How to Take a Perfect Landscape Shot
Taking a great landscape photograph brings a scene to life, but it’s one of the trickiest things to photograph well. You’re essentially taking a 3D vista and turning it into a 2D image, and it can be difficult to maintain the depth and clarity that your eye can see in a photograph.
Learning how to take a great landscape photograph is a challenge, but if you can master it, all your photography can improve. ‘Seeing’ a good landscape and translating it onto your camera is learning how to keep the vibrancy of a 3D image and this can also improve other aspects of your photography, such as portraiture. We’ll show you how to make your photographs come alive so that the landscape is jumping off the page.
Commonly, people see a beautiful scene before them and press the shutter button without thinking about how they’ve composed it. In order to capture a landscape as the eye sees it, you need to learn how to use your digital camera as an extension of your eye. What this really means is learning how light works within the context of a photographic image.
Surprising as it may be, digital cameras have a much greater ability to react positively to light. Their in-built sensor arrays means they are more adaptive to light than film and it’s therefore easier to capture the subtle variations. When you’re taking landscape photography, you need to learn how to focus on the light, and how it’s affecting what your camera captures.
On the whole, it’s fairly accepted that to take great landscapes, you need a wide-angle lens. Even if you’re on a budget, this needn’t be the nightmare that it seems. Many digital manufacturers are now bringing out cameras with a wide-angle lens of 28mm, and this should be plenty to cover your needs.
If you can afford it, your best option is to go for a digital SLR with interchangeable lenses. The Canon EOS 300D, for instance, complete with an 18-55mm EFs lens to cover most wide-angle issues. Stepping up a gear, the Canon EOS 10D is a fantastic digital camera, but like the 300D you have to allow for loss of focal length and times all your numbers by 1.6. A 17-40mm Canon lens is one of your best options, leaving you with a minimum focal length of 27.2mm, but it isn’t cheap. Let’s face it, though, they’re a more appealing option than full frame digital SLRs such as the Canon 1DS or Kodak DCS SLR/N which may require remortgaging your house to obtain.
It’s all in the timing
Different times of day lend themselves to different views and landscapes. The trick Is knowing when you’re going to get the best possible shot of a particular landscape. For a lot of scenes, your best shots are going to be achieved early in the morning or late afternoon. This is because shadows and the light are softer at these times.
This can become particularly prevalent if you’re shooting in an urban landscape. Midday sun, for instance, can cast strong and harsh shadows from buildings, leaving you without definition in the shadow areas and the risk of overexposure in the highlights. It’s better to shoot in an urban setting when the light is softer as both the buildings and streets will stand out more.
Hills are another view that will benefit from early or late afternoon light. They can look really fantastic at sunrise or sunset in particular, as this brings out the edges and helps to define the hills from the rest of the image. You’ll definitely get your most dramatic images at a sunrise or sunset.
One of the few areas of landscape that can look stunning at any time of day is the seaside. Because of the expanse of wafer and sand the sun shining onto it creates an Interesting effect at anytime of day-even midday.
Obviously, it goes without saying that you aren’t going to get the best photographs in the pouring rain. It’s a common misconception, though, that the height of summer is the best time to take landscape photographs. Interesting clouds, weaker sunlight and nice colours will be achieved in the early autumn months of September. Whatever you choose to shot, learn how to pick the right time of Jay and you’ll be well on your way to the perfect shot.
The rule of thirds
There’s a very basic and simple rule in landscape photography that can improve your pictures no end. It’s called the rule of thirds, and what is essentially means is that when you are taking a landscape shot you should try and compose the picture so that there is one third of sky, one third of horizon and one third of foreground. The idea is that this will give you a balanced shot with enough detail in it to keep the eye entertained.
Tagged with: digital camera • landscape • photography • Rule Of Thirds • wide-angle lens
Filed under: Photography Tips
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