![]() |
Get up early - The light at dawn (and a few hours afterwards) is often the best of the day, so if you want your landscapes to have that magical look, you have to be prepared to wake up early. Before the sun heats up the land there is usually far less wind, so less chance of camera shake. There are fewer people around if you don't want them in your landscapes. Also, there is often mist (or frost in winter), which can add another dimension to your pictures. A few hours after dawn, contrast becomes a real problem and makes some shots much harder to achieve, so set your alarm clock and get out there! |
![]() |
| Check out digital SLR camera reviews so you can get that perfect shot. See reviews of compact digital cameras |
|---|
Use Lower ISO settings
on your Digital Camera - To get the lowest noise, most digital cameras
work best at ISO100, so use this setting and a tripod for best results.
You don't want to take a great image, only to find the noise unacceptable
- especially if you want to try and sell your images, or get them published.
|
| Choose
the correct shutter speed - this will help to keep your pictures
sharper if you're not using a tripod. For a rough guide, use a shutter
speed at least as fast as the focal length of the lens - e.g. 100mm
lens = 1/100th second, 500mm lens = 1/500th second. Wider lenses don't
show camera shake so much, however, don't use less than 1/60th second
handheld ideally. For best results use a tripod if you can
|
| Balancing Skies and Foregrounds |
|
|
Fig 1a Without Grey Graduated filter (sky burned out) |
![]() |
Fig 1b With Grey Graduated filter (dramatic sky) |
| Bracket Exposures - your camera meter
can be fooled by certain situations, like shooting into the light (as
in the boat images above) or by dark subjects against light backgrounds.
The answer is to bracket your exposures. This usually means taking one
shot at the meter's recommended exposure, then one above and one below
the recommended exposure. Try it at first with one stop over, and one
stop below the reading, then repeat this in different situations. When
you get the hang of what your camera's doing, you can fine-tune it to
one-half a stop each way, or even one-third of a stop each way. This kind
of practice will make judging a scene easier and more intuitive, so that
you'll know what adjustments are needed. See also Digital
Blending
|
Want a one-to-one session
to improve your skills fast? - Photography
Tuition |
| Shoot in RAW mode - I often come across
digital photographers who shoot all their images in Jpeg. This makes it
easy to process the images, sure, but also means that you're throwing
away valuable image quality every time you take a shot. Raw files
are like a digital negative. You can work on them without impairing quality
much, whereas working on a Jpeg, you lose quality with each adjustment.
Always shoot Raw, then convert to Jpeg back home if you want, but keep
the Raw file intact. As your skills improve, you'll be able to go back
to the Raw file and create much better images from it, and print those
images larger than you would a Jpeg, without such quality loss. Jpeg's
compress the image by throwing away information, so leave them for family
snaps only
|
| Take fewer photographs-
some digital photographers seem to take far too many pictures 'it doesn't
cost anything' they say. What it does is make you 'snap-happy'. Spend more time concentrating on one shot is my advice. Treat your composition as a painter would, look around every part of the frame. Do you really want that distracting branch in the corner? Move your tripod, or move the branch if it's loose (much quicker than doing it later on computer). Is this image expressing what you see in the best possible way? Would a lower/higher viewpoint be better? Would it work better with a slower shutter speed or a wider aperture? Is the foreground really interesting enough? These are the sort of questions I ask myself while I'm framing up my subject. Then once you've got a great composition, sure, take several at different exposures to make sure it's in the bag, but don't snap away without thinking. Taking snaps is like going fishing for tiddlers - wouldn't you rather catch a big fish? |
| Get
better lenses -the glass you use makes a lot of difference to the
quality of your images. Lenses I can recommend include the Tamron 90mm
for macro photography, and if you use Canon, any of the 'L' lenses.
These are more expensive than their regular lenses, but well worth it
if you're serious about your images. I mainly use zoom lenses, which
are not quite as good quality as 'prime' (fixed focal length) lenses,
but they give you more control over the composition, something I consider
more important than ultimate quality
|
| Use a tripod - Especially
for Landscapes and Macro shots, it's best to use a tripod whenever possible.
It reduces camera shake obviously, but it also slows down the picture-taking
process, which means you have more time to concentrate on the composition.
Have a good look through the viewfinder. What message are you trying to
express? What story are you telling, and how could you tell it better?
Hand-holding tends to make you skip over the important stuff. With landscapes, you have to get the horizon straight, which isn't easy hand-held. I use a tripod 99% of the time, and my pictures are much better because of it. Why do you think all professional landscape photographers use a tripod? Or are you happy with your photographs being average like millions of others? |
Want
a one-to-one session to improve your skills fast? -
Photography
Tuition |
![]() |
Use your depth-of-field
preview button - If you're learning about photography, use a small
aperture (large number like f16-f22) if you want everything in focus.
If your camera has a depth-of-field preview button, use this to check.
Use a large aperture (small number like f4-f5.6) to avoid fussy, distracting
backgrounds. The Kaffir Lily pictures below are an example. Using the
depth of field preview button is the best way to ensure that you've blurred
the background - and still got enough of the subject in focus. Keep in mind though, that most lenses are sharpest when used at mid-range apertures (called the 'sweet spot' usually f8). So, if quality is paramount, use these settings. I think getting the shot is the most important thing, so don't let this fact get in the way of a good composition. As you become more advanced, you'll probably want to use the sweet spot more and more as I do, so I often combine two exposures, one focused on the foreground and one focused on the background, then combine the two exposures later in processing |
![]() |
|
|
![]() |
Small Aperture - f16 Lot's in focus, but if you don't want that...... |
Large Aperture - f5.6 Makes the subject stand out, background is out of focus |
Castlerigg #4571 |
Severn Crossing #4340 |
Cathedral #4487 |
Haldon Belvedere #4490 |
Derwent Water #4569 |
| What equipment? -
this needs about 10 pages to answer, and Tony would rather be out
taking pictures, so all he can do is recommend what equipment he's used. Phase One P45 digital back - 39 megapixels, mega expensive, but stunning image quality even on wall size prints 9/10 Mamiya 645AF lenses all outstanding value for money 9/10 Canon 1DS MkII digital SLR - bought in 2004, expensive, but Tony can only say one thing - goodbye film! 9/10 Canon 17-40mm f4 L lens - sharp, good range, good price 9/10 Canon 70-200mm L lens - sharp, good price 9/10 Adobe Photoshop CS4 - the best just got better - the only choice for pro's |
| All images © copyright
Tony Howell |