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How to create dynamic landscape compositions without leading lines

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Are you a rule follower or a rule breaker? The rebel in me usually likes to bend the rules as much as possible, and the rules of photography and composition are no exception. It’s true that they exist for a reason, and often by following them, at least in the early phases of learning, we will get much better results.

However, following rules all the time when creating art can quickly get boring. In this video landscape photographer, Brendan van Son shows us some ideas for creating dynamic images without using leading lines.

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7 tips for shooting sharper landscape photographs

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No matter what genere we shoot, photographers always seem to be on a quest for sharper images. No matter how sharp they may already be, we’re always trying to squeeze just a little more sharpness performance out of our cameras and lenses. There are a few things we can do though, particularly for landscape photographers, that don’t involve going out and buying more expensive lenses.

In this video, landscape photographer Mike Smith walks us through seven of his top tips for getting sharper images when shooting landscapes. Some of them you may already know and apply to your own photography, but there are probably at least one or two that you might not have tried.

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Create a fine art HDR sea scape from start to finish

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Piers and jetties make wonderful subjects for long-exposure photography. It’s something about the lines leading you through the image and the perspective, combined with the poetic nature of an open body of water. But they aren’t always easy to shoot correctly, and sometimes you’ll need to shoot multiple exposures to get the result just right.

In this video, Gary Gough walks us through a shoot in Hartlepool, UK of the dilapidated skeleton of an old pier. He shows us how he shoots it and then edits it to create a beautiful fine art HDR seascape.

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The story behind how this amazing photograph of the “Fairy Tree” Milky Way was created

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Sometimes, you’re sitting on social media, scrolling away and something stops you in your tracks and you just can’t help but sit and stare. That was the case for me with this Milky Way photograph from landscape and commercial photographer Mark Duffy. DIYP reached out to Mark to find out more about it and how it was created.

Mark says that the tree at the centre of this image is known as a Fairy Tree in Ireland. That’s what they call a tree that stands alone in the middle of a field. It’s believed that they bring luck and possess mystical powers. This one though, Mark tells DIYP, is particularly special. He says it’s over 200 years old and perched on top of a 3,000-year-old cairn (an Irish burial tomb) overlooking his hometown of Dundalk and the Cooley Mountains.

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The Atoll is a unique take on the traditional tripod lens collar for easy vertical shooting for stills and video

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At first, the Atoll might seem like just a regular tripod collar, the kind that many of us have used with our lenses for years – at least telephoto lenses. But Atoll comes with a bit of a twist (no pun intended) that allows you to get that lens collar functionality with lenses that weren’t actually designed to have a collar attached.

It’s essentially two mounting plates in one – one that goes on top of your tripod head and one that mounts underneath your camera – connected via a rotating ring that goes around your lens and allows you to easily rotate it without having to deal with the inherent issues of ball heads and blocking cable connections. It’s been launched through Kickstarter where it’s already hammered its goal multiple times over.

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Landscape photography is for everyone, no matter what your mobility

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Are you ever intimidated by those strapping young Insta-photographers that seem to travel the world climbing mountain after mountain? They seem to exist purely to seek out the most inhospitable environments to feed their impressive portfolios. Are you thinking that you can’t be a landscape photographer if you’re not able to do serious days of wilderness treks or at least get in some formidable day hikes to out-of-the-way locales?

Whether you’re unable or unwilling to walk a long way, it doesn’t matter and you shouldn’t let that get in the way of a good landscape photo opportunity. Some of Ansel Adam’s most famous photographs were actually taken just a stone’s throw from the road. With that in mind, in this video photographer, Mike Smith gives you some tips to capture stunning landscapes without having to exert yourself.

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Landscape photographer dies after 300 foot cliff fall on Oregon coast

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A landscape photographer died after falling 300 feet when he slipped off the trail at Natural Bridges viewpoint on the Oregon coast. Emergency services arrived along with a helicopter ambulance however because the fall was so severe and with the rocky shoreline beneath the chances of survival were slim.

After talking to witnesses, the County Sheriff learned that Nam Ing, a passionate landscape photographer from California, had been out hiking with friends when he slipped and fell from the trail.

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You don’t need to spend money on these things for great landscape photography

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I often think that photographers are a lot like drummers, at least when it comes to Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). You never replace your equipment, you merely add to it. A new lens here, another camera body there, filters, tripods, light stands oh my! It’s all getting a bit out of hand. And with the rising cost of living and higher inflation, most of us have less disposable income for wasting I mean carefully purchasing new camera equipment.

In this video, landscape photographer Mads Peter Iversen goes against the grain and tells us the things he thinks that we shouldn’t be wasting our money on. It’s so tempting to rush out and buy that newer gazillion megapixel camera thinking that with it our photographs will shine brighter, but sadly as well all know, that is seldom the case.

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Deliberate practice will make you a better photographer, here’s how

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Practice makes perfect, or so the old saying goes. That’s not actually correct as I’ll explain later, however. But generally, if you want to get better at doing anything, from improving your golf swing to nailing that karaoke rendition of Whitney Houston, you’re going to have to practice.

In this video from photographer Ben Harvey, he talks about getting outside more so that you can practice with greater motivation and productivity.

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These are the only three types of lens filter you probably ever need

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Filters – no, not the Instagram kind – have been a part of photography and filmmaking for decades. Back in the days of film, particularly with black and white, they were often used to eliminate issues like excess UV light from the sun, to wrangle the brightness of the sky down to the relatively dark land for an even exposure, they were used to add contrast between different colours to black and white film or one of a multitude of effects.

These days, most of the problems we used to solve or effects we used to create with filters are done in post, on the computer. Now if you want to add contrast or alter the balance of colour in a shot, you just drag a slider. But there are some filters that are still valuable and useful in this digital age. And in this video, Mitch Lally talks about three of them and why he brings them to every shoot.

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