One of my favorite books about photography is Guy Tal’s “More than a Rock”. It is in an extraordinary, thoughtful narrative on the art of photography. Not the craft, not the technique, and certainly not the technology.
In one portion he discusses how people describe an image they see. Let’s try it here:
Describe the Scene
Take a moment and look at this image I made a few nights ago: the sunset near Salida, Colorado. Think of a few words you’d use to describe it. 
If you are anything like me you probably came up with words like “dark”, “foreboding”, “threatening”, “ominous”, “stormy” or any number of emotional adjectives.
And I’ll bet you didn’t, despite the subject matter, use words like: “cactus”, “sagebrush”, “mountains”, or even “sunset”. The actual elements in the frame rarely come to mind when we are asked to describe a photograph. But the mood of the image, the way it makes us feel, that does.
Tal makes this point in his book: the emotional reaction comes first when viewers see a photo. And it should play a primary role in the creation of our images.
Yet photographers rarely consider mood in their practice. The mood of their images is rarely intentional, but a natural side-effect of whatever they were photographing.
Mood should not be relegated to the back burner. It matters, and it should be considered right along with camera settings and composition. Indeed the mood you wish to achieve should be a driving force of both settings and composition.
Example
The two photos below are nearly identical in composition, and made within seconds of one another. And yet they have a very different mood. The top one is a pleasant scene. Perhaps it holds a sense of relief of clearing storms, brightness for the future, hope even. While the second photo is something else entirely. Those bright blue skies that seem to be clearing to make way for sun in the first image, have become dark and ominous, and far less cheerful. That’s mood. Same composition, totally different emotions.
What are you feeling in the moment?
Case in point: the sunset I was photographing a few nights ago. This scene was dramatic in a dark and kind of ominous way. The rain and virga being lit up by the setting sun was the brightest part of the scene. The sun rarely tapped the clouds themselves. This left a bright streak of red/orange right along the mountain front, the rest of the sky a stormy mosaic. But it wasn’t just how the scene looked, it was also how it felt, and even sounded. This can’t be captured in the visual aspects of an image, but we can try to convey those auditory and tactile aspects using mood.
When I made these photos, thunder was rumbling as the afternoon storms blew themselves out. Wind blew toward the remaining cells as their lower pressure inhaled the surrounding air. These sensations, accompanied by the line of blood-red falling rain along the horizon, made for an image that looked like, as one social media viewer said, “a real-life Mordor”.
And that was much of the mood I was going for in the field. Dark, grim, ominous. threatening. Those were the words running through my head in the field, and later in front of the computer.
How do you use mood in landscape photography?
First, consider what you are feeling in the moment. Are you feeling threatened by the weather, or landscape? Afraid even? Or is this a cheery moment? Joy? Sorrow? Elation? Pensive? Reflective? Mysterious? Then take that emotion and consider what it means visually to represent those things.
Composition
Is there a part of your scene that most embodies the emotion you are trying to convey? One dead twig rising from the reflective pond may more clearly convey your sense of sorrow than a larger scene with many competing elements. In my case, it was the juxtaposition of the black mountains and storm clouds, with the thin band of scarlet.
Depth
If a single element of your scene, like the twig, is most important, then a shallow depth of field may be appropriate. Or, as in my sunset scene, the prickly desert vegetation and rough rocks were as vital to my scene as the mountains and clouds, then a deep depth of field was necessary.
Exposure
Most often, bright sunlight, and saturated colors will work well with cheery moods. While dark exposures (even very dark, like these) will portray a more ominous, or gloomy emotion. It’s not a rule, think it through in the field and make your decision there.
But also, be pragmatic. You still want to retain the details you will need later in the digital darkroom. In this case, I made some sketch images, exposed how I envisioned the final image (dark), but I also made several brighter photos, that retained shadow detail sufficiently so I could work with every part of the image in the computer. The images you see here were mostly made from the brighter photos.
Conclusion
When making landscape photographs, consider the mood. While this will help guide your compositions and settings, it will also help you more deeply experience the moment. I’ve always seen photography as a way to more deeply involve myself within the world. To be a part of the scene, not simply capture it. By considering how we feel, or rather, how the landscape makes us feel, we are more aware, alert, and involved in the moment. In that state of mind, photography can become a meditation as well as a creative endeavor. And our memories, like mine of the blood-red sky, the wet-wind, flashes of distant lightning and rumbling thunder, become rich, and deeply ingrained. In other words, better.
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