How to compose and shoot minimalist landscapes

In this tutorial we show you how to use empty space in your compositions when shooting minimalist landscape photography.

With winter drawing the vibrant colours out from the landscape, it’s the perfect opportunity to capture some empty, minimalist scenery.

You don’t need a sweeping, dramatic scene in perfect golden light to create a compelling landscape image. Often the simplicity of empty land, focusing on the finer details and textures, can be just as intriguing.

Bleak weather and plain tones can guide our eyes to the focal point. Mist and fog are excellent at concealing backgrounds to minimize a setting. Overcast skies are, however, just as effective with the right environment.

Look for a defined lonely subject with a plain background. Seascapes with static objects poking through are a solid starting point.

We’ve photographed this tree contrasting against a neutral sky. With the right composition, even a fairly uninteresting sight can be turned into an alluring abstract image. There are some camera techniques that contribute towards a minimalist image.

A long exposure blurs the sky, creating a soft backdrop to emphasize the subject, while a low ISO and great depth of field will remove any distracting effects.

To add to the simplistic theme, we can then convert the image to black and white to really enhance the flat colours.

This helps when your subject isn’t in the greatest light or hasn’t got a good range of colour to begin with. We’re going to use Photoshop CC’s powerful Adobe Camera Raw plug-in to make the conversion.

SEE MORE: Master the art of minimalist photography

Step by step how to compose a minimalist landscape

01 Doom and gloom
This style of landscape lends itself to dreary, overcast weather. A cloudy sky will both add texture to the image as well as soften the natural light for a more even exposure. Find a lone subject with a perfectly clear background, such as a large tree on a hilltop.

SEE MORE: Lone trees: 10 tips for more creative pictures of trees

02 Leave it out
When composing a minimalist landscape, focus on empty spaces with simple patterns and textures. Shoot from down low, looking up at the sky, leaving out a lot of the land. Shoot at a wide focal length to keep the subject small in the frame.

SEE MORE: Seascape photography: how to shoot minimalist coastal compositions

03 The little details
Keep your image noise-free and sharp to reduce distracting details and effects. Push your ISO down to 100 for a fine grain, and close your aperture to f/16 so that everything in the frame remains sharp. A tripod will be necessary to allow for longer exposures.

SEE MORE: Low-light photography fixes: how to reduce noise but preserve image quality

04 Slow down the sky
To give the image the a softer, simple feel, shoot a long exposure to blend the clouds into a pleasing blur. We’ve shot with a 4 sec shutter speed. To remove camera vibrations, disable image stabilization and shoot using the 2 sec Self-timer or a remote release.

SEE MORE: Long exposure cloud movement: how to give a sharp sky a slow shutter effect

How to post-process your minimalist landscape

01 Open in ACR
Open your image in Adobe Camera Raw, go to the Black & White panel and tick the box to remove the colour. Set the tone of the converted areas by moving the sliders side to side until you’re happy.

02 Set the basics
Go back to the Basics panel. It’s easier to darken the sky, so we’ve overexposed the basic adjustments for the grass in the foreground. Increasing the Clarity will really help to add contrast.

SEE MORE: How to edit landscapes: get extra detail from shadows, midtones and highlights

03 Grade the skies
Along the top tool bar, select the Gradient tool. Spread the adjustment subtly over the sky by leaving a gap between the red and green dots. Lower the exposure of the gradient to darken the sky.

SEE MORE: 14 photo editing tips and tricks every landscape photographer must know

04 lighten the ground
Select the Brush tool. Paint over areas of the image to make selective adjustments – we’ve used it to brighten up the foreground. Size, Feather and Density control the area affected by the brush.

05 Dodge and burn
Finally, click Open Image to open up the main Photoshop editor. We used the Burn tool, set to 15%, to add vignetting and contrast to the sky, then the Dodge tool to lighten the tree and grass more.

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