More often than not, Less is more. Todays blog is all about Minimalist Landscapes. There are a few things to remember and a few tips to help you get great photographs.
- Location Location Location
It is possible to create minimalist photos anywhere with the right lens, and composition. But some locations are better than others.
Coastal Areas
Coastal Areas can offer clean sky and foreground, and lend themselves very well to minimalist photographs.
Plains or Moorlands
Similar to coastal, their sparsity works well with minimalist photos.
Mountains and Hills
These locations have potential for minimalist features, but are a little more difficult, but still workable.
- Focus on Silhouettes for Interesting Landscapes.
Silhouttes work very well with minimalist landscapes as the main subject. The work especially well at sunset. Choosing a lone tree, a building or even a person will look good.
The advantage is reducing the number of colours in the image, adding further minimalism to the photo.
- Best time for Minimalist Landscape Photos.
Visiting a popular location in the middle of the day probably isn’t your best bet. Probably best, at sunrise, sunset, or like me a lot of the time, the middle of the night.
Knowing where the sun will rise or set is very useful should you want to photo silhouettes.
- Long Exposure for Better Photos.
Long Exposure is a great technique to combine with minimalism. It can be used in almost any location to help with the minimal look.
You will need a Tripod, if you want to do something like this. Also if you are doing daytime Long Exposure you will also need an ND Filter.
This works well with fast moving clouds and also water.
- Pick a striking focus point.
Make it count, as a good foreground element could be the key to your image.
Find a main subject that doesn’t have things surrounding it. keep the focus point isolated.
- Using Different Lens.
A good wide angle lens is a must for minimalist landscape photography. At the same time a good telephoto.
For Wide Angle lenses, use a landscape that is itself minimal, so you don’t have to deal with too many distracting elements.
Telephoto Lens can be used to compress the image and dial in on a specific element. longer focal lengths combined with a large aperture can blur out the background a bit.
- Have Fun
As always have fun with composition, location and playing about with different focal lengths, exposure times etc….
As with all types of photography, the rules aren’t hard and fast.
If you want to have a look at the kit i use have a quick look at https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/garethnormanphotography
Finally, have fun and stay safe, and enjoy shooting.
Any suggestions for future blog posts, drop me an email.
you can see more of my work at
About Me
I’m Gareth, a 40 year old Photographer, Eternal Optimist and Blogger. I have been behind a camera for about 5 years now and love shooting products, food, portraits, the stars, and anything else for that matter. Learning is the main aim for me. I am a family man, and strive to be the best i can be in all fields that i put my mind and heart to.
