Five things to run through before a landscape frame
Before committing a landscape frame, run through CLAPS (Tony Northrup, Stunning Digital Photography).
No cloud makes a boring sky and a high-contrast earth; overcast gives a dramatic sky but flat light; partly cloudy — especially fast-moving cloud — gives a constantly changing scene. If the light isn't beautiful, wait a few minutes and it will change.
The sun sets the light. In the blue hours the land is in shadow but the sky is full of colour; in the golden hours the warm, low sun and side-lighting reveal three-dimensional form in mountains and buildings. Light changes constantly — a few minutes' (or hours') patience often pays.
Air is never truly clear; humidity and pollutants cause haze that kills colour, contrast and sharpness, worst on faraway subjects. Air is usually clearest in the morning, so favour sunrise over sunset, and pick low-humidity days for distant subjects like mountains.
A human element often tells the story — locals fishing, a sailboat crossing the foreground, a figure on a summit. Plan to avoid crowds: mornings beat evenings, and lesser-known sites beat landmarks.
Seasons transform a landscape — bright green in summer, duller green in spring, orange and red in autumn, brown in winter. Time the shot to the season you want.
Consolidated from notes: CLAPS (landscape Photography)
Sourced from Claude