Last Updated on April 16, 2021
Landscape photography is the art of photographing scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers and lakes. This article will take you through how to shoot lake landscape photography and give you tips on how to get better results when shooting these nature scenes.
Lake Landscape Photography
Lake landscape photography is one of the most beautiful types of landscape photography. Lakes are particularly ideal for water drop and reflection photography. Water drop can be done by capturing the splashing of a water drop amplified by a long exposure time or including a single water droplet in your picture.
Shooting reflections in a lake is another way to create a beautiful scenery. The setting you must choose is a quiet and still lake that has enough reflective surfaces e.g. rocks, water drops, trees and other objects in order to get reflections from those surfaces. You will probably need to include some extra elements such as falling water drops (which can be captured by using a long exposure time) or some extras such as mountains in the background.
What Equipment Do You Need For Lake Landscape Photographs?
To shoot lake landscape photography you will need a good camera and lens. You should use a wide angle zoom lens with a focal length of 10-30 mm. A 28-70 mm lens would be perfect for this as you can cover most distances and also include the most elements into your picture.
You will also need a sturdy tripod (if you want to capture using long exposure times) and probably a remote shutter release cable or wireless shutter release depending on your camera set up.
Camera Settings
If you are using a digital camera then you need to set the camera to the highest possible resolution so that your image can be cropped to a maximum size. Again you should set your highest resolution for this reason. Using the highest quality settings in your camera and setting it to the highest resolution will ensure that your picture is not too soft or grainy when using long exposure times.
When shooting reflections you need to use a low ISO (100 or 200) and high aperture (small number) so that it is as sharp as possible. When including extras such as water drops you can use a higher ISO to capture the movement of the water droplets better, or use a higher aperture if you are trying to digitally remove the water droplet from your finished picture.
How To Get The Best Lake Landscape Photographs?
Reflections are the most captivating element of a lake landscape photograph. You should try to set up your shot with a wide angle lens so that you can include trees, rocks and other objects in the foreground. If you include all of these elements then you will be able to get reflections from all of them. You can also use a neutral density filter to slow down exposure time and soften the water droplets if you want to add movement into your picture.
You can also focus on the foreground and blur out the rest of the picture as this creates a great effect. The best way to do this is to use an aperture that is higher than f/11 as it creates a greater depth of field. Alternatively you could use a tripod to capture this even though it might not be as sharp.
Finally, shooting from mid-day to late afternoon will give you the best results for lighting and reflections in your lake landscape photography.
Bottom Line
If you have followed all the information in this article then you should be able to get stunning lake landscape photographs. You should also be able to get great results without having to buy expensive equipment or spend loads of time learning how to use it.