www.naturephotography.online

1. LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

2. Shooting Landscape
Goal: To make landscape images the way you see or feel them.
Keep things simple – technically, logistically, artistically – this will allow
the clearest expression of your artistic goals.

3. First Things First: Be prepared
You need the right gear to do
the job. So what goes in your
bag?
◦High res digital camera or film
camera
◦Wide angle lens
◦Tripod!
◦Shutter release
◦Appropriate clothing for the season
and weather for you AND your
camera
◦Extra batteries, memory cards, etc.

4. Cameras
Landscape photography
is still ruled by the film
camera. It’s traditionally
done with color transparency
Or with a large format camera – these are still considered the
best quality producing methods for best clarity and detail.
BUT digital is beginning to take over the market.

5. Landscapes are, by their nature,
ever changing
~ There are three main
factors that contribute to
great landscape
photography.
◦Weather
◦Light
◦Season

6. Weather

7. Light

8. Season

9. Weather, Light and Season
What you have going on
with each of these factors
will determine your:
◦Exposure
◦Illumination of the scene
◦Composition
◦Including perspective and
framing

10. Exposure
The most critical element
◦ Your light meter can’t think. You can.
◦ Your meter wants the world to be neutral gray. It’s not. You will control for
the difference.
◦ Bracketing is your friend. With film it’s critical, with digital, it’s a terrific idea.

11. You will find yourself in difficult exposure situations.
-Front lighting, side lit and softly illuminated scenes will be fairly easy.
- When you get a strong mix of bright light and deep shadows that’s when it
gets tricky

12. In this image the
lighting difference is
corrected with a split
neutral density filter.
It’s a filter that goes
over your lens so you
can change the
exposure of just part
of the scene.

13. Backlit
Neither film nor digital sensors can record both the
highlights and shadows of scenes lit from behind.
You have to decide which you want most.

15. Lighting is the most critical
element in landscape
photography
Sunset and sunrise are the BEST times of day
◦ The light is the most interesting
◦ The colors are the most saturated
◦ The sky often has the best texture

19. White and light scenes
Compensate with +1 or +2 stops over the meter reading
to get the right exposure.
Scenes lighter than middle gray, such as beach scenes, or
bright sand or snow covered landscapes, reflect more
than 18% of the light falling on them. The autoexposure
system doesn't know the scene should look bright so it
calculates an exposure that produces an image that is
too dark. To lighten the image so it matches the original
scene, you must override the camera's automatic
exposure system to add exposure.
The snow scene here is typical of scenes that are lighter
than middle gray. Most of the important tones in the
scene are at the lighter end of the gray scale. The overall
"average" tone would be about one stop brighter than
middle gray. For a good picture you have to increase the
exposure by one stop (+1) to lighten it. If you didn't do
this, the snow in the scene would appear too gray
(bottom).

21. Black and dark scenes
For dark scenes you want
to under-expose so you
get good detail in your
shadows.
Usually +1 stop is good.

23. Aperture and Shutter
Speed
When shooting landscapes setting Depth of Field (DOF) will guide your
other camera adjustments.
As a rule, you want a deep DOF – clarity from front to back of your
frame.
This will require an f-stop if of f/5.6 – f/22 depending on the scene.
◦ Some cameras have a DOF preview so you can see what it will look like
before you shoot.

25. By setting a small aperture,
this means that you will
often need a slow shutter
speed.
This is where your tripod
and shutter release come
in handy. You will control
for camera shake.
The scene won’t move so it
will be ok.

27. Composition
Most landscape photographs contain many layers.
You need to think about the content of each layer as you are
composing your image.
◦ Foreground
◦ Mid-ground
◦ Background
◦ Sky

34. In Class Assignment (20 pts)
11 Surefire Landscape Photography Tips
◦
http://digital-photography-school.com/11-surefire-tips-for-impro
◦Take notes: List all 11 tips and write a brief description of
each.
◦Then search landscape photographers and find a photo
example of each “tip” – you may not use the photos from
the article!!!
◦Copy and paste each photo next to your notes on the ‘tip’ it
represents.

35. Assignment:
Your goal in this assignment is to explore landscape photography using the three
main factors that contribute to great landscapes.
◦Weather(hot, cloudy, rainy, etc.)
◦Light(dusk or dawn is best)
◦Season(Fall colors; warm colors… maybe contrasting against a cool blue sky or
water)
Take 15 pictures in 4 different locations.
◦ For each location:
◦ For each picture you are to have an over exposed, underexposed, and
that exposure is left at the auto exposure so for each picture you will
have 3 pictures. For each location you will have a total of 45 pictures.
◦ You will use photoshop tools to merge them together to create a final
image for each location.
◦ Print out final pictures and describe the following:
◦ What exposures where used
◦ Location of photograph
◦ What editing techniques did you use?

36. Folders:
Lastname.classperiod.landscape
◦ Original
◦ Location 1(45 pictures)
◦ Location 2(45 pictures)
◦ Location 3(45 pictures)
◦ Location 4(45 pictures)
◦ Edited pictures(5 total photo merged pictures for each location, 20 pictures
total)
◦ Final 4 Pictures