The surprising secret to dramatic landscape photography

Dying to know the secret to amazing landscape photography?

Bad weather.

Yes, that’s right!

When I say “bad weather,” I’m referring to brewing storms, dramatic clouds, dense fog, lightning, and sheets of rain.

Does that sound crazy? After all, don’t most of us love being outdoors when it’s beautiful and sunny?

Bear with me here and take a peek at any article from National Geographic advertising their top picks for landscapes or nature shots. You will be hard-pressed to find one with blue skies and bright sunshine.

“Bad” weather is honestly not so bad when it comes to landscape photography. I’d actually argue that it’s a major bonus! Not only is it a way to bring emotion and mood into your landscape photos, but also a way to bring an undeniable uniqueness to them as well.

The benefits of shooting in bad weather:

Filtered light

When the clouds roll over the sun, they beautifully filter the light. Even midday!

Instead of harsh, clipped shadows and overly contrasty images, the light is beautifully softened, mimicking the softer light of golden hour. And when you’re traveling or exploring with family, an hour after sunrise or an hour before sunset isn’t always the ideal time for those non-photographers in our family.

So when you have thick layers of clouds, jump for joy! It’s as if Mother Nature has created a giant softbox for you. The world is now your beautifully-lit studio.

Added interest

You don’t have to rely on stunning mountains or seascapes for a breathtaking landscape image. You can create just as magical of a landscape image in your own backyard.

Emphasize the weather. Catch a moment immediately before the onset of a monstrous storm. The sky can be breathtaking and ultimately the primary focus of any landscape image.

Story elements

Dramatic weather also creates the opportunity to draw your viewer in, to linger and imagine, creating more substance than a standard postcard image.

Unique images

No two images will look the same during stormy weather. Dense rolling clouds not only move quickly but also shift lighting in the blink of an eye. And a storm today can appear very different from a storm next week – even in the same location!

Mood and emotion

Whether it’s fog creating a sense of mystery or dark stormy clouds creating drama and intensity in your landscape, weather can add emotional depth to any landscape image.

How to use bad weather to enhance your images:

• Look for leading lines and framing elements within the clouds themselves.
• Position yourself to enhance those compositional elements.
• Wait for the sun to break through sections of clouds to create “God’s rays” and help enhance (and point to) important elements within your frame.
• Alternatively, wait for the sun to tuck behind a thick cloud to soften your light outside of the golden hour to add richness and depth.
• When the sky is one thick layer of clouds (no definition to the clouds themselves), shift the focus from the sky to primarily land. Thick uniform clouds create a softbox effect which allows for richer more vibrant colors as well as avoiding distracting shadows and excessive contrast.
• Use puddles or raindrops to create interesting reflections.
• During golden hour, more directional light can also help to bring shape and structure to various elements within your frame.

Recommended techniques:

• Consider using the rule of thirds along the horizon line. For example, you could emphasize the sky in the top 2/3rd of your image if that contains your most important visual elements.
• Consider slowing down your shutter speed to emphasize movement and smooth out the clouds and/or water.
• Consider faster shutter speeds when wanting to freeze motion, such as emphasizing giant water drops during a rain storm.
• Keep an eye on your histogram; you want to avoid clipped shadows (histogram riding up along the left edge) or blown highlights (histogram riding up along the right edge). This gives you the option to bring back some of these details in post processing if there’s a wide dynamic range.
• Keep your aperture around f/7 or f/8 if possible. This aperture tends to be ideal for retaining sharpness for most lenses while avoiding diffraction at smaller apertures like f/22.
• Focus approximately 1/3 of the way into your frame if you’d like all the elements, near and far, to be in focus.
• Bracket if necessary to preserve highlights and shadows. For example, when the sky is much brighter than the ground.
• Consider including a person, or another identifiable element, to help bring perspective to your image.

Recommended gear:

Tripod

Yes, they can be cumbersome and sometimes heavy but my tripod has become my BEST friend for landscape photography. It guarantees tack sharp images, especially when using slower shutter speeds. It creates a mountain of possibilities that hand-holding would limit (panoramas, slow shutter speeds, time-lapse photography, etc).

If you’re a big hiker and hate the weight, look into Gorillapods. They are not quite as sturdy as the big, heavy tripods (especially with wind), and can’t reach the same heights easily (unless you wrap them around a tree or fence), but are light, inconspicuous, and can hold up to 11lb of camera weight! You won’t regret adding one to your camera bag.

Umbrella

Especially with high winds, this inexpensive and common household item can be SO helpful to protect your camera and tripod from wiggling with each gust of wind. Hold it perpendicular to the wind, between the wind and your tripod, and presto, you have a rock steady tripod and camera! It’s also helpful with rain as an added protective element for shielding your camera.

Lens hood

Especially during rain or when shooting near a waterfall with mist, a lens hood dramatically decreases the amount of water drops that land on your lens. This also means more time shooting and less time cleaning your lens!

Wide angle lenses

My favorite travel lens is my Canon 24-70mm f/2.8. It’s versatile (can be used wide or for detailed shots), tack sharp, allows for low light photography, and extremely reliable. Some may consider it big and heavy but it’s absolutely worth it.

Large plastic bag

An inexpensive and easy way to cover your camera during rain is to cut an opening in a plastic bag for the front lens and keep your hands and camera body inside the plastic bag. However, I admit that I’ve succumbed to the “luxury” version called a rain sleeve. These have bungee ties to fit snugly around your lens so it doesn’t constantly shift out of place and even have an opening to allow placement on a tripod. This protective camera storm jacket is one of my favorites.

Large ziplock bag

When coming in from cold weather to a heated room, a ziplock bag helps prevent condensation on your sensor. Immediately place your camera and lens into one until it slowly warms to match the surrounding temperature and then you can remove it from the ziplock bag.

Polarizer

Polarizers are great for enhancing rainbows, minimizing glare on water, and decreasing the glare from a very bright sky and clouds. It can also drop 1-2 stops of light to allow you to slow down your shutter speed if you don’t happen to have a 10 stop Neutral Density filter for waterfalls, etc.

Here’s hoping for rain, storms and dramatic clouds in the near future!