Washed out Skies: The camera is a machine following rules. The exposure meter cannot get everything right. Nowadays meters are pretty advanced but yet they do get fooled. Basically what happens is that when more of your frame contains land the camera gives you exposure reading for exposing the land correctly but the sky is brighter than the land so the details of the sky are lost. The reverse happens when your frame contains more of the sky. The meter exposes the sky correctly and darkens the land. How to solve this dilemma? First understand how the meter works. Read "Ansel Adams" "Zone System", (see the last 2 links in this article) written decades ago but still serving as an anthem to photographers who want to get perfect exposures. You can use a neutral graduated filter to cut off excess light in the sky or use HDR. You could also shoot at times of the day when the light ratio between land and sky is not too high, dawn and dusk
Colorless: The best natural lighting during the day is at dawn and dusk and remains only for a few minutes. The color of the landscape is vivid during this time and very soothing. As the sun goes higher the contrast (read dynamic range) in the scene increases which also has a negative impact on color. Man made objects can still look colorful at different times of the day provided you select a good angle to shoot them from. Sometimes it is better to shoot in the shade than in direct sunlight. Use of a polarizing filter also helps in getting better colors. Clouds can have a funny effect on color. White clouds on blue skies render great landscape shots but gray dark clouds take color away and make almost everything appear gray. Long exposures and a little bit of PS can actually give you fantastic shots during such conditions
Composition and Framing: Although you can make the camera capture the scene your eyes see and tell you "this is a great scene", remember that the eye has almost a 180 degree view and almost infinite "dynamic range", a fantastic self adjusting aperture giving magical DOF and it is dynamic, i.e. it does not capture a moment but actually captures a series of moments and your brain interprets these.The camera has no brain to interpret thus it is left to the person viewing the picture to interpret it. Composition is the "art" in photography. Don't just snapshoot a landscape:
Have some interest in the foreground: This gives the picture depth. In other words it gives a feeling of the distance between where you are and where your subject is or where your subject is and the background
Framing: Have some element provide a natural frame to the picture, like tree branches or an arch of a gateway etc. this holds the attention of the viewer within the frame
Balance: Have elements arranged in the frame so that one part is not too heavy and the other barren
These are just some tips, you can read about composition in detail here:
Nice check list again PV. :) Thanks!!
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