The Landscape Photography Book packs hundreds of tips into its pages and has something to offer beginners and intermediates alike even if you’ve been shooting for a few years.
After reading the first book in Scott’s digital photography series I decided to pick up a copy of his dedicated landscape photography book as well. Although I still have 4 more volumes to go in the original series I would imagine that this book’s purpose is to consolidate all of the tips that are specific to landscape photography in one place. The book is not terribly long at 224 pages but every single page contains a new tip or example so the information density is quite high.
The biggest tip for me was the rediscovery of auto ISO mode. Paired with manual controls this allows me to choose the shutter speed and aperture and then the camera will choose the ISO automatically to fill in any exposure gap. I’m embarrassed to admit that I typically have to manually re-select ISO on each shot so having an automatic mode is a real time saver. In fact, it allows me to fix the shutter speed at around 1/2000th of a second (allowing for +/- 1EV bracketing) to get the lowest shake for handheld shots and only have to fiddle with the aperture as needed to achieve the proper depth of field. I tried this out on my next outing and it worked flawlessly. The Fuji is particularly good at dealing with noise so instead of a picture quality hit I’ve got sharper pictures from the faster shutter speeds and a negligible increase in graininess. Thanks Scott!
What I Learned
The gear chapter of the book begins with tripods. Scott’s recommendation is to avoid extensible center columns since they add instability and result in blurrier photos. For legs which are segmented it’s best to extend the thickest (most stable) sections first if you find you don’t need to extend them completely. As far as leg placement you want a single leg of the tripod to be either forward (since that’s where the weight of the lenses are) or towards the fall line if you’re on a slope (i.e. the leg should point downhill). Finally, for cases where you just need a stable platform to put the camera directly on the ground there’s the Platypod.
The book then moves on to filters. Scott likes the way that circular polarizers darken the sky. I’ve always thought this gave it a very unnatural look but after reading some excellent landscape photography books this past year this point of view is more common than I thought. I believe the idea is to introduce color and contrast for aesthetics at the cost of realism. Of course, they’re also incredibly useful for cutting down reflections and glare. I’ve been holding off on a circular polarizer (or any filter, really) for the past year to ensure I was happy with my lens choice but perhaps it’s time to revisit.
It also touches on neutral density filters. Nothing new here, but I was down at the lake a week ago doing some early morning shots and I could have really used one to help lengthen the exposure and blur our the waves. I’ll be adding one to my shopping list.
I’ve never needed additional (or even just replacement) batteries for a camera but Scott recommends Powerextra as his go-to brand for affordable aftermarket batteries and chargers.
The best light metering mode is “evaluative” (“multi” on Fuji cameras). It uses the most advanced algorithms (sometimes even scene-specific depending on the camera) to get the best results compared to simpler modes.
I like my snow-covered mountains to be silhouetted against a blue sky because I find that the clouds and snow can blend into each other. In this book the recommendation (although not specific to snowy peaks) is that you need clouds in the sky in order to give it some texture so that it’s not dull and boring. Obviously clouds can be of great interest but I think a blank sky helps draw attention to the things you actually want people to look at. Maybe I’ve been looking at it the wrong way?
If you need to shoot calm water your best bet is to do it as early in the morning as possible.
For mountains try zooming in on just their peaks, especially if you’re at or above their level. The will help you avoid the typical mountain shots that everyone takes which are always looking up at the peak from the trail.
For streams try zooming in to reduce clutter from fallen logs, plants on the shore, etc. Scott says you’d be surprised how pleasing a close-up of just water tumbling over rocks can be.
Finally, after a long exposure try taking a shot at regular speed so that you can blend in detail as needed in places where the long exposure got a bit too soft.