PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FOR BEGINNERS

Australia's leading professional landscape photographer Tom Putt gives his Top 100 Landscape Photography Tips for Beginners. With a career spanning over 20 years, Tom has won over 200 International and National Awards and was the 2019 International Nature and Aerial Photographer of the Year (IPA).

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  1. Look to the edges of the frame before shooting
  2. Your tripod should be your best friend
  3. Niche - find what you’re good at
  4. Set yourself a project
  5. A step to the left or right can make all the difference
  6. Shoot backlit in forests when the sun is out
  7. Use paths as leading lines in forests
  8. Pretend you’re describing the photo to a friend…
  9. The rule of thirds can be your greatest tool when starting out
  10. Panos have never been so easy
  11. Want to shoot differently? Crop differently
  12. Use supporting actors to give the photo depth
  13. Check your histogram after every shot
  14. Be your harshest critic
  15. 4 shots in every set up
  16. A toilet bowl will always be a toilet bowl
  17. Plan ahead - check the weather, tides, instagram
  18. Check your camera every time for the right settings
  19. Two filters - polariser and ND
  20. Don’t clip your highlights!
  21. Shoot in the blue hours
  22. Clouds add drama
  23. Give your subjects space to breathe
  24. Use focus and brightness to direct the viewers eye
  25. Less is more
  26. Symmetry
  27. Repetition
  28. Snow, mist, fog
  29. Steer away from HDR
  30. Shoot for B+W
  31. Walk around the tree
  32. Fill the frame
  33. Shoot to crop
  34. Watch your backgrounds
  35. Not seeing it? Sit down and observe
  36. Wide angle - foreground, middle ground, background
  37. Raise the bar
  38. Take your hand at the start and end of a pano
  39. Three digital copies at all times
  40. 5 stars your favourites
  41. Save your 5 stars to Dropbox
  42. Drones are great!
  43. Shopify to sell photos online
  44. SEO is king
  45. ISO 3200 for night skies
  46. You don't need more gear
  47. Download immediately
  48. Buy a backpack twice as big as you need
  49. Download the Photographer's Ephemeris app
  50. Buy multiple tripod plates for all your cameras and lenses
  51. Look for the best foreground
  52. Invest in a good wide angle lens
  53. F16 not F22
  54. ISO100 
  55. Focus stack
  56. Get down low
  57. Get up high
  58. Shoot just clouds
  59. F2.8
  60. Shoot immediately after storms
  61. Break the rules
  62. Use leading lines
  63. Get closer
  64. Shoot into the sun
  65. Use your long lens for abstracts
  66. Challenge yourself to shoot as many different angles as possible
  67. Be passionate about what you're shooting
  68. Look for the WOW factor
  69. The best photos aren't always a million miles away
  70. No cable release? Use self timer
  71. Focus one third into the frame from the bottom
  72. Keep going back to the same location
  73. Arrive on site at least 30 mins prior to the magic happening
  74. Use dehaze to make your photos pop
  75. Grad filters in LR 
  76. Layers, Masks and Selections for PS - that's it!
  77. Be patient
  78. Shoot RAW
  79. Better to get it on Auto than miss it on Manual
  80. Previsualiation
  81. Tell a story
  82. Include the key elements
  83. Exclude everything else
  84. Shoot and learn from others
  85. Take a course
  86. Research locations with Instagram
  87. You can't take the best landscape from your bed
  88. Don't make it difficult
  89. You won't get the best shot every time
  90. Practice, Practice, Practice!
  91. Educate yourself
  92. Enter competitions
  93. Visit galleries
  94. Learn from your mistakes
  95. LR - keep it real
  96. Print your best work
  97. Display your best work
  98. Make multiple copies then crop each one differently
  99. Continual learning
  100. Come on my workshops!

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