last light to sunset
Evenings can often produce the best shots
Hike up for the best views
Many Canon DSLRS come with touchscreens now, and they aren’t just for accessing the menu or reviewing your images, they make shooting with Live View a lot easier as well – even when perched on a rocky outcrop up a mountain, as we were for the valley scene on the right. Shooting using the touch screen on a Canon 77D, we could touch each area on the LCD to take a shot that exposed for the shadows, midtones and highlights. We then blended the three images in Photoshop, using layers to reveal a full range of tones in a more natural (non HDR) way.
The right light
Landscape photography is all about the best light. We took nice photos all day, in a mixture of lighting conditions, but early morning sunrises and late evening sunsets are the best because they produce softer, more colourful light with longer shadows, to give landscapes extra depth and dimension. We were all set lakeside on Llyn Padarn to shoot Dolbadarn castle, lit by the setting sun, but sadly it was blocked by clouds as it set. Luckily we were told about a picturesque tree that grows out of the lake further down (see far right) so we managed to capture a great shot at last light.