I absolutely SUCK at taking landscape photos!

[mrsmacdeezy]

Most of the pictures from Mt. St. Helens bother me to no end because I shot with my ISO at 1600 and didn't realize that would make them look so grainy!

I don't understand. Did you intentionally set ISO to 1600? It didn't sound like you set it to 1600 accidentally.

If you set it to 1600 intentionally what was your intention?

The EXIF information of the first image shows that you shot in Manual mode.
Your exposure time was 1/4000. So both ISO 1600 and 1/4000 are quite extreme values for landscape shots.

Did you intentionally set these values?

Yes, but no. (If that makes sense, lol!) I just started shooting in full manual mode a little over a month ago, so I'm still getting the hang of the relationship between ISO, shutter speed, and aperture and manipulating them to get the best out of my photos that I can, as is obvious by my photos LOL! At first, I just thought it was about switching them around so that it's not under of overexposed, but this past weekend once I saw how grainy they were I did a bit of research and realized having a high iso makes pics grainy so THEN the lightbulb went off in my head and I fully realized each has a different purpose. Hopefully I explained that so it makes sense. I'm just still very much a noob:blush2:

I know some people here get frustrated when noobies post here and they want us to read more articles first. Well... I love reading, so I do that as well but sometimes it's still harder to grasp the full meaning of what I'm reading until I ask for some feedback and then things click further into place when I can see exact examples of what I'm doing wrong with my pics.

 

[Petraio Prime]

Landscape photographs look best with the sun low on the horizon. Just finding interesting scenery isn't enough. You have to be in the right place at the right time, and you have to find interesting angles. The gorgeous 'landscape' photos you seen in books and magazines may take hours and hours of work, including scouting.

Without putting in an enormous amount of time and effort you can't get those kinds of results.

You're expecting the impossible, basically. It's much harder than it looks.

Additionally, waterfalls seldom make interesting photographs, regardless of how 'pretty' they may appear.

 

[epp_b]

Landscape photographs look best with the sun low on the horizon. Just finding interesting scenery isn't enough. You have to be in the right place at the right time, and you have to find interesting angles. The 'landscape' photos you seen in books and magazines may take hours and hours of work, including scouting.

The truth, this is.

Right place right times happens two ways: by intention and by luck. The latter is far more rare occurrence.

 

[Phranquey]

Wow, no one has addressed the real problem yet?

These shots are all taken during harsh daylight, which nearly always makes landscapes dull and uninspired. Head out within an hour or two around sunrise and sunset. Yes, this requires sucking it up to get up early and stay out late. Do you want good landscape photos or not?

Landscape photographs look best with the sun low on the horizon. Just finding interesting scenery isn't enough. You have to be in the right place at the right time, and you have to find interesting angles. The gorgeous 'landscape' photos you seen in books and magazines may take hours and hours of work, including scouting.

Without putting in an enormous amount of time and effort you can't get those kinds of results.

You're expecting the impossible, basically. It's much harder than it looks.

:thumbup:

The hour after sunrise & before sunset is called the "Golden Hour" for a reason....

The Golden Hour - The perfect time of day to take photos

 

[squee]

I see no suckage. They're beautiful and I love the composition. Sharpen up on all the advice everyone has given and you'll be perfect in no time.

 

[Vinny]

They are all pretty good but I think 3 & 5 are very nice as they show a sense of scale where the others do not.

A CP filter might have made the sky more dramatic. I don't know if it would have done anything about the haze.

For blown highlights you can try to recover them in PP if you shot in RAW, I'm just learning about PP but it does seem to work.

As far as the lighting and your lens - unfortunately it is what it is. Preplanning is a good idea but if you happen upon something -take the shot. I personally wouldn't invest in anything if a certain type of photography is not your thing.

Maybe search the web for other landscape/nature photographers and see what elements are in their photos. Just keep this as a FYI ... people like Ansel Adams used larger format cameras for their photos.

 

[manaheim]

#3... is that in Oregon?

Something to consider... I suck at taking landscape photos myself... but that's mainly because I find them absolutely boring as snot so I never really invest any real effort to take them.

I take pictures more along the lines of what it sounds like you take. I enjoy them and I'm quite good about them.

Usually people naturally get better at things they like. Consider that you may not actually like landscape pictures.

"Oh look! Mountains! Trees!" zzzzzzzzzzzz........

 

[Petraio Prime]

Wow, no one has addressed the real problem yet?

These shots are all taken during harsh daylight, which nearly always makes landscapes dull and uninspired. Head out within an hour or two around sunrise and sunset. Yes, this requires sucking it up to get up early and stay out late. Do you want good landscape photos or not?

Landscape photographs look best with the sun low on the horizon. Just finding interesting scenery isn't enough. You have to be in the right place at the right time, and you have to find interesting angles. The gorgeous 'landscape' photos you seen in books and magazines may take hours and hours of work, including scouting.

Without putting in an enormous amount of time and effort you can't get those kinds of results.

You're expecting the impossible, basically. It's much harder than it looks.

:thumbup:

The hour after sunrise & before sunset is called the "Golden Hour" for a reason....

The Golden Hour - The perfect time of day to take photos

But there's also the location, choice of angle, etc. Without putting in the work you don't get the results.

 

[doziergraphic]

try something in the foreground for pics 1 and 2 and then they may not look like tourist snapshots.

i like the double-decker falls. keep it up and be sure to look at some photo mags like "Outdoorv Photographer"