landscape photography

Landscape photography

Composition

Composition Basics Aspect Ratio, Straight Lines, Guarding your Borders Spacing your Subjects & using Negative Spaces

Composition Guidelines

Leading Lines Rule of Thirds & Golden Ratio

Visual Balance

Orientation/ Why is your Landscape in Landscape mode?

Applying the rules putting together a story

Simplify Less is More

What's in your Foreground

Learn when to break the rules!

Landscape Photography Tools

Choosing a Camera for Landscapes

Consider Sensor size, Resolution,

Dynamic Range, Live View, RAW file

support, etc.

Lenses for Landscapes

Focal lengths Ultra Wide (10-24mm),

Std Wide (24-35mm), Not Wide?

Telephoto? (35-200mm)

Other considerations Wide apertures

don't matter, 80:20 spend rule

Filters UV, CPL (recommended), ND (good investment)

Other Accessories Tripod (highly recommended) Spare Batteries, Remote Trigger/cable

Mobile Apps for Planning & Shooting

weather, shot planning. Dof calculators Manual control for Cell phone cameras Camera Apps can provide more functionality Choose Focus & Exposure AFIAE Lock Shooting Techniques stability, low light long exposure, HDR mode Cell Phone Accessories mini tripods, lens adapters

…Landscape Photography Techniques

…Understanding Exposure Using Programmable Shooting modes Aperture Priority, Manual Aperture, ISO & Shutter Speed for Landscapes Get creative with Wide Apertures Low ISO works best Use a Tripod, and don't worry about shutter speed Sunny 16 Rule in bright sunlight, correct shutter speed for 1/16 is 1/ SISOS Focusing Techniques manual focus in low light (shine a light if possible) Metering Evaluative/ Matrix works in most cases Setting the mood with White Balance Exposure Compensation & Bracketing best to shoot multiple exposures HDR Photography effects Shooting Long Exposures for creative Reading your Histogram Tips & Tricks

Shoot RAW, get more Post Processing Shooting RAW vsJPG When to post process & Why What can be changed size & orientation, colour & brightness, lens profile, CA correction Creative editing Be careful, don't over-edit! Tools & Apps for cell phone & computer Star Trails & Milky Way Pre requisites Tools camera & lenses for asto photography planning apps Camera Settings before you shoot How to shoot Star Tralls & Milky Way Post Processing Tips & Tricks

SHOOTING THE MILKY WAY

Manual focus to Infinity

Ser Camera to Manual 14 Made

Exposure shutter speed 15-25 seconds

Increase ISO depending on Aperture & clarity of night sky

Eg minimum ISO: 14. 428 1501600, 14.0- ISO3250,

Let Camera stabilise before you throat

External Shutter-release cable/ Timer mode

RAW for best results

SHOOTING STAR TRAILS

Manual Focus to Infinity

Locate the Pole Star/ Southern

Cross + Interval Shooting

Set Carnera to Manual (M) Mode

Settings in Camera/External Intervalometer Shutter-release

cable with Continuous shooting

(Drive Model/ Duct-tape 30s exposure (shutter speed) At least 300 shots (3-4 hours RAW preferred, can do with High quality JPEG Increase ISO depending on

Aperture & clarity of night sky

minimum ISOs 1/1.4.

ISO400, V/2.8 ISO1600, 04.0-

ISO3200, etc.

LENSES

Canon EF-S 18mm-55mm f/3.5-5.6

Nikon NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

Tokina 11-20mm f/2.8, 14-20mm f/2.0

Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 Art

Rokinon/ Samyang 14mm f/2.8

Sigma 14mm f/1.4 Art

Sigma 20mm/24mm/35mm f/1.4 Art

Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L

Tamron 15-30rnm f/2.8 Nikon 14-24mm 1/2.8

HDR PHOTOGRAPHY

In high contrast scene, cameras struggle to correctly expose for

both highlights and shadows in same shot

Shoot in the middle, get both dark shadows & light highlights, or

Expose for highlights but most of the image remains too dark, or

Expose for shadows but leaves most of the image too bright

Solution: HDR blending using multiple exposures

At least 3 bracketed shots, ideally more (5.7)

Blending done in post processing Photoshop, Lightroom, Aurora

HOR, etc.

EXPOSURE COMPENSATION

WHY & HOW

Camera sensors mostly calculate exposure correctly but can be fooled in

some scenes

e.g. night scenes tend to be brightened up, Snow/ Fog tends to be

darkened

Set Exposure creatively

Exposing to the Right

Slightly over expose thout clipping), reduce tones in post

processing to get sharper images

PRO TIP. WATCH YOUR HIGHLIGHT ALERTS & HISTOGRAM

METERING

Evaluative (Canon)/ Matrix (Nikon) will work in most

cases

Spot/ Centre Weighted Average only when shooting

against the light with subject in centre/ at focus point

FOCUSING FOR LANDSCAPES

Auto Focus works in most cases

One Shot Canon AF-S. Single See

in dark scenes, focus on brightest object at similar distance & saith to

Manual

Muminate object to focus possible

AF Points Manual Spot or Zone

Manual focus override fine tuning possible in some lenses

Check image on Live View. Zoom into details

APERTURE PRIORITY

SUNNY 16 RULE

In bright, sunny weather, the correct shutter speed for an aperture

of 1/16 is 1/<ISO>

E.g. if ISO100, then shutter speed: 1/100s (or 1/1255)

Using reciprocity, shutter speeds for ISO200

//16 1/200s (or 1/250s) GIVES VERY

f/11 1/400s (or 1/500s) GOOD STAR

f/8 1/800s BURST FOR THE

f/5.6- 1/1600s SUN

For each step increase in aperture e decrease inf

exposure time by half (i.e. double the shutter speer

FILTERS

UV Filterpposed to block Ultra

Violetas, cut down the hacal

purple fringing

+ CP. Ahors Colarinas

Lichance colon in the sky

by polarning light entering the

Modern digital cameras

immune to UV raya, have

13 സct

Also cuts down reflections from

Some prefer to keep it on as

protection for hansdrop, dirt.

scratches, moisture, etc.) but

lens hood better

Shoot with a degrees to

direction olsun

May cane ghosting & flaring of

bright light

CHOOSING A LENS

FOR LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

What focal length do you shot at?

Review your 50 of your favourite landscape shats

Wide Apertures don't matter much

Don't compare with sharp Terses meant for portraits, etc

Alternative uses (other genres of photography

Other considerations: Weight, Build Quality, Weather Sealing,

Availability of Filters, Flare quality, Image Stabilisation