As landscape photographers, it’s our job to catch the emotional essence of a place and show it to others. We want to inspire people with the beauty of a world they might never even have known existed.
Learn to snap jaw-dropping wallpaper-quality photographs with our tried-and-true landscape photography tips:
The field of time-lapse photography takes a substantial amount of research and testing to master, especially with variable lighting conditions. Dustin Farrell recently released his second video focusing on amazing landscapes of Arizona and Utah which has collected 2.5 million views in the last month. Every frame of this video is a raw still from a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR and processed with Adobe After Effects. Most of the motion control for this video was done with the Stage Zero Dolly by Dynamic Perception. In addition to the Stage Zero, I also used a three axis motion controlled CamTram. Take a moment and enjoy.
Light and Land, Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom by Michael Frye is the newest ebook to the Craft & Vision library. Michael, a photographer based on the doorstep of Yosemite Nation Park, knows his stuff about inspired landscapes and the post-processing techniques that make his vision a reality. Light and Land is written specifically for […]
Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Nathan McCreery, a professional landscape photographer based in Clovis, New Mexico. He is well known for creating exquisite photographs of the American West. He is often one of the most popular members on the photography network. How would you describe your photographic style? I would describe my photographic style as the “classic landscape”. I have been influenced, very heavily, by the work of Edward Weston, Morley Baer, Philip Hyde, Eliot Porter, Ernst Haas, and of course Ansel Adams. One of my goals, in the photographic realm is to be a master printer.
A good landscape photographer is always well prepared. Don’t leave home without these ten items. A graduated filter will allow you to even up the lighting between the sky and the ground. When the ground is covered with snow or ice, put the dark area at the bottom. At all other times, put it to the top. A polarizing filter will reduce reflections on glass or water (but not polished metal) and will make the sky bluer without affecting other colors. The effect is most pronounced at 90 degrees to the sun.
A polarizing filter is an amazing tool, but when used correctly, you will get maximum performance, and improvement in your photographs. First of all, you achieve maximum polarization when the sun is low in the sky. This means, mornings and afternoons are better times to shoot landscapes with a polarizer, than say at high noon. Most dramatic landscapes are not shot during daytime, they are typically captured early or late; in either case, the sun is low.
After selecting the location which you feel will enable you to capture a great picture, evaluate the amount of light available in the area. If this is for an important picture, make the effort to consider the effects of light at different times over the course of 24 hours and decide during which part of the day the light will be most beneficial.
Landscape photography has the ability to take your viewers into another place without actually being there. Anybody can pick up a camera and take a photo of an interesting place, but it takes a careful and mindful photographer to take a landscape photo that is truly compelling. Most of the really impressive landscape photos that you will see have a few common elements.
The best times for landscape photography without additional light sources, or looking at it in a different manner, away from city lights, is either when the moon is full, the two days before the full moon and the two days after the full moon. Any clouds in the sky will also affect the amount of light available for your night photography, just as they would if you were shooting during the day.
We don’t have to stick to many rules to produce great landscape images, but knowing what they are will make your pictures more successful. There are two salient points in landscape photography: how to compose your image, and how to use available natural light in any given situation.
Landscape photography is a great field of photography, especially if you love nature and if you love to travel. You can travel the world taking pictures of beautiful scenes across many countries. Of course, this is landscape photography on a big scale. Not many people are lucky enough to start off traveling the world.
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