Course description

Light on a hillside, a wall leading to the fells, waves around a rock at sunrise: landscape photos like these come from knowing when to go, where to stand and what to do with your camera or phone when you get there. This course shows you how, step by step, for the British countryside and coast, whatever you use to take your photos.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, and each one ends with a short Try it exercise. You follow two people through 2026: Meabh, a part-time bookkeeper in Skipton who walks in the Yorkshire Dales and has just bought her first proper camera, and her friend Adewale, a train conductor from Keighley who photographs only with his phone. You'll see their mistakes as well as their successes, from grey snow and soft foregrounds to a waterfall with an ND filter and a first night sky. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, example answers, a cheat sheet and printable tools, including an exposure card, a histogram guide, a focus and depth guide, a light guide, a seasonal calendar, a shot planner, a location scouting checklist, composition worksheets, subject cards, a safety plan, a night sky checklist and an editing checklist.

What you'll learn

• Getting started with landscapes: what makes a landscape photo work, choosing and using a phone, compact, mirrorless or DSLR camera, tripods and filters that help, and a first walk with the Countryside Code.
• Exposure for landscapes: aperture and depth of field, shutter speeds for wind and water, reading the histogram to protect the sky, exposure compensation for snow and mist, and bracketing and HDR.
• Focus and front-to-back sharpness: where to focus, hyperfocal distance in plain words, focusing a landscape on a phone, focus stacking in outline, and finding the cause of a soft photo.
• Light: golden hour and blue hour, overcast days, mist and drizzle, side light and back light, storms, rainbows and snow, and how British light changes through the seasons.
• Planning a landscape shoot: sunrise and sunset times and directions, reading a forecast for cloud, wind and visibility, tide tables, scouting a location, and the one-page shot planner.
• Composition: foreground detail, leading lines, the rule of thirds and level horizons, layers, depth and scale, and simple, uncluttered photos.
• Landscape subjects: the coast, hills and mountains, woodland, waterfalls with slow shutter speeds and ND filters, and villages and farmland.
• After dark, access, safety and people: a first night sky photo, rights of way and access in all four UK nations, safety on hills and the coast with 999 for Mountain Rescue and the Coastguard, people and privacy, and the drone rules in brief.
• Editing landscapes: a simple editing routine in any app or software, crop and straighten, sky and land, natural colour, and sharpening, noise and dust spots.
• Sharing, printing and your final project: sharing online responsibly, print sizes and shapes, building a portfolio, and a final project of 12 landscapes.

Who it's for

Walkers, travellers and anyone who enjoys the outdoors in the UK and wants better photos of it, with a camera or a phone. You don't need any previous experience of landscape photography. If you're new to your camera's controls, the course recaps what a landscape needs and points you to Rootlet's Digital Photography for Beginners or Smartphone Photography for Beginners for the full basics.

Staying safe and welcome outdoors

Landscape photography takes you to hills, moors and the coast, often early or late in the day. The course builds in the Countryside Code, rights of way and access in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, tides, edges, cold water and what to do in an emergency, so you can enjoy the outdoors safely and keep good relations with the people who live and work there. It gives general information, not legal advice.

What will I learn?

• Choose settings for sharp, well-exposed landscapes on a camera or phone, including aperture, shutter speed, ISO and exposure compensation
• Read the histogram to protect a bright sky, and bracket or use HDR when one frame can't hold the scene
• Place your focus point so a landscape is sharp from the nearest rock to the far hills, and find the cause of a soft photo
• Use golden hour, blue hour, overcast light, mist, changing weather and the seasons
• Plan a shoot with sunrise and sunset times and directions, a weather forecast, tide tables and a one-page shot planner
• Compose with foreground detail, leading lines, the rule of thirds, layers, scale and simplicity
• Photograph the coast, hills, woodland, waterfalls, villages and farmland, and take a first night sky photo
• Follow the Countryside Code and the access rules in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and respect people's privacy
• Stay safe on hills and the coast, and know how to call 999 for Mountain Rescue or the Coastguard
• Edit, share and print your landscapes, and present a final set of 12

Frequently asked questions