How to: 3 Pro Tips For Dramatic Landscape Photos

Images and Tips by Ian Plant

Capturing dramatic landscapes requires a lens that can handle vast scenes and intricate details with ease. Tamron lenses offer a versatile range for photographers, whether it’s wide-angle views of sweeping horizons or zooming in on striking, distant features. With advanced optics and durability, they are perfect tools for bringing dramatic landscapes to life in any environment.

Read on for Ian Plant’s top 3 tips to create a dramatic landscape image.

TIP 1: USE THE WEATHER TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Wait for dramatic light and weather to really bring out the drama of your mountain photos. Fog in the valleys below the mountains creates a nice contrast to the scenery, and storm clouds above the mountains can inject drama and mood into your images. Wait for colorful sunrise or sunset light to illuminate the scene and bring it all together.

For this photo above of the Teton Range, the photographer was lucky to have fog below the mountains and dramatic storm clouds above them. He zoomed in with a Tamron 150-500mm ultra-telephoto zoom lens to create this tight portrait as the first light of sunrise bathed the peaks and clouds in golden color.

TIP 2: REMOVE UNWANTED GLARE AND REFLECTIONS

When photographing waterfalls and cascades in autumn, choose a composition that showcases the best combination of falling water and fall color. Once you get your composition set, use a polarizer filter to remove unwanted glare and reflections from the water and wet surfaces. Creatively blur the water using a long exposure; depending on the flow of the water, this can be anywhere between 1/30 second and several seconds long.

You want to introduce motion blur into the water, but still retain some texture so that you don’t end up with a featureless white mass. For this photo of a small falls in the Porcupine Mountains of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, professional photographer Ian Plant used his Tamron 35-150mm F/2-2.8 DI III VXD (Model A058) and chose a quarter-second exposure to get the perfect blend of blur and texture.

TIP 3: LOOK FOR REFLECTION PHOTOS

You often must get low when making photos of reflections in water. Get low enough to pull the best reflections into the water. Shoot on calm days on still water to get a mirror-like reflection. If there is movement in the water (because of a current or wind stirring the water), try a long exposure of one second or more to smooth out the water, making the reflection look stronger.

You might need a neutral density filter to lengthen your exposure time if the ambient light is relatively bright. For this photo of autumn color in a bald cypress swamp in the bayou of Texas, the photographer waited with his Tamron ultra-telephoto 150-500mm F/5-6.7 DI III VC VXD (Model A057) zoom lens for a perfectly still morning to make this reflection image.

Learn about these lenses and more at an authorized Tamron dealer in your area or visit the TAMRON Store today.

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