Recent Landscapes Articles

All Photographers Will Fail

It's a fact of life for us. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, you're going to fail at some point. It's not the end.

How to Get Creative When the Weather Is Terrible

I'm writing this from Ohio, where the weather is currently terrible. It was terrible yesterday, and it's forecast to be terrible tomorrow. If you've ever been foiled by bad weather, this video is for you.

There Is Nothing Like Photographing a Sunrise [Part 1]

One of my goals as I started taking photography more and more seriously was to shoot a sunrise. Although it seems easy enough to just "get up early and bring a camera," I've found more often than not if you aren't prepped, you'll sleep in. Join me in a walk through three of my successful sunrise shots!

Five Tips for Shooting Black and White Landscapes

The next six months is prime time for shooting black and white landscapes, especially on those gloomy days which can add drama and "wow factor" to your images. I have some compelling reasons why I think you should consider converting from color to black and white.

The 'Normal' Lens Challenge

Snow, mountains, forests… The breath of Dracula down your neck. Well, maybe not vampires, but bears and wolves. Welcome to Romania.

7 Steps to Stunning Seascapes For Beginners

I am not an early bird but living in Sydney, Australia on the east coast leaves me no choice but to get up early once in a while for a dawn to sunrise shoot. The coffee and breakfast at a beach cafe make it worth getting up at the sparrow's fart (Australian slang for very early). I've been shooting seascapes for over 10 years and I have always found it to be one of the most rewarding and challenging of photographic subjects. No two seascapes are the same and once you add variable weather and sea conditions to the mix there are endless opportunities for photographers willing to get their feet wet, so to speak! I am still learning everyday how to stay dry and not get washed away.

Beautiful Landscapes Taken From the Comfort of a Computer

While thousands of adventurers and photographers explore the far reaches of our planet forever looking for that next great vista, Marcus DeSieno spends hours scouring over 10,000 traffic and weather cams quietly watching some of the world's most remote and beautiful places. "I’ve watched the sun set over the Grand Canyon, seen waves crashing into Hawaii, watched storms passing over [the Swiss Alps],” DeSieno told Wired. “It’s all from the comfort of my desk chair.”

Landscapes of Uncommonly Deserted Cities

Nicknamed the city that never sleeps, New York City is commonly known for busy streets and people on the go at any time of the day or night. When one photographer sees the opportunity to photograph these commonly hustling cities into a uncommonly deserted areas, the results are a tranquil look into the true heart of some of the worlds most famous locations.

'Seasons of Norway': A Next-Level Time-lapse

If you've ever dabbled in time-lapse photography, you know what an incredible amount of effort goes into making a very short video. From the prep work, to setup, shooting, and editing, you're often looking at a couple of hours for a few seconds worth of video. Well, Morten Rustad invests a bit more time than that: roughly 20,000 kms traveled, 200,000 photos on 20 terabytes of hard drives, and two years of time invested. The result is an incredible seven-minute video that puts Norway's beauty on full display.

The Extreme Guide to Forecasting and Shooting the Northern Lights

Ah, the crown of the (Ant)arctic. Known in the northern hemisphere as the Aurora Borealis (northern lights), and as the Aurora Australis in the southern hemisphere, these brightly colored bands of moving and waving light are a majestic display in the night sky. Who doesn't want to take a picture of this otherworldly phenomenon? Here's exactly how to do it.

Six Days Photographing the Wonder of Iceland

In October, my friend Corey Berse and I somehow convinced our wives to let us go to Iceland for a week without them (neither of us are professional photographers, so a week-long vacation that did not include them was not the easiest sell). Our plan was to drive the entire Ring Road in six days and shoot as much as possible. Here are the highlights, some pictures, and a video of our trip.

Ten Non-Photography Items Every Landscape Photographer Should Carry

Landscape photography brings with it its own special set of challenges and risks. But beyond your filters and spare batteries, you're going to want to carry some extra non-photography gear to make sure you're in tip-top shape to capture those beautiful shots.

Adding Stars to Your Nighttime Photography

Taking photos at night can be an incredibly creative and rewarding experience. Unfortunately, increasing levels of light pollution in cities and urban areas makes it virtually impossible to include any detail in your sky which is often a major aspect of your composition. Adding stars is an easy and effective answer to this problem. With simple masking and blending techniques you can add interest to your background and give the impression of being in a secluded, faraway place. The most common error is overdoing it by adding too many stars or trying to integrate them into a scene that simply does not look natural. Here are two quick techniques which aim to avoid these pitfalls.

Photographing Beautiful and Monstrous Waves

I've lived on the shores of Lake Erie my entire life and can readily attest that it can a very unkind body of water. Photographer Dave Sandford takes advantage of this by wading into the tumultuous waves to capture and showcase their beauty.

Why Landscape Photography Isn't Always Glamorous

As we start filming our newest tutorial, "Photographing the World With Elia Locardi 3," this seems like a timely video. When we see the gorgeous images landscape photographers produce, it's easy to think that landscape photography is an ideal profession for spending all one's time taking images of the most beautiful places on the planet, but the reality isn't always that glamorous.

Step Up Your Landscape Photography Using Tiffen's Pro100 Series Filter System

The more you photograph people, places, and things, the more you understand how much control the available light has over the outcome of your image. Taking advantage of tools like filters to limit or modify the light coming into your camera is a great way to craft a unique image and even add a dramatic flare that you may not be able to create otherwise.

Google's Street View Cameras Capture Artistic Images Without Even Trying

How long do you think it would take to photograph over five million miles of road? Since 2007, Google's Street View teams have been doing just that; capturing panoramic images of millions of miles of roads all over the world. Armed with a fleet of vehicles with 360 degree cameras mounted atop of them, the Street View team has managed to capture a few lucky shots while motoring across the globe. It's a pretty incredible project if you ask me.

How To: Create Long Distance Cable Cam Motion Time-lapses with Morten Rustad

Morten Rustad’s a rarity, managing to make time-lapse photography his fulltime gig – and today he’s teamed up with New Zealand based company Syrp to share his expertise and host their latest Filmmaking Guide: “How to Setup a Long-Distance Cable Cam Motion Time-lapse”.

5 Advanced Techniques to Show Every Detail in Your Landscape Photos

So how do you make that mountain appear as large to the viewer as it does to you? How do you get rid of noise in your nightscape images? And how can you get everything in perfect focus, front to back? This might as well be titled “5 Things you can’t do in one shot,” since each technique in this essay relies heavily on layering multiple exposures of a given landscape scene. I’ll show you the techniques I often use to translate my vision to the image. Let’s go.

National Geographic's Best 52 Photos of 2016

Tis the season. Around the time of December, photography websites worldwide recap last year with their selection of the cream of the crop. To many photographers, National Geographic is a well-respected media platform to get your work selected and exposed. And now they have made their selection curated from 91 photographers, 107 stories, and 2,290,225 photographs.

Win a $6,495 Italy Photo Adventure in This Free Photo Contest!

Our friends at ViewBug teamed up with Discovery Photo Tours to offer an unforgettable Italy photo adventure to one lucky photographer. Submit your image to the completely free “Around the World” photo contest and you could win a seat on Discovery Photo Tours' Spring 2017 Italy Photo Tour! This all-inclusive, eight-day tour will be an incredible journey through the heart of Italy. Start in Rome and wind through the Tuscan countryside, into Florence, and end in Cinque Terre.

Using Adobe’s Kuler Tool to Color Tone Images

Something I get asked often is how to add color tones to your images. Often the easiest option is to use filters either in Lightroom or with a plugin software such as Google Nik. However, as you delve deeper into the world of color grading you will eventually become curious how to create your own effects.

Fascinating Jarred Landscapes by Photographer Christoffer Relander

Ansel Adams once said “you don’t take a photograph, you make it.” I have always thought that what he meant by this quote was the process involved in reaching the final image. It has never been about clicking a picture simply, but it involves the creativity the photographer pours into his image. And creativity and sensibility also are what transpire in the beautiful conceptual project of Finnish photograper Christoffer Relander, titled “Jarred & Displaced.”

Landscape Photographer Shows How You Can Capture Beautiful Images Right in Your Neighborhood

Whether it's the glamor of Paris, the captivating shores of Ireland, or the natural beauty of the Grand Canyon, it is very easy for a photographer to assume that one must go above and beyond to capture the landscape images that he or she desires. Dennis Ramos, a world-renowned fine-art and landscape photographer, took a completely different approach. He captured the beauty that surrounded him where he resides in Tampa, FL.

How To Shoot A Milky Way Time-lapse

If you’ve ever wondered how the heck to photograph, much less create, a time-lapse of the Milky Way; this video by Rhino Camera Gear explains the process in great detail.

Planning for the Shot of a Lifetime - Supermoon 2016

This article is a twist on the more common behind the scenes post. Instead of writing about the thought process of the shot in retrospect, I am starting this article several days before the full moon, to showcase my process and mindset when planning for a once in a lifetime shot of the Supermoon.

Reconnecting With The Beauty of The Pure Black Night Sky In The Age of Light Pollution

Modernity has brought increased convenience and comfort to countless lives, but there have been unintended consequences as well. Increasing urbanization has caused more and more people worldwide to lose their primal connection with nature, something that is almost impossible to replace by technology alone. The brilliant river of stars known as the Milky Way that has dominated the night sky and human imaginations since time immemorial is no longer visible to one third of the Earth’s population, and 80 percent of Americans. This is especially tragic for photographers.

Photography Book Review of Landscape Artist Extraordinaire: Alexandre Deschaumes - Voyage Éthéré

The rain washes heavily onto the window, and I’m sitting in the candle-lit windowsill with a pint of inky black ale and a good book. That book is Alexandre Deschaumes’ forthcoming “Voyage Éthéré” (Ethereal Journey); a collection of his work over the past years. Following the release of his Blu-Ray documentary, “La Quête d'Inspiration” (The Quest for Inspiration) by Mathieu le Lay, Alexandre looks to be on the path to becoming increasingly known for his work. And with good reason.

Photographer Captures an Erupting Volcano and Gets a Perfectly Aligned Meteor as Bonus

Landscape photographers know that there’s only so much you can plan. Today I want to introduce to you a fellow Dutch landscape photographer who recently came back from the volcanically active Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. What Tomas van der Weijden captured there is truly extraordinary and he told me everything about the creation of this photo.

Astrophotography Lens Review: Samyang 12mm f/2.8 Fisheye

Good nightscape shots have to be captured under ideal conditions. Well, just a cloudless sky will get you started anyway. I’m always looking for the next best piece of gear and darkest location myself. And around the start of this month, a particular dark location got proper recognition as the Dutch second Dark Sky Park. So let’s put location and gear together in this review of the Samyang 12mm f/2.8 for full-frame cameras.

'Highlight' Drone Lighting Nightscapes with Paul Heran and Ryland West

When they are out at night, wanting to shoot some astrophotography, the trickiest thing photographers usually worry about is getting enough light to highlight the nightscape for it come out well-exposed in a shot. Some make use of the available light, some wait for the full moon, and some get creative with torch or car lights. But Paul Heran and Ryland West came up with yet another ingenious method to light up their landscapes: drone lighting.

Travel Throwback: Exploring Bolivia with the Nikon D800 and No Reservations

Like many photographers, I decided to stop shooting weddings as soon as I was able to. They were sometimes fun, and they could pay well, but they just weren’t for me. In 2013, I finally booked my last one: a destination wedding in early 2014 in Bolivia. Going out with style, for sure.

The Human Element in Landscape Photography

As a full time roadtripper, I am constantly in search of amazing landscapes with the hopes of adding a unique take on what is most likely an over-photographed scene already. There are several ways to do this, but I am going to suggest one which is rarely discussed but hard to overlook in today’s social media outlets: the human element.

Fashion Photographer Amber Goetz

Stumbling upon a recent article reminded me that this is a question I wanted to ask here on Fstoppers. In my expertise and knowledge there is an absolute need for filters in certain industries of photography and if you're attempting a certain look. For instance a few friends of mine that also work for my wedding photography company do some off road coverage, for them I'd say it's pretty crucial to have a filter on their lenses to protect as much as possible as high speed off road vehicles and dirtbikes fly past them with the potential of tossing a few hundred rocks their way daily.

Using Channels to Selectively Edit Your Photos

Have you ever wondered what that obscure tab called “Channels” in Photoshop does? You know, the one with black and white layers of your photograph that are anything but red, blue, or green? Turns out they do some pretty amazing things and aren’t really that hard to understand once you get familiar with them.

Why Purchasing a Neutral Density Filter Holder Set is Your Better Option

Earlier this year, Patrick Hall did a thorough comparison of a variety of neutral density filter brands. The test included findings on color cast, vignetting, exposure, and sharpness. The goal was to find the best and most cost efficient neutral density filter available. In an effort to dig a little deeper into the question which filter is best for your gear set, I decided to add on a test of a similar product that photographers may prefer, filter holder sets.

15 Inspiring Places Travel Photographers Should Visit

Travel photographers seem to be going crazy for far-flung locations on Instagram. If you follow a bunch of them, you are bound to come across stunning photographs of some amazing places they’ve been making images of. It seems like everyone has caught the Scandinavian bug, seeing so many photographers flocking to Iceland or the Faroe Islands to capture those breathtaking landscapes. In this article, I will list the most popular locations for travel photographers on Instagram, but also include a few places you may not have considered.

Hoya Introduces New Solas Infrared Neutral Density Filters

Hoya has just debuted a new series of neutral density filters called Solas IRND, bolstering there array of already stellar filters for photography and video. This new line of IRND (Infrared Neutral Density) promises to produce no color casts in your images and videos, which is a very common issue when using ND's.

Win a Canon 5D Mk III or a Nikon D500 in This Free Photo Contest!

What’s the best photograph you’ve ever taken? If it’s as good as you think it is, it could win you your choice of Canon 5D Mk III, Nikon D500, Sony a7 II, or Fujifilm X-T1. It’s all part of My Best Shot, a free photo contest presented by ViewBug, the world’s largest photo contest community.

Nature Meets Modern Architecture in Stunning Time-lapse

A transportive time-lapse is something that never gets old, particularly when it looks and sounds as elegant as a waking dream. Forcibly poetic diction to describe lengthy slider moves and dramatically shifting clouds, perhaps. However, it’s hard to ignore the feeling you’ll get when you take this trip to Døvrefjell, a mountain in Norway that never looked more serene.

Fstoppers Is Asking for Your Help

Fstoppers has worked hard to bring you valuable educational content from incredible photographers like Peter Hurley, Mike Kelley, Dylan Patrick, Elia Locardi, and Joey Wright. Now we're asking for your help! We at Fstoppers are preparing to create our next premium photography tutorial which will probably cost around $300. We would like to know from the Fstoppers community which genres we should focus on and who it should be with. Would you take a quick one minute survey to help us out?

Long Exposure Photography Without a Tripod

Recently, I took a trip to Wichita, Kansas to see my sister get married. I packed up my camera, a few flashes, and my tripod for this trip with hopes of doing some photoshoots while in town. My two kids came out with me for this journey, and we ventured around the city.

The 10 Landscape Photographers You Should Follow on 500px and How to Become More Popular

Inspiration time. These guys are the cream of the crop on 500px at the moment. Note that this selection of landscape photographers doesn’t necessarily reflect my own judgment. It’s based on an average of 8 past articles on 500px ISO titled: “This Week in Popular: Top 25 Photos on 500px This Week.” Of this initial group, I have selected only landscape photographers, and here are their most recent works. Let’s go!

ISO Review: Capture the Night Sky with the ISO-less Nikon D750

The clear night sky under a new moon is almost always the same brightness in the same location. I have blindly put my camera on ISO 6400 as a result. But after having read somewhere that Sony supposedly builds sensors that are ISO invariant, I wanted to test this claim with my own Sony-equipped Nikon D750.

david guttenfelder photographer national parks

David Guttenfelder shot for the Associated Press for 20 years, based in Nairobi, Abidjan, New Delhi, and Tokyo, but it wasn't until he helped open the AP's North Korean bureau in 2011 that he became truly famous. His Instagram account has nearly a million followers and is filled with stunning iPhone photos from around the world. He was one of the first photographers to publish images shot on his phone, which caused a bit of a stir at the time.

Purple Photograph Prowess: 9 Approaches to the Perfect Heather Picture

Everywhere in Europe, heathers are looking positively vibrant. I trust that it's a worldwide phenomenon along the northern hemisphere. They’re also blooming three weeks sooner than past years; a result of an early Indian summer, due to the changing climate. Ostensibly, purple heather is a magnificent subject in landscape photography, but there are many more things you can capture in what is arguably the best season for photography. So let’s get you ready to capture this herald of autumn.

Roma Rosa: A Surreal Infrared View of Rome

During a two-day trip to the magnificent city that is Rome, photographer Milán Rácmolnár came up with the brilliant idea of photographing Rome in infrared. The result is a different and pink perspective on the cityscapes.