How to Shoot Landscapes - Looking high and low

Looking high and low

Rarely is the best viewpoint for a picture from eye level. Flat landscapes can be a real challenge and you'll probably start hunting around for an interesting foreground around which to build a wideangle shot. Or a high viewpoint to shoot from, such as a hill, wall or a climbable tree. A more exciting, albeit costly, option is to get above it in a balloon or small plane. This approach is especially productive in richly patterned environments such as river deltas where the reflection of the sky comes into play too.

If ground-bound, consider shooting the scene from very low down to give prominence to whatever relief exists. Another alternative is focus on a small area and shoot it from above with a wide angle, which will exaggerate its extent: this approach often works well in woodland but be careful to exclude any windows of sky or you'll spoil the illusion of a closed, endless forest.

We circled the saltmarshes near Cadiz in southern Spain for about half an hour making many different compositions of the complex, convoluted drainage channels. Most of that work was done at quite a low altitude but when the pilot pulled us up an extra couple of hundred feet, the river started to reflect the brilliant blue sky. For this sort of work, a fast shutter speed - at least 1/1000 second - and zoom are essential.
Nikon D3, 1/1250 second, f/5.6, ISO 800, 200mm


Understorey of mixed Norwegian forest. Here I took a high viewpoint over a small part of a colourful autumn forest scene and exaggerated its extent with a wideangle treatment.
1.6 seconds @ f/16, ISO 100