23 Landscape Photography Tips From A Pro 1. Start with a vision of you want to achieve as a landscape photographer. 2. Quality is better than quantity. 3. Keep yourself motivated. You will realize that landscape photography is not easy—the weather, the hiking, getting the best conditions for the shot or mood you want. 4. Look to others’ work for inspiration, and keep on learning. It never stops. ON CHOOSING A LOCATION 5. Be prepared and plan ahead for location. Consider the direction or state of the sun and moon. 6. I always look for leading lines, a good foreground, angle of view to the subject, direction of the natural light, and the direction of the moon if there is one. 7. Visit your locations ahead of time, and scout for other vantage points. You may find something that takes a bit more effort and time to reach, and you may not make it if you arrive on the dot. 8. When you arrive at your scene, don’t rush your shots. Take 5 minutes to “see” the scene, and then form your shooting plan. 9. Get to your location early and stay there late. 10. I see photographers shooting for one hour during sunset from the same spot with same composition. Get up, move around, change your direction, change your focal length, and shoot different photos. 11. When you are shooting seascapes, always take a look at the tides before you visit. Some places are better shot in high tide, some in low tide. 12. For seascapes, also take note of the prevailing tide swells in the sea. ON THE BEST TIME TO SHOOT 13. I prefer to take my photos at 12 o’clock noon—okay, I’m kidding! You cannot get the very best results without missing some sleep. I will get to my location an hour before sunrise or sunset. After sunset, you can find me chasing the Northern Lights! ON GEAR AND EQUIPMENT 14. Get a tripod. I see many new photographers with expensive gear, but very flimsy tripods. It is so important to have a very stable tripod and camera mounting system—this is why I use Really Right Stuff. 15. Make sure to check the quality of the gear and filters you use. It is foolish to think that everything can be done and corrected in post. 16. I personally shoot with Canon 5DM III. My second body is Canon 6D. 17. My go-to lens for most of my landscapes is the Canon 16-35 f/2.8 II. My passion is in seeing and capturing the wide-angle, so I use the Canon 16-35 f/2.8 II lens most of the time. 18. At night, I love shooting with the Canon 24 f/1.4 lens. 19. For the panoramas I have recently started to shoot, I use Really Right Stuff double-row panorama gear on top of my Really Right Stuff tripod, which is an amazing combination. 20. As I do more panoramas, I am experimenting with longer focal lens lengths to gain maximum resolution of my final image. 21. I don’t rely on much more gear, but I am never without a Circular Polarizer and my Lee Filter System. ON POST-PROCESSING 22. The work is only partially done when you press the shutter. I shoot in RAW and process my photos in Lightroom and Photoshop—it is extremely important. 23. My workflow involves basic moves such as lens correction, chromatic aberration, white balance, and minor tone curve adjustments. From there, it’s very simple. I typically only spend 5-10 minutes finishing an image; mostly, color and exposure adjustments.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 20:10:51 +0000
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