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Posts Tagged ‘Landscape’

A Worthy Project for Landscape Photographers: League of Landscape Photographers

04 Apr

Three cover splay

Canadian landscape photographers Samantha Chrysanthou and Darwin Wiggett have created the League of Landscape Photographers, a self-identified group of artists who photograph the world around them in accordance with high ethical and artistic standards. ‘Landscape’ in this group is defined broadly to include wilderness and human interactions with and connections to the land. There is no cost to being a League member but each member must post a personalized code of ethics on their website or social media pages to join. League members share and discuss their ideas, portfolios and projects in the League Facebook group and on the League blog. The pinnacle achievement of the group is the annual, collectable fine-art Leaguemagazine to be released in the fall of 2017. There is currently a fundraising subscription campaign on until April 4 with the goal of getting $ 30,000 CAD to fund 1000 copies of the magazine that will go to subscribers worldwide. All proceeds from the subscriptions go to the creation of the magazine with its evocative imagery and high-end local printing and design. This is a magazine funded by photographers for photographers (no ads or commercial content) and funds raised go to fairly pay ALL contributors for their creativity. League magazine strives to promote photography with a conscience and show that photography can make a positive impact through thoughtful and ethical creativity.

Act quickly as their fund raising deadline is drawing near.

The post A Worthy Project for Landscape Photographers: League of Landscape Photographers appeared first on JMG-Galleries – Landscape, Nature & Travel Photography.

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Using Juxtaposition for More Compelling Landscape Photography

30 Mar

Juxtaposition – it’s one of my favorite words, and also one of the most important aspects of successful photography. It’s used in portraiture, outdoor adventure, and frequently in travel photography. In images of the landscape, however, juxtaposition is often overlooked.

I say overlooked because many photographers integrate juxtaposed elements in their landscapes without even being aware of them. You see, juxtaposition, or the way different elements conflict and contrast, is a key feature in most good landscape photographs.

Though there are a dozen or more different ways juxtaposition can occur in an image, in this article I’m going to concentrate on three; color, texture, and subject matter.

Juxtaposition – Color

You are probably familiar with the color wheel. Likely you were introduced to the concept in grade school when you learned the difference between primary and secondary colors. More recently, if you have selected a new font color on your word processing program you’ve likely seen some form of the color wheel.

Simply, a color wheel shows the three primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) occupying three slices of the circle with all the mixing iterations of color blending together between them. The result is a continuous blur of colors, encompassing just about everything on the visible spectrum.

Using Juxtaposition for More Compelling Landscapes

Many landscape images will have multiple juxtapositions. In this case, color is foremost with the warm tones on the salt mounds against the deeper blues of the water and sky. But the shape and texture also stand out. (Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia).

Colors that are opposite from one another (complementary) on the wheel like; blue and yellow, red and green, or orange and purple, for example, will juxtapose. That is, they will stand out from one another; some in a pleasing way, some in a conflicting way. Both can work in photography, depending on your goal, but you need to be aware of the way colors communicate in an image to assure your final result is what you intend.

In this aerial image of the Baird Mountains in northwest Alaska, the turquoise tarn in the foreground stands out as the brightest patch of color in the frame, juxtaposed from the muted grays and browns of the mountains.

Reds and blues, for example, are very commonly blended in landscape photography; blue water with sunset sky, red flowers on a bluebird day, autumn colors against a dark backdrop, etc. Color plays an important role in landscape photography, and we recognize pleasing color combinations as soon as we see them. But recognizing WHY they are pleasing, is different from seeing that they are. Look for those relationships in your compositions, and concentrate on their placement. Some colors, red for example, are extremely effective at drawing the eye. But to be most effective, red needs to be counteracted by cooler tones, balancing the image. Mind how the colors are distributed in your image. It matters.

Juxtaposition – Texture

A long exposure softened the water which creates a juxtaposition with the rough stones of the cliff. (Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.)

In this image, both the color and the rounded texture of the autumn Bearberry in the foreground creates a juxtaposition with the blue sky and the sharp, upright trees in the background.

Juxtaposed textures are abundant in any landscape; spiky bushes against a smooth landscape, water flowing over rough rock, or just a jagged boulder in the middle of an otherwise soft, grassy meadow, etc. Textures, as like color, are easy to observe in the field. Like bright colors, aggressive textures too need to be used in moderation. Like reds and oranges, sharp, rough, textures will dominate an image if used too liberally.

The antlers of this caribou skull and the bright white against the dark tundra make the subject leap out from the image.

Overwhelming textures, just like overwhelming colors, might be exactly what you want. Just be aware of that decision when you make the image. Make the harsh textures the point of your image, because the wrong balance, or aggressive textures placed too dominantly by accident, can ruin the balance of an image. Consider how they relate, the story you want to tell with their use, and place them in the frame accordingly.

This is a tough one to put to use because there are no clear rules about texture. You may not always realize when you’ve gotten this balance right, but you’ll definitely know when it’s wrong.

In this image of Denali, in Denali National Park, Alaska, the two rounded forms, one green and spiky, one blue-white and more smooth echo one another, while providing wildly different textures, colors, and implications for the image.

Juxtaposition – Subject

Bright flowers on a gray day on a barren dune. Few things can create more juxtaposition in this image.

Without context, this image would not have an obvious juxtaposition, it’s just an image of a lightning strike. But, when I tell you this photo was made on the arctic coastal plain of northern Alaska where thunderstorms are as rare as unicorns, then the juxtaposition of location and lightning are more clear.

The first two examples, color and texture, are more nebulous and tougher to apply in the field than the subject of the image. In landscapes, juxtapositions within the subject matter are easier to apply, and will almost always add interest to your images.

A rare rain storm in the Altiplano of Bolivia catches the last rays of sunlight. Both color and subject juxtapose here.

As I sat down to write this article, the first thing that came to mind was the weather. Storm light, that rare sunlight that appears despite the dark clouds, is a perfect example of subject juxtaposition. Few things contrast as much as a stormy day, and sunlight.

Rainbow in the dry desert, another clear example of the way juxtaposed subject matter can add interest to an image.

Tying weather to elements of the landscape is another way to create juxtapositions. A few years ago, I was hiking in the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park, Texas when I was treated to a rare thunderstorm. As the very brief storm cleared the mountains, a rainbow appeared. The desert landscape, topped by a rainbow against a blue sky, leads to an undeniable juxtaposition.

Similarly, last summer I was leading a wilderness photo tour in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska. On the summer solstice, it snowed four inches overnight, and the following morning the blooming flowers were covered in snow. Summer flowers and fresh snow juxtapose nicely.

Summer flowers the day after a snow storm.

Summary

Juxtaposition, the way elements compare and contrast each other, is as important in landscape photography as it is in any other discipline of the art, even if it is more difficult to use. Pay attention to the way color, texture, and your subject interrelate within your image and you’ll find greater success with your landscapes.

Have you explored juxtapositions in your landscape photographs? Tell me about it in the comments, and share some of your successes.

The post Using Juxtaposition for More Compelling Landscape Photography by David Shaw appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Erez Marom: On causality in landscape photography

18 Mar

Causality is the relationship between cause and effect – and in landscape photography, this dynamic can help you tell a story, beyond the conventional structures of composition and color.

Considering causality in a landscape image can have a number of advantages. First of all, including a visual indication of cause and effect can provide a through-line, within the composition of an image. Imagine a light source – mostly the sun or the moon in nature photography – on one side of the frame and the light or shadow it casts on the other side. This simple visual element does a great deal to connect the different sections of the image, and the different compositional elements on a higher level than just symmetry or balance.

Causality also adds interest. Images are comprised of several levels. The basic foundational structure is the composition. Beyond that, there’s brightness, color, contrast and similar traits, which bring the compositional elements to life by articulating the more delicate visual intricacies of the photographed subject/s.

Including a cause and effect dynamic can add another level in this hierarchy: not only there are interesting elements and good colors, there’s a story. Story-telling can be hard to achieve in landscape photography, but inclusion of a cause/effect dynamic can immediately introduce a different level of content. Picture an image which includes sun rays and a glacier melting into a river. Maybe it’s just a pretty picture, but maybe you’re telling a story about the threat of global warming.

The sun, reflected on the walls of this ice cave, is what caused it to form. This image tells the story of the glacial melting, and the inclusion of the cause and its effect enriches the picture’s visual appeal.

The final way that a case and effect dynamic can contribute to an image is by what might be called imagined causality: the inclusion of elements which don’t affect each other in real life, but which are placed in such a way that the viewer is encouraged to imagine they might be related.

Take for example the image of Quiver Tree Forest, Namibia at night (above). I call the image ‘Phototaxis’, which is the movement of an organism toward a source of light. Needless to say, the Milky Way isn’t what draws the quiver trees to grow upward, but composing them in this way, using the ultra-wide angle lens to cause them to tilt toward the center of the image, all together with the image’s title, encourage the viewer to imagine the trees being drawn to it.

The quiver trees are thereby humanized, and the anthropomorphism makes the viewer identify and feel a deeper emotional connection to the trees and to the image as a whole, which is turn achieves our goal as photographers: having the viewer look at the image a bit more carefully, and take meaning from it.

If you’d like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you’re welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:

Land of Ice – Southern Iceland
Winter Paradise – Northern Iceland
Northern Spirits – The Lofoten Islands
Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex – Patagonia
Tales of Arctic Nights – Greenland
Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex – The Faroe Islands
Desert Storm – Namibia

Selected Articles by Erez Marom:

Parallelism in Landscape Photography
Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
Behind the Shot: Nautilus
Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
Whatever it Doesn’t Take
Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
On the Importance of Naming Images

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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How to Plan and Prepare for Landscape Photography

16 Mar

Autumn morning in the Alaska Range. Colors peak in late August or early September, if you are planning to catch the fall colors, plan accordingly.

The best images rarely come together on accident. Yes, I know, sometimes serendipity will place you at the perfect spot in the perfect light with all the gear you need and you are able to click away. But that is a darn rare thing. Good images, particularly landscape photography, almost always require a bit of planning. The season, times of day, weather, and your location, should all be considered before you head to the field. Though this is particularly true on multi-day trips, planning can be useful even for shoots around your local area.

Seasonality

I once got an inquiry about one of my private photo workshops from a gentleman who wanted to photograph the northern lights in the mountains of northern Alaska. This is an area I know well and a place I regularly lead photo tours, so I was eager to send along the information he requested. Until I got to his last sentence; he was planning his trip for July.

A curtain of aurora over the Dalton Highway and Brooks Range of northern Alaska. If you want to see the northern lights, it’s best to not plan a visit in the summer.

In northern Alaska, far north of the Arctic Circle, the sun never sets in midsummer. The northern lights only come out at night. You can see the problem, right?

Though I laugh about it now, I have to give credit to the guy. He contacted me before making his plans, and I was able to set him straight before he bought some expensive plane tickets and ended up on a very disappointing (and likely mosquito-infested) trip to the arctic.

I realize that’s a dramatic example. It’s not as though endless daylight during the arctic summer is a well-guarded secret. That said, for every location you might visit, there are things about seasonality you should know in advance.

Late autumn in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska means early September.

Research your destination

Do your research. Most parts of the world have cold, wet, dry, or hot seasons and the success of your photos could depend on the season you choose. Think of the types of shots you are hoping to make, and then find out what time of year is best suited to those images. Seasonality is pretty intuitive for most photographers. We generally have a good understanding of how spring, summer, fall and winter relate to our photography. But within those seasons things get a bit murkier.

Let’s return to my aurora borealis example from earlier. Yes, if you want to shoot the northern lights, you’ll need to make your trip to my neck of the woods during a time of year when it gets dark. But there are better and worse times between September and April. Arrive in mid-January, and you may encounter nighttime temperatures of -40 degrees; not a fun photo temp. In addition to being warmer, the times around the spring and fall equinox also coincide with the usual peak of auroral activity. And in the spring, there is less chance of cloud cover. I reiterate – do your research!

Time of Day

Side light adds drama to the mountains around Haines, Alaska.

This is a big one that often goes overlooked. Most landscape photographers are happiest in the hour or two surrounding dawn and dusk. The light is low and sweet, throwing long shadows across the terrain. But those times vary based on your location.

What are the sunset/sunrise times? Depending on where you are and the time of year, that sweet light may occur late, or early (even the middle of the night here in Alaska during the summer). Long before you head out, look up these times and plan accordingly. A simple Google search will provide this information, as will many GPS devices and smartphone apps.

Morning fog lifts off the forest and pastures of Chiloe Island, Chile.

How will the light fall on the landscape? If you want to capture the mountains with a certain kind of light (backlight, sidelight, front light) then you need to know not only the time of the sunrise or sunset but where it will set in relation to your subject. More than once, I’ve been shooting in the evening and found my subject draped in bland, gray shadows and wished the light was coming from the opposite direction.

Look at maps, see how your locations are situated, and keep in mind both time of year AND time of day, since both will impact how the light falls.

Weather

Bad weather isn’t always bad. During a winter storm, a break in the clouds allowed this patch of sun to hit the mountains of southeast Alaska.

This is a short-term planning tool, but can help a few days out from your shoot. Honestly, I’m hesitant to include weather in this article because forecasts are occasionally wrong enough, and besides, thelandscape photography opportunities in bad weather can be amazing. Usually it’s best just to go out anyway and see what you can find.

However, by paying attention to the forecast, you may be able to moderate your expectations or plan around any undesirable weather. Trips I lead to go shoot the aurora are perfect examples of this. Clouds are bad when it comes to astral photography, but the weather isn’t uniform across a big landscape. Just because it is cloudy locally, doesn’t mean an hour away that it isn’t clear. By paying attention to weather forecasts and conditions, you can plan to adjust locations or change dates.

Location Scouting

Once on your site, it’s never a bad idea to go out for a hike, or drive and check out the good compositions before the sweet light of evening hits. Sadly time, commitments, and life in general may not allow you to get out and scout. Fortunately, there is a digital solution that can help: GoogleEarth. Using GoogleEarth you can check out the places you’d like to shoot, get driving times, and (my favorite part) use the street-view function to get an idea of how the landscape will look from the ground. Using this, I’ve actually found the exact spots and compositions for images I hoped to make.

I went out for an ill-advised hike in a thunderstorm in Denali National Park, but it resulted in the brightest rainbow I’ve ever seen hanging over the tundra below.

Resources

The internet is full of information, and a few well-worded searches will get you much of what you need to know. But the internet will never be better than personal experience. Reach out to photographers familiar with the area you hope to visit. Social media is a great way to find shooters who know your destination. From there it is a simple matter of sending some questions via email or a message. It’s extremely rare that someone isn’t willing to share what they know, provide advice, and point you in the right direction. This can also be a great way to make connections, and even friendships.

Conclusion

Northern lights over the mountains of the Brooks Range, Alaska.

Consider your photographic goals for the location you are planning to shoot, then do your research. Ask the right questions of the people who know, and you’ll have a much better chance of success when you hit the field. Plus you won’t feel foolish when you show up in the middle of the arctic summer to photograph the northern lights.

The post How to Plan and Prepare for Landscape Photography by David Shaw appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Use Neutral Density Filters to Make Better Landscape Photos

20 Feb

In an earlier article, I wrote that neutral density filters are the secret weapon of the landscape photographer. I couldn’t work without mine and I suspect most landscape photographers would say the same.

But why are they so useful? There are two reasons. One is that neutral density filters give you control over exposure, and the other is that they give you creative control over shutter speed.

Neutral density filters

Let’s take a closer look at these concepts.

What is a neutral density filter?

First, some definitions. A neutral density filter is one that blocks light. The result is that less light passes through the lens and reaches the camera’s sensor (or film).

There are several ways of measuring the strength of neutral density filters, but they are basically all different ways of stating how many stops of light the filter blocks. Typical strengths are one stop (0.3 or ND2), two stops (0.6 or ND4), three stops (0.9 or ND8), six stops (1.8 or ND64 )and ten stops (3.0 or ND1024). Some manufacturers even make neutral density filters that block 16 stops or more light, although these are more of a specialty item.

This photo shows a ten stop neutral density filter mounted on a lens. As you can see the filter is nearly opaque and you can’t see through it well.

Neutral density filters

Different kinds of ND filters

Neutral density filters block light evenly across the frame. Graduated neutral density filters, on the other hand, block light across just part of the frame. Half the filter is clear, and half is opaque, with a graduated area in-between (hence the name).

This photo shows a two stop Lee graduated neutral density filter in a square filter holder. The top half of the filter is dark (to block light) and the bottom is clear.

Neutral density filters

Graduated neutral density filters and the landscape

Graduated neutral density filters (often just called grads or GND filters) are used by landscape photographers to control exposure.

Imagine you are taking a landscape photo that includes the sky and the setting sun. In this scenario, the sky is much brighter than the foreground. If you expose correctly for the sky, the foreground goes dark. If expose correctly for the foreground, the sky is burnt out.

A graduated neutral density filter blocks light from the sky without affecting the foreground. If for example, the sky is three stops darker than the foreground then a three-stop graduated neutral density filter will help even out the difference between the two, allowing you to capture the scene in a single frame.

Here’s an example

For this first photo below I set the exposure by exposing to the right (on the histogram) so that there were no clipped highlights. The problem is that the bottom half of the photo is too dark. You can make it lighter in Lightroom, but not without introducing noise.

Neutral density filters

I made another photo (below) and increased the exposure by two stops. The foreground is exposed properly but now the sky is burnt out. There is no way to bring back the lost highlight detail in Lightroom.

Neutral density filters

I made this last photo using a three-stop soft graduated neutral density filter. The filter allowed me to capture detail in both foreground and sky.

Neutral density filters

The advantage of using the filter is that it let me continue working as the light faded, taking longer exposures without having to bracket. The last photo of the evening had an exposure time of six minutes.

It also saves time in post-processing compared to using techniques like exposure blending or HDR in Lightroom. Before digital cameras (and processing), graduated neutral density filters were the only way that photographers had to balance out exposure between foreground and sky.

Disadvantages of graduated neutral density filters

Graduated neutral density filters do have some disadvantages.

The first is that they don’t work well with scenes broken by something that sticks up above the horizon (like a tree or mountain).

The photo below is a good example. The sky is a small part of the frame and it’s impossible to cover it with a graduated neutral density filter without making the rocks darker as well. The only solution was to take two different exposures, one for the foreground, the other for the sky, and blend them in post-processing.

Neutral density filters

Another disadvantage is that good quality graduated filters are expensive.

Despite this, some landscape photographers like to use them as it gives them choice. With graduated neutral density filters you can decide which technique is best suited for the scene you are photographing.

Neutral density filters and the landscape

Landscape photographers use neutral density filters for creative control over shutter speed.

Think about the exposure settings landscape photographers tend to use. You normally set ISO to the lowest setting and aperture to f/11 or f/16. This gives you maximum image quality (low ISO) and good depth-of-field (narrow aperture).

The shutter speed required to give the correct exposure will depend on the ambient light leves. In bright light, it might be around 1/125th of a second. In the fading light at the end of the day, it might be around 1/2 second.

But what if you want a longer shutter speed? This is where neutral density filters come in. They block light so that you can get longer shutter speeds. Longer exposures allow moving parts of the landscape (like clouds or water) to blur, which in turn creates mood and atmosphere.

The ultimate example of this is long exposure photography, where exposures of several minutes are used to blur the motion of the sea and clouds. Here’s an example. This photo was taken at ISO 200, at f/11 for 1/125th of a second.

Neutral density filters

With a neutral density filter, I was able to turn that into a shutter speed (exposure time) of 210 seconds. The photo is transformed.

Neutral density filters

The neutral density filters I use

One of the problems with neutral density filters is that there are so many to choose from. How do you know which ones to buy? Ultimately you have to decide how much you want to spend and then look at the options. But I can start by telling you which filters I own, why I bought them, and give you some tips for choosing filters.

Take note – filter size is a factor

But before I do that, I’d like to make the point that filters are very closely related to lens size. The bigger your lens, the bigger the filter required to cover the front element, and the more expensive it will be to buy. The difference can soon add up to hundreds of dollars. You have to bear in mind the filters you may want to buy later when you buy the lens itself.

My Neutral Density Filter Kit

My neutral density filter kit is the circular Formatt Hitech 72mm Firecrest Joel Tjintjelaar Signature Edition Long Exposure Kit #1. It contains three neutral density filters with strengths of three, six and ten stops respectively. You can also use two filters together to block nine, 13 or 16 stops of light. I bought the circular filters because they are less expensive than the square ones. (NOTE: if you plan to use your filters on multiple lenses, buy the size you need for the largest one, and get step-down rings to adapt the filters to fit the smaller ones – OR get the square drop-in kind instead.)

My Graduated Neutral Density Filter Kit

My graduated neutral density filter kit is the Lee Seven5 system, which I bought in a set that includes the filter holder, an adapter ring, and four graduated neutral density filters. The Lee Seven5 system is smaller (and less expensive) than Lee’s full size filters and is designed for mirrorless camera systems. This comes back to the point I made earlier about lens size.

I love these filters because they help me take photos like this.

Neutral density filters

I would love to hear from you what neutral density filters you use. Which ones did you choose and why did you buy them? What brands would you recommend to other photographers? Please let us know in the comments below.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to learn more about landscape photography then please check out my ebook The Black & White Landscape.

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8 Tips For Doing Stunning Urban Landscape Photography

10 Feb

As a photographer, when you hear the word landscape your mind will most likely conjure up images of lush valleys, looming mountains, and majestic, sweeping vistas. With good reason, as the natural world can be a place of staggering beauty. But done well, a different type of landscape photography, the urban landscape, can produce shots that are equally as compelling as anything Mother Nature can throw your way.

The energy of a major city lends images a vitality that can’t be found anywhere else. There’s so much movement and life in the urban environment, and the best city shots capture that buzzing vibrancy.

Urban landscape 02

Shooting urban landscapes also has plenty of practical advantages too. Every type of photography is all about the light, and that is one thing cities never run out of. You can shoot in the artificial glow of the metropolis long after you’d have been forced to pack up your kit and make your way home from a day in the countryside.

Couple that with the fact that, for the most part, cities are a lot more accessible for the majority of us, and shooting urban landscapes is the ideal activity for photographers during those long winter months.

So here are our top 8 tips for getting the most out of your time pounding the sidewalks.

#1. Research

You wouldn’t embark on a traditional landscape photography outing by jumping in the car, heading for the hills and hoping for the best. Likewise, the success of an urban landscape shoot depends largely on how well you plan.

Your home town

Even if you’re off to capture the town or city you grew up in, putting in the effort to do a little research up front usually pays dividends.

Urban landscape 01

For example, when I wanted to get a shot from high up, overlooking my hometown of London, I didn’t foresee any problems in finding a suitable viewpoint. However, after a little digging, I learned that while London isn’t lacking in tall buildings offering amazing views, the number you can actually gain access to, that are also well suited for photography, can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

The vast majority are either restricted entry or in the case of The Shard (seen at the top of this article), cursed with a viewing gallery shrouded with ultra-reflective windows.A few minutes Googling directed me to a lesser-known church tower on the banks of the Thames with unrestricted views downriver, saving me hours of fruitless searching.

Visiting another city

If you’re visiting a city for the first time, it’s a good idea to spend a little longer familiarizing yourself with the place before you go. Drawing up a shot list of the locations you want to photograph is a good idea as well.

But all that being said, don’t make yourself a slave to it. Few things are more exciting or rewarding in photography than allowing yourself the freedom to meander through a new landscape, get a little lost, and allow whatever happens to happen.
One word of warning: depending on your location, be sure you know where you can and cannot shoot. Many places these days are understandably sensitive about strangers waving cameras around. If in doubt, ask.

#2. Light

The quality, color, and angle of the light can make or break any shot, and this is especially true for urban landscape photography. A subject that looks dull and uninspiring at one time of day can transform into a truly spellbinding image just with the passing of a few hours.

Urban landscape 03

As with any landscape photography, dragging yourself out of bed before the sun puts in an appearance can reward you with the kind of light show that almost makes up for all that missed sleep. The golden hour, that brief a period right after sunrise and before sunset, can present you with views of a city that you may never have seen before.

Plus, you can carry on shooting long after the sun’s gone down. Cities come alive at night. They never get truly dark, and some of the most interesting shots can be taken with the only illumination coming from artificial light.

Just remember to bring your tripod!

Urban landscape 04

#3. Hustle and Bustle

Major cities are fast and frenetic places. Everyone seems to be moving a million miles an hour and there’s always something going on. It’s the perfect environment for photographers.

If you can manage to avoid getting swept along in the tidal wave and stop to look around, you can capture images that convey all that chaotic frenzy. Using a slower shutter speed will help you pick up a real sense of movement, either tripod-mounted or handheld if you’re feeling brave.

Urban landscape 05

#4. Details

There are countless small and fascinating details in cities. Always be on the lookout for the tiny intricacies, the patterns, and shapes that otherwise go unnoticed.

They won’t all be right in front of you. Keep your eyes moving and your head on a swivel, some of the most rewarding shots are going to be found way above your head or close to the ground.

Urban landscape 06

Whether it’s an advertising billboard, some rugged brickwork, or a set of windows, get in close, fill the frame, and isolate your subject.

This is another time when the quality of the light can make all the difference to the success of a shot. A strong, high contrast light can give interesting areas of highlights and shadow, turning an everyday scene into a beautiful abstract. If you have time, it’s worth revisiting potential subjects at different points throughout the day.

Urban landscape 07

#5. Composition

Moving from the countryside to the urban environment doesn’t mean all the old landscape composition rules go out the window. Much of what applies standing on top of El Capitan in Yosemite Park, is still relevant looking down on New York from the Empire State.

Keep the basics of composition in your mind, things like the rule of thirds, leading lines, and natural frames. Then be prepared to break the rules when necessary.

Urban landscape 08

Always think before you shoot. Look around you and see if taking a different viewpoint would improve your shot. Can you get higher and look down or even lie on the ground and shoot upwards?

Unfortunately, in major cities buildings are often so close together they can restrict your options and movements as a photographer, but make sure you’re at the optimum position for your subject. The difference between a winning shot and a mediocre one can sometimes be measured in the space of just a few feet.

Urban landscape 09

#6. People

One area where urban landscapes differ greatly from the traditional is in the number of people you’re likely to encounter. It can be frustrating when you arrive at your dream location, only to find it swarming with tourists, as well as the locals going about their daily business, all seemingly determined to clutter up your shot. Along with the great light, it’s another good reason to be up and about in the early hours of the day, while everyone else is still tucked up in bed.

But people make great subjects for candid portraits as you wander the streets. Big cities attract some real characters, and capturing them in their home environment can lead to some winning images.

One thing to remember is to always ask your subject’s permission before you shoot. The vast majority will be more than happy to oblige so long as you’re polite. (Take this from a man who once got a severe and humiliating telling off from a Buddhist monk in Thailand for taking his picture without having the courtesy of asking first. They’re not as chill as you’d think!)

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#7. Reflections

Modern cities seem to be more glass than anything else. This is great news for you as a photographer. You can use that beautiful reflective quality in your compositions to create some wonderful, quirky effects.

The major landmarks in every city have been photographed a bazillion times. So, you have to work a little harder and think a little more creatively to come away with shots that are distinctly your own. Shooting a famous and easily recognizable building reflected in the windows of another gives an interesting change of context, especially as it often contrasts the old and the new.

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Many big cities are built along the banks of hefty rivers as well, which gives you another opportunity to utilize reflections in your shots. Clear skies offer the best results, preferably at the start or end of the day to give a little color. A dull, overcast day will be reflected in the water, giving it an ugly, muddy quality.

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#8. Monochrome

Urban landscapes are very well suited to the simplicity of black and white photography. Taking away the distractions of the vast range of different colors on show in any city and focussing on just the tones and textures, gives a completely new dimension to your shot.

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The increased contrast of a monochrome image benefits architecture especially, enhancing the shape of buildings and accentuating their details. Again, the light is all-important. A low sun highlights surfaces and gives areas of rich shadow for added depth.

Try and avoid using the black and white function on your DSLR and shoot RAW if you can. Then use your post-production software for the conversion. It allows you much more control over the final image.

Conclusion

Shooting urban landscapes can be a richly rewarding experience and gives you the opportunity to try out several different disciplines at once.

You have the chance to flex your portraiture and architectural photography muscles, as well as experimenting with close-up abstracts and shooting in black and white. Plus, you get to practice all that while staying firmly in civilization and never more than a few feet from a decent cup of coffee!

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Of course, all that added convenience comes at a price. Shooting in cities has its inherent risks and you always need to keep your wits about you. Watch where you stand to shoot and make sure you’re not in any danger from fast-moving traffic or trespassing on anyone’s property.

Also, keep a tight grip on your equipment, especially if you’re shooting at night. Cities have more than their fair share of bad people who’d not think twice about running off with your expensive kit. If you’re nervous, it’s the perfect opportunity to buddy up with another photographer and explore the location together.

Please share your urban landscape photos in the comments below.

The post 8 Tips For Doing Stunning Urban Landscape Photography by Andy Callan appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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8 Tips For Doing Stunning Urban Landscape Photography

09 Feb

Urban landscape 02

So here are our top 8 tips for getting the most out of your time pounding the sidewalks.

#1. Research

Your home town

Even if you’re off to capture the town or city you grew up in, putting in the effort to do a little research up front usually pays dividends.

Urban landscape 01

Visiting another city

#2. Light

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Just remember to bring your tripod!

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#3. Hustle and Bustle

Major cities are fast and frenetic places. Everyone seems to be moving a million miles an hour and there’s always something going on. It’s the perfect environment for photographers.

Urban landscape 05

#4. Details

There are countless small and fascinating details in cities. Always be on the lookout for the tiny intricacies, the patterns, and shapes that otherwise go unnoticed.

They won’t all be right in front of you. Keep your eyes moving and your head on a swivel, some of the most rewarding shots are going to be found way above your head or close to the ground.

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Whether it’s an advertising billboard, some rugged brickwork, or a set of windows, get in close, fill the frame, and isolate your subject.

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#5. Composition

Keep the basics of composition in your mind, things like the rule of thirds, leading lines, and natural frames. Then be prepared to break the rules when necessary.

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Always think before you shoot. Look around you and see if taking a different viewpoint would improve your shot. Can you get higher and look down or even lie on the ground and shoot upwards?

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#6. People

But people make great subjects for candid portraits as you wander the streets. Big cities attract some real characters, and capturing them in their home environment can lead to some winning images.

Urban landscape 11

#7. Reflections

Urban landscape 12

Urban landscape 13

#8. Monochrome

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Conclusion

Shooting urban landscapes can be a richly rewarding experience and gives you the opportunity to try out several different disciplines at once.

Urban landscape 15

Please share your urban landscape photos in the comments below.

The post 8 Tips For Doing Stunning Urban Landscape Photography by Andy Callan appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Use Graduated Neutral Density Filters for Landscape Photography

01 Feb

Since the camera was invented, we have tried to copy one of the greatest wonders of our body; the human eye. Unfortunately, despite being over 100 years since the first time that we captured light, we are still far from overcoming Mother Nature.

Why? Because in the visible spectrum your eye sees much better than your camera.

How to Use Graduated Neutral Density Filters for Landscape Photography

Dynamic Range

The parameter that describes this behavior is called Dynamic Range. This basically defines the difference between the minimum and maximum value of brightness that a device (like your eye or the sensor of your camera) is able to record. In the real world, Dynamic Range defines the ability of your camera to see details in very dark areas and very clear (bright) areas of the scene.

If you’re wondering how much more your eye sees, the answer is staggering. Your eyes have about twice as much range that they can see and capture.

How to Use Graduated Neutral Density Filters for Landscape Photography

The problem

That’s why when you look at a marvelous sunset with your eyes you’re able to see all the details in the scene (in both the sky and the land). But as soon as you try to capture it with your camera, you’ll get an overexposed sky or a underexposed foreground. The Dynamic Range of your camera is only able to capture detail in one of those areas so you have to choose.

But if even the best cameras have a Dynamic Range which is only half that of the human eye. So how can we hope to shoot a beautiful sunset or a wonderful sunrise and capture all the marvelous details?

There are different methods to overcome this problem, but my favorite is the use of Graduated Neutral Density filters (GND).

graduated neutral density filters

What is a Graduated Neutral Density Filter?

A Graduated Neutral Density Filter is one made of two distinct parts; a completely transparent area, and a darker section. By setting the darkest part of the filter to correspond with the brightest portion of the scene, you can reduce the exposure difference (dynamic range) in the frame.

To reduce the exposure difference is to reduce the dynamic range of the scene, and thus allow your camera to simultaneously capture detail in both bright and dark areas of the scene. Basically, to make an analogy, GND filters are like a kind of sunglasses for your camera.

Types of GND filters

Graduated Neutral Density Filters are typically distinguished by the type of transition that exists between the transparent and dark areas of the filter. For this reason, we can identify three families of GNDs:

Hard-edge filters, which are characterized by a clear boundary (it’s obvious where one begins and the other ends) between the transparent and dark areas. They are therefore used when the separation between the bright and dark areas of your scene is very defined, such as the horizon at sea.
Soft-edge filters are characterized by a soft transition (they change from light to dark more gradually) and are therefore used when the transition between light and dark areas is not so clear. A classic example is a shot in a mountainous area.
Reverse filters, which are nothing more than hard-edge GNDs with the dark area that fades away the more you move from the line of separation to the upper border of the filter (meaning it’s darker in the middle than on the edge). Basically, they were invented to better manage sunrises and sunsets, where the light is more intense on the horizon line (middle). If you love seascapes like me, this filter will be one of your best friends forever!

How to Use Graduated Neutral Density Filters for Landscape Photography

Which to buy?

Another distinction is between filters is the construction material. Higher quality filters are made of optical glass. Putting an inexpensive resin filter in front of a lens worth hundreds (or thousands) of dollars is not a great idea.

Finally, GND filters are distinguished by graduation, or their ability to block light through the darkest area. Essentially how dark they are at the extreme. Normally in landscape photography, this difference is between one and four stops during sunset and sunrise, depending on weather conditions. This is the reason why you will find these gradations almost exclusively on the market.

Shop for Graduated Neutral Density filters on Amazon.com or on B&H Photo Video’s site (they ship worldwide).

How to use a GND filter in the field

The use of GND filters in the field is very simple; try to take exposure readings in the darkest and in the brightest areas of the scene (usually the sky). The exposure difference will indicate the intensity of the filter to be used. Let’s assume that the light meter reading for the sky is 1/250th, and the one for the rocks in the foreground is 1/30th. The difference between those readings is three stops (250th > 125th > 60th > 30th), so to balance the exposure you must use a 0.9 (3-stop) GND.

At this point, just mount the filter with its dark side over the brightest part of the scene. This is why a GND screw-in filter does not make sense. You would not have the possibility to align the dark area in accordance with the scene as well as a drop-in style filter.

How to Use Graduated Neutral Density Filters for Landscape Photography

To avoid having to hold the filter with your hands (that could be a problem if you are going to use them together with other filters) you can buy a holder, that once mounted in front of your lens will do the job for you. There are many valid solutions on the market, but the best one (in my opinion) is the V5 Pro Holder by NiSi filters. This is the only one that lets you simultaneously install three different filters and a polarizer without any vignetting issues (as wide as 16mm on full frame cameras).

At this point, the limited Dynamic Range of your image will be just a bad memory!

How to Use Graduated Neutral Density Filters for Landscape Photography

The post How to Use Graduated Neutral Density Filters for Landscape Photography by Francesco Gola appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Applying color theory to landscape photography

27 Jan

This is Albert Biestadt’s painting entitled ‘Among the Sierra Nevada’ from 1868. As you can see he employed the use of what we now call color theory to create a color harmony in his painting.

Color Theory can be an extremely complex subject, especially if you start looking at the mathematics and physics behind the theory itself. On a more aesthetic level it’s an integral part of what can make an image of a landscape pleasing to the eye. Composition, subject and light all play a considerable roll in landscape photography, but color, and more importantly the idea of color theory, helps to weave all of those elements together to form a successful image.

The most commonly utilized types of color harmonies are analogous, monochromatic, complementary, split complementary, triadic and quadratic. These color harmonies are essentially different combinations of groups of colors that work well with with one another, or for lack of a better word, are harmonious in their visual representation.

Painters such as Albert Beirstadt, who is best known for his renditions of the American West during the mid to late 1800s, utilized what we now call color theory extensively in his paintings of breathtaking landscapes. In the above painting entitled ‘Among the Sierra Nevada’ Beirstadt utilized a triadic color harmony to add balance to the scene.

In the modern era of landscape photography, the same principles that Beirstadt utilized in the 1800s, can be applied to the way we compose images today. Consider the example below taken from Ted Gore’s blog post on the subject. As you can see, the color balance that he strikes in this image helps to solidify an already strong composition with excellent leading lines by guiding your eye through the scene through the use of the colors present in the image.

In this graphic, Ted has outlined the use of the Triadic Color Harmony present in this image taken along the Napali coastline on the island of Kauai, HI.

The Triadic Color Harmony present in the above image combines three groups of colors that are equally spaced from each other on the color wheel. The greens, yellows/oranges and blues all work to add balance to the overall scene and to create a very well composed final product that is pleasing to the eye. This is just one example of the several provided by Ted in his blog post.

To find out more on the subject please give his blog post a read as we think that it does an excellent job explaining how color harmonies work and how they can be utilized effectively in modern landscape photography.

If you want to dive even further into the science behind color theory, give Dave Morrow’s blog post a read as well.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Landscape shooter Lisa Bettany shares her story of healing through photography

27 Jan

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Lisa Bettany is a renowned landscape photographer whose career began as she was recovering from a traumatic injury. Born in Canada, she was a competitive figure skater until the age of 21 when she suffered a back injury while skating. Years into her recovery it was still extremely difficult to walk and sit up, but when she acquired a camera things started to change for the better. One day at a time she ventured farther and farther from home, increasing each trip minute by minute, growing stronger and learning the art of photography. For her, learning photography was very much a journey from darkness into light, and nothing has slowed her down since then.

You can read the inspiring account of how her career started and the success she’s achieved as a pro photographer over on Resource Travel. You can also take a look at a few of her images above.

Has photography helped you achieve things that previously seemed impossible? Tell us in the comments below.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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