The Best Photography Locations in Los Angeles
By Serge Ramelli
Los Angeles doesn't look like a photography city until you actually go looking for it — then it's everywhere: a canal neighborhood that looks like Italy, a pier vanishing into the fog, and a hillside sign that's been photographed a million times but still has angles nobody uses. Here's what I shot on this trip, spot by spot, with the before and after so you can see exactly what the edit changes.
One quick tip: LA is a city of long drives between very different light. The coast (Venice, Malibu) wants overcast or blue hour for smooth long exposures; the Hollywood Hills want the last direct light of sunset. Don't try to do both in one golden hour — plan the coast for one session and the hills for another.
1. The Venice Canals
📍 Venice Canal Historic District (33.9850, -118.4695)
A genuine surprise if you've never been — a grid of real canals lined with colorful houses and a handful of arched white footbridges, built in 1905 to recreate Venice, Italy. It's a quiet residential neighborhood, so shoot respectfully from the public walkways and bridges.
This is also the best spot on the trip to slow down and actually test your settings instead of guessing: on one overcast morning I ran the same three compositions at different apertures and shutter speeds, just to see how the light and depth of field changed as the clouds moved. Here are three of those before/afters — same canal, three different angles and exposures.
Before (RAW) — centered view:
After (retouched):
📷 Sony A7R V · f/8 · 1/100s · ISO 100
🖼️ Want this as a print, for your website, or for a campaign? License it here — ref. LA-01
Before (RAW) — angled toward the houses:
After (retouched):
🖼️ Want this as a print, for your website, or for a campaign? License it here — ref. LA-02
Before (RAW) — on the white footbridge:
After (retouched):
📷 Sony A7R V · f/6.3 · 1/250s · ISO 100
🖼️ Want this as a print, for your website, or for a campaign? License it here — ref. LA-03
2. Venice Pier
📍 Venice Pier (33.9853, -118.4779)
A few minutes from the canals, Venice Pier gives you the classic California composition: a long concrete pier on pilings, waves rolling underneath. I shot this one long exposure — two full seconds — to smooth the surf into fog, then converted to black and white since the overcast sky had no color worth keeping anyway.
Before (RAW):
After (retouched, black and white):
Best time: Overcast, with a tripod — a slow shutter needs stable light and a stable camera.
📷 Sony A7R V · f/4 · 2s · ISO 100 (tripod)
🖼️ Want this as a print, for your website, or for a campaign? License it here — ref. LA-04
3. Malibu Pier
📍 Malibu Pier (34.0369, -118.6786)
Further up the coast, Malibu Pier has a completely different character — the white lifeguard-tower-style buildings at its end give it a silhouette Venice Pier doesn't have. I caught this one under a moody, storm-lit sky at blue hour, another long exposure to keep the water soft while the clouds stayed textured and dark.
Before (RAW):
After (retouched):
Best time: Blue hour, especially with weather moving in — the drama in the sky is the whole shot here.
📷 Sony A7R V · long exposure · ISO 100 (tripod)
🖼️ Want this as a print, for your website, or for a campaign? License it here — ref. LA-05
4. Behind the Hollywood Sign
📍 Behind the Hollywood Sign, via Mt Lee (34.1341, -118.3215)
Everyone shoots the Hollywood Sign from the front, from miles away with a long lens. Hiking up behind it flips the whole composition: you stand right at the letters and look down over the city instead. The view is too wide for one frame, so I shot it as a 3-photo panorama and merged them in Lightroom (Cylindrical projection, Boundary Warp at 28) at 24mm, f/6.3, 1/60s, ISO 100 with the Sony 24-70mm GM II. Finished with the "Sunset" preset from my Natural Drama Color collection to push the warm light without losing the sky.
Best time: Sunset — the letters catch the last direct light while the city below starts falling into shadow.
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm (FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II) · f/6.3 · 1/60s · ISO 100 · 3-shot panorama
🖼️ Want this as a print, for your website, or for a campaign? License it here — ref. LA-06
5. The Hollywood Hill from a Distance
📍 Hollywood, viewpoint over the hills (34.1341, -118.3215)
The flip side of the last shot: instead of standing at the sign, shoot the whole hill from a distance so the sign reads small against the city and the hills behind it. From a rooftop or hillside vantage point, the last light on the ridgeline does most of the work.
Before (RAW):
After (retouched):
Best time: Sunset, when the hillside catches warm side-light and the sign is still legible against it.
📷 Sony A7R V · f/6.3 · 1/30s · ISO 100
🖼️ Want this as a print, for your website, or for a campaign? License it here — ref. LA-07
6. Griffith Observatory & the San Gabriel Mountains
📍 Griffith Observatory (34.1184, -118.3004)
A few minutes from the Hollywood Sign, Griffith Observatory's white dome sits on its own hilltop — and on a clear evening, the San Gabriel Mountains behind it light up in alpenglow, that brief wash of pink and orange right as the sun drops.
Before (RAW):
After (retouched):
Best time: Right at sunset, watching the mountains — alpenglow lasts only a few minutes.
📷 Sony A7R V · ISO 100
🖼️ Want this as a print, for your website, or for a campaign? License it here — ref. LA-08
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the best way to shoot the Hollywood Sign up close?
Hike up behind the letters instead of shooting from the front with a long lens. The view over the city is wider than one frame can hold, so shoot it as a multi-photo panorama and merge it in Lightroom.
Do you need a tripod for the pier shots?
Yes — both the Venice Pier and Malibu Pier shots use long exposures (up to 2 seconds) to smooth the water, which needs a stable tripod to stay sharp.
What's the best time to shoot the Venice Canals?
Overcast mornings, for calm water and even light — the colorful houses carry the shot even without direct sun.
How do you merge a panorama in Lightroom?
Select your bracketed frames, use Photo Merge > Panorama, choose a projection (Cylindrical works well for a wide hillside view like the Hollywood Sign), and adjust Boundary Warp to fill the edges without cropping too much away.
Explore More Photography Locations
Planning your next photo trip? Here are more of my location guides:
- The Best Photography Locations in Las Vegas
- The Best Photography Locations in San Francisco
- The Best Photography Locations in New York City
- The Best Photography Locations in Yosemite
Happy shooting! — Serge
Want more? Explore 10 Lightroom secrets to instantly improve your photos and the best photography locations in Las Vegas. Love a shot? You can license my prints here.
Get my FREE Lightroom preset here: https://bit.ly/AIPresets
Serge — Photoserge | Coaching photographers who are serious about getting to the next level.
