/LCD, electronic horizon facility on new cameras or processing and editing the image using certain software.
2. Common Perspective
People in common will take landscape images by standing and placing the camera setting on the eye level. This will obviously produce common and usual plain images that other photographers can create. There is one thing to investigate. In order to make greater and more unique photos with different perspective, we can climb and capture them from higher angle or lay down on the ground to obtain varied point of view.
3. Empty Sky
Beginners in photography scarcely realize making this mistake. It is about the empty sky with no clouds, birds or other interesting objects that will make it appear plain and boring. Try to find beautiful things on the sky to make a fascinating composition. If we cannot find it, you may play some tricks by placing the horizon line on a higher level from the center of the frame so that the land will get more portions to show off in a picture.
4. Blur
It is a common issue we usually face. A blurred image is very difficult to edit. The best way to deal with it is by avoiding it. In landscape photography, the role of a tripod is very important to hold the camera from shaking and trembling. The use of shutter release remote is able to prevent shake as the result of hand movement.
5. The Lack of Focal Point / Point Of Interest
Focal point is the point of interest in a picture. This is very important to highlight one thing in one frame. Every shape can be chosen as the focal point like human, ship, car, bird or any interesting object that deserves to be the centre of attraction. The common mistake mostly made by people in landscape photography is the fact that they usually capture the background like sky/ cloud and mountain but do not add a focal point in it.
6. Unimportant Background
Pay attention to everything behind a subject. If you find things that do not suit the composition, you may either get rid of them or change the point of view. An interesting background can affect the final result of an image.
7. Using One Type of Lens
Wide angle lens is not the only lens for landscape photography. We can use any lens to create a good piece of work. We just need to master each lens’ characters before using them. For example, wide angle lens will widen the distance so that the landscape will appear vaster and farther. It will create more magnificent effect and the object will appear longer. But this lens is capable of distorting the shape of human’s face if we use it within a short gap. Tele lens has the effect of making the object seems closer to it. There are some other lens with distinct characters such as fixed and zoom lens and etc.
8. Inexistence of Dimension
Even though a piece of photography is a 2 dimensional creation, actually, we are able to give it a 3D effect. We can use narrow aperture on the setting of the opening, include foreground, middle and background elements and give a comparison that will add strong sense of scale so that the viewer can see the exact size of a picture.
9. Setting Error
Check the setting of your camera all over again before shooting including the ISO, white balance, speed diaphragm and etc. It will be such a waste to use a high ISO when we shoot under a blazing sunlight or when we set the white balance which will make the image color appear unnatural.
Knowing these common mistakes in landscape photography, we can learn to avoid them and make good photos and improve their qualities.
