any landscape tips to give?

MHB · Feb 9, 2013

Im pretty new to landscapes and am looking for as much help as I can get. I know the very basics like raising my F stop, use a wide angle, shoot early in the morning or late in the afternoon, but thats about it. One of my big questions is how to get good detail and texture? Ill see not so amazing situations in tutorial videos but when you see the photographers photo its more detailed, the colors are more vibrant, its like a different world. If I shoot the most amazing sunset across a beautiful landscape the photo will turn out flat and boring. By the way, I shoot with a Nikon D3100, 18-55mm VR, CPL, and soon a set of ND filters. Ive seen a bunch of people use entry level DSLRs like mine and get good results but I wonder if maybe its my kit lens holding my landscapes back? Any thoughts or tips will be greatly appreciated!

MiFleur · Feb 9, 2013

My suggestion is post a picture and we could start from there.

bc_steve · Feb 9, 2013

sometimes the sunsets won't look as good in your photos as they do to your eye because of the white balance settings. I prefer to shoot in RAW so that I can fix this on the computer later on, but if you shoot in JPEG you will need to adjust your white balance in the moment.

I used an entry level camera for years with only the kit lens. You can take great pictures with it but it will take some practice. The beauty of digital is that you can get feedback right away. Take lots of pictures and pay attention to what works and figure out why.

and MiFleur is right, post a couple of pics and it will help people to give you more specific tips!

FanBoy · Feb 9, 2013

You have a very capable and versatile camera kit, one of the very best values on the market today. Heck, even a minimalist $150 point and shoot is quite adequate. Many people use software to enhance photos. I consider it almost necessary, even if you need just a bit of sharpening or leveling.

You know the basics of landscape photography. Since you know to shoot mainly early or later in the day, you'll get your textures you're looking for. Don't forget you can also get some striking contrasts shooting in the middle of the day. Concentrate on composition. The creativity and possibilities are endless, and that's what makes photography such an interesting hobby and art.

I agree with the earlier post; go out and shoot and learn...and post!

WesternGuy · Feb 9, 2013

You have run into one of the things that a lot of first time photographers run into - the stark realization that what you see is not what you get. The reason is the the human eye can see about 14 stops of definition, whereas your camera is probably going to see 7 at best. The scene you saw when you took the picture is not the one that you get on your monitor when you get back home and start processing. This is one of the reasons that HDR, properly done, is popular among some landscape photographers.

There are a number of ways to work towards improving your results. The first is to shoot in raw at all times. Without getting involved in a deep discussion of why raw is better than jpeg, it just is for landscapes as it is the equivalent of a "digital negative". There is more information in a raw capture than in the equivalent jpeg. Learn to work with your software, regardless of what it is. You can do a lot of "good things" in your software, particularly if you start with a raw image. I almost always expose to the right, or ETTR, as it is sometimes called. Not everyone will agree with me on this, but Google the subject, read up on it and make your own decision. As MiFleur has suggested, post up an image so that others can see it and perhaps offer some ideas as to what you may or may not be doing right or wrong.

Another aspect of this is whether or not you are working from a calibrated monitor. If you are not working on a calibrated monitor, then you are probably not seeing the colours as they really are. Hope this helps a bit.

WesternGuy

manaheim · Feb 9, 2013

Don't be fooled into thinking you need a small aperture just because you're doing a landscape.

Your DOF is also affected by your distance from the subject. If you're taking pictures of mountains and you're standing several miles away or whatever, you can totally do F2.8 or whatever and have everything in focus.

Also, try not to make your pictures boring as snot. Most landscapes are.

pgriz · Feb 9, 2013

Lots of good points already.

The real trick to beautiful landscape photography is to be in a place that has beautiful landscape. Same idea works in people photography - Beautiful people pictures usually need beautiful people.

Then, once you have the beautiful landscape, you need the right light. Which means that sometimes, you have to be up at ungodly hours to be in the right position for the right light. Or you have to keep coming back until everything lines up.

Thirdly, you have to know HOW to capture the beauty you see. As was pointed out already, what your eye can perceive, and what the camera can record, is quite different. This is where technique, knowledge, and editing skill all combine to create an image that is closer to what you perceive, rather than what the camera sees.

And to make sure Manaheim is not bored, you need to make it look a little different from the 20,024 images that have probably been taken of the same beautiful landscape.