If you really want to test the full capabilities of your Nikon D7500, landscape photography is the way to go. That might sound like a bold claim, but by the end of this article, you’ll understand why there’s so much truth to it.
You see, the D7500 is an amazing camera, there’s no question about it. But if you’re only using it to take pictures of everyday things like your food or your latté foam art (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), then you’re not making the most of the camera’s abilities.
So, what’s the big deal with landscape photography? For starters, there are so many different elements of nature that you can capture through landscape photography. Better yet, those landscapes look completely different depending on the time of day. Two pictures of the same landscape view could look very different if one’s taken at night! And that’s not even considering other subjects you may include in your shot. When you include people or wildlife, the possibilities are endless.
Each of those unique conditions offers you a chance to capture colour, depth, emotion, and more in all their natural grandeur, thanks to the D7500 and its 20 megapixels and DX image sensor. Still, it’s not all about your camera’s technical specifications. The thing about landscape photography is how the photographs make people feel all sorts of different emotions. You’ll inspire awe in people who get to appreciate the grandiosity of nature through your photographs!
Here are five tips/ways you can get the most out of landscape photography with your D7500.
Plan Your Itinerary
Before you take your Nikon D7500 out to do landscape photography, it would be best to sit down and plan your itinerary. For many photographers, planning the where’s and when’s is probably one of the most exciting parts of the process. Not only that, but it’s also the most important from a technical standpoint, as those decisions will affect the kind of photos that you will walk away with.
Planning where you’re going to do your photographing is important because some locations are more beautiful than others. So, do a bit of research. These days, you can even use Google Images or Google Maps to ‘take a look around’ the venue and see if it interests you. Doing the research is very much worth the effort, especially if you’re travelling far and wide just to reach the location.
Equally important is deciding when you’re going to go to your destination. Remember: you’re going to be photographing the landscapes out in the open. That means you have zero control over the weather or the natural lighting from the environment. Suppose you plan on taking advantage of the Golden Hour. In that case, you’re going to need to be at the location either right before dawn or before dusk. Standing there in the middle of the day might provide you with bright but harsh sunlight.
So, you see, doing your homework on the location you plan on doing landscape photography goes a very long way in whether or not you have a productive photo session.
Capture Movement
Capturing a still and quiet landscape with your Nikon D7500 can be quite beautiful. Doing so creates an image that’s calm and peaceful. Still, if you prefer adding a bit more energy to the image, you do so by capturing movement in it somehow. Movement adds an element of excitement to your snapshots, something that will be felt by the people who view the end result.
An excellent example of natural movement in landscape photography includes flowing water. If you’re at a lake or by the ocean, streaming water or crashing waves make for excellent movements to capture. Still, you can even capture exciting movement in a more urban environment. For instance, moving cars on roads and highways also make for beautiful patterns when captured in motion.
Alternatively, you could also choose to include animals or people in your landscape. If you’re able to capture a big enough number of them in the frame, you can produce the same thrilling effect. Just think to all of the pictures taken of the intersection in Shibuya, Japan. With hundreds of people crossing the road at the same time, any picture captured of that moment will show a beautiful blur consisting entirely of people!
Achieving a beautiful landscape photo with movement isn’t as difficult as it may seem. You’ve probably seen plenty of other photographers do the same, and you can be one of them, too. That’s especially true with the D7500, as all you’d have to do is adjust the shutter speed for long exposure to achieve the blur effect.
Use Water As A Mirror
Over time, you will discover just how useful water can be in landscape photography. As mentioned in the previous tip, flowing water adds an element of excitement to your image. But did you know that photographing a landscape with water that isn’t moving can also make it more interesting?
The next time you’re out doing landscape photography, grab your Nikon D7500 and point the lens at a body of water that’s still. It doesn’t have to be an entire lake or ocean, you could just use a puddle as well. The thing about still water is that it reflects the light perfectly. So perfect, in fact, that it becomes a natural mirror that you can use to frame much more fascinating snapshots.
Imagine this: normally, you’d point your lens directly at a landscape that you want to photograph. Why not try to get closer to the ground and point your lens at a puddle instead. Capturing the landscape through its reflection on the water will not only make your image much more beautiful, but it’ll also communicate just how creative you are as a photographer!
Maybe you’re doing landscape photography for fun. Or maybe you’re doing it so you can show off the amazing snapshots to people later on. Either way, other photographers will recognize how much effort you’ve put in to capture such stunning images. When they do, they’ll have a higher appreciation for your pictures as well as your photography skills.
Use People And Wildlife
Even though you’re focusing on capturing the landscape with your Nikon D7500, you should try to expand your horizons (figuratively speaking!). While the landscape is beautiful, you could also make it more interesting by including human and animal subjects in it.
Imagine capturing the image of a child running through an open field. Or even one of a cow grazing in that same field. Landscapes aren’t just about the natural environment, but the way humans and animals interact with it.
Just like the previous tip, you can make your image much more interesting by capturing motion. Moving subjects in landscape photography are much more fascinating to the eye than someone who just stands there stationary, looking at the camera.
When you do this, you might want to frame the shot in such a way that the other subjects remain secondary to the landscape. After all, your main focus is the beautiful, natural scenery. To do this, you can play with the rule of thirds. When you enable the grid view on the Nikon D7500, it’ll be much easier for you to see the positions on that line where you’d like to place your animal or human subject.
To make the entire scene more natural, perhaps avoid giving your human subjects any instructions or distracting the animals in any way. Doing this requires a bit of stealth, so you’d need to move around quietly and capture the shots candidly. Thankfully, you won’t have to worry about much sound coming from your camera, as the D7500 has a very quiet autozoom and shutter.
Have Fun
The most underrated skill that any photographer can have is the ability to have fun. After gaining skills and experience with photography, a lot of people tend to take their art very seriously (as they should!). Unfortunately, they tend to lose the sense of joy that attracted them to photography in the first place, including landscape photography.
So, when you’re putting in all the effort to capturing the best landscapes possible with your Nikon D7500, remind yourself to enjoy the process. Sure, everybody wants to go home having captured fantastic images that they can show off. Still, what’s even more important is the process behind capturing those beautiful images.
Remind yourself of what it was like when you first started photography. Or when you laid hands on your first camera. Being an amateur photographer was fun, wasn’t it? You stumbled around, but you learned, and you slowly got better.
A photographer who can remember how to have fun with their art will eventually produce much more impressive photographs. That’s just a fact of life and art. You have to enjoy what you’re doing, no matter what kind of photography it is. But even more so when you’re doing landscape photography with your Nikon D7500.
So, remember to practice these five tips the next time you plan on doing landscape photography. With time and experience, you’ll be photographing like an expert in no time!
