Photography

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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

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How to not take underwhelming landscape photography? (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by Same_Pear_929@alien.top to c/photography@viewfinder.pro

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So I'm not a photographer, I'm someone who likes travelling and really enjoys taking photos at the different places I go with my phone. I'm usually really happy with my city photography. Food is ok. But landscapes are terrible.

The mountains look small and not steep. Depth and distance does not come through at all. It just seems flat and underwhelming on camera, when the view I'm seeing with my eyes is the most inspiring thing of all time. I wish I could capture half of that.

Is there any advice you have for me taking photos with my phone (google pixel 7). Is there some type of camera or lens I could look into hiring and learning how to use (2bh I'm pretty clueless on that stuff but would be down to learn). Thanks!

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[–] tripppagephoto@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

A lot of the top comments here are spot on. To add to it a bit, Photography in general is so much more about lighting than most people realize. If you are taking a photo at 1pm on a clear day, almost anything landscape wise will look pretty flat and low contrast. That same photo taken 5 min before sunset with a semi cloudy sky will almost always look better. Not saying you cant get good photos in less than perfect conditions, but just to keep in mind how the light is shaping the subjects around you.

While using a proper camera will yield an image of higher quality, you can still take great photos of landscapes with your phone provided you are working with in the limitations of your phone. As others have mentioned, most camera phones by default use a pretty wide field of view which will make things look smaller and smaller the further away from you they are in which case your options are to zoom in/use a different camera on your phone or get physically closer to your subject.

As for tips, the two biggest 'quickest' ways to decent shots are to keep in mind the rule of 3rds and leading lines (tons of info on these on youtube). If your subject is placed well and its got something leading the viewers eye to it, should be in a good spot.

Here are a few landscape shots I've taken on my phone for reference:
https://twitter.com/tripppage/status/1715743020966900120
https://www.instagram.com/p/CU5VjarJkDG/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/tripppage/status/1715763124949979293