Monthly Theme - Landscapes (August 2019)

It's our favourite time of the month already! We always look forward to checking out everyone's entries - and you guys never disappoint us.

Thank you, to everyone who submitted photographs to July's “Perspectives” theme. It was tricky to choose just six photos, and remember, if you have a minute (or several) you can check out all the entries here.

As always, you can view the six finalists and vote for a winner below, but first we want to introduce August's theme - "Landscapes".

A style of photography loved by professionals and amateurs alike, landscapes are something that anyone can have fun with, plus it's a great excuse to get outside and explore!

For anyone looking to develop their skills and take their shots to the next level, we have five key tips to taking show-stopper landscapes:

1. Remember the "Rule of Thirds"

Thinking back to the first theme of 2019, we decided to kick-start the year with one of the most fundamental photography techniques - the "rule of thirds". Using this simple rule allows even the newest of photographers to master great composition! You took some awesome shots back in January and can apply the same skills to landscape photography.

@cathrinemitch nails the Rule of Thirds composition here and really emphasizes how isolated the old wooden barn is.

2. Create Depth with Focus Throughout

When you are taking a landscape photograph, try creating a sense of depth by keeping all the different elements of the image in focus.

You might have a fancy built-in pre-set for landscapes, but there are also manual settings to play with. Typically, you'll need to use a small aperture, from f/16-f/22 because this keeps objects in both the foreground and background sharp. (Check out this handy blog post from the archives to better understand aperture!)

It's also nice to place your camera on a tripod when using a small aperture, to eliminate camera shake because your shutter speed might be slower to compensate for less light entering the lens.

We love this cool example by @lindasees - the composition with the tree in the foreground on the left is awesome too!

3. Go Wide

More often than not, landscapes have more to give than the standard frame size. Instead of being faced with the dilemma of cropping out interesting features, try playing with the Panoramic feature on your smartphone, or consider heading out with a wide angle lens.

As well as capturing a broader view, and therefore giving a sense of wide open space, they tend to provide a greater depth of field and work with a faster shutter speeds because they allow more light in.

We can't stop looking at this moody and intense shot by @carvl.

4. Add People

A landscape doesn't always have to be about nature! Featuring people in a landscape setting not only captures amazing memories, but it can add perspective and even make the most simple of settings look magical. For best results, positioning people off center (there's that rule of thirds again) will create interest and avoid stealing the limelight from the landscape behind.

We had to scroll down to the caption and comments to work out if this amazing shot by @maureenpp is real - what an incredible part of the world! We think the surfer really adds to this magic.

5. Play with Reflections (Again!)

OK, so we might have recycled this one from last month, but finding spots with still water allows us to play with symmetry to capture double the beauty of a landscape!

This shot by @gilbertwood is simply gorgeous, we love the silhouette reflecting on the damp sand!

Once again, we hope you all have loads of fun with this month's theme, we can’t wait to see your entries!

How to enter this month’s theme

When uploading your photos use the tag section (on the edit/organise screen) and insert this week's theme tag: theme-landscapes.

Entry Guidelines: Photos must be your own and must have been taken and uploaded between Thursday August 1st and Saturday August 31st. 6 finalists will be chosen in the first couple days of September, then you get to vote for the winner in the following month!

p.s. Don't worry if you spot tagged photos from a previous theme, when choosing our six finalists we'll use a special algorithm to filter out all the images from August 2019.

Vote for a Winner of July's "Perspectives" Theme

We really enjoyed looking at everybody's “Perspectives” theme. It seems that you guys know how to have fun and tried out loads of new angles - awesome!

It was as tough as ever, but we managed to choose just 6 finalists so now it's over to you to vote for the winner of the Perspectives theme. To cast your vote, just reply to this blog post with the number (in digit form) of the photo you would like to see win, before August 14th. We’ll announce the winner in a separate post shortly after!