How to Start a Landscape Photography Business

Landscaping photography, is taking photographs of land, such as scenery, photographs taken outdoors in natural settings, mountains, rivers streams forests etcetera. It is a section of scenery taken from a single viewpoint.

People or animals can be included in the composition to show scale. Purists will argue that landscape photography is composed only of natural features, whilst other photographers argue that a cityscape is also a landscape. For the purposes of this article we shall be discussing pure landscapes.

For this type of photography the light is as vital as the location.

Tricks of light make a difference. For instance when taking photographs of landscapes in Asia, in countries such as India, they are always improved by taking them at dawn and dusk. There are several reasons for this; there is a fair amount of natural pollution. To take photographs in the harsh light of a summer day seems to show up the dirt, but in the light of dawn or dusk they are softened. Dawn light gives a diffused yellow glow and dusks a hazy purple sheen. Also imagine photographing woods or a forest, the early morning light may not show up the verdant colors of green, it may need a stronger light to maximise the color effects.

However, it is a good idea to study the effects of lighting over a period of a day, because every location has its best time. One of the difficulties of taking a photograph of a hillside, for instance is that the eye sees the image in a different light, than the camera lens. Your eye sees the total vista, with depth and perspective. The camera lens does not do this; there landscape photography can appear to have a “flat” look.

One of the techniques you can use to improve your landscape photography is to use something in the foreground of your picture, which will add depth and scale. It is one of the reasons, that often when you see a photograph of the Scottish highlands, there is often a stag in front of it, to make the picture look sharper, because the eye is drawn to the stag first, before it registers the background.

Another aspect of landscape photography that can make it problematical is the vantage point from which you choose to shoot it. You can always add both depth and perspective by shooting from a higher altitude. That is not always possible, particularly in wooded areas. Another trick that you can employ is to use a fish eye lens. A fish eye lens though not cheap, does add perspective to landscape photography. The drawback to this type of lens, is that it appears to “pull back the edges” of the photograph. Using a fish eye lens with a filter does reduce this effect.

The fisheye is not a distorted perspective; it is actually the natural perspective for an extreme wide angle. It works the same way your eyes do. This is why fisheye photos work at all. The "corrected" wide-angle lens, on the other hand, distorts perspective. The layers of glass in a fish eye lens tweak the images that are viewed through them. Nearer objects appear larger, whilst the background appears more remote. A fish eye lens is capable of producing a surreal effect that cannot be achieved by using a wide angled lens alone.

Landscape photography often takes a great deal of time and effort, to get it right. It involves not only the lens, but also the lighting. It is possible that if you intend to make photography your business, the time and effort may be better spent in more profitable ways. There is no right or wrong way to enter the photographic business, but an aspect to be considered is how serious you want to be. The people who make money in the “postcard business” are very often distributors, and they spend a small amount of time being a photographer. The only way to make a success of landscape photography is if you are very passionate about it. It can be a cold, draughty, wet business waiting for that ideal shot.

Traditional markets for the landscape photographer are book and magazine publishers, calendar manufacturers and postcard manufacturers. This market relies on perfect photography taken in ideal weather conditions. Travel brochures as well rely on ideal conditions; no one wants to see what their holiday destination looks like with a hurricane blowing through.

However, if you are working on photographs for a book, the work can be more creative, as you will be able to utilise all weather conditions. Similarly some calendars are tailor made for individuals and not everyone wants perfect photographs.

Beyond the aspects of scenic photography there are photographs, which are symbolic. Tropical beach scenes are favoured for tropical chocolate bars, investments, and anything else that is making a statement, do this and make your dreams come true. One way of widening the market, and therefore your potential to make more money, is to use symbolic shots. Look on the label of most bottled waters, and they have a clear mountain stream, or a waterfall, to symbolise the purity of their product. If you market your work through a picture library, the same shot can be utilised for different products.

Utilise all you have when taking landscape photographs. If a storm is blowing keep a sharp lookout for rainbows. They enhance the saleability of your photographs. A wide-angle lens captures the arch across the landscape, and a telezoom lens captures, the bow, and gives your photograph a more interesting light.