Summer makes things simple for landscape photography. Photographers benefit from long days, good weather, vibrant colors, and perfect light conditions. One can explore remote locations otherwise inaccessible, plan long hiking or biking photo trips, and find subjects available only in summertime.
However, your photos will be so much better if you use a few simple tips to raise your photos from being summer snapshots to genuine landscape photos. Here are my best tips for doing that right now.
Look for Seasonal Subject Matters
If you want your photos to scream summertime, look for seasonal subject matters. The rarer they are, the better. For example, you can look for plants that bloom only for a short period of time in summer. You can also look for recognizable landscapes, such as lavender fields, sunflower fields, cereal fields ready for the harvest, or wildflower meadows.
Try to capture the uniqueness of summer days and the warm weather by including sun rays passing through tree branches or clouds, sun umbrellas, or people amid summer activities. The landscape is still your main focus, but these subtle accents enhance the visual story with new layers of meaning.
Pro Tip: To create star rays from the sun, use a large aperture number of around f13-f/16 while shooting against the sun, with the sun being covered by a tree or other object.
Another seasonal subject matter specific to summer is a full-on summer storm. You may need to protect yourself and the camera a bit, but it is worth the trouble. Summer storms create unbelievable skies with intense colors and interesting cloud formations. Furthermore, they enhance vegetation colors and contrast, producing summer landscape photographs that need no retouching.
Work with Leading Lines
Summer Landscape photography can take a minimalistic approach. You have a wide frame, a deep depth of field, and an appealing background. Often, much of the frame is occupied by the sky. However, this can make landscape photos look a little bit flat. That being said, you can easily add depth to the composition. Leave only a couple of dominating visual elements in the frame and build a composition using leading lines.
For example, the hills or mountains in the background may provide a beautifully curled horizon and create an artistic focal point. You may use the shoreline of a lake to create a symmetrical horizontal reflection in the middle of the frame or a beach line to create a path into the sunset. You may also use more unusual angles and lines to produce abstract compositions, such as diagonals, spirals, and wavy lines.
Leading lines are visually heavy. They capture the viewer’s attention and lead them through the frame. As a result, the rest of the frame may have a minimalistic approach: the plain blue summer sky and the fresh summer green may be just enough. If the sky looks washed out, use a polarizing filter to enhance its shade. Also, make sure you position the leading lines correctly by using the rules of composition.
Include a Subject in the Foreground
Another way to create depth and capture the spaciousness of a vast landscape is to include a subject in the foreground. It may be counterintuitive, but adding something small in the foreground adds depth and helps the viewer perceive the three-dimensional space better. It puts things in perspective, counterbalancing the flat effect of a wide lens.
With a subject in the foreground, you have three focus options. You can focus on the landscape in the background, blurring the foreground subject. The blurred subject in the foreground is just there to get some perspective. Try to use a colorful subject because it will look better when blurred. Summer blooms are perfect for this purpose.
The second option is to focus on the subject in the foreground while blurring softly the background. Choose this option when the subject is more appealing than the background or when the background is smooth enough that a little blur won’t alter its beauty. You may also want to use this option when the visual story unfolds from foreground to background (e.g., a person is looking into the horizon, a road or river is flowing into the background, etc.).
Having the foreground and background in focus is possible, too. Simply use the hyperfocal focusing technique. If you don’t want to bother, you can also focus roughly ⅓ of the distance into the scene and maybe close the aperture a stop (larger f-number) to be on the safe side. An aperture of around f/11 or f/13 on a wide-angle lens should give you an image that is sharp from front to back. However, your lens might be sharper at a more open aperture. If you want to use this aperture, it is a good idea to use the hyperfocal distance.
Add a Temporal Line
It may seem that storytelling has no place in summer landscape photography, but it does, and a big one. Beautiful landscape photographs are just that, beautiful photographs. Great landscape photographs tell a story, express feelings, and immerse the viewer in a faraway land. They speak about seasons, passing time, life, and much more. To convey a meaningful message, consider creating a photo series with a powerful narrative. Adding a temporal line is the simplest way to do this.
Mix landscape photography with documentary photography and take your photo gear on a hiking or biking trip. Take photos along the way without making photography your priority. In other words, don’t experience the trip through the lens. Instead, use photography to encapsulate your emotions from time to time. Try to capture environmental shots and details, vary your compositions, and take photos from morning to evening, capturing different light conditions and landmarks along the way. Summer is the best season for an adventure.
Pro tip: To emphasize visible light rays in a shot, try to underexpose the shot by -1 or -2 stops.
Another way to add a temporal line is to photograph the same subject at different times of day or every day for a more extended period (a week, a month, or the entire summer). Find a place nearby where you have easy access and create a photo setup you can easily replicate. Use a tripod to stabilize the camera in a fixed position, and mark the place where you put the tripod. Then, let the landscape speak to you and capture not only a beautiful view but also the passing of time, subtle changes in color and lighting, and how life unravels in the summertime.
Benefit from Golden Hour and Blue Hour Colors
Summer is the ideal season to enjoy the sunrise and sunset. Whether you prefer ocean views, mountain views, or meadows and forests, taking your camera out during blue and golden hours is an excellent opportunity to capture unique shots. There is so much happening in terms of light and nature activity.
Find a place you like and mount the camera on a tripod. You can set whatever height benefits the landscape. Take some time to take in the view, looking for details, colors, and textures that enrich your visual story.
When you photograph a sunset, don’t stop when the sun is below the horizon. This is the moment when the sun illuminates clouds from below. It is easier to capture than when the sun is in the frame and, in my opinion, more captivating.
Again, while a wide-angle lens is the go-to lens for summer landscape photography, take a medium telephoto lens with you, too. It will help you get closer to details and shapes, experiment with a broad range of framing options, and diversify your compositions.
Bonus Tip
One of the most common mistakes when it comes to landscape photography is over-editing. Many photographers try to compensate for bad exposure, lack of contrast, or washed-out sky by applying presets that enhance colors and contrast. While there are amazing presets out there that create natural-looking pictures and save you a lot of time and energy, photos that look good in the camera are always better.
In summer, especially at midday, light can be bright, harsh, and overwhelming. The cloudless sky is a pale blue or looks that way in contrast with the luxuriant summer vegetation. Dry grass may lack color and texture, especially when using a deep depth of field that flats out the details. So here is where filters come in handy. Use a polarizing filter to block the harsh summer light and create intense blue skies.
Conclusion
There is so much you can do to level up your summer landscape photography. Be experimental and try all sorts of compositions and techniques. Stay away from the generic, over-edited landscape photos you see everywhere, and look for what moves you deeply. It’s always a good indication that you are on the right path when you are completely mesmerized by the view in front of you. Explore new hiking routes, try unusual camera angles, and discover a workflow that makes you happy, whether it is creating a stationary setup or wandering all day long.
