Camera
The sky isn’t the limit: Six tips to capture intimate landscapes and smaller scenes
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With a cloud-free sunrise, I focussed on this telephoto detail of glowing wave sea spray at the typically wide-angle friendly Bombo Headland, New South Wales.
ISO 100 | F18 | 1/5 sec |
Bold sunrises. Moody clouds. Radiant sunstars.
These elements often come to mind when we think about landscape photography. And for many years, they’re what I chased trip after trip.
But I’ve found that coveting and waiting for glorious skies vastly limits the type of landscape photos we can capture. Expectations stifle our creativity and lead to disappointment when the conditions fall short or fizzle out.
Landscape photography can be (and is) so much more than golden rays and brilliant colors. It’s about capturing the essence of an environment and immortalizing defining details in the landscape.
So what if you simply excluded the sky altogether?
“Expectations stifle our creativity and lead to disappointment when the conditions fall short or fizzle out.”
While I still chase bold skies when they occur – they’re worth capturing for a reason – I no longer let the state of the sky dictate my photography outings.
In fact, smaller scenes have formed some of my most striking compositions. Compared to sweeping vistas at scenic lookouts, these more intimate moments are less likely to be replicated by other photographers.
So here are six tips to help you expand your creativity with fresh compositions and make the sky no longer the limit.
Follow the periphery of your perception
This first tip may seem a bit pretentious. But it’s a crucial place to begin.
I recently read a passage from Peter Dombrovskis (a famed Australian photographer from the 1980s) that crystallized this concept for me:
“My most productive days are when I move through the landscape with an attitude of acceptance – of leaving myself open to all possibilities rather than expecting to find anything in particular.
I look ahead to guide my feet over rocks and roots, but images are more likely to insinuate themselves from the edges of my view, the periphery of my perception.”
The takeaway for your photography? When you remove preconceived ideas that anchor your creativity, you’ll begin to appreciate the smaller scenes around you. You’ll notice quieter moments beyond the epic seascapes, grand vistas and verdant forests.
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Slow down and take notice of underfoot scenes, such as these confetti-like myrtle beech leaves at Cradle Mountain, Tasmania.
ISO 200 | F14 | 1/4 sec |
Your eye may catch intriguing shapes, contrasting colors or patches of light. And when you do, you’ve already gifted yourself the attention and mental space to further follow that thread of interest. You might move closer, shift angles or return later under different light.
So rather than entering environments hoping for ‘ideal’ conditions, I now (try to) enter each environment with an open mind. I allow myself the freedom to wander, to entertain the potential of smaller scenes that I would have otherwise ignored and overlooked.
Simplify the scene and fill the frame
An open sky often serves as a largely clean, distraction-free compositional element. So when you don’t include one, you may be looking down or across at environments overflowing with complexity.
Herein lies a central challenge of intimate landscapes. Chaotic elements, like messy foliage or incongruent textures, can combine to undermine the sense of harmony in your image.
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A simplified frame of ghost gum trunks contrasting against the red rock of Karijini National Park, Western Australia.
ISO 160 | F16 | 1/3 sec |
So, when you find smaller scenes too overwhelming, do what you can to simplify them. Focus on key details, isolate defining features, and obscure others.
You might simplify a woodland scene by highlighting shapely branches while excluding the undergrowth. Or, for rocky terrain, you might switch to a telephoto lens to fill the frame with striking rock patterns.
To help create order amongst the complexity, here are some examples of what you might focus on in different settings:
- Forests: Compressed trunk columns or fractal branches spreading out
- Deserts: Sweeping lines and overlapping layers
- Rivers: Long-exposure patterns as streams cascade down
- Coastlines: Repeating pebble or stone textures
- Lakes: Smooth ripples and reflected golden hour light
As mentioned, smaller and simpler scenes have formed some of my strongest compositions. By filling the frame with key details, you’ll walk away with a more personal photo to call your own.
Don’t stand still: Shift your position and angle
A sure-fire technique to help you notice and capture smaller scenes? Gain some height and then zoom in.
So look for natural features that can provide a higher elevation, such as a boulder, a fallen trunk or a hill. Or venture out to a lookout and use a tighter focal length to shoot down onto the landscape.
Sometimes, even an extra foot or two in elevation will significantly alter the composition or enable you to exclude distracting sky patches. You’ll be better positioned to shoot across the scene (rather than up at it) and experience the landscape around you from a fresh perspective.
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After waiting for the afternoon sun to cloak a distant mountain in shade, it illuminated these shapely branches at Fiordland National Park, New Zealand.
ISO 100 | F10 | 1/30 sec |
Similarly, once you’ve noticed a compelling formation, scout your surroundings to find the strongest angle. For example, I captured one of my favorite smaller scenes of a beech tree in Fiordland, New Zealand. Gaining height allowed me to position the branches in front of a distant mountain. So that when the sun fell, it illuminated the leaves against the valley shrouded in shadow.
When you’re on a well-worn track, you’ll likely only see a fraction of the potential frames on offer. So, go explore and discover new angles to shoot from. But be careful – and considerate. If the area looks pristine or delicate, leave it that way. No photo is worth ruining the scene in which it was taken.
One last benefit from a technical level: In some situations, gaining height may enable you to shoot perpendicularly onto the scene rather than skim across it. This will reduce the necessary depth of field and help to minimize focus stacking. (Which can be tedious and is one of my least favorite parts of photography.)
Challenge yourself and make it fun
For many years, I struggled to break free from legacy ways of seeing the landscape.
So here’s one technique to help you capture smaller scenes: set a challenge for yourself. It’s counterintuitive, but introducing more ‘rules’ will force you into a different mindset and may allow you to view the landscape anew.
When you’re struggling to compose intimate landscapes, try a fresh approach. Here are a few rules that you may create for yourself:
- Set restrictions: Work within a 20-minute timer or limit yourself to 10 frames
- Go handheld: Leave the tripod behind and bump up the ISO if needed
- Set a schedule: Take a photo every 5 minutes (great for daytime hikes)
- Stick to a theme: Perhaps textures, colors, parallel lines or what’s underfoot
Remember, the purpose of the challenge isn’t to walk away with ideal images. It’s to get you to look at the landscape differently. To experiment without the paralysis of perfection.
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The combination of low tide and an ever-shifting stream carved out these braiding sand patterns on sunset at Wilsons Promontory, Victoria.
ISO 100 | F16 | 1/6 sec |
Afterward, go back through your images and take note of your favorite scenes. Often, one or two (or more) frames will jump out and resonate with you.
Once you’ve settled on a frame with potential, consider how you might improve the image even further. A tighter crop? Placing the subject off-center? Or returning under soft light?
After the challenge is over, then it’s time to revisit your favorite frames with your tripod to make the best image you can.
Document smaller scenes with your smartphone
With unfathomably powerful computers (and cameras) in our pockets, modern photographers live in an age of abundance.
So, while our devices can be overwhelming and distracting (see tip #1), they also equip us with tools that past generations could only dream of, like live cloud tracking, detailed satellite maps, and a capable camera to take snapshots of promising compositions.
When I’m out exploring, I’ll often reach for my phone before I reach for my camera. The intentionality needed to set up a tripod, attach the right lens and dial in the settings is often a barrier to creation. (This is why I enjoyed low-friction shooting with the handheld Fujifilm X100V so much.)
An example of using my smartphone to scrapbook potential compositions. Left: A quick phone snapshot to document the stripes and colors of snow gums at Falls Creek, Victoria. Right: The final image after waiting for the midday sun to become partly diffused behind a cloud.
Beyond weather tracking and location planning, my phone serves as a core part of my photography workflow in two ways:
As a scrapbook of potential compositions: It’s particularly helpful when I spend multiple days exploring a new area. In the evenings, I’ll scroll through my snapshots and review the day’s scenes with fresh eyes. Then, I can return to refine and strengthen standout scenes with my camera. The process also helps to prime my mind to look for similar but perhaps stronger compositions later in the trip.
To test telephoto focal lengths: Zoom in until you fill the screen with your preferred composition, even if it’s beyond the 3x or 5x lens, and take a snapshot. Then, in my iPhone photo library, I can swipe up on the photo to inspect the precise focal length. This helps me determine what lens I’ll need and whether I need to attach a teleconverter.
Sweat the small things: Miscellaneous tips
Here are some small – yet just as impactful – tips for compelling, intimate landscapes:
Composition is still key. Even when there’s no sky, try to retain some breathing room around your subjects and carefully position elements to balance visual weight across the frame.
Experiment with light. If time permits, see what it’s like to capture the scene under different conditions. High-contrast scenes may look more flattering under soft light, while low-contrast scenes may benefit from harsh light.
Be mindful of what is (and isn’t) in focus. When shooting close scenes, select a small aperture (such as F16) and take at least five images, focused in the center and each corner, to help you focus-stack the scene.
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Rather than including everything (and potentially diluting the visual story), this tight detail captures the essence of a much larger cascade at MacKenzie Falls, Victoria.
ISO 100 | F20 | 1/8 sec |
Fine-tune your frame for a clean view. Sometimes, shifting your camera by a few centimeters can evoke a more pleasing sense of order in your scene.
Lastly, stop looking for perfection when it comes to smaller scenes and intimate landscapes. You won’t find it, and you’ll only set yourself up for disappointment.
Nature is complex, raw and unstructured. So, as you capture skyless scenes, remember that not every image will be a portfolio-worthy shot. The point isn’t to produce perfection but to capture scenes that resonate with you on a personal level.
When the sky isn’t the limit, you allow yourself the freedom to fail. To look for interesting yet imperfect scenes. To experiment with new angles, focus on fresh features and refine your approach to make more meaningful photos.
About the Author
Mitch Green is an Australian landscape photographer. He can be found on his website, on Instagram or by the beach at 5 am waiting for sunrise.
Season’s greetings! We’ve almost reached the end of 2024, and as is our custom, the DPReview team would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Boxing Day, Happy Kwanzaa, Joyous Festivus, and Happy Holiday to all. We’re incredibly grateful you’ve stuck with us for yet another orbit around the sun.
2024 was an important year for DPReview symbolically. One year ago today, on December 25, 2023, we celebrated the site’s 25th anniversary. For the past 12 months, we’ve been looking back at some of the moments and milestones from that past quarter century. We couldn’t have reached this point without your support.
2024 has also been an important chapter for DPReview as a business. Many of you know we’ve been going through a period of rebuilding. Every person at DPReview, including many folks behind the scenes, has poured their heart and soul into this effort. Why? Because at a fundamental level, we believe that an internet with DPReview is better than one without it.
The hard work is paying off. You might recall that a couple of months ago, we advertised some new editorial roles on the site, and I’m thrilled to report that we’ll have a couple of new faces joining the team early next year.
“At a fundamental level, we believe that an internet with DPReview is better than one without it.”
A huge factor in that success has been our community. Whether you’re a regular in the forums or just pop in to comment under the occasional article, we’re grateful for your contributions. Our forums are a goldmine of information, crowd-sourced from knowledgeable people for over 25 years. Our homepage may get a lot of attention, but the forums are where the magic happens: exchanging ideas, forming communities, and forging personal connections.
In fact, we’re planning to ramp up support for our online community in 2025. Remember those new staff members I mentioned? One of them will be focused on supporting our forums, including our team of volunteer moderators. This will be the first time we’ve had a person on our team dedicated to this task, and to be candid, it’s overdue.
Before you leave today, we’d love it if you’d take a moment to leave a comment and let us know what made 2024 at DPReview memorable for you. Or, if you’re feeling prophetic, please tell us what you’d like to see in the coming year.
From all of us at DPReview – the editors who craft the stories, the tech wizards who keep the lights on, and the business team who keep us on solid footing – we wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season. We’re genuinely excited about what the future holds and look forward to having you by our side as we embark on the next 25 years.
2024 In Review
2024 is just about over, so we thought it’d be a good time to look back and identify some trends that started emerging or kept going strong throughout the year. This isn’t a recap of all the news that happened – we’ll be releasing one of those soon enough – but rather a broad look at the direction the industry is going, which may give us an idea of what to expect throughout 2025.
Global Shutter
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Photo: Richard Butler
It’s hard to say that global shutter was a trend in 2024; in terms of consumer mirrorless cameras, there was only one with the tech, the Sony a9 III. Given the benefits it brings, though – the ability to sync with full-power flash at almost any speed, the ability to shoot stills at 120fps, and to use shutter speeds up to 1/80,000 sec to capture the fastest subjects without any blur – we fully expect to see it come to more high-end sports / action cameras.
That’s not to say that the a9 III’s sensor is perfect. Compared to its rolling shutter counterparts, it takes a hit to absolute image quality with its 250 base ISO, which means it has about a stop more noise than most of its competitors.
However, if you need the performance a global shutter offers, it’s likely none of those caveats will be deal breakers. We just mention them to say that we don’t expect to see global shutters in cameras that are focused on image quality above all else, such as the Sony a7R series or a follow-up to the Nikon Z8 – at least not in 2025 or even 2026.
Physical color mode controls
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Photo: Mitchell Clark
This year, it felt like every other camera had a physical control for color modes. Fujifilm’s Film Simulation dial, included on the X-T50 and X-M5, feels like the obvious example, but it was far from the only one: Panasonic put a LUT button on the creator-focused S9 – and then gave its users the option to backport one onto other cameras – and Nikon included a button to bring up its Picture Control menu on the Z50II.
Physical color mode controls aren’t a brand-new thing. We saw one on the Olympus Pen-F in 2016. But this is the year they definitively became a trend.
Only time will tell if they stick around. Camera manufacturers will likely be paying very close attention to whether consumers actually value being able to easily change the look of their photos and videos using a physical button or dial. If it turns out they do, this year’s crop of cameras likely won’t be the last we see with a color mode control.
APS-C shooters have more options than ever
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Image: Sigma
2024 was the year that Canon and Nikon started allowing more and more third-party APS-C lenses onto their systems. At the beginning of the year, you only had a handful of options if you wanted a third-party autofocus lens for RF or Z-mount. Now, you have significantly more.
The change came from some of the usual suspects, as well as some smaller companies. Sigma and Tamron were the first to announce they’d be bringing their lenses to RF mount, but Samyang slid in under the wire with an announcement that it, too, would start producing lenses for the system.
Most of Sigma’s DC DN primes have been available on Z-mount since early 2023, but this year, we’ve seen a slew of autofocus primes become available for the system from brands like Siuri and Viltrox.
There are still holes in the lineup for each brand, though – neither has a great telephoto option, and there aren’t any fast zoom Z-mount lenses – which is why we’d like to see this trend continue into 2025. If we’re really dreaming, maybe Canon and Nikon will allow more third-party full-frame glass, but we’ll save our fantasies for a different article.
The rise of smaller full-frame lenses
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Image: Sony
Speaking of full-frame glass, this year we’ve also seen a trend of smaller, lighter full-frame lenses. Panasonic’s 18-40mm F4.5-6.3 for L-mount is the most obvious example – the company says it’s the “smallest and lightest interchangeable zoom with autofocus for full-frame mirrorless cameras” – but Sony’s FE 24-50mm F2.8 is also a great, compact new lens that makes a ton of sense on smaller bodies like the a7CR.
Even the big lenses have been getting smaller – Sigma’s second-gen 24-70 F2.8 is 10% lighter than its predecessor, a difference that’ll definitely be noticeable in hour eight of shooting a wedding. Sony’s 85mm F1.4 GM II also boasts a 20% weight reduction compared to the original.
Again, this trend isn’t exactly new. We’ve seen a few lenses that have been largely defined by their size; Canon’s original RF 70-200mm F2.8 from 2019 and Sony’s 70-200mm F2.8 GM II from 2022 come to mind. But with further advances in optics and manufacturing techniques, we hope to see even more full-frame lenses come out that are smaller and lighter than the ones that came before… even if they still won’t be able to out-compact Fujifilm’s XF 16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR II.
The AI age
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Logos: Open AI, Midjourney, Meta, Stability.ai, Google
Pretty much every industry has had its own deluge of AI-related news in 2024, and photography is no exception. The continued proliferation of AI-generated images and text has sparked near-endless debates about what place, if any, the technology has in photography, with some people even taking the extreme position that the ubiquitous ability to generate images will destroy the art form altogether (assuming those comments too, aren’t AI-generated).
It’s not all existential doom and gloom, though, as some companies have used AI to try and improve the experience of photography rather than replace it. For instance, the new Canon EOS R1 and R5 II have Action Priority AF modes, which use machine learning-based algorithms to determine which subject to focus on during key moments in certain sports. It could be thought of as context recognition, rather than the subject recognition that’s become table stakes for most cameras. The EOS R1 and R5 II also have built-in AI-derived noise-reduction and upscaling functions, should you choose to use them.
AI-powered denoising and upscaling are also making their way into photo editing software, such as Lightroom or the apps from companies like Topaz Labs. And while Adobe has added plenty of generative AI features to Photoshop, we’ve also seen other AI-powered improvements, such as its distraction removal mode and Adobe Camera Raw’s new Adaptive profile and reflection removal feature.
However you feel about the technology, it’s almost certainly here to stay. The good news is that another facet of the AI trend this year has been companies working on improving transparency around AI, creating tools to prove a photo’s authenticity or show exactly how it’s been manipulated, either by AI or through more conventional means. The tech is far from ubiquitous, but it seems likely that we’ll see it spread to more and more platforms as AI becomes even more prevalent.
Have your say: Best gear of 2024
For the past few weeks, readers have been voting on their favorite cameras and lenses released in 2024. Now that the first round of voting is over, it’s time to reveal the winners.
Remember, though, it isn’t over just yet! Now it’s time to pick an overall winner. Make sure to cast your ballot for the 2024 Reader’s Choice Product of the Year – this one’s for all the bragging rights.
Best prime lens runner-up: Nikon Z 50mm F1.4
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First up is the 2024 runner-up for best prime lens, the Nikon Z 50mm F1.4, a fast prime that retails for less than Nikon’s own 50mm F1.8 S model. The tradeoff? Although it’s faster than the 50mm F1.8 S, it trades some of the clinical sharpness of that lens for more ‘character’, and you’ll likely see more vignetting and longitudinal chromatic aberration at some apertures. However, it gets you a fast prime at a popular focal length for under $500.
In our poll, the Z 50mm F1.4 barely edged out its sibling, the Nikon Z 35mm F1.4, effectively splitting the vote, suggesting that Nikon’s new F1.4 optics have struck a chord with enthusiast photographers.
Best prime lens winner: Sony 85mm F1.4 GM II
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The 2024 Reader’s Choice Award for the best prime lens goes to the Sony 85mm F1.4 GM II, the same lens we named as the best prime lens of the year in our 2024 DPReview Annual Awards. It’s not a fancy, exotic lens, but it’s a solid workhorse that gets the job done and delivers great image quality. It’s also lighter, sharper, and has faster and smoother focus than its predecessor. As we said in our Annual Awards announcement, the Sony 85mm F1.4 GM II delivers “consistent excellence you simply take for granted.”
Best zoom lens runner-up: Nikon Z 28-400mm F4-8 VR
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Placing in the runner-up position for best zoom lens is the Nikon Z 28-400mm F4-8 VR, which covers a huge range of focal lengths in a single lens. This lens remains relatively compact in its retracted state, making it an option for travel or a one-lens setup for general use. It’s even dust- and drip-resistant if you get caught in the rain on vacation.
Although the lens’ maximum aperture of F8 at the long end might seem a little restrictive, you can’t beat physics; however, Nikon’s Vibration Reduction technology – along with in-body image stabilization in many camera models – can assist at slower shutter speeds. It may not be as flashy as some of the faster zooms that were on the list, but the Nikon Z 28-400mm F4-8 VR provides a lot of versatility in a single lens, which is probably why it did so well in our poll.
Best zoom lens winner: Sony 28-70mm F2 GM
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The 2024 Reader’s Choice Award for best zoom lens goes to the Sony FE 28-70mm F2 GM. While it doesn’t go as wide as the popular 24-70mm zoom range, the FE 28-70mm proves it’s possible to maintain a relatively compact size while sporting a fast, F2 aperture, all with an internal focusing design. Its four linear motors even allow the FE 28-70mm F2 to focus when shooting at 120fps on Sony’s fastest camera.
We had a blast shooting this lens in 2024, so we appreciate why you collectively chose it as the top zoom lens of the year. If you’d like to see this lens in action, check out our video of Richard Butler using it to shoot portraits in New York City, along with a sample gallery that includes many of the portraits featured in the video. Congrats, Sony!
Best camera runner-up: Canon EOS R5 Mark II
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Grabbing the runner-up position for best camera is the Canon EOS R5 Mark II. It may deliver the same 45MP resolution as its predecessor, but just about everything else has changed.
The camera’s stacked sensor brings performance improvements to both stills and video, while Eye Control AF, Action Priority AF, and improved subject recognition AF are standout features that we hope to see percolate down to other Canon models. The R5 II also highlights Canon’s efforts to unify its mirrorless cameras with its Cinema EOS line, including codecs, gamma profiles, HDR video technology, and video tools. It’s hard to imagine many things this camera can’t do.
Best camera winner: Nikon Z6III
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The 2024 Reader’s Choice Award for best camera goes to the Nikon Z6III, making Nikon the People’s Choice winner in this category for the second year in a row.
The third generation of the Z6 series kicks things up a level. It features what Nikon calls a “Partially Stacked” sensor to deliver some of the benefits of a Stacked CMOS sensor but at a lower cost, delivering improved performance and autofocus while retaining the Z6’s reputation for excellent ergonomics. It also features significant video upgrades with higher quality output and a useful video tool set, reinforcing Nikon’s intent to be a player in the video market.
In our 2024 Annual Awards, the Z6III walked away with two trophies: Best Enthusiast Camera and our 2024 Product of the Year. It looks like it may be trying to make a clean sweep of the Reader’s Choice Awards as well.
Have your say – vote for Product of the Year!
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You helped determine the winners in the individual categories, so now’s the time to cast your vote in one last poll! Choose your favorite product from this list of winners and runners-up between now and Thursday, January 2nd. Watch for an announcement of the winning products shortly after the poll closes.
As always, thanks for casting your votes and being a part of our community throughout the year.
Please note that for the best experience, we recommend voting on our desktop site.
Poll Rules:
This poll is meant to be a bit of fun. It’s not sponsored, promoted, or paid for in any way, and DPReview doesn’t care how you vote. Our Reader’s polls are run on the basis of trust. As such, we ask that you only vote once from a single account.
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