Travel landscape photos: capturing wide scenes

Why it looks smaller than you remember

Standing before a vast view, you turn your head to take it all in and feel the wind, the sound and the air at the same time. A photo keeps only one rectangle of it. That is why a mountain range that felt immense becomes a thin strip and a wide sea becomes a plain blue area. Landscape photography is about rebuilding that lost depth and scale inside the frame. Start by naming what impressed you. Whether it was height, breadth or color changes how you should shoot it.

Add a foreground for depth

Photographing only distant things makes the frame look flat. Including something close at the bottom of the frame, such as rocks at your feet, wildflowers, stones by the water or a railing, creates layers from front to back and makes the viewer feel they are standing there. Getting low so the nearby object looks large against the distant view strengthens the effect. If you need both near and far to be sharp, do not get too close; step back a little, or focus will land on only one of them.

• Foreground: rocks, flowers, railings or the water's edge near your feet
• Middle ground: roads, rivers or villages that lead the eye inward
• Background: mountains, sky or the horizon that set the scene

Include something that shows scale

Without anything to compare, you cannot tell how big a waterfall, cliff or giant tree really is. When something everyone knows the size of, such as a distant walker, a small house, a car or a boat, appears small in one corner, the scale comes across instantly. Ask a companion to stand far away, or wait a moment for a passerby to reach the right spot. Keeping the person very small shows the size of the scene better. If a stranger's face ends up large enough to recognize, remove or cover it before sharing.

Choose the time and weather

The same place can look completely different depending on when you visit. At midday, with the sun high, shadows are short, mountain ridges look flat and distant areas tend to turn hazy. In the early morning and late afternoon, when the sun is low, long shadows make the land look three-dimensional. If your schedule allows, plan the places you most want to capture for those hours. Cloudy days are not wasted either. Forests, valleys and alleys, where harsh contrast causes trouble, come out soft and even. After rain, the air clears and wet streets reflect the sky.

Pitfalls of going wide

A phone's ultra-wide lens is great for fitting a big scene into one shot, but it stretches the edges of the frame. People standing near the edge look wider, and buildings lean outward. If people are in the shot, place them near the center, and keep the horizon near the middle of the frame so it does not bend. Wider is not always better, either. Many scenes become more striking when you zoom in and isolate one part, such as a single peak or a patch of sunlit field.

Getting panoramas right

Panorama mode stitches many frames together as you slowly turn the phone. Most failures come from shaking and drifting up or down. Plant your feet, rotate your whole body rather than just your wrists, and move at a steady speed without leaving the guide line on screen. People walking and moving cars easily get cut off or doubled at the seams, so shoot when it is quiet. Holding the phone upright while sweeping sideways gives extra room at the top and bottom, which makes cropping easier later.

• Keep your feet still and turn your whole body
• Follow the guide line at a steady speed
• Shoot when there are few moving people and cars
• Avoid sweeping into strong brightness changes, or start from the other side

Tell the story of the trip

If you only collect famous views, your photos end up looking like postcards anyone could buy. What brings a trip back to life is everything in between. Mix in shots that show movement and the passing of time, such as station signs, the view from your room, a street market or the sky as the weather changed, and later they read like a travel journal. Get into the habit of taking one wide shot, one a bit closer and one close-up of something that caught your eye, and even a single place yields a richer story. Note the name of each place in the photo info or a memo on the same day.

Safety and what to respect

While hunting for the best spot, it is easy to forget the danger. No photo is worth risking your life for. Keep these rules wherever you go.

• Do not go to the edge of cliffs, rocks or breakwaters
• Follow signs for restricted areas and private property
• Never stop to shoot on roads or railway tracks
• Stay on marked paths and do not trample or pick plants
• Check local rules for drones and tripods in advance