Tips for Landscape Photography

[mark amy]

Hello all,

Tomorrow I'm going to the mountains for a few days and there will be excellent

opportunities for landscape photos and I'm worried about messing them up!

 

I'm not a total newbie, but I just got my first DSLR, the Nikon D80, back in

August and I still find that my mind seems to go blank when I'm faced with

something I want to take a picture of and I think, do I leave it on P to be on

the safe side or go for A or S for aperture and shutter priority.

 

The weather forecast is good for one day and cloudy for another day so, if that

does turn out then it will be a good variety. I have the Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens

and the Sigma 10-20mm lens and a tripod. I don't have a polarising filter.

 

For settings I'm thinking ISO100 and the smallest aperture as I'll be using the

tripod. Is it always best to use the smallest aperture like f22 if you're using

a tripod?

 

When focusing, is it best to rely on AF or focus manually to infinity?

 

I've only recently bought the Sigma 10-20mm so I'm hoping to use it a lot in the

mountains. If anyone could give me some advice on extreme wide angle for

landscape photography it'd be greatly apreciated. The Sigma is great for

distorting perspective when you want it to, but I'm worried about it distorting

when I don't want it to or ending up with images that just look appear too flat.

 

I've been reading as much as I can about landscape photography and have got some

tips about things like including foreground objects to add depth and trees and

foliage to frame images and sometimes zooming in on landscapes rather than just

trying to go wide all the time, but any additional advice would be truly welcomed.

 

Many thanks for reading.

Mark

[bobar57]

It is a shame is too late to get a polarizing filter, it works wonders.

[jon_j1]

Hey Mark,

 

I know a some of the people on here with much more experience will pipe-up shortly, but my suggestion (and how I learned) is to try everything - Try P, A, and S modes. Try manual and auto focus. Try both lenses, hand-holding, tripod, big/small apertures, etc. Do it all. After all, it is digital, so the worst thing that could happen is having to delete a few obviously bad pictures. The only concern you'd have then is how much memory you have on hand or if you can download each evening (via laptop, perhaps). In any case, good luck with your shooting and I know in my case, being around mountains is just another day, so have some fun and try new things. I'd rather 100 memories I can learn form than 2 I could frame (hmmm... I wonder how that really sounds...).

 

- Jon

[radfordneal]

You should use apertures of f/16, f/22, and smaller only if you

need the increased depth-of-field that they provide, since they

result in softer images due to diffraction. You might use them

if you want to have both distant mountains and a nearby tree

roughly in focus, but if you're taking a picture of only the distant

mountains, you'd want to use a wider aperture. For a perfect lens,

the sharpest aperture would be the widest one (smallest f-stop),

but real lenses with imperfections tend to be sharpest somewhere

between f/5.6 and f/11 (depends on the lens and zoom setting).

[mark amy]

Robert, yes, it's too late to get a polarising filter unfortunately, but I will definitely get one in the future.

 

Jon, I think that's good advice about trying everything. I have 3 memory cards in all totalling 6gb and I'm taking a laptop to download to so I'm not worried about space and storage and I guess it would be dumb not to try as many different things given that fact.

 

Radford, thanks for that, I will definitely experiment with different aperture settings.

[diane_madura]

Mark, I think your images will only look "flat" if you're using a telephoto lens. I don't think it will happen with the Sigma 10-20. Great lens, by the way. I hope you like it. Since you have a tripod, you have a lot of flexibility on what shutter speed to use. :-) For scenery with nothing moving in the scene, my personal plan of attack is to use the sharpest f stop for the lens I'm using, camera set in A mode. Let the camera decide on the shutter speed. Then double check your histogram for correct exposure.

 

An exception might be if you're photographing a waterfall. In that case, what I do is use a pretty low shutter speed, slow enough to get than nice soft look rather than using a fast shutter speed and "stopping" the movement of the water.

 

I never use auto ISO. I use ISO 100 whenever possible. I also have the D80.

[jam_ayr]

Mark,

don't use the smallest aperture, it starts to give some aberrations to your picture... that happens even with the best lens on earth. Using f14 or even f16 will give you enough dept of field... I would recommend to you not to go above f14. And if you are using a tripod, take several shots of the same landscape with different exposure time (-2EV / 0 / +2EV) and then blend them together in a High Dynamic Range image. I use a D80, great camera! More info

 

More info on HDR, a new world for landscape digital photography:

http://www.naturescapes.net/072006/rh0706_1.htm

 

Chao!

 

(PD: sorry for my bad english)

[mark amy]

Thanks Diane, that's good advice and I'll remember not to fiddle about with the ISO setting otherwise I'll forget to put it back to 100!

 

Andres, thank you, your English is perfectly understandable. I'm familiar with processing HDR images and I'll have plenty of storage space so it won't hurt to take bracketed exposures of scenes.

 

This is my first time posting a question on Photo.net and it's so great to receive such good advice so quickly from friendly people:)

 

I haven't set up a portfolio on here yet, but that's why I want these pictures to come out so well, so that I can use the best ones to start a portfolio.

 

Thank you all:)

[christoph_hammann]

Advice about small f-stop diffraction or HDR rendering won't do you much good if your

subject isn't interesting. <br>Get up before sunrise to be in interesting light, hike to remote

places, keep an eye out for details that speak more about the character of the landscape than

the broad vista.

[todd_warnke]

I find that when shooting landscapes I'm either in A mode or manual. I start in A because I can set the DOF I'm looking for. Then I chimp the result and look at the histogram. If it's off I switch to M and dial in the shutter speed I want to get the exposure I'm after. As for the actual aperture, I tend to stay right around f/11 as that allows me to get good DOF but not have to deal with diffraction - the aperture can open up to f/7 at times (when shooting with nothing in the foreground) or can drop to f/16 when I'm shooting a complicated foreground to go with a scenic view. Oh, and I focus manually. On the Sigma 10-20, I had one for awhile and found the wide end to take a lot of work to get right. But from 14mm on up it was easier for me to frame correctly. Just always be sure that when using the Sigma you have distinct subject in the fore/midground.

 

Good luck!

 

Todd Warnke

[mark amy]

I think the thing I have with the 10-20mm is that because the wide angle goes right down to 10mm, I always feel that I should use that to make the most of the lens and yes, it is difficult to master extreme wide angle photography and get it right. I will try working more with 12/14mm upwards and see what results those other focal lengths bring.

 

I'm always wary about HDR processing. I think it is good for high contrast scenes and the results can be very good without going over the top and getting that cartoony effect, but it certainly doesn't work for everything.

[Ed_Ingold]

Mark,

 

Wide angle lenses are best used to exaggerate the foreground in landscapes. As you note, they can flatten the landscape, rendering a mountain range into a line on the horizon. Used correctly, a wide angle lens can create a great sense of depth. On the other hand, a medium telephoto is often the best lens for rendering hills and mountains in an imposing manner.

[sandysocks]

Set it on M. Set the viewer so that a histogram comes up with every shot. Then learn which histogram profile gives you what you want. Don't hand hold shots longer than 1/250 and brace whenever possible. Stay in mid apertures. Don't open up or stop down unless there is a reason. Ditto what Edward said about lenses and I will add that selective focus can be used to enhance depth in some cases.

[mark amy]

Yes, that's the thing I've found with wide angle. It's finding that fine line between having the foreground subject create great depth to the overall image and having the foreground subject totally overpower the entire image!

[Wayne Melia]

When using the 10-20;<br>1. Compose with distinct foregound, middleground and background elments for depth<br>2. Do not use a polarizer on this wide a lens as the polarization will vary so much across the frame as to look wierd (unless you want wierd as a special effect)<br>3. Be very aware of horizontal and vertical in both how you hold the camera left to right, and tilt up and down. Use the guidlelines in your viewfinder if you have them.<br>3. Even at f8 there is tremendous depth of field with this lens - smaller may not be necessary.<br>4 Have fun! I have this lens and it is a fun tool.<br>Re-read and remember Christoph's comment of pay attention to the light.

[fhmillard]

You might consider shooting several shots to get a panorama: start shooting single frames, say from left to right, each with about 30% overlap; do this for both sky and land exposures (since your are not using a polarizer, this can help) -- so, if you took 3 land exposures and 3 sky exposures, of the same scene, you have 6 total frames. Each set of sky and land exposures are then merged into 2 respective images, one for sky and one for land. Since there is overlap in the two images they are then merged into a final image; of course, you might want to adjust each of the two images b4 final merging. This technique avoids the extreme tone mapping and "fuzziness" of HDR.

 

Shoot in raw mode. I agree with ISO 100, aperture priority @f8 - f10.

Try some test shoots with your wide angle to assess lens distortion of verticals.

Which mountains are you visiting? It does make a difference: in the west, high altitude air density permits a "pure" sense of color and light; whereas, in the east, greater air density tends to diffuse light (haze, fog) and then there are the ubiquitous trees that get in the way.

 

Have a great time.

[mark amy]

Wayne, thank you for the tips on shooting with the 10-20mm...very helpful!

 

Frank, thank you. I've never actually tried taking those big panaramas before and stitiching images together, but scenery wise it'll be the right place to try it, so I will give it a go.

 

I live in China and the mountain range is called Huangshan meaning Yellow Mountain. I've been before and it is the most amazing place with unusual rock formations and when the weather's right, you can stand above the clouds and look down and they call it the "Sea of Clouds" Also amazing sunrises and sunsets when the weather's right....so much depends on the weather! The Chinese say that once you have visited Huangshan, there is no point visiting another mountain range in China because the others just pale into insignificance. I haven't been to any other mountains here yet so I'm not sure how much of that is true...it is a stunning place though:)

[bernard_korites]

I would stay in either manual or aperture priority mode. If you use a program mode you won't have control over the F stop which controls your depth of field which is probably the most important parameter in landscape photography.

 

I find the thing that gives a heightened sense of depth or distance in a landscape is having foreground objects in sharp focus. If you're focusing on a distant object the only way to do this is to have a large depth of field which means stopping the lens down. But when you do this you have to consider that most lenses are not at their sharpest when stopped all the way down to say f22 so you might want to use f16 or f11. Stopping the lens way down means that your exposure time will increase but that won't matter much if you're using a tripod.

 

If you want to draw attention to a foreground object you will want to do the opposite with depth of field. Focusing on the foreground object and opening the lens by using a small f stop will reduce the depth of field and blur the background.

 

It's really quite simple; just decide how you want your image to look then adjust aperture accordingly.

 

I find getting the exposure right is more difficult. In a landscape this typically means deciding if you want to expose for a bright sky or a dark landscape. You can't get both right at the same time. I usually take one shot at the average then bracket exposure up and down one or two stops.

[JDMvW]

Just a note for the future. A polarizer is good, but not so much use for a super-wide lens. The effect really works at apx 90 degrees to the sun, and the wide angle lens will show part of the sky dark, and part not. A graduated neutral density filter will work best, but you will then probably want to get into the mysteries of the Cokin-type filter system. The trouble is that the middle size Cokin system (P) is just a tiny bit vignetting at 10mm, so you will probably want to investigate the larger holders. Some people have performed surgery on P-holders, but that, as they say, is another story. Of course, you can post-process for darker sky as well.

 

There are lots of different panorama programs, including Photoshop's own routines. You can hand hold for this, but the results will be superior if you mount the camera on a LEVEL tripod head (and you wondered why that bubble was there).

 

For really extreme contrast conditions, you can shoot multiple shots at different exposures and combine the results to get a larger tonal range. You can also use layers or other methods in PS to dodge and burn even for a single exposure, just like Ansel Adams did (on film printing).

[SCL]

Mark - in addition to the good advice you've already received, bracket your exposures. That way you'll have a better chance of getting the shot you really want and later on, you can analyze how things came out, and what the factors were in the shots which didn't meet your expectations, so that you are more comfortable shooting in the future.

[Mary Doo]

Landscape shots stand out when the light is "good" and the skies are dramatic.

 

Although "no light is bad light", many outstanding landscape images are captured at dawn and dusk. Use a tripod and compose carefully.

 

Good luck,

Mary

[Mary Doo]

<i> "Also amazing sunrises and sunsets when the weather's right....so much depends on the weather! The Chinese say that once you have visited Huangshan, there is no point visiting another mountain range in China because the others just pale into insignificance. I haven't been to any other mountains here yet so I'm not sure how much of that is true...it is a stunning place though:)" </i>

 

<p>Mark, I visited Huangshan in October and yes, it is as beautiful -- as it is exhausting! LOL! I did not have the good fortune to see all the clouds around the incredible precipitous cliffs but the views were breathtaking enough. The sights were most dramatic at dawn and dusk. Here is one.

 

<p>Mary<div></div>

[mark amy]

Not sure if anyone's following this thread, but my trip to the mountain has been postponed for a week or so, still hoping to get there before Christmas though.

 

Hi Mary, what a great image of Huangshan! Looking at it, I just can't wait to go! Yes, I remember the last time I went, it was so exhausting. our hotel was on the second highest peak too, so after getting the cable car halfway up the mountain it was still such a trek to the hotel...great scenery though so couldn't complain:)

 

Thanks everyone for your helpful advice and suggestions. It certainly won't go to waste and yesterday I put a lot of what you told me into practice when I had a day out to another place. I went to Emerald Valley, which is also in the Huangshan area and it's called Emerald Valley because of its emerald green/turqoise water pools.

 

I posted some of the pics in <a href="http://www.photo.net/photos/Mark%20Amy">my portfolio</a>

[Mary Doo]

Mark, the Emerald Valley in your portfolio is very pretty.

 

After visiting Huangshan, I can appreciate the vertically-oriented Chinese paintings, with the patchy pines, a lot more. We stayed at the BeiHei(North Sea) Hotel, which is halfway up and not far from the cable-car terminal.

 

As you probably know, countless tourists go to Huangshan to see the magnificent sunrise. So if you want to get a good image in good light -- and hopefully one without anyone's head jutting into the corners of your image, you need to stake out a choice spot well before sunrise. Your Sigma will provide good wide-angle shots and your 18-200 will allow you to isolate parts of the graphic elements for good effect. For example, as the sun rises above the peak, you may want to use the telephoto end to magnify the sun a bit to make it more significant. Do try various focal lengths as you mix and match the gorgeous graphic elements before you. I found myself using the 70-200 quite a bit.

 

If you are interested in villages, in the general area is "Hongcun", where "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was partially filmed.

 

Have fun,

Mary

[mark amy]

Thanks Mary. We're going to be staying at the Beihei too! I think it's really well placed so that you can just get there and put down most of your belongings and then get out there with the camera etc. and start shooting left, right and centre:)

 

I remember the crowds around sunrise and sunset so the plan is to get up very very early and try and beat them to the good spots...well that's the plan!

 

Thank you for the tip about Hongcun. That is now on my list of places to visit. A couple of days ago I went to another Huangshan scenic spot...the Nine-Dragon Waterfalls. That was a fair old hike, but so worth it. I've posted some pics in my portfolio.

 

Another week or so and I'll be up Huangshan...can't wait!

 

Mark