Landscape Photography and my new 12-24mm

msdavid · Jun 10, 2011

Hello, I am a relatively new to the hobby. I've got a D700 and a few lenses. After playing a lot with portraits and reading many magazines I decided to start doing some landscape. So I bought this cost-effective Sigma 12-24 f4.5/5.6 lens and I am out to Ireland in a couple of weeks.
I was checking some work in the internet and studying sites to visit. Wanted to hear from the more experienced photographers about your observations.

Say this picture (not mine): dsc_6640.jpg

It is not bad, but it my opinion it lacks drama! What would you have done to make this a bit more attractive/dramatic?

your comments are of incredible value as I am planning to visit this particular site.

Happy to find this forum.

-mauro from Singapore

Jarrod268 · Jun 10, 2011

The foreground is underexposed. The subject (the stone circle) is actually in the middle ground (should be more foreground) and the sky on the right side lends itself to be more dramatic than the dark clouds to the left because there is almost zero texture in them.
I guess it depends on what they wanted to accomplish.

If they wanted to shoot wide, get lower and move in on the stone circle. If they wanted to just isolate the subject - they could have zoomed in a bit more or used a different angle. There's a lot of negative space in this image to me.

Mike_E · Jun 10, 2011

If you don't take a CPL, don't take the camera.

I realize it wasn't your shot but be sure to keep the histogram to the left of the right side also. IOW don't blow out the highlights.

tyler_h · Jun 10, 2011

Mike_E said:
If you don't take a CPL, don't take the camera.

I realize it wasn't your shot but be sure to keep the histogram to the left of the right side also. IOW don't blow out the highlights.

No experience so correct me if I'm wrong but isn't CPL at 12mm starting to loose utility? Even at 28mm equiv. there are a lot of circumstances where it only has strong effect across 2/3 of the frame. Wouldn't a GND be more useful at those sorts of FoV?

Jarrod268 · Jun 10, 2011

At 12mm on DX OR FX a cpl will cause weird effects in the sky. More so on a FX at that focal length.

graduated neutral density filters will help balance exposure between bright sky and foreground.

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Mike_E · Jun 10, 2011

Sorry,, I didn't check before posting. the lens in question doesn't appear to take a CPL. (although having one for your other lenses is a must for travel photography imho)

As to the GND, yeah that would be great but getting a newby to not only buy one but then to take and use it is asking a bit much.