One of the most widely captured and certainly more universally enjoyed genres of photography is the Landscape. Nothing demands more planning, traveling, studying, contemplating, and timing than a perfect landscape photo. The photographer must pre-envision exactly what he desires to capture long before setting out to make the photo he has in mind.
Will it be a sunrise, midday, or sunset shot? Will there be sufficient cloud cover so as to bring beautiful colors to the dawn or dusk setting? What foreground, mid-ground, and background elements will be present? What weather elements may be a factor in producing the desired end result? What camera techniques will be employed, such as exposure bracketing, focus stacking, or dragging the shutter? What will be the optimal aperture used to create the pre-conceived landscape photo?
Light. One element that can make or break a great landscape photo is how the existing light interacts with the scene. Cloud cover, angle of the sun, color of the light, time of day are all critical pieces of the puzzle. Timing is often the single most important aspect of the process, capturing the precise moment where the light is perfect for capturing the photographer’s vision.
As with all photography, landscape requires careful consideration of composition. The use of rule of thirds, leading lines, and the placement of foreground elements to bring the viewers’ eyes into the photo, all help to set the stage for the moment of image capture; the split second in time as the landscape is seen by the photographer as he releases the shutter. If he has done his job well, he will have painted a lasting canvas of the image that was held in his mind for so long.