7 Easy Tactics for Better Coastal Landscape Photography:
Coastal landscapes can be an incredibly satisfying subject for landscapephotographers and can result in some stunning images. Besides abiding by thegeneral guidelines for landscape photography, here are a few other things you mightlike to think about next time you’re down by the coast with your camera.
1. Get There at the Right Time
While coastal landscape photography can be done at any time of the day ornight, most photographers who are consistently getting great results willfavour golden hour or blue hour as their favourite times to shoot. Gettingthere around these times allows you to capture stunning changing lightingconditions. Get used to shooting from before sunrise or until after sunset.
2. Get an ND Grad Filter
The secret sauce of coastal landscapes that are shot around golden and bluehours is an NDgrad filter – a weapon of choice for a lot of landscape photographers. Thissimply makes it a lot easier to get a correct exposure on your skies (whichbasically act as a huge and bright light source) at the same time as the foreand mid-ground which can often be in shadow at the same time.
3. Reduce Camera Shake
Shooting in lowish light means that you are going to have to stabilise yourcamera as best you can. That usually means a tripodfor starters. You might also like to employ a remote shutter release or atleast the delayed timing functionality that is standard with a lot ofDSLRs.
4. Remember Your Foregrounds
When you’re concentrating on the beautiful colours of a sky in the golden orblue hours it can be very easy to forget that foregroundinterest can really add an element of interest to a coastal landscape thatis irreplaceable. Usually a little scouting around a location will turn up allsorts of potentially interesting foregrounds that can complete yourcomposition.
5. Shutter Speed and Water
Remember that if you are taking photographs in low light, with a slowshutter speed then water can appear blurred or misty. Personally I like thateffect. If you don’t then you will want to make your shutter speed faster andadjust your other settings accordingly. This can get difficult in low light, soit’s probably an idea in this case to get to the location when there’s a littlemore light around. Alternatively you could shoot with wider apertures orincrease the ISO but neither of those options is necessarily great forlandscapes (depending on your intentions).
6. Don’t Forget Black and White
While the colours of coastal landscape photography are a great reason to beattracted to this subject, amazing results can also be had with blackand white (and you don’t necessarily even have to shoot at blue or goldenhour to get them). Play with your images in post production and test theeffects of black and white – sometimes you can get a real gem by accident, butgoing with the intent of shooting b&w can get you even better results.
7. Turn Around
At popular photography locations on the coast around the time of sunset,there is a big mistake you see the entire crowd make most of the time (assumingyou’re shooting in a location that’s popular with photographers). They onlylook towards the sun. Quite often there is amazing light in the other directiontoo – especially if there are a few clouds around! Don’t forget to at leastlook at what is happening in the rest of the sky.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of tips for coastal landscapes (infact you can even find some other great ideas right hereon DPS). Why not share some of your own tips in the comments?
Rob Wood is the founder of Light Stalking. He recommends you check out“How This Award WinningCoastal Photograph Was Taken” and this guide to “LandscapePhotography for the Serious Amateur“.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
