Landscape Photography Rules of Thumb

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Landscape Photography Rules of Thumb Final reminder: Only 1 day left in the deal on The Ultimate Landscape Photography Course Composition is considered the main key to a beautiful and high quality landscape image. Be aware that shooting landscape will demand a very difficult way of working as opposed to photographing people. It is usually taken with a camera mounted on a tripod. Also, more attention is being given to the aperture in order to ensure that the image will be sharp from front to back. “Moraine Lake” captured by Jochen Lambrechts (Click image to see more from Lambrechts.) General Landscape Photography Tips 1. If you are confronted with a beautiful scene, isolate the elements that say something about the environment and complement the panoramic view. Avoid capturing everything in your composition. “Morning Mist in Glen Etive” captured by Dave Murray (Click image to see more from Murray.) 2. You must have a point of interest in the landscape. This is a main feature that will hold the attention of viewers. “Cunningham Dawn” captured by Robert Carl (Click image to see more from Carl.) 3. When shooting landscapes, your aperture must be the priority. Consider using the depth of field preview button of your camera to make sure you’re getting the desired effect. 4. Choose your lens wisely. Wide-angle lenses increase the foreground and sky content, make the subjects smaller, and exaggerate sweeping lines. On the other hand, telephoto lenses allow you to flatten the perspective, which then makes the foreground and background elements appear closer to one another. What you are focusing on will become larger. “High and Dry” captured by Sajid Ahmed (Click image to see more from Ahmed.) 5. On windy days, know that slow shutter speeds will record movement in the scene. 6. Horizons must be straight. But if you can’t make it straight, consider eliminating the horizon altogether by zooming in. “Yellowstone National Park” captured by Ivan Pena (Click image to see more from Pena.) Advice for Specific Landscape Subjects Forests. Dark forests may be one of the most difficult landscapes to photograph. Usually, the light is too low which may cause automatic flashes to fire. The best time to take pictures in a forest is after it has rained or perhaps in light drizzle. Cloudy skies guarantee even lighting, and the water on the leaves adds life and emphasizes the color. “Forest Mist” captured by Susan (Click image to see more from Susan.) Beaches. Sandy beaches are indeed great landscape subjects. A polarizing filter can improve the color and contrast in photographs taken around the waters by reducing the glare of the light. “Blythedale Beach, KZN North Coast, South Africa” captured by Alan Nixon (Click image to see more from Nixon.) Rivers and waterfalls. Flowing water can be interpreted in various ways through shutter-speed selection. For best results and depth of field, you have to use a tripod and a polarizing filter. The filter can improve the image by cutting out some reflections coming from wet rock and surrounding vegetation. “Foss” captured by Ævar Guðmundsson (Click image to see more from Guðmundsson.) About the Author: This article was written by Amanda Williams from cherishartz.com. Photographic artistry captured with passion. For Further Training, Landscape Course Deal Ending Soon: No matter what weather you encounter or camera equipment you own, this new in-depth course is designed to teach you everything you need to know to capture amazing landscape photographs whenever the opportunity arises. 36 videos, 9 case studies, RAW and layered files and more. We were able to arrange a 33% discount for PictureCorrect readers which expires in 1 day.

The First and Last Guide to Cleaning Your Camera You Will Ever Need (Video Tutorial) Are your lenses so dirty you need to do color correction every time you take a shot? Do you change your lenses so often that the noise in your photos is due exclusively to sensor dust?  Ever wonder how to return your camera to an out-of-the-box shine before reselling it on Ebay? Well, look no further! The camera cleaning tutorial below was designed to provide the definitive solution to all your camera-cleaning needs: (for those of you reading this by email, the video tutorial can be seen here) Pavlis’ cleaning method* will ensure that your camera and lens come out squeaky clean every single time. It will also save you a fortune on camera cleaning kits! While you’re at it, don’t forget:  Only use the “full cone” or “high speed” settings on your hose nozzle when rinsing. This will ensure you get every last speck of dirt off the electronics. Make sure to dry your camera thoroughly: tumble dry on low heat for about an hour and a half. The lens, too. Polish the lens optics afterwards: fine sand is pretty good, as long as it doesn’t have organic material. Super fine sandpaper is even better. Any other tips you can think of that will make sure you never have to clean your camera or lens again? *Please be advised, this video was created solely to make photographers cringe. Click here to see the correct way to clean your DSLR camera and lens. Also, no cameras or lenses were harmed in the making of this film–they were broken to begin with.

Interesting Photo of the Day: Colorful Sunset in Portugal Beautiful sunsets can be found all around world and there’s certainly no shortage of photographs of them on the internet. They seem to be one of the few things that we never tire of seeing. Take for example, the photo below, which was taken by Agostinho Fernandes. “Liquid Vs Solid” (Via 500px. Click image to see full size.) Fernandes took the image in Portugal using his Canon 600D and a wide angle lens at 11mm. Using a low ISO of 100 and a narrow aperture of f/16, he was able to stretch out the shutter speed to 20 seconds, which gave the water the soft, milky effect.

How to Create a Mind-Blowing Zoom Hyperlapse The zoom hyperlapse is like a timelapse on steroids. It’s a visually engaging  stop-motion timelapse technique that gives us an accelerated view of real time, with an added 3D movement effect. It differs from timelapse in that the photographs are taken of a single vantage point over a long distance, rather than a short dolly movement. The technical jargon may sound confusing, but creating a hyperlapse is not all that complicated. In this tutorial, Eric Stemen shows you how easy it is to capture your very own zoom hyperlapse with a simple DLSR: How To Create a Zoom Hyperlapse A crosshairs overlay will help with aligning your shots. Place your camera on a tripod at eye level. You will be picking it up and moving it forward about 100 times, you don’t want to have to bend down to check out the screen before each shot. Pick an object you will be able to see during the entire move. The more it pops the better. Make sure to place your subject in the middle of the frame. Turn on your camera’s guide frames. They are a set of crosshair screen guides that can be positioned wherever you want them. Set the crosshairs over your subject. If you’re using a building, align the crosshairs with the corner. Take a few sample photos. Take one photo from set up point. Walk forward a step, make sure the crosshairs are aligned with your subject, zoom out, and take a second shot. Walk forward again, zoom out, and take a third shot. Scroll back and forth through the photos to see if the effect works for you. Make sure your location choice makes good use of the effect. Level your tripod. Use the half ball head level to make sure the horizon is always as level as possible. After lining up the crosshairs, take your first shot. Use auto focus between each shot for best results. This is because a lot of camera lenses are parafocal meaning each time you change the zoom it loses focus slightly. Take a step forward (move about a foot), level your tripod, set the crosshairs and zoom out ever so slightly. A follow-focus mechanism makes it easier to zoom out in extremely small increments, which is really important to creating a good looking zoom hyperlapse. Take about 100 steps while repeating the process. Take your collection of images into Photoshop, or your editor of choice for color correction. Pull the images into After Effects and use Warp Stabilization. Revel in the awesomeness you have just created. Zoom Hyperlapse Equipment Here’s a list of the gear Stemen used to make the video: Panasoinc GH2 Panasonic 7-14mm lens Genustech Universal Adapter Bar System – to hold the rails for the follow focus CAMTREE Solid Gear Follow Focus – to zoom the lens out between each shot Manfrotto 535 Tripod legs Sachtler FSB-8 Tripod head The technique can be used for just about anything, but it works particularly well with architecture. “It’s a really unique effect that you can’t see normally with your own eyes.”

High Speed Ocean Photography Tips for Overcast Days (Video) Posted: 11 Aug 2014 11:32 AM PDT Here is another lesson from Jay & Varina Patel, the producers of the Ultimate Landscape Photography Course. On a bright, sunny day, it’s easy to freeze moving water with nothing more than a fast shutter speed. But high speed photography on overcast days takes extra attention to detail. In the video below, Varina Patel explains her techniques for capturing the ocean spray from the rocky cliffs above Fisherman Bay in Australia: (for those of you reading this by email, the video can be seen here) Tips for Photographing Ocean Waves Ocean Spray Photographed with a Fast Shutter Speed Bump up your ISO. Don’t be afraid to increase your ISO to accommodate faster shutter speeds. Because she was shooting in cloudy conditions, Patel set her ISO to 3200. Keep your equipment clean. When working around splashing water or dust, make regular use of a microfibre cloth and a lens hood. Specks of dirt or water on you lens can ruin an otherwise great shot. Go for a fast shutter speed. If your goal is to freeze water in the air, you’ll want to choose a very fast shutter speed. Patel started with 1/6400 of a second. Experiment until you get a speed that work for you. Use burst mode. When you’re working with a fast moving subject, like splashing water, taking several frames in quick succession allows you to catch just the right split second. Check for focus and depth of field. Periodically check your shots to see that they’re sharp. If the depth of field is too shallow, increase the area of focus in your photos by using a smaller aperture (larger f-number). High Speed Photography of Waves Crashing on Cliffs Patel demonstrates that when lighting conditions aren’t great for wide-angle landscape photography, a change of lens and a little creativity can still lead to interesting photos—you just need to know how to adapt. This video is one of 36 workshop-style video lessons from Jay and Varina Patel’s Ultimate Landscape Photography Course. “This video is one that we shot on a heavily overcast day, when the sky wasn’t very pretty for wide-angle photography. Our film guys— Johny Spencer and Brent Mail—followed us out onto the cliffs, where we photographed the waves crashing against the rocks. Nature photography isn’t just wide-angle lenses, rainbows and sunbeams. Sometimes, you have to pull out a lens you don’t use very often and get creative with the light and the location you have to work with.“