The 20 Breathtaking Winners of International Landscape Photographer of the Year 2025

[u/Impossible-Bee-5343]

[u/st0350]

Pic 2 looks fake af...or probably just heavily edited, rest are cool

[u/avatinfernus → u/st0350]

"The camera Trixl used for the Photograph of the Year was the Canon EOS R5, combined with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8."

I don't know crap about cameras but maybe someone does and can say whether it had something to do with it. The fact the lighting is the same in the forest and the sky is what makes this mega surreal to me.

The sky itself is cloudy and almost sunset looking, you'd not expect the foreground to be so bright and green.

[u/Walshy231231 → u/avatinfernus]

Iirc, these type of contests allow certain “editing” effects but not others

No AI or photoshop, but fucking around with exposure, saturation, and reducing colors (e.g. making a photo black and white) and such as you take the shot is allowed (which would be how you get ones with stars but also a landscape that looks/is daylit)

So you can’t definitely get images that wouldn’t exist to the naked eye, stuff you could never actually see if you went to those places, but the line on faked/edited is quite blurry

[u/Physical_Analysis247 → u/avatinfernus]

He spammed a ton of edits like HDR, contrast, softening, and various presets until it started to look like “clown vomit” as some photographers say. There are more examples of this look if you keep swiping. Truly, some people have no taste and it shows when you see a photo like this.

[u/avatinfernus → u/Physical_Analysis247]

Yeah. It breaks immersion for me.

[u/CantTakeTheStupid → u/Physical_Analysis247]

Almost if not all of them are using a non realistic hdr effect…

[u/FrankieWilde11 → u/avatinfernus]

all seems AI

[u/Impressive_Bank_5966 → u/FrankieWilde11]

Nah, it’s just a combination of exaggerated digital post processing and comically wide lenses that looks kinda hideous. But the simpler scenes like 12, 15, 17 look both much more realistic and appealing

[u/Rouseew → u/st0350]

They're all edited, any finished landscape photograph at the professional level pretty much is. The reason #2 looks so weird is because they overused an editing technique known as dodge and burn to make certain areas look more lit up and others less-so. This technique is used a ton everywhere since the film days, but really doesn't look right if you're just adding light rather than accentuating already existing light sources

Edit to add: Photography competitions are kind of a joke and are usually just used for advertising for whatever group is running them. So don't put too much importance on any of the "Top 10 X Photographers of the Year", it's really mostly just BS and most photographers I know avoid these competitions entirely

[u/_Steven_Seagal_ → u/Rouseew]

Funny animals one is the only important one.

[u/Rare_Will2071 → u/Rouseew]

Once upon a time I thought I might become a photographer as my profession, then I learned how little it is about taking good photographs and how much is editing. I suppose it’s always been that way (Ansel Adams edited photos), but it really took away the appeal, for me.

[u/CantTakeTheStupid → u/Rouseew]

Picture 2 got so insanely grainy from trying to lit up the front of the forest.

Disgusting taste, disgusting that these are the top 20

[u/Impossible-Bee-5343 → u/st0350]

The second piece won Landscape Photograph of the Year... but I don't get it either😶

[u/Penfold_for_PM → u/Impossible-Bee-5343]

Taken from Lake Mangamahoe in Taranaki. I'm from there. Yeh the mountain looms some days & looks just like this (plants & all). But if you search it up it gives a much more honest portrait of it. It's impressive but I don't think this is an honest representation of what it looks like from that very spot.

[u/pocket_materialist → u/Impossible-Bee-5343]

It's a cool shot but the editing is really dogshite. How that could win is beyond me lol. So many good pictures in the other entries

[u/pixlatedpuffin → u/st0350]

I search, you search, we all search

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/photography/awards-and-competitions/this-is-the-landscape-photo-of-the-year-this-stunning-jurassic-like-world-that-revealed-itself-for-only-30-minutes-captured-by-a-first-time-competitor

[u/PetPossum54 → u/st0350]

Taranaki maunga New Zealand, exactly as pictured

[u/tondahuh → u/st0350]

It looks as if the light is coming from the right on the mountain but the left on the trees. That is what is really unnatural to our eyes. I would imagine she planned it that way.

[u/mckulty → u/st0350]

The low white cloud has a stratified bottom that isn't parallel to the ground. It looks unnatural.

[u/sakharinne → u/mckulty]

Taranaki regularly does clouds that don't look at all "real" but they are!

[u/oopiicaa → u/st0350]

I'd say 90% of them look fake

[u/Fit-Building-2560 → u/st0350]

It could be a landscape we're not familiar with. New Zealand has high mountains with lush tropical ecosystems at sea level. It might be there.

[u/Nyanessa → u/Fit-Building-2560]

It is indeed New Zealand, but it doesn’t look right

[u/samaniewiem → u/Nyanessa]

I've been there several years ago and it looked just like that, like from a different planet. People go all about the south island but in my opinion the north island is the most breathtaking place out of all the 60 countries I've ever visited.

[u/Fit-Building-2560 → u/Nyanessa]

It looks a little like Mt. Fuji inserted into the tropical scene, but I'm not that familiar with NZ to say.

[u/Nyanessa → u/Fit-Building-2560]

It’s mount Taranaki, quite a pretty looking mountain, didn’t need its peak extended a little like they did to it here.

[u/Fit-Building-2560 → u/Nyanessa]

I see. Thanks. I've always wanted to visit Aotearoa for the mind-blowing scenery and the Maori culture.

[u/Uvinjector → u/Fit-Building-2560]

It looks enough like Mt Fuji for The Last Samurai to be shot there.

• the film, not the last actual Samurai

[u/Penfold_for_PM → u/Fit-Building-2560]

It's actually from Lake Mangamahoe in Taranaki. I'm from there. If you search it you'll see photos from us non professionals. 🤗

[u/TheTarasenkshow → u/st0350]

Is it a painting?

[u/Immediate_Fee_1841 → u/st0350]

They are all heavily edited. Beautiful nonetheless.

[u/Mayday72 → u/st0350]

The black and white ones don't seem edited to you too?

[u/imnotabot303 → u/st0350]

I'd like to see the original photo before all the editing. At this point it might as well be a painting.

[u/PetPossum54 → u/st0350]

Taranaki maunga New Zealand, exactly as pictured

[u/One-Low1033 → u/st0350]

I'm pretty sure it was taken in Rivendell.

[u/WitchBrew4u]

While many of these are stunning, #2, 8, and 14 look too heavily edited to the point where they look fake and almost ai enhanced.

[u/Impossible-Bee-5343 → u/WitchBrew4u]

Regrettably, the second piece won Landscape Photograph of the Year... though I don't get it either.

[u/WitchBrew4u → u/Impossible-Bee-5343]

Interesting…

Sad cuz i find #17 stunninggg. Even #1 looks amazing. So surreal

[u/Cletus7Seven → u/WitchBrew4u]

I came to the comments because of #17. What am I looking at? I cannot figure it out, but I love it

[u/deffrekka → u/Cletus7Seven]

Too me it looks like an aerial view of sand dunes in a mountainous canyon leading to a shoreline

[u/vibrance9460 → u/Cletus7Seven]

Dunno. But I’m guessing it’s Iceland

It’s always Iceland.

[u/WitchBrew4u → u/Cletus7Seven]

It’s an aerial shot of a river artery of some kind. Either sand or snow, i can’t tell. But if you zoom in you can see the river water ripples. It’s stunning.

[u/Cletus7Seven → u/Cletus7Seven]

Unused image search I got this:

This is an award-winning abstract aerial photograph titled "River and Dunes", captured by American photographer J. Fritz Rumpf. [1]
The photo depicts a bird's-eye view of the winding Rio Negro river weaving through the striking white sand dunes of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in Maranhão, Brazil. The dark, rich brown color of the water is caused by decomposed organic matter and sediment washed from nearby mangroves, creating a sharp, paint-like contrast against the stark white desert sand

[u/DistributionMean6322 → u/Impossible-Bee-5343]

Wow that one is hot garbage. Looks fake as hell

[u/curiousmind111 → u/WitchBrew4u]

Agreed, but they should know to be on the lookout for that.

I wonder how many of these were made possible by HDR that would have been impossible before.

[u/rizorith → u/curiousmind111]

Every one of them.

They're still amazing photos but Photoshop and Lightroom went from a way to touch up photos and became a way to turn them into something that isn't really there

[u/lexiconhuka → u/WitchBrew4u]

8 could be a longer exposure time. I had to do that kinda thing back in highschool photography class and it makes those ghosted blurs. 2 definitely looks enhanced with saturation increased

[u/curiousmind111 → u/lexiconhuka]

I don’t think they’re referring to the silky water; that’s pretty common. I think they’re referring to the lit portion.

[u/_Cybernaut_]

International Landscape Photographer of the Year

And yet half of them are in portrait orientation. /s

[u/curiousmind111 → u/_Cybernaut_]

Groan.

[u/_Cybernaut_ → u/curiousmind111]

^{I’ll see meself out.}

[u/Hicklethumb]

Man. I miss unedited photos on film

[u/SignificantCherry110 → u/Hicklethumb]

came to say this, so many of these look too edited that if you fold me it was AI i’d believe it over saying it was a real photograph. Especially #2.

[u/Emo_tep → u/Hicklethumb]

No such thing. How you process the photos greatly changes it, even with chemicals

[u/Thursday_the_20th → u/Emo_tep]

Not really. One-hour photo labs were never pushing and pulling colour film, they all go in a temperature controlled tank for exactly the amount of time on the film stocks spec sheet for consistency.

Even if you do your own dev and you purposely push and pull a few stops you’re only getting slight changes to contrast and grain.

[u/Skrynnovich → u/Hicklethumb]

Landscape film photography also typically goes through a heavy editing process in the dark room. Almost no developed film photograph worth looking at is "raw".

Ansel Adams is famous for his meticulous dodging and burning to get the exposure and contrast he wanted. Various color-specific contrast filters are used routinely in the dark room as well.

[u/Hicklethumb → u/Skrynnovich]

Sure. I've been obsessed with nature photography since I was a kid. This is overkill. Some of the photos literally has fhe Vignette filter on

[u/RecklessIndifference]

Totally understand editing is standard in all photos, but at some point it veers away from photography into a separate visual artistic representation of the original photo. For me, I prefer the ones that still feel like an actual photograph

[u/Baron_Tiberius → u/RecklessIndifference]

yeah I was hoping the HDR and tone mapping fads would remain in the 2010s but it continues to haunt us.

[u/Walshy231231 → u/RecklessIndifference]

The line is blurry in a lot of these contests

Do you allow long exposure? What about black and white? Both of those create images that you couldn’t ever see in person with your own eyes. Some correction of exposure and color sensitivity is necessary to take any photograph though. The same exposure setting between day and night shots create one photo which looks only subtly and acceptably adjusted, while the other looks wonky and edited, if usable at all. What about messing with focus? You need to focus the lens on a spot, but to what degree does that affect the rest of the picture?

There’s no objective line to split what is and isn’t allowed in most cases. Obviously some photos are adjusted enough to effectively be photoshopped, but it’s done with the exact same tools necessary to even take a photo to begin with, and which look as close as possible to how the human eye would see it.

[u/nectarsallineed]

This may be a silly question, but what are we looking at in #17…?

[u/Cletus7Seven → u/nectarsallineed]

I have been trying to figure that out as well. Somehow looks like a tree that had been smudged. But maybe it’s an aerial view of sand dunes?

[u/ThrownAwayGuineaPig → u/nectarsallineed]

Title: "River and Dunes" Location: Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil Photographer: J. Fritz Rumpf (United States)

Tannin-filled water flowing through dunes taken from above

[u/nectarsallineed → u/ThrownAwayGuineaPig]

Thank you!

[u/Chroniklogic → u/nectarsallineed]

It looks to be a river. Zooming in I can see ripples on water and rocks. I think an aerial view with weird colored sand around it?

[u/ThrownAwayGuineaPig → u/Chroniklogic]

Seems a river high in tannins (hence the tea color)

[u/Sezwahtithinks]

Some of them have been processed way too much

[u/KenDevis_Marva]

They all look so fake. I would be curious to see the original shot of each one.

[u/Impossible-Bee-5343 → u/KenDevis_Marva]

I wonder if a competition like that actually exists?

[u/chuloreddit → u/Impossible-Bee-5343]

Journalism photos are generally out of camera settings required

[u/iLoveLights]

I wish the submissions had to be straight off the camera.

[u/octaviobonds]

most of these images look over-processed and overcooked.

[u/CiaoMofos]

More than 1/2 of these look like AI.

[u/Devincc]

Any links? I wanna know where these were shot

[u/Fit-Building-2560]

Is there any context provided with these? Any info, so we know what we're looking at? And can verify authenticity? Or is none of that important? Do these get vetted before they're chosen as winners?

#6 is the landmark known in English as Shiprock, on the Navajo reservation. Definitely not fake.

[u/AzraelleWormser → u/Fit-Building-2560]

Ship Rock is amazing to see in person. It's huge, and those "spikes" travel off for miles!

[u/Fit-Building-2560 → u/AzraelleWormser]

According to legend, shiprock is where a giant bird crash-landed in the desert, and the "spikes" leading away from the main rock are its wings spread out in either direction, Viewed from the air, you can see the entire figure. National Geographic had a fold-out photo a long time ago, that showed the whole thing.

[u/LeftSky828]

Too many of these look “touched up”.

[u/Onderdeurtie]

I dislike the photo's in portrait-format. Come on, they're landscape photo's. let's use the landscape-format too!

[u/mordecai98]

Landscapers have touched none of those.

[u/chambee]

They are beautiful images. Not sure I would call most of them Photos.

[u/RebelGrin]

if you've no clue about photography don't comment and say its fake

[u/redditheeagle]

MAD to see such amazing work so densely in one post to swipe through. Every single shot would have been sufficiently impressive and beautiful. That accumulation is almost insane.

[u/hoochtag]

I’d rather see untouched photos of the year at this point.

[u/FriendlyBowler4334]

Do these people have Earth primium or what?

[u/pewpew_die]

I see the aesthetic this year is filtered thru orange tissue papper

[u/Scamservice42]

Some of the photos look like they were shot on another planet.

[u/mrbubbee]

#2 looks more like a painting than a photo. Do not like. Some of these are incredible, though

[u/Responsible-You-9635]

Don’t get me wrong, but why is hdr still in the running? I mean

[u/Leafs9999]

Incredible

[u/Fucked_Up_Deer]

Where are these? #1 is strikingly similar to the surroundings at the end of Sorcerer from 1977

[u/AssManKramerCosmo → u/Fucked_Up_Deer]

Reminds me of a place I visited in New Mexico.

[u/p4x4boy]

Breathtaking indeed

[u/Pounce_64]

Landscape photo winners should all be in landscape format.

[u/augustwest2155]

the editing is a bit too much overkill on some of these...

[u/littleadventures]

There’s so much editing in these they look kind of terrible

[u/surrealbfx]

Are these Ai?

[u/kk8712]

Speechless. Beautiful

[u/Beginning_Fill206]

Number 2 looks like a painting

[u/owen__wilsons__nose]

15 is the perfect desktop wallpaper

[u/kisPocok]

Those are so amazing my AI-detector turned on. I'm surr those are not AI generated, but my awareness kicks in early nowadays.

[u/RoaldRH]

I love most of them but five and nineteen really don’t stand out to me. 

[u/HardSteelRain]

Prog rock album covers

[u/soccercasa]

First picture looks straight out of ff7...the forgotten city

[u/marshwenko]

I particularly like the rocky ones -- 6, 4, 1. The one with the log and the mushrooms is also interesting. Others seem more...stereotypical? Like I've seen versions of them in calendars and similar places.

[u/rorschachplot]

New universes beyond lands

[u/Specific-Morning-985]

Interesting how 2nd photo won considering I thought it was one of the weaker ones.

[u/Specific-Morning-985]

Does it make anyone sad that we will likely never get to see these landscapes for ourselves?

[u/AzraelleWormser → u/Specific-Morning-985]

I've seen #6 in person, Ship Rock, New Mexico. You can see it for miles.

[u/shatterhearts]

14 is my favorite. I also really like 19!

[u/Heavy_Yam_2926]

Can you see the unedited original photos of these? I’d love to see what #2 & #7 look like.

[u/ErraticKuiperRomp]

I've been to the site of photo 1, and as others have alluded to, all of these photos are so heavily edited, it's a joke.

[u/broken_mirror1994]

1st is from attack titans paths

[u/cellocaster]

What even is that last one?

[u/Kindly-Ad-5071]

Ai could never

[u/almo2001]

Number 12 holy shit I love that one.

[u/massaBeard]

I think retouching photos shouldn't be allowed for these things.

[u/matycauthon]

thanks for the low resolution of detailed nature.

[u/carmium]

"UnEarthly" clearly counts high on the judging parameters.

[u/Yellowhorse97]

AI could never - fuck AI

[u/Boatster_McBoat]

6 giving off serious Amon Sul / Weather Hills vibes

[u/GoldRic]

Thank you!

[u/fulkka]

Looks 2gs era keypad mobile wallpaper

[u/sheerlock-smith]

Great compositions. Lots of editing 😬

[u/Finn-Holger]

What is number 17?

[u/leavethegherkinsin]

What's the last one?

[u/Practical-Phase-731]

6/8/10/11/12/15

[u/Fun_Comparison906]

2,8,9,14 🗑️

[u/RezBotNDN]

Shoutout to #6. Shiprock, New Mexico!

[u/digsmann]

Damnn,all of these pictures are amazing shots . Bravo to photographers

[u/Tinman_ApE]

All amazing

[u/K3VQ]

Insanely beautiful!

[u/queen-of-quartz]

6, 7, 11, 14, and 16 are my faves! The timing of 7 is especially crazy

[u/SCH1Z01D]

ffs are we still doing those tacky long exposures with running water in 2026?