Simplicity in landscape photography: simplicity using weather & long exposures
- Gary Holpin
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
In this series of blogs we're looking at one of the most important pillars in my 'Ten Pillars of Great Landscape Photography'; Simplicity. It's a topic that I've covered briefly before (see this blog) but as I gave a talk on this this topic to a local photography group recently, I thought I would cover it in a little more detail.
This is the second in a short series covering the main techniques for achieving simplicity. You can find previous blogs in the series here:
What is simplicity and why does it matter?
Simplicity in landscape photography is all about making images that are immediately readable. Instead of cramming lots of competing elements into the frame, you build the photograph around one clear idea.
You reduce the scene to its essentials so the viewer instantly understands what the picture is about, without being distracted by visual clutter. Put simply, it’s less, but better: fewer elements, a cleaner structure, and usually a single, strong subject.
Why does this matter? Simple images tend to be stronger and more enjoyable to look at. With fewer distractions, your main subject carries more weight, your story is clearer, and the photo has greater impact.
They’re also easier on the eye. Our brains work hard to untangle busy, chaotic scenes; clean, uncluttered images feel calmer and more inviting, which makes them stick in the memory for longer.
Finally, learning to simplify makes you a better photographer. It forces you to decide what really matters in the scene and to organise everything else around that choice. That’s why so many outstanding landscape photographs come down to one clear idea, shown cleanly, rather than an attempt to squeeze everything you saw into a single frame.
Ways to achieve simplicity
So how do we actually achieve simplicity in landscape photography? The encouraging thing is that there isn’t just one way to do it. You don’t need to use every possible technique – even a couple of well‑chosen approaches can make a big difference to your images.
I tend to think in terms of eight main ways to create simpler, stronger photos, ranging from decisions you make in the field through to choices you make later in editing. Some are very straightforward – such as picking a clean, uncomplicated subject or using the weather to your advantage. Others rely on more specific camera techniques, like long exposures or intentional camera movement.
The important thing is to see these as tools in your toolkit. Depending on the scene and the story you want to tell, you might use one approach or combine several; there’s no single “correct” recipe. In this blog we’ll focus on the first two of these methods, with the others to follow in future blogs.
Simplicity through weather
The next way to achieve simplicity is by working with the weather. Certain conditions naturally strip away detail and create cleaner compositions.
Fog and mist
These are brilliant for simplifying scenes. They soften background detail, reduce contrast, and provide even, gentle light. Instead of every distant tree and building competing for attention, you get simple shapes that fade away. Your subject stands out clearly against this plain backdrop, creating a calm, focused image.
Rain and snow
Snow covers ground clutter, delivering a clean white canvas with just a few dark shapes — your subject becomes instantly obvious. Rain mutes colours, softens textures, and obscures the distance (especially when shooting through falling rain). Both reduce visual noise so the key elements breathe.
The key point
Don't avoid challenging weather — seek it out. Fog, mist, rain, and snow all eliminate distractions and distil the scene to its essentials, letting your subject and mood take centre stage.
In the next images, you'll see this in practice.
Fog simplifies a woodland scene
The image above is a perfect example of how mist simplifies a scene.
This was taken in a bluebell wood on a foggy morning. Normally, a woodland scene can be incredibly busy and cluttered – hundreds of tree trunks, branches going in all directions, patches of light and dark – it's very difficult to create a simple composition. But the mist has done the work for me here. It's softened everything in the background, hiding all that detail and complexity. The further away things are, the more they fade into soft, atmospheric grey-green tones.
What you're left with is just a few sharp tree trunks in the foreground, some backlit leaves catching the sunlight, and those lovely rays of light coming through the trees. Everything else has been stripped away by the mist.
Why this works for simplicity
The mist creates a clean, soft background with very little detail. Your eye focuses on the main elements – the trees and that beautiful light – rather than getting lost in woodland clutter. The scene feels calm and atmospheric, despite being in what would normally be quite a complex environment.
This is a great example of getting out in conditions that others might avoid. Misty mornings can give you opportunities for really simple, striking images that would be impossible in clear weather.
The image above is a good example of how snow can simplify a landscape.
On a normal day, this rocky outcrop at Hay Tor would sit in a busy scene – patches of grass, heather, paths, texture in the ground. Here, a fresh fall of snow has done the tidying-up for us. It has covered the foreground in a smooth, almost featureless blanket of white and settled on the rocks in clean, graphic lines. Most of the small distractions have disappeared.
That leaves just two main elements: the dark, textured rocks on the left and the glowing sun on the horizon to the right. The rest of the frame is made up of simple blocks of tone and colour – pale snow, soft blue-grey cloud and a strip of warm orange light. Because there’s so little else going on, your eye moves very naturally between the rocks and the sun, without getting pulled away by clutter.
Why this works for simplicity
The snow has reduced the scene to a handful of shapes and colours. The empty foreground acts like negative space, the rocks provide a clear subject, and the sunset adds a strong point of interest and mood. It feels calm, spacious and uncluttered, even though the same location in different conditions could easily look chaotic.
Snowy conditions can give you wonderfully simple, graphic images that would be impossible to make on a normal, busy-looking day.
Simplicity through long exposure
The next way we can create simplicity is by using long exposures – keeping the shutter open for longer so that anything moving in the scene turns into blur.
We often think of this with water. Water surfaces with waves, ripples and broken reflections can be very busy and distracting, but with a slow shutter speed of several seconds they smooth out into a calm, flat surface. That removes a lot of clutter and lets your main subject – a rock, a pier, a boat – stand out much more clearly.
But it doesn’t just work with water. The same idea applies to moving clouds, which can turn into soft streaks across the sky, or car headlights and taillights, which become simple flowing lines rather than lots of individual vehicles. In each case, you’re swapping lots of small details for clean shapes and gentle blur.
To get shutter speeds that long in daylight you normally need a neutral density, or ND, filter – basically a dark piece of glass that goes in front of the lens to cut down the light. That lets you keep the shutter open without overexposing the picture.
So long exposures give you another way to simplify a scene: instead of trying to capture every tiny detail, you let movement turn into smooth tones and lines, and your main subject and structure of the image become much clearer. I’ll show you some examples next…
The image above is the Kennick Reservoir on Dartmoor, photographed on a very cloudy day using a very long exposure of around four minutes.
Without the long exposure, this scene would be full of small details – choppy ripples on the water, lots of separate clouds, lots of texture everywhere. By keeping the shutter open for so long, all that movement has been averaged out.
The water has become almost completely smooth and mirror‑like, which instantly simplifies the foreground and gives strong reflections of the trees. The clouds have turned into soft streaks radiating across the sky, rather than lots of individual shapes.
So instead of a busy scene, we now have a very simple structure: a band of trees, a smooth lake, and streaky clouds. Your eye goes to the island of trees and their reflection, and there’s not much else to distract you.
This is a good example of how a long exposure can turn an ordinary, slightly messy reservoir view into something much calmer and more minimalist, just by letting anything that moves blur away.
The image above is Teignmouth Pier on a bright but cloudy day, again using a very long exposure or a minute or so.
On a normal shutter-speed you’d see lots of individual waves, choppy reflections and quite a busy surface to the sea. By stretching the exposure, all that movement has blurred together into a completely smooth, almost glassy foreground.The same thing has happened in the sky – the clouds have softened into gentle bands of tone rather than lots of separate shapes.
That means the picture is now built from just a few simple elements: the pier running in from the left, the marker post on the right, and a smooth gradation of blue in the water and sky. Your eye goes straight to the structure of the pier and the little marker, with almost nothing else to distract you.
So again, the long exposure has taken a fairly busy seafront scene and turned it into something very calm, minimalist and graphic – which is exactly what we’re aiming for with simplicity.
Final words
If there’s one idea to take away from this article, it’s that simplicity is something you can choose and create, not just something that “happens” in a lucky shot. By working with the weather and experimenting with long exposures, you can remove clutter, calm the scene down and make your main subject much clearer.
On your next outing, try giving yourself two simple exercises. First, pay attention to the conditions: ask yourself, “What is the weather removing from this scene?” and look for angles where mist, snow (or maybe not in April!), rain or soft light help to hide distractions. Then, play with shutter speed. Take the same scene at a fast shutter to freeze movement, and then at a slower shutter to blur water or clouds, and see which version feels simpler and more peaceful.
The more you repeat these small experiments, the more natural they’ll become, and you’ll start to spot simple, clean images as soon as you arrive at a location. Next week we’ll continue the series with two more beginner‑friendly ways to simplify your landscapes and keep building stronger landscape photos.
Want help learning how to simplify your photos?
If you’d like to develop your eye for simplicity — and learn how to strip clutter from your images using weather conditions and long exposure — I cover all of this and more on my 1‑2‑1 and residential photography workshops here in Devon. We’ll work through real‑world landscapes together, from choosing clean, simple subjects to using aperture and viewpoint to create calmer, more focused compositions, all with your own camera and at your own pace, whatever your current level.
About Gary Holpin Photography
As a professional photographer based in Devon, my journey began along the stunning South West Coast Path. Disappointed with my initial attempts to capture its beauty, I embarked on a second 630-mile journey, this time dedicated to mastering photography. Today, I'm a nationally acclaimed photographer with award-winning landscape photos.
I specialize in providing top-notch property photography, business photography, and drone photography services to businesses across the South West. Additionally, I offer comprehensive photography training courses tailored for both businesses and individuals. Whether you're looking to enhance your corporate image or improve your personal photography skills, my training programs are designed to help you capture stunning images.
As an award-winning and widely published photographer, I frequently share my passion for photography and Devon through engaging talks at local camera clubs and community groups. My expertise spans the entire South West region, ensuring that clients from Devon, Dorset & Somerset benefit from high-quality photography services and training.
