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20 Coastal Landscape Photography Tips

Beaches of all types, sandy, shingle or pebbly have huge appeal to most people, especially photographers. Here's a quick introduction to the world of beach and coastal photography which can be an extremely rewarding activity.

Photo by: Mark Wassell

There’s never any shortage of interesting subjects when you are near the shore, breathtaking skies, interesting cloud formations, sun streaks, rock formations, sea animals, shore birds, people and pets, surfers, sea weed, sea shells etc are just few of the subjects. Here are a few things you might like to pay attention next time you’re down by the coast for your next beach photography adventure:

Recommended Gear for Coastal Landscape Photography.

Photo by: Andreas Fusser

Although you can capture stunning seascapes with nothing more than a point and shoot camera, to make the best out of every situation having a DSLR camera, a wide angle zoom lens preferably in the 16mm to 35mm focal length range and a tele photo zoom lens in the 70mm – 200mm focal length, a sturdy tripod and head, a cable release, a graduated neutral density filter, a polarizing filter, camera and lens cleaning kit are essential.

Caring for Your Equipment

Beaches have all the three ingredients that could cause a lot of trouble to your photographic equipment, sand, water and sun are all harmful and proper care should be taken so as to protect your gear from damage. Keep all you equipment in the camera bag and take out only when you are ready to shoot. Never put down anything (except tripod legs) on the sand. If you need to carry a lot of gear, hire an assistant or bring a friend along. Limit changing lenses to the minimum and clean all your equipment properly as soon as you are back from the beach.

Tips for Using Tripods when Shooting Coastal Landscapes

Photo by: Jonathan Combe

A solid tripod is an essential piece of gear for shooting coastal landscapes. But using them at the beach requires some techniques. As the waves come and go the sand gets unstable and this would cause your tripod legs to shift (if it’s in the water) the trick to avoid such issues is to bury your tripod legs few inches into the sand and shoot when the sand has stopped moving with the receding waves. Remember to rinse your tripod thoroughly with tap water immediately after you get back from the shoot. And if your tripod allows you to disassemble and clean the legs, it will help you get the sand out and prevent it from damaging the tripod legs.

Coastal Landscape Photography Tips

1. Plan Well Ahead

Meticulous planning and precise execution are the secret to the success of any photo shoot and coastal landscape photography is no different. Here are certain things that you need to consider while planning your session.

a. Study your location

Photo by: Chris Gin

If possible do a recce trip to the location you intend to shoot so as to familiarize yourselves with the landscape, walk around and find interesting elements that you can use in your shots; see how the scene looks during sunrise and sunset and decide on the best time to shoot.

b. Tide

If possible observe the scene during both high tide and low tide, the same scene might look entirely different. Depending upon the nature of the landscape some scenes look better during low tide as it reveals details like small puddles and rocks that would otherwise be covered with water. But certain other landscapes will look better during high tide as the water helps simplify the scene by covering most of the clutter. There are many online resources that will help you get tide tables for the location you intend to shoot.

c. Safety First

Costal photography has many dangers and could even be life threatening if one is not careful enough. Study the landscape thoroughly; shooting locations should always have a safe passage back even at high tide. Be extra careful when stepping on slippery rocks, never stray too close to the edge of cliffs and also don’t stand too near to the bottom. Always inform a friend, relative or someone at your hotel’s reception desk while travelling about the location you are visiting, expected time of return, whom to contact in case of any emergency etc. Do carry a small flash light with you always and also a mobile with good reception in that area just in case.

d. Check local weather forecasts and times of Sunrise / Sunset

Photo by: Mike

www.metcheck.co.uk and www.bbc.co.uk are very useful websites to check up weather conditions and also sunrise and sunset times for your location. Using these resources will be much more accurate as the times change constantly throughout the year. One good thing about coastal photography is that bad weather is actually good weather that will let you capture the coastal landscape with lots of character and mood.

e. Find the Position of the Sun

A sun compass could be a useful accessory as it could accurately tell you the exact direction from which sun will enter or exit.

f. Check the wind direction and strength

Shooting is difficult when strong wind is coming directly in off the sea. Your camera and lens will get coated with sea spray; cleaning filters and lens glass is difficult at the coast, as salty spray smears. So plan your shoot during times when the wind is coming from any other direction than directly in off the sea. Alternatively, move further back the beach and use a longer focal length lens to capture the breaking waves with minimal sea-spray.

2. Timing Your Shots

If you are trying to photograph waves put your camera into continuous shooting mode and start shooting a few seconds before you anticipate a wave crash. The shots right before the waves break is usually the most interesting ones.

3. Photograph Coastal Landscapes at Night

Photo by: Carl Jones

Long exposure shots on a clear evening can produce some very dramatic results. Shoot during the time after sunset to the time before the sky turns completely dark for best results. You could capture stars, cloud movement and if there is moon the soft light from it could easily give a dream like quality to the landscape.

4. Find a Point of Interest

Photo by: Hakahonu

Always try to find an interesting focal point for your shot. Having a strong point of interest is critical to make beach shots interesting. The point of interest draws the viewers’ attention to the shot which is otherwise comprised of mostly sky and water. The point of interest could be a physical aspect of the landscape like a rock in the sea or movement of water, waves or it could be some sort of texture or pattern like ripples in water or patterns in the sand. Once you start looking for it you will find many elements that work.

5. Look for Reflections

Reflections in water of colorful sky or other interesting elements in the scene helps add depth and create interest in your shots. Work with reflections for getting the best out of it, you can control or completely eliminate reflections by changing the shooting angle or by using a polarizing filter on your lens.

6. Create Foreground Interest

Photo by: Sacha Fernandez

Photographs shot at the beach often do not have any interesting elements in the background. Often the background simply consists of the horizon (sea meeting the sky) and nothing else. So it becomes all the more important to add an interesting element in the foreground to attract the viewers’ attention to the picture.

7. Use Small Apertures

Photo by: Michelle Brea

Coastal landscapes work well when the entire image from the foreground to the background is in acceptable focus. Use small aperture and focus on the hyperfocal distance to achieve maximum depth of field.

8. Try Changing Perspectives

Photo by: AJ1008

Changing perspectives often has very dramatic effect when shooting coastal landscapes. A relatively uninteresting shot taken at eye level can be transformed into a very dramatic one by simply altering your perspective, lowering the shooting height, changing shooting format from landscape to portrait or changing focal length.

9. Working with Movement

Photo by: Jonathan Combe

The movement of the water presents many photographic opportunities to the creative photographer; more so when you have still elements along with moving ones. Experiment with different shutter speeds to either freeze or capture movement of the water in your shots; both could produce very different effects.

10. Using Color to Convey Mood

Photo by: Chris Lofqvist

Coastlines are very colorful places especially during the golden hours. It could be either shades of blue or yellow. Different colors convey different moods and the photographer should work with the colors to accentuate the prevalent mood to make his/her shots more interesting.

11. Look for Fine Details

Photo by: A Guy Taking Pictures

Ultra wide angle shots of coastlines could be interesting, but that’s not all. The coast is full of wonderful small subjects with stunning details, take out your macro lens and photograph all those shells, sea animals, seaweed, texture on the rocks and patterns on the sand. All of these things can make for a wonderful image.

12. Introduce a Human Element

Photo by: Jose Luis Cernadas Iglesias

Adding a human element could often add interest and scale to your photographs. It could be a single person, a group of people or even things that reveal human presence like a pair of slippers, a surf board or an umbrella.

13. Shoot from the top of Overhanging Cliffs

Photo by: Paul Bica

If you are willing to put in the extra effort needed to hike up the steep cliffs lugging your gear, shooting from the top of cliffs could produce breathtaking scenes with a completely different perspective than when shooting from sea level.

14. Visit Coastal Villages

When planning your trip to the beach always remember to dedicate some time to visit the fishing villages nearby. They have a lot of potential as photographic subjects; you can easily find many interesting shots, of people, accessories used for fishing etc.

15. Seasons and Tides

Photo by: Sacha Fernandez

Coastal landscapes change dramatically during the course of a day and also with changing seasons. Even the tide going out and coming in could completely change the mood of the scene. To make the most out of a location, visit it during different times of the day and during different seasons. You will be able to get a very diverse set of shots of the same location.

16. Shoot Silhouettes

The high contrast scene at the beach with light coming off from one side is ideal to shoot silhouettes. If you look out you will find many interesting shapes to use as silhouette.

17. Include Man Made Structures

Photo by: Fougerouse Arnaud

Many times you will find that there are ports, docks, pier, light house or harbor located near popular tourist beaches. They make interesting subjects, but the major challenge when including such structures in your composition is finding a way to keep the composition simple as these busy places could overwhelm an otherwise beautiful scene if not composed right.

18. Turn Around

The most common mistake beginners make while photographing coastlines is to ignore what’s happening on the other side. They always try to include the sun in their shots and thus remain completely unaware of the drama that is playing right behind them. As the sun rises or sets from the ocean, the first light from it could create a beautiful scene in the opposite direction with beautiful tones in the landscape and sky at your back. So remember to look back every once in a while.

19. Add Drama by converting your shots to Black & White

Photo by: Carl Jones

If you have a cloudy day with relatively dull lighting conditions you can easily add a lot of drama to your shots by experimenting with shutter speeds and converting the images to black and white. Also consider giving blues a little boost while post processing your coastal landscapes.

20. Have Fun

Photo by: Aaron Brown

Travel well prepared to the beach, bring lots of water and snacks to keep you energized and well hydrated. Be creative with your techniques and shooting angles and don’t get too immersed in the technicalities that you forget to have some fun. There are plenty of opportunities for capturing great coastal landscapes the most important thing is to enjoy the time you spend over there and great images will happen automatically.

A Quick Tip to Get More Interesting Shots of Mountains

Ever wondered why most of the mountain shots we see look familiar? It even makes us wonder have we been there, or have I seen it before? The reason is simple; they are all shot from a very familiar angle, from the road at the bottom of the mountain.

how to photograph mountains

Photographing mountains from the ground looking up will create pictures that look very average coz that is how we are used to seeing mountains. The trick to make your mountain shots interesting is to show the scene from an angle that people don’t normally see. For example shoot from up high; to achieve this you can either drive as high as you can, hike the mountain or an adjacent one, set up your camera and shoot down on or across the mountains.

mountain photography tips

This will picture the scene from a whole new point of view, one the viewers had never seen before, adding much more visual interest to the photograph.

Professional Landscape Photography Tips - Using Telephoto Lenses for Shooting Landscapes

When thinking about landscape photography gear, the first thing that comes to mind is the picture of an ultra wide angle lens, then comes the tripod, various filters, shutter release etc.

And when we think about the photographs we think of shots of wide vistas stretching from the immediate foreground to the distant background, strategically positioned foreground elements that add interest to the picture, large depth of field generated by narrow apertures rendering everything in the frame in sharp focus etc.

Tips for Shooting Landscapes with a Telephoto Lens

Photo by: Sathish J

Well there is nothing wrong in people thinking of landscapes the way it was photographed traditionally. There are endless photographers that prove time and again that the technique work well. However the approach has its limitations and people are also accustomed to seeing such shots all the time, so in this article let us explore the technique of photographing landscapes using telephoto lenses, their merits and demerits and how best to get the most out of them.

Why Use Telephoto Lenses Instead of Wide Angle Lenses

For many photographers, a telephoto lens is used to bring distant objects closer when it is impossible to physically get closer to the subject. But ideally the choice of focal lengths should be based on the distinct perspectives it generates. A 50mm lens when used on a full frame camera is called a normal lens because it renders the perspective between foreground and background similar to the way the human eye sees perspective.

Wide angle lenses make the foreground elements appear larger and the background elements appear smaller. This will give more emphasis to the foreground elements and make the background elements appear miniscule. This distortion of perspective causes the background elements to appear as if they are far away from the foreground elements, even though in reality they are only a few feet apart. Thus they create an illusion of depth in the scene.

using telephoto lens in landscape photography

Photo by: Martin Gommel

A telephoto lens does the opposite; it makes background appear larger in comparison to the foreground. Thus it compresses the perspective making objects that are in reality far apart from each other appearing as if closely stacked together.

The choice of focal length should thus be made depending on what message you intend to give the viewers about the scene in front of you.

Get the Most Out of Every Scene

The narrow angle of view of telephoto lenses lets you extract many interesting images from within a large seemingly uninteresting landscape. You can use the telephoto lens to isolate and compress distant portions of the scene or, to zero in on close portions for more image possibilities or even turn your landscape imagery into many graphic abstracts.

Photo by: Lutz Koch

Using a long lens for landscapes requires a totally different thinking strategy. Once you learn to see the way a telephoto lens sees, your brain will be able to simplify each scene into many different compositions, each consisting of pure line, shape or form giving you endless ways to work each and every scene you ever encounter.

Unwanted elements in a scene like power lines, poles etc are hard to deal with when shooting with wide angle lenses, but all these could easily be eliminated and only the interesting elements could be selectively framed by using a telephoto lens.

Choosing the right Telephoto Focal Length for Landscapes

There is no hard and fast rule for focal lengths to be used for shooting landscapes, but generally focal lengths from 100mm to 300mm (for full frame cameras) work well for most situations. Although it is possible to shoot landscapes using much longer focal lengths, the perspective distortion (compression in case of telephoto lenses) produces images so different than the actual that they fall into "abstract" realm rather than the "pictorial" realm.

Photo by: Stewart Baird

Consider lenses of focal length from 100mm-300mm for full frame cameras, 70mm-200mm for cameras with APS sized sensors and 50mm-150mm for Four thirds sensor cameras. Choosing a telephoto zoom over a fixed focal length lens gives you the much needed flexibility when composing your shots. Modern professional zoom lenses produce very high image quality comparable with that produced by fixed focal length lenses; and saves you the hassle of carrying more than one lens to cover different focal lengths.

What to Look For in a Telephoto Lens mainly intended for Landscape Shooting

Landscape photography often requires the use of large depth of field and hence the lens will be mostly used stopped down. So a faster lens is not always a better choice for landscape photographers. Slower lenses are often much cheaper than their faster siblings, they are also much lighter making it easier to carry them long distances over tough terrains. Generally slower lenses take smaller filters, which cost far less than larger filters and also take up less space in the camera bag. Similar is the case with fast auto-focus and Image stabilization features, both of which add to the costs and also the physical weight of the lens. Since landscape photographers mostly shoot on tripods, image stabilization is not that important to them, same is the case with focusing; most professionals prefer manual focusing with stationary subjects. The features discussed above namely faster maximum aperture, image stabilization, fast auto focus performance etc. add the bulk of the cost and if you are planning to mainly use a lens to shoot landscapes you could cut down on costs considerably by choosing lenses wisely.

Tips for Photographing Landscapes Using Telephoto Lenses

Shooting landscapes with telephoto lenses is the same as when using wide angle lenses, except for some additional considerations that you need to make. Here are few tips to help you get stunning pictures.

1. Composing The Scene

When you come across an interesting scene, think of elements that you believe contributes to its interestingness and try to isolate them in your shots. Also think of elements that do not add significantly to the scene or is more of a distraction and think how best to eliminate them from your compositions. The power to eliminate unwanted elements from a scene is the greatest advantage of using telephoto lenses over wide angle lenses.

Photo by: Sandeep Somasekharan

For ex. If you have a very uninteresting sky in your scene; why include it in your composition in the first place? Zoom in tight and crop out the sky.

2. Use a Sturdy Tripod

The large depth of field often required in landscapes means you will often be shooting with very narrow aperture that require slower shutter speeds to compensate for the light loss. The longer the focal length used the greater the chances of your shot getting spoiled by camera shake. Whenever possible shoot on a solid tripod to ensure maximum image sharpness.

3. Enable Mirror Lock Up

If your DSLR has a mirror lock up function enable it and use a remote trigger or the timer function to ensure maximum sharpness. The mirror which is located very close to the sensor could induce small vibrations when it flips up and down at the start and end of every exposure. Using mirror lock up introduces a small delay between the mirror flipping up and the opening of the shutter and thereby reducing the chances of the shake spoiling the image. Shooting in live view also has the same effect as the mirror stays up when the camera is in live view mode.

4. Image Stabilization / Vibration Reduction

Image stabilization is a very advanced feature found in relatively high quality lenses and could be a life saver when shooting handheld in low light conditions. However when shooting on a tripod, always remember to turn it off. Else the stabilization feature will look for vibrations that are not present and in the process introduce vibrations of its own resulting in a softer image.

5. Beware of Wind

Photo by: Sathish J

When shooting with long focal length lenses, the wind could cause serious issues; strong winds could even knock down the equipment if the tripod is not stable enough or is not weighed down. But what we need to be aware of is the fact that even relatively mild wind could easily spoil our shots. When shooting in windy conditions you could try the following tricks to reduce its impact.

Take off your lens hood; longer lenses have large hoods which could catch wind easily.
Use your own body as a shield; place yourselves in between the camera and the wind.
If your tripod allows you to hang weight for better stability do it.
Place a beanbag or something similar (consider reducing some weight) over your lens for increased stability.
Increase the ISO settings for faster shutter speeds.
Shoot from a protected location; place a solid structure like a wall or a building or even a vehicle in between the wind and you.
Wait for the wind to subside.

6. Shoot at Your Lens’s Sweet Spot

Photo by: Derek Fung

Every lens has a sweet spot. An aperture setting that produces the best image sharpness. A rule of thumb states that for most lenses the sweet spot is 2 stops narrower than its maximum aperture. So for a lens with a maximum aperture setting of f/4 the sweet spot will be 2 stops narrower that means f/8.

7. Specialized Filters for Creative Control

Unlike a wide angle lens, it is very easy to use polarizing filters on telephoto lenses as there is very little chance of getting uneven polarization. You can also use other filters like Graduated Neutral Density Filters to control the amount of contrast in your scene. One thing to remember is that filter sizes may differ for your wide angle lens and telephoto lens. So filters originally bought for wide angle lenses may not fit on your telephoto lenses. However if your telephoto lens has a smaller diameter filter than your filters you can use adapter rings to make the filters suit the lens. But if the filters you own has a smaller diameter than your telephoto lenses filter diameter you have no choice but to buy larger size filters or shoot multiple exposure and blend them together in software.

8. Shooting Panoramic Landscapes

panoramic landscape photography using telephoto lens

Photo by: Sathish J

Telephoto lenses have very little distortion when compared to wide angle lenses and hence are great choice for shooting panoramic landscapes. Zoom in tight on the most interesting area of your image and capture multiple shots with a 30% overlap to create stunning panoramas. With telephoto lenses you can make multiple panoramas from a single scene.

The Classic Landscape Photography Composition Technique

Here’s one of the most important composition tip used by professional landscape photographers to create engaging images. This technique could also work well for other genres of photography including architecture, interior and people photography.

Photo by: Tim Donnelly

The trick to make your images dynamic is to add an interesting foreground element in your landscape photos. The right combination of a strong foreground element and an interesting or beautiful background could create very dramatic images. In nature a beautiful background is easy to find but a strong foreground to go with the scene is a bit hard; and that’s the reason why professional landscape photographers spend hours in the field looking for interesting subjects that could work as a foreground element in their shots.

Photo by: Alexander Shchukin

So remember a strong foreground element is critical and finding one should be your first priority once you have come across a beautiful scene that you wish to photograph. In fact the first question you should ask yourselves when you see a beautiful scene in front of your should be “Where’s the foreground?” Once you have found a workable foreground subject mount an ultra wide angle lens on your camera and get very close to your foreground element for a very dramatic photograph.

The Classic Landscape Photography Composition Technique Step by Step

landscape photography composition technique

1. Mount an ultra wide angle lens on your camera.

2. Use a sturdy tripod.

3. Use low ISO value like ISO 100 for maximum details and less noise.

4. Shoot in RAW file format for maximum flexibility while post processing.

5. Set your camera to Aperture Priority mode.

6. Use a narrow aperture like f/16 or f/22 for large depth of field.

7. Set your lens to its hyperfocal distance.

Now comes the most important part

Photo by: Dany Tolenga

Compose your frame such that there is an interesting element in the foreground which should be placed a foot or two in front (nearer to the camera) of the hyperfocal distance.

For example

Imagine you are shooting with a 16mm lens set to f/16 on a full frame camera. With a full frame camera and a 16mm lens the hyperfocal distance is 0.5meters. So practically everything from 0.25meters to infinity will be in focus.

Photo by: Brent Pearson

We are placing a foreground element one foot closer to the camera than the hyperfocal distance and it is well within the depth of field coverage. As a result we will have a picture where everything from the foreground element to infinity is in focus.

Photo by: Wynand

The real secret behind this technique lies in the properties of wide angle lenses. The unique perspective (exaggerates the foreground elements) thus obtained is the reason why such shots are able to dramatically transform ordinary scenes. If one is knowledgeable about this effect and knows how to use it to create interest in his/her shots then this technique could be applied with much success in so many different photographic scenarios. Once you master the technique you will surely see a marked improvement in your compositions.

Bonus Tip

We have already stated that finding interesting foreground elements could be a hard job. With a little imagination you could easily place some props in the scene which could work equally well. Here’s one example.

Photo by: heather buckley

Have fun. Consider the images given as examples in this article. Try to imagine how the pictures would have looked had there been no foreground element and you will realize its real impact. If you have any image shot using this technique feel free to share it us in comments below.

How to Photograph the Milky Way in Ten Easy Steps

Capturing the Milky way by Sapna Reddy

how do we take pictures of the milky way

This is in response to all the questions I have been asked about how to capture Milky way.

1. Timing : June/July are the best months. Clear nights with little or no moon.

2. Location : Rural areas far from city lights.

3. Equipment : Camera with decent high ISO capability, tripod, f 2.8 wide angle lens.

4. Settings : ISO 3200 or higher, f 2.8, 25-30 seconds exposure. Run test shots and fine tune ISO and exposure.

5. Shoot in Manual mode and RAW images.

6. Exposure : Do not exceed 30 seconds for exposure. ( will generate star trails)

7. Focussing : Turn your lens to infinity, then dial back just a little bit. Lock in manual focus.

8. Noise reduction : Remember to turn on Long exposure/high ISO noise reduction in camera.

9. Composition : Try to incorporate foreground components to make the shots more interesting.

10. Postprocess using lightroom or PS. Make adjustments to exposure, color, contrast, noise reduction and lens corrections in camera RAW as needed.

Here are some shots of the milky way for your inspiration

How to Photograph the Milky Way

how to photograph the milky way with a dslr

how are pictures of the milky way taken

how do we photograph the milky way

All the best ! Happy clicking !

Essentials of composition

By: Sapna Reddy

essentials of composition

1. There are no rules to composition, only tools/guidelines. Using the tool of thirds to place your main subject strengthens the composition.

2. Use structural elements (boulder on right) to anchor your composition.

3. Use accent colors to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the main subject. (fall color leaves in this comp).

4. Layer your composition..there must be a foreground (boulder and leaves), middle ground (turnaround of the river) and background (tree bases). This adds depth to the composition.

5. What you exclude from the composition is as important as what you include. No point in including excessive trees and surrounding woods when the story is about the river.

6. Use leading lines when possible. Direct viewer's eyes toward your main subject. Here the river flowing forms a leading line to the center of the comp.

7. Create dynamism. Prolonged exposures help to convey the feeling of flow.

8. Check your histogram to make sure you are not clipping your darks or blowing out your highlights.

9. Border patrol. Be sure to check the margins of your comp and exclude or include objects as needed. this is very important for a clean look to the comp.

10. Remember to double check that your focal point is on the main subject of the composition and aperture adjusted based on composition.

Yes..You must think of all points 1-10 before you click the shutter. One of my mentors told me "photograph like you mean it"...and so I do.

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