Learn how to take creative photographs

Landscapes & Architecture

Shoot the most beautiful landscape and architectural photographs
A spectacular prairie or steppe. An enchanting desert. A museum that, from the outside, is a work of art in itself.
Rugged Mountain ranges with impressive valleys. Or a stately square in a metropolis. You want to record these
impressions in a photograph. Even so, the result will be disappointing sometimes. With the tips and tricks from
this course you can improve both the quality and artistic content of your photographs. Get cracking with it and
don’t take a photograph, but an experience home with you!

‘everything has rhythm...’

Where does the difference between an ordinary photograph and an
exceptional one lie? In lots of areas. But rhythm is an important factor.
Certainly in ‘busy’ situations - such as an extremely ornate facade or a
varied landscape - the eye needs calm to be able to comprehend the
versatility of the subject. Rhythm and order provide this.

Look for the series

So consciously look out for repeating elements. For example, roofs of houses,
a row of windmills or telephone poles, a colonnade or leaves from a tree that
are blowing in the same direction. It’ll surprise you how many you find once
you have an eye for them. You’ll discover an angle through which hidden
structures and series suddenly transform into an artistically united whole.

play with colour contrasts

Vast landscapes are often beautiful because they sometimes are a single
colour. For example snowy mountain tops, a wooded slope or sandy dunes.
If you shoot a photograph of this, the results are not always that impressive.
That is because just that one colour can be a bit too much of a good thing.
Or in other words, too little. You miss a refreshing element. You can solve this
by adding a strongly contrasting colour. Put, for example, a couple of brightly
coloured skis straight up in the snow or a couple of bright yellow Wellingtons in
a field. Be conscious of the place where you put the extra colour element. Red
will certainly demand a lot of attention.

Give your day some colour

Do you regularly take your camera with you when you go out? Approach ‘colour’ as
a theme for a change. For example, choose a single colour for a day that you then
look for in the city (or outside it). You’ll see that you’ll photograph your surroundings
in a completely different way. This way, you connect all sorts of subjects together
thanks to the colour, in all its shades and nuances. Save the photographs at home
in colour categories. This will give you exciting collections, which you can later enjoy
comparing to each other.

Landscapes & Architecture | 1

 keep the ‘human dimension’ in mind
Colossal buildings, monuments or trees can be so impressive that you
immediately want to photograph them. Wait just a beat, and ask yourself
if the size of the subject will be visible on the photograph. The term
‘big’ only really takes on meaning thanks to the opposite phenomenon:
‘small(er)’. Prevent a great impression from becoming boring by introducing
a comparative element in the composition. This can be a person next to
a statue. But also an animal can lend the overwhelming impression of
the landscape more value. What is important is that you play with the
proportions. This leaves the original impression intact more.

work with depth of field

Actually, you can consider photography as an advanced form of realistic painting. Everyone
understands that a painter first thinks about the composition that he’s going to make.
The different parts of a picture are not given a particular place in the composition by accident.
In the case of landscape photography, mother nature has already laid out all the elements for
you. It’s up to you to make an interesting composition from it all. Creating depth is a handy
trick for success here.

Use the correct camera setting

Compact cameras are equipped with a special mode with which you can shoot more
attractive landscape photography, most often just referred to as ‘landscape’.
You will find this mode under ‘S’, ‘Scene’ or ‘Scenery’. Check to ensure that your flash is off.

Create layers
Is your camera switched to the correct mode? Ensure that your photograph gets more depth.
We’ll take a vast lake as an example, with wooded banks on the far side and, behind that,
hills or mountains. So three layers. Don’t just snap a shot as if you were standing on the
bank, but look for a twig or bush that is hanging over the water’s edge. Position this in the
foreground, crouch down and you’ll see that this fourth layer amplifies the other three. You
can use this method in almost every view; you can always find something that you can put
in the foreground.

low light, lots of effect

Atmospheric images often owe their strengths to darkness. For
example, a landscape in the dusk or a church interior. But how do
you communicate this special atmosphere? After all, darkness and
photography don’t go that well together. So you’ll have to make good
use of the available light. You achieve the most beautiful effects at
the boundaries of what is possible. As a result, far from all of the
photographs will be successful, but this makes experimenting all the
more exciting and a successful print all the more beautiful.

Use the correct camera settings

To begin with, switch your camera to ‘night’ mode. You’ll
find this under ‘S’, ‘Scene’ or ‘Scenery’. Then ensure that
your camera doesn’t move. A tripod is an excellent solution
here. Or look for support, for example a wall or church bench.
Putting down your camera and using the self-timer works
well too. Finally, you can also raise the ISO rating in the
menu. This makes your camera more sensitive to light.
The photograph will become slightly grainier, but this can
also produce an artistic effect.

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 look at the world through a
(different) pair of glasses

Literally. Because what applies to your eyes, also applies to a camera lens.
Using colour filters is a tried and tested method of adding colour and
achieving a romantic effect. Through simply holding the lens of a pair of
sunglasses in front of your camera you’ll get surprising results. An ordinary
pair of sunglasses works fine, but for more colour contrast use a pair of
glasses with a UV filter in the glasses.

interplay of lines

As a photographer, you should never just look at a landscape or building,

but try to discover a diagonal line. The rising crest of a dune for example, a
long road or the edge of a roof. This makes the photograph more dynamic.
You can also look for individual parts that together form a line. Consider
a ridge of mountains, clumps of trees or window frames viewed from a
certain angle. And another composition rule that is useful for landscapes
is to position the horizon at 1/3rd of the picture. Tilt the camera slightly
forward for more land, back slightly for more sky. This will immediately
make your photograph less ‘standard’.

Tips for Semi-Pros

Your camera has many more possibilities than have been discussed here for getting more out of yourself
and for taking more attractive photographs. Many people are hesitant about delving deeper into the menu
and trying out new functions that they don’t already know. Understandable, but certainly unnecessary.
Experiment and don‘t let yourself be put off. And if you get stuck, switch your camera off and start again!

If you’ve been taking photographs for a while and the tips above are obvious to you, you may benefit more
from the following more advanced advice.

use a telephoto lens

A wide-angle lens works well enough for landscape photography.
In the case of a compact camera, the lens is in this position when
you switch it on. For single-lens reflex users a telephoto lens is also
very suitable for photographing landscapes, due to the fact that you
extract the depth from the photograph. Through this, foreground
and background form a whole, while in reality they are sometimes
kilometres apart.

Approaching landscapes as planes you unite with a telephoto lens

produces interesting results. The effect is difficult to describe and is
a lot clearer in the pictures themselves. Try experimenting with this.
Through first photographing a view with a wide-angle lens and then
with a telephoto lens. You’ll see the difference immediately.

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 city by night

Tv You’ve probably seen them; impressive photographs of cities at night.

Attractively lit buildings or monuments, where traffic races by in
fascinating white and red streamers. You can do it too, by complying
with two simple conditions. Use a slow shutter speed and make sure that
your camera doesn’t move. Set your camera to the ‘Tv’ or ‘S’ mode and
choose a shutter speed of 1/8s or even 1/4s. Then put your camera on a
tripod, or lay it on a sturdy base and use the self-timer. Moving lights will
suddenly change into mysterious stripes.

use a polarisation filter

With a polarisation filter you can achieve different effects. Blue skies become more intense,
you will get more contrast and you can avoid undesired reflections or dazzle. You can only
use a polarisation filter in combination with a single-lens reflex camera. This is because you
need to turn the filter to a particular position, after which you can evaluate the result in your
viewfinder or on your LCD display. You need to be able to look through the lens for this.

Bluer skies
There is a lot of polarised light in a blue sky. With the filter, you hold this back as it were, so that
the blue becomes darker and more penetrating. Another advantage is that the clouds look ‘whiter’
due to the fact that they stand out better against the deep blue heavens. So the polarisation filter
ensures more contrast, but it can’t change the colours. It doesn’t make a grey sky blue, it just
amplifies the blue that’s already there.

Prevent dazzle
Sometimes certain objects are difficult to photograph because they are damp, or made of shiny
material that reflects the light. A wet road surface for example, the silvery underside of birch leaves,
a futuristic building with lots of reflective glass or a surface of water. You can suppress these
reflections with a polarisation filter. Similar to Polaroid sunglasses.

A beautiful photograph starts with you having fun!

The most beautiful photographs are a perfect mix of
a creative eye and an optimum use of the technical
possibilities. Landscape and architecture photography isn’t
the easiest of specialisations in that respect. So don’t be
too disappointed if a photograph is less favourable than
you’d hoped. Let it stimulate you to experiment further and
investigate what you can do to discover the photographer
in yourself.
Most of all, it’s about having fun. The pleasure you
experience from the unexpected possibilities of your
camera. And from a new way of looking at the world
around you. Heading off somewhere? Don’t forget to
take several memory cards, an extra rechargeable battery,
ordinary batteries, a charger, lenses and a tripod with you.
Visit www.canon-europe.com/store for a complete
overview of handy accessories. Good luck!

Discover the photographer in you with Canon

Canon (UK) Ltd
www.canon.co.uk