There are countless breathtaking landscapes. Just visit a local or national park, you won’t even have to leave the United States! Below are tips to help you take awesome landscape photographs. Both beginners and professionals can use these simple tips to take landscape photos.

1. Be cognizant of light quality. Figure out whether the lighting is soft or harsh. Is the light bright, or are you photographing at sunrise of sunset? What is the weather like- is it overcast or cloudy? Typically you will want to avoid mid-day light and photograph before 10 a.m. and after 2 p.m.

2. Try to look for interesting lighting. For mountains, back-lighting and side-lighting are great. For side-lighting, you can turn 90 away from the sun. For back-lightning, make sure the sun is behind the mountains, and you will create dramatic silhouettes.

3. Compose your photograph. For landscapes, symmetry works. Remember, simplicity is beautiful. Do you have lakes, streams, trees, or mountains? Look at the different shapes formed by the landscape in your frame.

4. Roads, paths, and bridges are great to include. Use their shapes to lead the eye around the photo. To create that effect, photograph them at an angle. You can always have a road or path start in the corner of the photo.

5. You may want to try infrared photography. If you use infrared film, it is more sensitive to infrared light. This means that your photographs will have a dark sky, and any leaves and vegetation will be light/ bright. It’s amazing!

6. Generally, you will want your entire photo to be in focus, so use a large depth of field (small number, large aperture). Increasing exposure time also increases depth of field.

Try both long and short exposure times, specifically when you have water in your photos (lakes, waterfalls, ocean). So, grab your tripod and have fun with landscape photography.