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5 Easy Tips for Landscapes // Mobile Photography for Beginners Pt. 3
In this third episode of my series on mobile photography for beginners, I will share 5 easy tips to take some amazing landscapes photos using only your phone (features the Google Pixel 4a). We will discuss the rule of thirds, using a foreground subject, using the Portrait Mode, different angles, the best weather, and times of day and much more!
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📖 CHAPTERS 📖
00:00 - Introduction
00:24 - Tip #1: The rule of thirds
01:31 - Tip #2: Add a foreground
02:16 - Tip #3: Use the Portrait Mode
02:48 - Tip #4: Add a person!
03:11 - Tip #5: Weather & Light
04:00 - Conclusion
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- Welcome to this episode, in my series on mobile photography for beginners. In this episode you will learn five tips on how to take some great landscape photos. (dramatic music) I'm Loïc Bellemare-Alford, and in this series I share some tips and tricks that I learned by taking thousands of pictures using my phone. Landscape photography is my favorite type of photography, so let's get right into it. My first tip is the rule of thirds. If you haven't already, go inside of your camera settings and enable a three by three grid. Once this is done, the rule states that your subject should be either on the line of third or ideally on an intersection of two of the lines. If we have a pretty typical scene right here, so we have a nice mountain, we have a lake, and some sky. We actually want to make sure that the mountains here, which is our subject, is either on the bottom line or on the top line, here to get a little bit more of the sky or the water inside of it. A little pro tip is actually take your camera and turn it around here to take more of the sky inside of the shot or more of the water, depending on which is most interesting. So this is really great if you have a sunset, or something like that, where you want to get more sky inside of your image. (gentle music) (gentle upbeat music) One of the best tips I can give you for landscape photos is to add a foreground subject. A foreground subject is anything that is in front of your main subject. For us, our main subject is going to be the mountains in the background. So we could use the bush that is right in front here to add it as a foreground subject, but it could be anything else like rocks, sand, or anything else that you think looks good in the foreground of your image. Don't forget your rule of thirds. You want to make sure that you have this in the bottom right corner or anything that respects the rule of thirds and keep your background subject, also using the rule of thirds. The reason why adding a foreground subject is so useful is that it creates layers inside of your image, which add more depth inside of your image, and makes it a bit more complex and more interesting to look at. One well kept secret inside of landscape photography using your phone, is actually to use your portrait mode. So this will allow to select if you want to have your foreground or your background blurry inside of the image. By blurring the foreground, or the background, it's actually going to allow you to get some images that are much simpler. Another a little pro tip when taking pictures using your phone is actually to turn it around and face downwards with the camera if you want to get closer to the ground and get an even more interesting shots right here. My next tip is definitely going to seem completely unintuitive, but it's to add a person inside of your shot. The reason why you want to do this is to fill a part of the image that might be a little bit boring or to show a sense of scale. So for example, it could be somebody kayaking on the lake, or if you get to the top of the mountain, you could put a timer on your camera, walk away, to really show how big mountains are around you. My last tip is one that's usually misunderstood by beginner landscape photographers and is that you need the right light and the right weather conditions to get amazing shots. If you take a picture at sunrise, in the middle of the day of a blue sunny sky, at night, at sunset, or at blue hour, they're all going to be completely different results. You usually want to take a picture of a landscape at sunrise, sunset, blue hour, or in the middle of the day when you have gloomy skies, because these are the places where you're going to get the best results. This is also a reason why pro photographers tend to go back to the same location multiple times because they're waiting to get the perfect weather conditions and the perfect light to get an amazing landscape photograph. So it's not just luck, it's a lot of time just going back to the same places and taking the same picture over and over again until you get the perfect conditions for your landscape shot. I hope you enjoyed this episode on landscape photography using your mobile device. If you did, please let me know by hitting the like button below and definitely subscribe for more videos on mobile photography. See you in the next one. Bye-bye. (gentle music)
Video Links
- 👉 OTHER EPISODES
- Instagram: @loic.bellemare.alford ()
- TikTok
- My online store
- Affiliate link for Epidemic Sound
- https://kit.co/loic.bellemare.alford/youtube-gear
- DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo
- 128 gb MicroSD card
- Canon 6D Mk
- Google Pixel 4a
- Canon ZOOM LENS EF24-105mm F4L IS II USM
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 Lens
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L-IS II USM Lens
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- DJI MAVIC AIR
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What is this video about?
In this third part of my mobile photography for beginners series, I'm sharing five concrete tips that'll help you take stunning landscape photos using nothing but your phone. I've learned these tricks by taking thousands of pictures on my Google Pixel 4a, and landscape photography is honestly my favorite type of photography, so this feels like the perfect place to share what works.
The first tip is the rule of thirds. I always recommend enabling that three-by-three grid in your camera settings if you haven't already. The idea is simple: place your subject either on one of those lines or ideally at an intersection. So if you're shooting a mountain with a lake and sky, you might want the mountain on the bottom line to show more water, or on the top line to capture more sky. It depends on what's most interesting in your scene.
My second tip is adding a foreground subject. This could be rocks, a bush, sand, anything in front of your main subject. It creates layers and depth, making the image more complex and visually compelling instead of just showing a distant mountain.
Here's something that surprises people: I recommend using portrait mode for landscapes. It lets you blur either the foreground or background, simplifying the image and drawing attention to what matters. You can also physically turn your phone downward and get closer to the ground for even more interesting angles.
The fourth tip is to add a person to your shot. I know it sounds counterintuitive for landscapes, but a person fills empty space and shows scale. Think someone kayaking in a lake or standing on a mountain to show how vast the landscape really is.
Finally, and this one gets misunderstood often: light and weather matter enormously. Sunrise, sunset, blue hour, or even gloomy midday skies produce completely different and usually better results than harsh noon sun. This is actually why professional photographers return to the same location over and over—they're waiting for those perfect conditions. It's not luck; it's patience and timing.