Montana Ranching Photos

[Montana Ranches]

So I am a Montana Ranch Real Estate salesperson/partner. Of course, I take a lot of photos and have photographers at times take photos of landscapes and wildlife. Timing and costs sometimes warrant that I have to do it. Sometimes I am satisfied and a lot of the times I feel like I am just compromising. As you can guess I have to do both closeup and landscapes. I have a Nikon D7000 and several lenses and also take photos with my drone the DJI Phantom 4.

Any general tips for me on how to take the best photos. Times to shoot, framing, editing,etc...just looking for general shooting tips.

 

[Designer]

Welcome!

Best light is when the sun is coming in at an angle (morning or evening) not high noon. Avoid overcast days if possible. Always have a main subject in your landscapes. Frame to showcase your subject. Remember to use the correct white balance setting (sun for sun, etc.). Always level your shots in post capture, crop them, and apply a little sharpening before exporting.

 

[KmH]

Better still - level your tripod/camera on location - rather than level shots post process.

A quality circular polarizing (CPL)filter also works wonders, but the Sun has to be 90° off the long axis of the lens and not more than 30° above the horizon if you want to avoid an uneven effect from the CPL.

Photography Beginners' Forum
Don’t be shy. Use one of the forums in the - Photo Galleries - Photos submitted by members for general display or critique - section of TPF if you want C&C improvement tips on some of the photos you have taken. . .

Also posting just 1 or 2 photos is the best way to get detailed C&C if you consider how much time and effort it takes to do a through evaluation just one photo, and then type up comments and critique.[/quote]

 

[photo1x1.com]

The morning/evening recommendation is especially valid for aerial shots with your drone. For regular photography, I do often prefer noon hours for the IMO better colors, depending on the location.
There are a few great apps, like PhotoPills or sunseeker which you can use to check for the position of the sun at various time of the day/year. This will also help you decide when a polarizer (as suggested by Keith above) works best.

For editing - you absolutely have to shoot raw, in case you didn´t do that so far. I prefer Lightroom. There is just so much you can do within lightroom you don´t even have to open programs like photoshop for. Take a look at the example below. We had a great sunrise the other day and I decided to quickly get out on the balcony and shoot an image. This is a Lightroom-only edit of a single image. No HDR, no Photoshop, etc.

In regard to framing: do some reading about the golden ratio and get your main subject out of the middle whenever possible. Try to think about your subjects as if they were people that look into a certain direction. Give them some open space to look to in your images (if that does make any sense - could´t find better words ).

 

[Montana Ranches]

So I am a Montana Ranch Real Estate salesperson/partner. Of course, I take a lot of photos and have photographers at times take photos of landscapes and wildlife. Timing and costs sometimes warrant that I have to do it. Sometimes I am satisfied and a lot of the times I feel like I am just compromising. As you can guess I have to do both closeup and landscapes. I have a Nikon D7000 and several lenses and also take photos with my drone the DJI Phantom 4.

Thank you guys for the tips. The difference between the drone and the regular camera is kind of mind blowing. I do the morning or evening shoots but did not know about the overcast. In fact, I thought I was better in overcast. I will dive in and learn. Very much appreciate the help!


Buzz

 

[photo1x1.com]

So I am a Montana Ranch Real Estate salesperson/partner. Of course, I take a lot of photos and have photographers at times take photos of landscapes and wildlife. Timing and costs sometimes warrant that I have to do it. Sometimes I am satisfied and a lot of the times I feel like I am just compromising. As you can guess I have to do both closeup and landscapes. I have a Nikon D7000 and several lenses and also take photos with my drone the DJI Phantom 4.

Thank you guys for the tips. The difference between the drone and the regular camera is kind of mind blowing. I do the morning or evening shoots but did not know about the overcast. In fact, I thought I was better in overcast. I will dive in and learn. Very much appreciate the help!


Buzz

You are most welcome . Just to be clear: if your comment regarding the difference drone vs regular was about my images, this is the absolutely same image. Just one is edited and the other is not. I wanted to stress the importance of editing because no camera is able to deliver the dynamic range and color our eyes (or call it brain) see. Our brain too does some editing.

 

[Montana Ranches]

Photo1x1, yea I knew that. Bringing up the drone just reminded me of the changes I have had with the drone. Takes great pics and videos just not put down one and pick up the other. Thanks