The Importance of Anticipating Light as a Landscape Photographer

The frustrating thing about landscape photography is that you have absolutely no control over the light, and of course, that light can really make or break an image. This helpful video discusses the importance of learning to anticipate light for better landscape photographs.

Coming to you from Tom Mackie with Landscape Photography IQ, this helpful video talks about anticipating light in landscape photography. It's often the case that you'll go to a location you've been wanting to photograph, only to be greeted by lackluster light. It's very important in this situation to be able to read and understand how the scene will be lit as the light evolves and changes so you can put yourself in the right position should conditions improve. Learning this skill will help you to both increase your keeper rate and expand your creative abilities. 

And remember, there are many super helpful apps out there that can show you exactly where the sun will be at any given date and time anywhere in the world, which is tremendously useful for landscape work. PhotoPills is my personal favorite. 

And if you'd really like to dive into landscape photography, check out our series of landscape photography tutorials with Elia Locardi! 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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Alex, well great share! Weather is one of the most important factors for landscape photography and a lot of people forget it and just rely on luck. if you learn to read the conditions you're one step closer to getting unique shots. Great article and video.