How to photograph mountains in Britain
Fickle weather, rapidly changing light, long steep walks, vast empty landscapes... photographing Britain’s uplands is both rewarding and demanding. Safety is paramount. The weather can change quickly, so always take appropriate clothing, carry a map and compass and let someone know your route before setting off. Keep aware of your surroundings, especially when setting up shots near cliff edges or on steep slopes.
6 Tips for Mountain Photography
Getting to the right spot will usually require effort, so think about portability when it comes to camera gear. As well as a sturdy but lightweight tripod, consider limiting your kit to a couple of versatile zoom lenses: a wide-angle that allows you to capture foreground details as well as mountain vistas, and a mid-range zoom for compressing layers of ridges or picking out features like lone trees or buildings.
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Dealing with the sheer scale of highland areas and finding a composition that works can often feel overwhelming. Try looking for structure. Foreground interest, such as a group of boulders, a rock cairn or walkers’ bothy can anchor the scene, while lead-in lines – such as a footpath or drystone wall winding up a slope – can connect foreground and background.
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Don’t forget filters. Graduated ND filters help to balance bright skies with dark foregrounds, a polariser can reduce haze, enrich skies and cut through surface glare on mountain lakes, while ND filters slow shutter speeds – ideal for long exposures of mountain torrents or blurring the movement of wind-swept clouds, causing them to streak diagonally over the peaks and ridges.
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Layering involves using a telephoto lens to compress the layers of ridges that can often be seen in mountain regions and can be particularly effective in low light or when you have mist in the valleys.
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In contrast to the often flat light of midday, early-morning and late-afternoon sunlight casts long shadows from ridges, rocky outcrops and drystone walls, highlighting the contours and textures of a mountain slope. Low sun also adds warmth to autumn-gilded bracken or moorland cloaked in heather. At any time of day, stormy conditions can lead to shafts of sunlight breaking through brooding skies and spotlighting distant ridges, mountain lakes or valley farms.
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If you want to capture a panorama of a mountain view, a single frame might not do it justice. Instead, shoot several overlapping images with your camera on a tripod, then stitch them together using the Photo Merge feature in Lightroom.
