Landscape Photography

The art in this subject comes from an ability to use light and weather, making the best of the conditions and situation to illustrate dramatic or tranquil scenes.

You will need to get yourself out of the car and walk, often revisiting places in better light. The best pictures come on Cloudy/Bright days, when the sun is in and out of the clouds.Remember the best time of day to take scenic views is early morning up until about 9.30 (Winter, Autumn and Spring-Summer is not as good) and later in the day, about an hour before and after sunset.

Landscape can be The wide view or the close up detail. It can cover Urban or townscapes , Industrial scenes or mountains and deserts, rivers and forests or seascapes and vast open spaces , or close up rock formations and patterns

Use the elements - Rock, water, vegetation and sky. This will create scale, emotion and a personal feel to your work.

Don’t take the first thing you see. Walk around, look for corresponding shapes and a composition that balances, if it looks right to your eye - then take it.

Equipment. Tripod,Camera, Wide angle zoom lens such as an 18- 55 mm, and a short telephoto/ zoom lens 70-200 mm. For comfort and safety and protection from the weather take a waterproof coat, walking boots, and a relevant map to find the best places.

Exposure. For colour take a meter reading from the lighter areas (not the sky) . For mono take a reading from the ground Bracket the exposure if you are unsure.e.g. Take a picture at what the meter tells you from the area as

specified above, then do another exposure ½ stop less and ½ stop more.

e.g. If the meter in the camera tells you 1/60 at F11 do another picture at 1/60 at between F11 and F16, also one at between F8 and F11.

Filters. Use a polariser for darker blue skies when taking colour pictures, an 81A pale red at daybreak or sunset.

Use yellow or orange filters to boost the contrast on duller days with black and white pix.

look at other handouts on exposure and composition to help you, Enjoy it

Exposure Modes.

Most 35 mm Single lens reflex (SLR) cameras have a wide range of aperture and shutter speed settings, but also a number of exposure mode options.

Its worth outlining what they do and how they work.

x Program Mode. This is fully automatic, setting both aperture and shutter speeds, making all the exposure decisions for you, but offering little creative control. The settings the camera chooses are displayed for you, either in the viewfinder or on the top display window. The combination of aperture/shutter speed may not be suitable for the subject you've chosen- how can the camera decide at what speed something is moving, or what depth of field you would prefer? Most do offer a program shift control so you can change the combination without to much trouble. This mode of operation has the obvious advantage of being quick and simple to use, and is brilliant if you’ve never handled a camera before.

x Special program modes/program bias. Many SLR cameras offer special modes of operation geared to more specific use. Depth of field mode is designed to give you a smallest practicable aperture in the lighting conditions available.

x Pictograms These modes are specialist in their application setting the apertures and or shutter speeds with a specific subject in mind-e.g. sport mode where it will offer a faster shutter speed, or portrait mode where it will offer a shallow depth of field/focus such as F4 which gives limited sharpness to the face, but throws the background right out of focus.Other options are for landscapes, action, close up, bulb (for long exposures at night etc.)In the main these modes are useful for those beginning in photography, who do not wish to complicate their photography too soon.

x Aperture priority AE This allows you to set the lines to the suitable aperture for the subject, giving control over depth of field, while the camera automatically sets the shutter speed ideal for landscape work.

x Shutter Priority This is the opposite to aperture priority in that you set the shutter speed and the camera sorts out the aperture for you.

x Metered Manual This is the most basic exposure mode of all, and the one that gives the photographer complete control over choices in apertures & shutter speeds, if you use the cameras integral meter for exposure it allows you to adjust that given reading to suit your idea of exposure-you can bracket (take several pictures on slightly different exposures, slightly darker or lighter as well as the correct metered exposure) easily using this mode, you can also over or under expose to suit the film in use (black and white film requires a different exposure technique to colour, this mode allows that option)

x Exposure Compensation. This feature allows a fine tune control in 1/3 of an F-stop increments, over or under the integral metering given in the camera. Simply by slightly darkening or lightening the exposure, again the decision is yours. The dial to do this is usually on the thumb wheel for exposures settings or on a separate control on the top of the camera. This is an ideal feature to use when bracketing your exposures.

Apertures

The Aperture is the hole in the lens through which light is allowed onto the film.

By controlling the size of this aperture we can govern depth of field in the picture e.g. the area of the picture which is really in focus.

Apertures or F-stops (as they are often called) usually appear on the lens itself.

They range from F 1.8 to F32 depending on the lens a typical sequence which appears on a standard lens is F 1.8, F 2.8, F 4, F 5.6, F 11, F 16, F 22.

F 1.8. is the largest hole, which lets a lot more light in than F 22, the smallest. But the smaller the hole the more in focus everything in your picture will be.

By using a combination of apertures and shutter speeds you can govern the amount of light that gets onto the film, image depth of focus and brightness of the final picture.Too much light gives over- exposure e.g. a picture which is too light.Too little light gives underexposure e.g. a darker picture.

By using the camera shutter speed and the lens aperture manually (setting them yourself rather than letting the automatic camera decide) you can have a lot more control over the final pictures.

DEPTH OF FIELDx Distance between the nearest and farthest parts of the picture which are in focus

or sharpx Focus relies on two thingsa) The photographers eye-hand co-ordination to manually set the

lens to the correct distance.b) The size of the aperture used on the camera lens.e.g. F 2.8 gives a very shallow depth of fielde.g. F 22 gives a long depth of field

Also relates to type of lens - e.g. a wide angle lens of focal length 28 mm gives better depth than a telephoto lens 300 mm which compresses the image, bringing distance closer but dramatically shortening the perspective and depth of field.

As an example most landscapes need maximum depth of field - sharp focus from foreground to infinity so F 16 or F 22 and a slow shutter speed, camera on a tripod are needed, coupled with a slow speed film to get maximum quality.

Or a portrait where you need the person critically sharp but dont need the background to appear sharp, so use F 4 or F 5.6 and a faster shutter speed, and you can hand hold if there’s enough light.

Shutter Speeds

These range from B to 1/4000 of a second. B- is Bulb this is a setting for time exposures of 1 second or more.

Fast moving subjects need fast shutter speeds of at least 1/1000 sec. ( Red Arrows, Formula 1, Sports)

It is not possible to hold a camera and long lens steady at a slowish shutter speed without some element of camera shake ruining the picture or this effect can be used creatively. So the following rule applies when hand-holding - Always use twice the focal length of the lens you are using as a shutter speed guide.e.g. 50 mm lens - 1/125 Sec 300 mm lens - 1/500 Sec 70 - 200 Zoom - 1/500 Sec because it’s still a long lens.

If you want or need to use slower speeds than that because of lower light levels or because you are using a slower speed of film (ISO rating) the answer is to use a tripod, or in some cases a monopod. If you cannot use either try and lean on something solid or brace yourself against a tree or wall.

You can make good effect pictures using slow speeds to blur movement of water, wind in the trees , people moving like ghosts etc.

Shutter speed is the rate at which the blind opens and closes across the lens aperture or hole that lets the light in, so you can see it’s directly related to the size of aperture you use - larger aperture lets more light in so a faster speed is used and vice-versa also this is related to the film speed

Film speed is an ISO/ASA rating set as a standard. it relates to the rate at which that film reacts to light. It applies equally to digital sensors. A higher ISO e.g.400 +) reacts faster than slow 50 ISO or less). So in poor light use a faster speed of film or higher ISO setting for digital cameras.

Quality decreases slightly with Higher ISO settings and films. For most situations 100 ISO is ideal and 200 is pretty good as well.

So to recap - film speed is to do with the way the film emulsion or sensor reacts to light. The lower ISO you use means, because it’s related to apertures (F - Stops) and shutter speeds, the less options you have when hand holding your camera. the best quality pictures are taken using lower ISO ratings and films, with high F-stops set, such as F 22, F 32 and quite slow shutter speeds of 1/8 sec or less. It all depends on the light available.

The camera exposure meter will help you make the decisions.

Landscape & travel Photography - Equipment Guide

What to take with you - bearing in mind you need to carry it !!

Camera Gear2 Camera Bodies - ideal if you work in colour and monochrome, also good as a safeguard if one goes wrong.

x Lenses - choices vary but I would suggest a wide angle zoomx e.g. 24 - 35 mmx e.g. 35 - 70 mm zoomx e.g. 70 - 200 mm zoom telephoto.

This covers most options

x Tripod - a lightweight, but sturdy model such as a unlock trekker with a carrying strap.

x Flash gun - a small dedicated type for fill-in flash for use with portraits and natural history in contrast lighting conditions.

Spare batteries for cameras and flash guns , extra CF cards for digital capture

Lens hood, lens cloth and cleaning brush, cable release - for slow shutter speeds, polythene bags - for use in desert or wet conditions.

x Filters - Skylight 1 B/ ultraviolet.x 81 A pale red warm up filter.x Polarising filter.x Neutral density - this is grey to use in bright lighting conditions. when using slow

shutter speeds.x 80B tungsten filter for night photography.This is only a short list but take whatever filters you like using, if working in black and white you need yellow, orange and red filters to help create contrast.

Take a Reflector - white or silver circular reflector that folds up small for use to put light into shadow detail.

Other Equipment. - maps for locations and to mark on places to revisit, notebook and pencil. Waterproof coat / trousers / strong shoes / sun hat or warm hat and gloves if photographing in colder conditions.

Carry all the above in a Rucsac if possible, when on location to stop you looking like a wealthy tourist and target for theft for obvious reasons.