CAPTURE PERFECT LIGHT

Mike Harris explains how a little planning and lot of patience can boost your chances of capturing stunning landscape lighting

- Mike Harris

There are plenty of technical skills that you can master to help you improve your landscape photography, but ultimately a good landscape hinges on three things: subject, composition and light. And while we have complete control over the first two, the latter is the element that can quickly send even the most promising shoot into disarray.

Planning is a key factor when it comes to finding perfect lighting. Using a weather app is a good place to start, but what can you do to improve your chances of capturing stunning light once you’re out in the field? The answer is you wait and wait… and then wait some more.

People who don’t take photographs might assume a good landscape is down to being in the right place at the right time, and while that’s partially true, you also make your own luck. Sometimes you should keep waiting even if the light conditions seem ideal, because they could always get better, and our image of this lone tree at Rydal Water in England’s Lake District is a prime example.

The key to this photo is how the light frames the tree, and separates it from the busy background – without this separation, the subject would get lost in the melee of colours on the far side of the lake. Weather reports promised intermittent bursts of sunshine, and with the sun behind and slightly to our right, we knew we had a good chance of experiencing ideal lighting conditions – all we had to do was bide our time…