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Landscape Photography
Paul Strand
The best landscape photographs:
• Are made by photographers who have some sort of passion for the landscape
in front of their cameras.
My approach to photography is based on
my belief in the vigor and values of the world in nature—in
the aspects of grandeur and of the minutiae all about us.
I believe in growing things, and in things
which have grown and died magnificently.
I believe in people and in the simple
aspects of human life, and in the relation of man to nature.
I believe that man must be free, both
in spirit and society, that he must build strength into himself,
affirming the "enormous beauty of the world" and acquiring
the confidence to see and to express his vision.
And I believe in photography as one means
of expressing this affirmation, and of achieving an ultimate
happiness and faith.
Ansel Adams
• Are made by photographers who know their subject.
For example, a photographer with some knowledge of the geology,
wildlife, and history of the Grand Canyon, will make better landscapes.
• Have the light (season, weather, and time-of-day), color, composition,
vantage point, etc.—make the above passion more clear in the
viewer's mind and heart.
• Have gesture.
There's human gesture, that's evocative of the person and situation.
Here, gesture is the extra 5% added to/in the landscape that helps
the photograph to transmit the photographer's passion.
• Are part of a body of work that's related in some way.
The landscapes could be related by:
1) Subject
2) Narrative
3) Theme/mood
4) Style, such as abstraction (color, shapes)
5)
6)
• Are made by photographers who are able to recognize when the
light is too contrasty to "fit" on a photograph.
They reduce the contrast by:
1) Photographing on overcast days.
2) Cropping out the too-bright sky.
3) Using a
graduated neutral density filter.
4) Saving photographs as
raw files.
5) Using software
to combine several exposures of the same scene.
Tools
Tripods
A tripod:
• Slows you down.
• Allows you to use slow shutter speeds.
Slows You Down
When you're slowed down, you can better examine what's in the
frame.
The more elements in the frame, the harder it is to make a landscape
photograph.
By fixing your camera's vantage point, you can see better.
Slow Shutter Speeds
Slow shutter speeds allow you to:
• Blur movement, such as grasses.
• Use small lens opening for increased depth-of-field.
You must have a:
• Polarizing filter.
• Graduated neutral density filter.
Go to Two Filters.
You can reduce the contrast in a scene by taking several different
exposures, and then using software to combine the files into a single
photograph.
Go to High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography.
Foreground!
Most landscape photographs falter without something in the foreground
to block boring expanses of grass or pavement.
Besides blocking the above, foreground can:
• Frame the scene.
Photograph a lake in the Adirondacks with to curve of the top
of an Adirondacks chair in the foreground.
• Add local color.
Photograph New York City through a pretzel with mustard.
There are three advantages.
Advantage #1
Raw files have far more information available for editing in
the shadows than do JPEG files.
Go to
Raw v. JPEG.
Advantage #2
You can set the white balance when you process the raw file.
Advantage #3
You can process the raw file twice:
1) Develop for the bright areas
2) Develop a second time for the darker areas
3) Then, combine the two JPEGS with Photoshop Elements or
other software.
Go to
Raw Process, Twice, to Reduce Contrast.
Wake Up Early
Yup!
Inspiration
Tips
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Night Photography
Sunrises & Sunsets
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