i sucks at landscapes.

[dannylightning]

they look nice threw the view finder and when i get the photo on my computer i usually always trash it.

there are lots of videos and stuff to read out there but allot of them are kind of lousy. can any one give me some links to some really good landscape tutorials or some advice.

i always end up using a really wide angle like 18mm or something like that. i was reading something saying big wide landscapes are often boring and well i guess they are. i know there is a time and a place for those wide angle shots but apparently they are not working at the local parks i got to, i was looking at some landscape photos recently trying to notice how they did it, i see most of them do not have a big wide scene in the photo like usually try to do.

i have been sticking with my bird photos because i seem to be doing well with that but i wold really like to get some good landscape shots too.

 

[tirediron]

Not that I get a chance to shoot a lot of them any more, but a quick stumble through EXIF data shows that most of mine are shot between 24 and 35mm. I am NOT a fan of using a UWA for landscapes (I'm not really a fan of using a UWA for much of anything, actually), but I am a fan of panos, and I have done lots of images ranging from 3 images and maybe 70 degrees to 12-14 images and almost 180 degrees. I find that most of the landscapes I like are ones where the sky has a significant impact, and this usually involves at least a polarizing filter, if not a polarizer and various ND & G-ND filters as well.

Take a couple of your images with which you're not happy and analyze them - figure out what it is that isn't working for you, and then figure out how to change or improve that.

 

[Designer]

I consider landscape to be one of the most difficult genres in which to capture the same feeling you had as when you were seeing it in person.

 

[Buckster]

Even a landscape has a subject, a reason to shoot it. Keep that in mind when shooting. What's the 'star' of that landscape? What's compelling you to shoot it in the first place? Focus the attention of the composition on it, and try to use the rest of the composition to highlight it, to accent it, to make it look good.

Maybe it doesn't have a 'star'. In that case, make something the star. Put something or someone in the scene and make it or them the star, and let the background you like accent them. It can be as simple as a tree that's closer to you than the rest of the scene, or a vehicle, building, etc. People often forget when they're shooting a person or thing that the background plays a VERY important role.

When you see landscape photos on the net or elsewhere that you like, take a good long look at them and try to figure out what it is you like about them. Then, try to emulate that in your own photos. Copying stuff you like while you work out how to shoot what you like can be very helpful to the learning process.

Keep the fundamentals of composition in mind when composing your photos, including landscapes. Start by using the so-called 'rules', like the rule of thirds, the golden ratio, leading lines, compositional framing, and so forth. Keep in mind that they're not really "rules" per se, but guidelines, suggestions. Break them when you feel it's appropriate, but learn them and keep them in mind.

I rarely use an ultra-wide lens, unless I have a very specific reason for it, like if I'm composing a bridge shot from a particular distance and angle, and it won't fit in the frame without using one.

 

[Dave442]

I think 18mm on the crop sensor works for landscape. Look at the foreground as there will be a lot at 18mm and that background that looked so nice may become too small in the final image. Stay with it, I sure you may have times when no birds show up and it would be good to have something else to shoot.

 

[JacaRanda]

Here is a link. Buckster covered it very well.
You searched for landscape - Digital Photography School

 

[Alexr25]

One tip I found useful when starting out in landscape photography was always use a tripod. Not only will it give you sharper pictures but the act of setting it up and finding the right position for the camera it will slow you down and hopefully make you think more deeply about the composition of the final image.

 

[D-B-J]

Here's a post I wrote a while ago about landscape photography. It's a broad overview, but I think you should read it.

Landscape Photography and What I've Learned | Photography Forum

Jake

 

[MrWrong]

I consider landscape to be one of the most difficult genres in which to capture the same feeling you had as when you were seeing it in person.

This is always the problem I have. Very rarely does the picture I took give me the same feeling I had when I was there taking the picture. A lot of times when I get it loaded on my computer to edit the feeling I wanted to capture isn't there and I end up trashing it.

 

[JacaRanda]

I consider landscape to be one of the most difficult genres in which to capture the same feeling you had as when you were seeing it in person.

This is always the problem I have. Very rarely does the picture I took give me the same feeling I had when I was there taking the picture. A lot of times when I get it loaded on my computer to edit the feeling I wanted to capture isn't there and I end up trashing it.

Don't always trash them. Flag them in some way so that when you get better at post processing, composition etc. you may be able to still create what you initially envisioned .

 

[Dillard]

Post them! Peer critique and feedback is the best way to grow and learn

 

[KenC]

Yes, definitely post them because it is difficult to speculate on why (or if) they don't work without seeing them.

In general, one problem with an image not being as interesting as what you remember is that we move our eyes constantly when looking at a large area because there is only a very small area of real visual acuity, so we move our eyes to "map" the entire scene and take in all of its details. Doing this creates relationships between different objects as you jump from, say a tree in the foreground to a building on the horizon. Seeing the same scene as a flat image just doesn't give one the same experience unless the composition is carefully planned to make use of different planes.

 

[jcdeboever]

they look nice threw the view finder and when i get the photo on my computer i usually always trash it.

there are lots of videos and stuff to read out there but allot of them are kind of lousy. can any one give me some links to some really good landscape tutorials or some advice.

i always end up using a really wide angle like 18mm or something like that. i was reading something saying big wide landscapes are often boring and well i guess they are. i know there is a time and a place for those wide angle shots but apparently they are not working at the local parks i got to, i was looking at some landscape photos recently trying to notice how they did it, i see most of them do not have a big wide scene in the photo like usually try to do.

i have been sticking with my bird photos because i seem to be doing well with that but i wold really like to get some good landscape shots too.

I'm with you buddy... It's like banging my head against the wall.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[runnah]

Well an good rule of thumb for landscapes is to have a defined foreground, middleground and back ground. A good "subject" will help tie a good scene together by giving the image depth and scale.

 

[Derrel]

A number of good landscape shooters use a telephoto lens for much of their work. Seriously. Not kidding. Most UWA stuff is boring...everything in the distance looks tiny and insignificant. Michael Reichmann at The Luminous Landscape wrote an article about his preference for long telephotos about six weeks ago. Try using a more-selective lens the next time you go out.

Try not to include as much as is possible; try to include less!

The telephoto lens has the power to show us things that we can not actually see with our eyes. It visually compresses distance, and changes spatial relationships in a way that the human visual system can not do; the UWA does the same, but in reverse, by creating smaller, more-boring, and less-interesting backgrounds. Instead of an 18-xx lens, think of a 70-xxx lens.