Cheltenham wedding and portrait photographer Kelly Weech discusses some of the best baby poses to use during the first two years of a child’s life. This time is marked by constant developments, and she suggests which baby poses will best capture a child’s personality at different ages.

Newborn photography

In the first two weeks newborns sleep a lot. This is the perfect time to capture photographs with a sense of purity.

Newborn babies can be very daunting to work with especially if you do not have children yourself. The Anne Geddes posing has become very popular but should not be attempted without proper training.

But there are still lots of opportunities to capture priceless images without being hands on.

This image was taken over mom’s shoulder at just 2 two days old. She was sat down on a bed facing towards natural light and I cropped in very tight to capture those beautiful eyes and relaxed expression.

4 weeks old

This is another key date in a baby’s life for newborn photography. Babies at this age are now a lot more alert and sturdy. But remember their head still needs to be supported.

Take the opportunity of posed group shots to get portraits of the baby and use the parents as the perfect posing cushion. This way you will ensure baby will be comfortable and relaxed in their parent’s arms.

This image was taken using my one of my favourite lenses – a 24-105mm. I love that you can zoom into details from an already perfectly formed shot.

3 months


Patience is a virtue for baby photographers at this age. Work out a pose and spend the time it takes waiting for moments such as a nose wiggle or yawn to happen.

These priceless moments make each pose unique to each baby.

4 months

This is your last chance to take the popular baby sleeping in hands shots. From about 4 months your baby will become more alert and less tolerable of this sort of thing! What’s more, after four months your baby will also become too heavy this shot.

The shot above is very popular, but to do it safely baby should only ever be raised from a soft, padded surface. I will place the baby over the parent’s arms with the hand supporting the head and the other hand supporting the baby on the back.

Remember sometimes the background may need to be extended to get the composition you want.

5 months

Your baby can now sit up supported, which opens up a whole new range of baby poses and photo ideas.

This image was taken on a sofa with pillows to support the baby to sit up. I decided to convert this image to a high key black and white, and I love her expression and wide eyed look.

Close ups

Don’t forget to get in close and capture the feet and hands while they’re still little – and immobile! From about 6 months many babies start hitting growth spurts and piling on weight.

I got these shots while baby was sat on mom’s lap. I later converted them to black and white to emphasise the lines and textures.

6 months

Most babies are now sitting up and are much more interactive with the baby photographer in the room. This can be great fun, as the process becomes much more of a two-way street rather than you positioning and directing the previous shoots.

This image was taken at dinner time. I called his name and he instantly responded with this look.

I love that this photograph is natural and shows the reality of lunch time. I used an 85mm lens combined with natural light to blow out the background, as I wanted all of the viewer’s attention to be on the baby’s expression.

Don’t forget the details

The child’s nursery is the perfect place for a shoot, as it often has a nice colour scheme for simple background.

Usually after 6 months your baby can roll, but not move. As a safety measure we had mom just at the side of this shot to ensure he did not try to roll.

Some people may also refer to this as tummy time, as usually babies enjoy being on their front.  Always have mom (or someone equally hilarious) behind you for the best smiles.

8 months

Your baby is now getting more active but still needs afternoon naps. These can be a great opportunity to capture some very sweet portraits.

Even older babies get tired, and during this shoot he needed to have a nap so I used props from his bedroom to add my composition for a cute twist.

I got mom to put him down onto his side and returned 5 minutes later when he was in a solid sleep to capture this image.

1 year old

A massive trend in baby photography in America that is now crossing the pond to the UK is what’s called the cake smash. The cake smash is a perfect way to capture a child’s personality in good, old-fashioned messy fun.

These images were taken in a 2 metre by 2 metre space, with a wipe clean floor. We sat her in front of the cake and encouraged her to take a raspberry and then to put her hands into the cake.

Once she realised she was allowed to eat it we were well on our way to a beautiful series of photographs. Mom was stood directly behind me and the baby was reacting to her mums reaction and encouragement.

2 years old

Children won’t react well if you treat them like you would a grown up. As a photographer, you need to go back into the mindset of being a big kid yourself to earn their participation.

Get down to their level and have fun with them. To put it simply, play with them and make everything fun. Run, skip, jump, pull faces, play catch.

When photographing children, if you gain their trust and let them run the show 50% of the time, they will want to do what you ask.

To see more of her portrait and newborn photography, visit Kelly on Facebook.

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No one likes wasting pictures. And the real beauty of taking photos with a digital camera is that it’s so easy to learn from your mistakes. Simply press the shutter button and you’ll see the result instantly on the camera’s LCD screen, so you can assess it at once.

It’s easy to zoom in on the composition, check the exposure, and confirm whether you have used the right camera settings. Then, if you haven’t quite nailed the shot you wanted, you can retake the picture until you’re totally happy with the result.

As any convert to digital knows, retaking an image costs nothing. You can keep taking shots until you get what you want, and it’s easy to continue deleting pictures that don’t make the grade.

But getting a second shot that’s better than the first can be tricky. To improve your picture, you inevitably have to do something different – alter the settings, reframe the shot, or use a different technique.

But sometimes re-shooting is simply not an option – the moment has passed – so you need to know how to edit and improve your images digitally.

Here we’ll show you how to capture great shots the first time and stop wasting pictures by avoiding some of the most common mistakes in photography (and make sure you also check out our exhaustive list of 99 common photography problems – and how to solve them). You’ll learn how to improve your shooting skills, but also how to correct less-than-perfect shots that you simply can’t delete and re-shoot.

1. Cut out the clutter

You can easily get so carried away shooting your subject that you forget to scan the viewfinder carefully. If you don’t check the foreground and background, you can end up ruining an otherwise perfect picture. Do you really want shots with sign posts growing out of people’s heads [1], or an Asda lorry sitting in an idyllic landscape?

The easiest way to avoid such compositional toe-curlers is not to shoot them in the first place. The most effective tools are your eyes, and it’s important that you discipline yourself to look carefully at your composition through your digital camera’s viewfinder (for more on composition, see the 10 rules of photo composition – and why they work).

Every time you take a photo, scan the frame from left to right and from top to bottom, checking every corner [2] and keeping a lookout for elements that create a distraction from your main subject [3]. If you notice an offending item, simply alter your angle of view, recompose and shoot.

Photoshop to the rescue

There will almost certainly be occasions when you simply can’t avoid a distraction in your shot. Perhaps you couldn’t get yourself into the right position, or didn’t notice the offending item until after the event.

In this picture we have removed the offending lamppost using the Clone Tool in Photoshop Elements (its icon looks like a rubber stamp). Using the Clone tool can be rather time-consuming, but it does the job.

The secret is to take it slowly, varying the size of the brush and your source point to suit the area you are altering.

2. Avoid limp landscapes

This landscape suffers from a rather dull sky and lack of impact

Great scenery doesn’t necessarily make a great scenic picture. Ignore this fact and it is all too easy to get carried away by the beauty of a landscape and end up with a dull, flat image.

It’s essential to watch the lighting. You don’t need a sunny day to bag a great shot, but the position of your light source can make all the difference. On a typical cloudy day you need to be patient, otherwise the sky will be a drab whitewash [1].

Wait for the light to break through the clouds in a way that successfully lights the main parts of your scene or the colours throughout the landscape will be drab [2]. A good trick, whatever the lighting, is to use a graduated filter to help darken the sky in the image.

Make sure, too, that your shot has a clear focal point. Many impressive views are weakened by a lack of foreground interest, with acres of boring grass that fail to grab the viewer’s attention [3].

Find a camera angle that eliminates empty space at the bottom of the frame. 
Try getting down low to a rock or flower that will create foreground interest, or simply zoom further into the scene (for more on shooting landscapes, check out the 10 Commandments of Landscape Photography – and how to break them).

Make a perfect landscape shot

1. Once you’ve found your view, set up your tripod and wait for the light to fall on the correct part of your scene. Lighting changes rapidly, so you must be ready and prepared.

2. Use a graduated grey filter on your lens.

This balances the contrast of the scene, darkening the sky and making the land look brighter.

3. Avoid shaky shots with slow shutter speeds

This image suffers from a bad case of camera shake

You often get the best pictures when you take things slow. Pictures of running water – whether it’s a babbling mountain brook or an ornate garden statue – often benefit from a slower shutter speed than you would normally consider when shooting in daylight.

Shutter speeds are often set in whole seconds, not fractions of seconds, so you’ll need a solid support. If you try and get away with balancing your camera on a rock, you’ll end up with shaky pictures [1]. A solid tripod is essential so that the stationary parts of the scene [2] are pin sharp and contrast with the frothy blur of the moving water (see our 4 tips for sharper shots when using a tripod).

The speed you set will depend on the speed and volume of water. For example, at 15 secs a mountain stream would appear as a milky blur, but you’ll need a setting closer to 1/10 sec to shoot a city fountain. Don’t let your shutter speed get too long, though, or your waterfall will become a wash-out, with no range of tone in the white water at all [3] (for a more on this, find out how to set up your DSLR to shoot moving water).

Four ways to improve slow shots

1. Use a tripod to frame your shot tightly. Composing the image to avoid bright areas of sky or dark shadow areas will make it easier to get a balanced exposure.

2. Use a neutral density filter or polariser. This will cut down the amount of light entering the lens, enabling you to use a slow shutter speed. Use ISO100 to reduce noise.

3. Use aperture priority mode to set an aperture of f/22 and allow a slower shutter speed. Take a test picture, then use +/– compensation to darken or lighten (to find the right level, check out our quick cheat sheet on exposure compensation.)

4. Use your camera’s self-timer to fire the shutter (or use a cable release, if you have one). This will eliminate the kind of camera shake seen in the image above.

Stabilising the camera has produced a much sharper image

The combination of these four steps has allowed us to keep the camera steady at a shutter speed slow enough to capture the movement in the waterfall.

4. Banish lifeless still lifes

This still life suffers from a dull background

With many types of photography you can’t alter the subject to suit your needs. Mountains can’t be moved or penalty kicks retaken to help you nail your shot. But still-life pictures offer much more scope (find out how to master depth of field in still life photos).

For example, our autumn leaf makes an attractive, colourful subject [1], but photographed exactly where it is found it could lack impact. However, by moving it you don’t have to settle for a dull background [2].

Take control of the situation, moving the subject or grouping leaves together. Alter the scene to make the most of the texture, colour, pattern and lighting, then take your shot.

Take control of your still life scene

1. Collect the leaves together so they can be shot in a group. Use a tripod so you can fine-tune the composition. This will also leave you free to pick any aperture (try a setting of around f/16).

2. Move the leaves into the best arrangement, making one change at a time. Check your image through the viewfinder after each move to get an accurate view of how it will look.

3. Take the items home (but don’t disturb the environment). This will give you more time to arrange them, and give control of lighting and framing.

5. Avoid portraits that lack focus

This portrait suffers from eyes that just aren't quite sharp

Autofocus is a marvellous invention. But although it works well, it can’t read your mind. Your camera uses a number of sensors across the frame to focus on your subject, but it makes the simple assumption that you want to focus on the closest subject. Many pictures will work using this approach, but lots won’t.

The focus point is more critical with some pictures than others. The wider the aperture you are using (find out what a wide aperture is), the longer your zoom setting and the closer you are to the subject, the less depth of field you have available. As depth of field decreases, it becomes even more important to focus on the exact point.

With portraits, for instance, it is the eyes that need to be sharp. If they are even slightly out of focus your shot will be ruined. The combination of lens setting, aperture and camera distance may mean that not all of the face can be sharp, so focusing must be totally accurate (for more on portraits, check out our in-depth photography cheat sheet on family portrait photography).

Three tips for pin-sharp focusing

1. Switch to Manual focus and turn the focus ring at the front of the lens until the desired part of the scene comes into focus in the viewfinder (learn everything you need to know about manual focus to get sharp images). You need good eyesight (with or without your glasses) to do this well, because it relies on your ability to see when the scene looks sharp.

2. Alternatively, let the AF do the work for you. Switch the AF point selection from automatic (where it uses all the focus sensors) to a manually selected point (the number of AF points varies depending on the SLR, but could be anything from three to 45). Use this one point to focus on a desired area (find out how to choose the best AF mode for your camera).

3.  If necessary, lock the focus by pressing the trigger halfway down and then recompose the picture. This will work only if you have the Autofocus mode set to either One Shot or similar. Some AF modes continuously refocus on moving objects, so don’t work in this way.

With the eyes in focus, this image is much stronger

More accurate focus has allowed us to get the eyes sharp, and capture a much stronger picture.

NEXT PAGE: Avoiding a washout through Using flash effectively

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The man behind the Socialmatic Camera concept is Antonio De Rosa, and he has launched a campaign via Indiegogo to create the camera. So far he has raised over $2,500 and is aiming for $50,000.

Anyone who contributes to the campaign will apparently receive a ‘massive discount’ on the product when it is launched, which De Rosa is hoping to sell for under $350.

The video below demonstrates what the Socialmatic Camera hopes to be.

Interested in donating? You can do at Indiegogo.

Source: Indiegogo Via: Petapixel

What is shutter speed? Rest assured, it’s a lot simpler to get your head round than aperture! Yesterday we posted our tips on aperture, as well as our guide to what your digital camera’s manual doesn’t teach you. To continue with this theme of getting to know your camera, we thought we would examine shutter speed with our next photography cheat sheet.

Like the aperture setting, the shutter speed you choose is not simply a way of controlling exposure (check out our infographic illustrating the basics of exposure). The speed also has a visible effect on your pictures – allowing you to control the effect of a moving camera or subject. This can ensure pin-sharp pictures, however unsteady your grip on the camera and however fast the subject is moving.

Shutter speed is the length of time that the shutter blinds in front of the camera sensor are left open. The scale used is much easier to understand than the f/stop aperture system, as exposures are measured in fractions of a second.

However, in the viewfinder (find out how to use your viewfinder), the numbers are often simplified – so 1/1000sec is shown as ‘1000’, and  1/60sec as ‘60’. This can lead to confusion as to what is a shorter (or ‘faster’) shutter speed.

For night shots, exposures may last seconds, so familiarise yourself with the way these long exposures are displayed – a four-second exposure may be shown in the viewfinder as 4”, for instance.

Below, the latest infographic in our photography cheat sheet series illustrates the effect different shutter speeds can have on the same subject and scene.

We’ve chosen four commonly used shutter speeds and photographed a woman walking down the street – a common subject, and one you might photograph often.

Notice how the slower shutter speeds make it appear as if she’s running past. We asked her to keep the same, steady pace throughout.

The last thing you need to know about using shutter speed (for now) is that if you’re shooting handheld (without a tripod) you’ll need a fast enough shutter speed to make sure camera shake doesn’t cause blurred shots.

A good rule is to always use a shutter speed faster than the focal length on your lens: so with a focal length of 200mm, make sure you shoot at around 1/250 sec or faster.

The more you zoom in, the faster the shutter speed needs to be. Watch the shutter speed in the viewfinder;  open the aperture to ensure it is fast enough. In gloomy light, increase ISO to allow the sensor to create a decent exposure without so much light (find out how to reduce noise at high ISO settings).

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Sony has added two new entry-level cameras to its range, officially announcing the Sony NEX-F3 compact system camera and the Sony Alpha 37 DSLT camera.

Both new Sony cameras feature a 16.1-megapixel APS-C HD CMOS sensor, as well as the Alpha 77′s third-generation Bionz processor, which enables the NEX-F3 to deliver a sensitivity range between ISO 200 and 16,000 and the A37 a range of ISO 100 to ISO 16,000.

Both cameras also offer HD video recording.

The NEX-F3 serves as a replacement for the Sony NEX-C3 and includes a pop-up flash, increased battery life and a 180-degree tillable screen among its improvements over its predecessor.

The screen, when tilted to the full 180 degrees, automatically enters a self-portrait mode and puts the camera on a self-timer delay of 3 seconds.

The Sony Alpha 37 also boasts a tilting rear LCD screen, along with a ‘Tru-Finder’ electronic viewfinder offering a 100% field of view.

Sony says the A37 also offers more accurate continuous autofocusing than its predecessor, the Alpha 35, incorporating a 15-point AF system and phase detection, rather than the traditional contrast detection systems found on conventional DSLRs.

The Sony NEX-F3 will be priced £530 in the UK and $599 in the US, and available from early June.

The Sony A37 price tag is expected to be the same, with the camera available from the end of this month.

For more on these cameras, see a hands-on Sony A37 review and a hands-on Sony NEX-F3 review over on our sister site, TechRadar.

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The examples below all make the most of the symmetry of the reflections and often abstract the mountain range into shapes and flowing lines against the sky and water.

Tranquility © Marc Adamus

The Twin © Cheung Law

The Bow © Viktoria Haack

The Blue Awakening © Xavier Jamonet

Strength of Conviction © Jim Patterson

Sparks Lake Sunrise © Massimo Squallice

Rush Lake 4694m © Atif Saeed

Race for Reflections © Miles Morgan

Pure Serenity © JC Shamrock

Pic du Midi d’Ossau © Jordi Sole Joval

Perfect Morning © Len Saltiel

Mt. Rundle Sunrise © Peter J

Mount Rainer and Reflection Lakes © Michael Russell

Magestic © Jorge Maia

Little Lakes Valley © Jordan Ek

Lake Reflection © Teryn Wilkes

Kalum Lake – Golden Winter Sunset © Evan Spellman

Just another Autumn Day in the Cascades © Michael Riffle

Jewel of Oregon © Ben Canales

In the Land of the Dragons © Mary Kay

Hoar Frost, Grasmere © Wolfy

Heavenly Reflection © AtomicZen

First Light at Two Jack Lake © Jeff Clow

Fire and Ice © Richard Bernabe

Fall at Mount Shuksan © Michael Russell

Estany Balu de Siguer © Jordi Sole Joval

Day Comes © Jim Dollar

Colourful Dreaming © Michael Breitung

Bow Lake Sunrise © Jason Fris

Battle of the Suns © Roberto Bertero

Balloon Flight Over the Dolomites © Franco Mottironi

A Wind Swept Reflection © Jeff Jacobson

1,000 Words Are Not Enough © Aaron Reed

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A reflector is undoubtedly a handy piece of kit, but when it comes to portrait photography it’s absolutely essential. Shooting outdoors using natural light can be tricky, with the position of the sun often causing harsh and unflattering shadows. Fill-in flash will help, but if you want natural or warm tones a reflector will help to lift shadows, apply effects and tackle tricky light conditions.

Reflectors are available with many different surfaces, such as gold (which adds a warm glow to faces) and white (which helps to lift shadows and balance light). You can even get reflectors with multiple surfaces.

Whatever style of reflector you go for, here are a few easy techniques you can use to quickly lift your shots.

How to use a reflector for different effects

Lift the shadows
To help lift ugly shadows cast by strong outdoor light, try holding a white reflector at an equal angle between the light source (the sun) and your model. If the sun is high in the sky, position the reflector at chest height to help lift shadows under your subject’s eyes.

Getting warmer
A gold reflective surface can be used to add an attractive warm glow to your subject’s face. Depending on the brightness of the light, take a step back from your model to ensure that the influence of the reflected colour doesn’t turn natural skin tones orange or yellow.

Add sparkle to eyes
Eyes can often get lost in outdoor portraits, but a simple catchlight effect will add an attractive sparkle. To get the effect, use the silver or white sides of your reflector. Move it so that the reflected light catches the eye, creating highlights in the dark pupils.

Diffuse the light
In a similar way to a softbox used with a traditional indoor studio lighting set-up, a diffuser can be used to soften the light and reduce harsh shadows created by the sun (check out our 3 stupidly simple lighting techniques for your indoor studio). Simply position the diffuser between the light source and your model to gently soften the light’s effect.

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Here on Digital Camera World we get lots of emails from readers who are daunted by the complexity of their new digital cameras, unsure of the best way to capture the best shots, and confused about which settings to use.

Considering the plethora of buttons and functions packed into today’s cameras, this is totally understandable. Even getting the strap onto your new bundle of joy can sometimes seem like mission impossible!

Well fret no more; below we’ll guide you through the process of getting to know your digital camera beyond what the manual teaches you.

We’ll help you identify key buttons and setting and explain how to get them to work for you to produce different effects.

Master your digital camera’s top dial

Choosing which exposure mode to use isn’t just about your technical ability; it’s also about selecting a mode that gives you the freedom to stop worrying about settings and start concentrating on taking great shots.

Your camera will offer a number of automatic settings, including modes that help you to shoot action, close-ups and portraits, but these shooting modes can be restricting and should generally be ignored. Get to grips with your camera’s semi-auto and manual settings and you’ll soon see your shots improve.

In the infographic below we’ve identified some of the key exposure modes on your mode dial and explain what they do.

1 Auto/Green square

This is the ideal mode for complete beginners. The digital camera is practically converted into a compact point-and-shoot, with exposure settings, aperture and shutter speeds all taken care of.

2 Program

Here, aperture and shutter speed are set automatically. However, you control ISO, Exposure Compensation 
(ie, going lighter or darker) and other settings. You can override the digital camera’s suggested settings if you wish.

3 Aperture Priority

This semi-automatic mode enables you to choose an aperture value for your desired effect (blurred backgrounds, for example), and the camera then selects the shutter speed that’s needed for a correct exposure.

4 Shutter Priority
This mode is similar to Aperture Priority, but you select the shutter speed you require and the camera takes care of  the aperture. This is perfect for freezing high-speed action by choosing a fast shutter speed, or for creating motion-induced blur using a slow shutter speed.

5 Manual

In Manual mode, you set both the shutter speed and the aperture for any given scene, which places you in total creative control. You’ll now have access to all of the available shutter speeds and aperture values, and can also use Bulb mode. This additional mode enables you to shoot exposures for as long as the shutter button is held down, and is ideal for night photography.

Nail down the essential camera settings

It’s true, practice does make perfect. But knowing your digital camera’s most important settings inside out also helps to achieve consistently high-quality shots. By changing settings manually, such as white balance, ISO sensitivity and file formats, you can take more control over the way your images turn out.

This gives you confidence and, more importantly, satisfaction that you got the shot yourself, without relying on your camera to make all the decisions.

Stick to your camera’s auto settings and all your shots will look the same. 
To take creative shots, you have to take some control. Here’s how…

White balance
It’s possible to rely on the auto white balance setting for most occasions. But there are a few situations where the camera can be fooled into reading a situation incorrectly.

For example, shoot in mixed light or in areas of heavy shade and your camera’s auto white balance system may get confused, producing images with a dominant colour cast.

Switch to a custom white balance setting that suits your scene, such as Cloudy, Shade or Flash, and your images will look the same as the scene you see with the naked eye.

ISO sensitivity
The ISO setting you choose will affect your camera’s sensitivity to light. To produce the cleanest images, it’s best to use the lowest ISO rating.

However, this isn’t always possible when shooting in low light, or when you want to shoot handheld – slow shutter speeds will result in camera shake and blurry shots.

Remember, on modern digital cameras you can usually shoot up to ISO 800 without noise becoming intrusive. Also, higher ISOs will give you faster shutter speeds, helping you to avoid that dreaded shake.

Choosing a file format
We’ve touched on this before, but the big advantage of shooting RAW is that you get the full image as the camera captures it. With JPEG, the camera compresses the image, so you lose some detail.

You can perfect a RAW image in software, then save it back to JPEG or TIFF format for sharing or printing. D-SLRs will also let you save an image as JPEG and RAW together, giving you maximum flexibility.

Essential accessories
You probably got a lens with your new camera, but it’s likely to be pretty basic. Our advice is to save up for a better lens, and invest in a sturdy tripod in the meantime. For around £150 you can get a very good tripod that will have an instant effect on your photography. You can shoot at smaller apertures for maximum depth of field, for example, and a tripod will also ensure shake-free shots in low light.

PAGE 2: Focus modes, Focus points and Drive modes
PAGE 3: Exposure, Aperture and Shutter speed

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The source of the confusion around apertures often tends to be around the f-numbers. The smaller the f-stop (eg f/2.8) the wider your aperture will be, and thus let in more light.

The bigger the f-stop (eg f/22) the smaller your aperture will be. Once you get your head around that numbering system it becomes much clearer and you will soon be using apertures confidently to achieve different effects.

Below, the latest infographic in our photography cheat sheet series takes a closer look at why you would use small apertures and why you would use wide apertures. We show an example of each, and also illustrate how your apertures look at each f-stop to give you a better idea of how much light you are letting into your camera.

Feel free to drag and drop this cheat sheet on to your desktop and save it for reference.

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Whether you’re a novice landscape photographer or have sold thousands of your photos through stock agencies, there are some fundamental rules of landscape photography that stay with you as a photographer, even once you’ve honed your craft and learned how to break the rules to develop your own style (to learn how to break the rules, see our guide to The 10 Commandments of Landscape Photography – and how to break them). Below we’ve pulled 26 landscape photography tips which working pros have told us they still use on a daily basis.

Incorporate these lessons into your own landscape photography and you’re soon to be taking better pictures in no time.

1 Map out locations
You should never head out 
on landscape shoots in new locations without a good map; we like the Ordnance Survey Landranger series. Before you leave home, use your OS map to do a recce of the area you are planning to photograph. OS maps are invaluable, because they enable you to plan your route, working out elevations and exactly where the mountain peaks, lakes and scenic spots are, which road or trail you’ll need to reach them, and the best positions to photograph them from. This means that once you get there, all you need to think about is taking brilliant pictures.

2 Get in position
Think about your scenes and find out where you should shoot from to make the most of them. Working out where the sun will rise and set, and the sun’s position in relation to you and your landscape, will ensure you’re in the right place at the right time.

3 Read the landscape
Before you start taking landscapes, stop and survey the lie of the land. Make sure you’re in the best spot in relation to the position of the sun. Also look for an ‘anchor’ – a focal point that leads the eye into the image, whether it’s a farmhouse, a line of trees or foreground interest.

4 Don’t be lazy!
When photographing landscapes, beginners often pull up at a viewpoint car park, get out of the car and take a few hand-held snaps of the scene, before driving off again. To improve your shots, use your feet. Walk around, get down to the lakeside or base of the mountain, or walk up to a higher viewpoint, so you’re involved in the scene rather than just a passing viewer. This will really help to improve your compositions.

5 The golden hours
Sunrise (and an hour or so after) and sunset (and an hour or so just before) are the best times of day for capturing beautiful landscape shots with spectacularly colourful skies. Watch the forecast beforehand and try to avoid overcast or cloudy days – clear skies with only a smattering of clouds usually create the most colourful skylines. Set an early alarm or stay out late and be on location ready to capture moody, vibrant skies just as the sun rises or sets.

6 Shoot in RAW
Some amateurs are more comfortable shooting JPEGs. However, it’s always best to shoot landscapes using your camera’s RAW quality setting, because the resulting images will contain much more ‘information’. This allows you more scope to increase or decrease the exposure or enhance the tones and colours in Adobe Camera Raw or similar RAW processing software afterwards, without compromising quality.

7 Use a tripod
You’ll often find yourself shooting landscapes in low light, with shutter speeds too slow to shoot hand-held without risking camera shake (1/10 sec to 10 secs, for example). So, for the best results a tripod is essential (see our 4 tips for sharper shots when using a tripod).

8 Follow the light
Landscape photography is all about making the most of the light. You need to shoot not only at the right time of day, but also at the right time of year. Early morning sunrises and late evening sunsets are best, as they produce softer, more colourful light with longer shadows that will give your landscape shots extra depth and dimension.

9 Mirror movement
Even the mirror moving up and down inside your DSLR can create enough vibration during long exposures to cause unwanted camera shake. Enable the Mirror Lock-up setting available on your DSLR (usually hidden in the custom functions menu) to make doubly sure your shots will be sharp.

10 Pre-visualise
Before setting up, visualise the photo you’re trying to capture. Take sample shots by shooting handheld, moving around, getting up high and kneeling down really low. Take several photos until you’re sure you’re in the best spot for a good, balanced composition of foreground and background elements. Once you’ve found the best position, keep your camera in the exact spot and reach for your tripod before you shoot.

11 Get perfect colour using white balance
You’ll generally find that your camera’s Auto White Balance setting is fine for shooting landscapes, because it’s so good on modern DSLRs and 99 times out of 100 it will set the best temperature colours for the scene. However, if your shots don’t do justice to the scene you saw, don’t panic – you can warm up or cool down the scene back home by shooting in RAW and using the Temperature slider in Adobe’s Camera Raw editor. Below 4000K cools a shot down and makes it bluer; above 6000K warms up the colours and makes the whole image more orangey.

12 Maximise the depth of field
For successful, sharp landscape photos, you’ll want to ensure your entire scene appears in focus from front to back. To achieve this, select a narrow aperture of around f/16 or f/22 to get maximum depth of field, then focus one third into the scene to ensure your photos are acceptably sharp from the foreground to the horizon.

13 Get sharper shots
When shooting landscapes, it’s best to use your camera’s  manual autofocus (AF) point selection. If you leave your camera on auto point selection, chances are it will only focus on the objects closest to you, which is not ideal when shooting landscapes. If in doubt, select the central AF point, then focus ‘one third up’ the scene to ensure your photos are sharp from front to back.

NEXT PAGE: Aperture control through Reviewing your shots

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