landscapes
Make the most of those longer days for scenic shots
landscape photographers eagerly anticipate the arrival of Spring, as the combination of dramatic
light, early morning mist and vibrant colour never fails to get the creative juices flowing. Perfect conditions can be brief, though, so it’s important to be prepared.
01 The golden hours
Early morning and late evening are the best times for capturing beautiful landscapes with warm, golden lighting and colourful skies. Watch weather forecasts and avoid overcast or cloudy days. Clear skies with just a smattering of cloud cover create the most colourful skylines.
02 Avoid blown-out skies
You’ll invariably encounter skies that are much brighter than the foreground – expose for the sky and the foreground will be plunged into darkness; expose for the foreground and the sky will be completely blown out. The way around this is to attach a graduated neutral density filter (ND grad) to the front of your SLR’S lens. This basically works like sunglasses that are only half-shaded. The shaded top half blocks out some of the bright light from the sky to reveal important colour and texture, while the clear bottom half enables you to expose for the foreground as normal. Graduated neutral density filters come in one, two and three-stop densities, and can be stacked together when the sky is really bright.
03 Worship the sun
Try to shoot with the sun either slightly to your left- or right-hand side. If your back is to the sun, you’ll capture bright blue skies and great colours, but shadows won’t be as defined, resulting in lifeless images. Avoid shooting directly into the sun, unless photographing sunrises or sunsets when the light is less intense; otherwise it’s impossible to avoid overly bright skies that are majorly lacking in any real detail without an ND filter or bracketing.
04 Take control of aperture
The best exposure mode to use is Aperture Priority (Av). This enables you to set the aperture you need to ensure you have adequate depth of field. The camera will then set the shutter speed, though you might need to use exposure compensation to ensure the most important parts of the scene are exposed correctly. Alternatively, use Manual (M) mode and set both shutter speed and aperture yourself, and use your histogram to make sure there aren’t any blown-out highlights or clipped shadows (shadows that are pure black, without any detail). To ensure the entire scene is in focus, set a narrow aperture of around f/16, then focus about one-third of the way into the scene.
05 Use a suitable lens
You can capture great shots with a standard 18-55mm zoom lens, but to take really expansive shots, and to exaggerate perspective to add interest and drama, try a wide-angle zoom lens with a focal length in the 16-35mm range for full-frame DSLRS, or 10-20mm for DSLRS with an APS-C sized sensor. Or use a telephoto zoom to isolate key subjects in your scene, such as a 24-105mm lens.