A Simple Manual Mode Recipe & Tutorial, How To Use Manual Mode in the Real World
Published by Moose Winans on Jan 12, 2017
Are you a beginner to photography, are you ready to take the next step to improving your photographs. This is a great video of all beginner photographers in any genre of photography. Taking control of your camera settings will offer you a wider range of creative choices during your photo shoots.
Published by: B and H on Nov 26, 2012
In this video we join National Geographic Landscape Photographer Michael Melford in a two-part talk about: ‘Hidden Alaska: Bristol Bay and Beyond- Images from his most recent book published by National Geographic’, and ‘Qualities of Light, Composition, and What’s in my bag’. During the presentation Michael shares his beautiful photographs that are always an inspiration, with his explanations of how he got each shot, as well as his practical tips that will help nature and landscape photographers of all levels to improve their own skill and photos.
Published by: B and H on Jul 21, 2015
Learn how to take your landscape photography from great to breathtaking from National Geographic Photographer Michael Melford. Michael has made a career of capturing the incredible landscapes and vistas of the world. Although his assignments for National Geographic have taken him to almost every continent – his favorites have been photographing in the U.S. where he covered 14 National Parks for a major feature story, Places We Must Save. He’ll share his tips composition, gaining a fresh perspective on destinations well documents, and successfully shooting landscapes in challenging weather.
Published by: Nigel Danson on Jan 27, 2017
In this landscape photography video we join landscape photographer Nigel Danson on his first photography trip to the beautiful Yosemite National Park in the Winter after a week of snow fall. During the video Nigel goes through a variety of compositional and exposure tips on the scene.
Published by: jason jones on Jan 18, 2017
In this landscape photography tutorial we join landscape photographer Jason Jones on a photo shoot at Dinorwig Slate Quarry to capture some black & white images with the drama of mist and drizzle.
Bodie Lighthouse Glass Plate Effect by Landscape Photographer Melissa Fague
Last we talked about the benefits of planning your landscape photography shoots before you head out for it. Even though having a well-researched location and a solid plan of what you want to shoot during your trip, plans are never set in stone. For one thing, Mother Nature has a habit of regularly throwing plenty of curve-balls at you when you’re out on location. And while there are a lot of weather apps to help you plan and get up to date weather condition changes there are still unexpected things that can occur on the shoot. As a photographer, you should always expect the unexpected to occur.
For example, hypothetically speaking say a heavy rain storm came through the area you wanted to photograph days earlier. Your shoot date is pristine however, the storm did damage in the area. The aftermath of the storm could be alterations to a landscape, such as changes in water levels and even more dramatic events like landslides. All of these changes could affect your plan and could alter the scene dramatically or even prevent you from getting to your chosen location on time.
Finalizing Your Plan
This is where it pays off to have a back-up plan in place. First, if it is a location you have never been to before and you are traveling a distance to get there arriving a day earlier may be beneficial to you; especially if you are planning a sunrise landscape photo shoot. Nothing is worse than stumbling around in the dark and breaking a bone. Arriving a day early allows you the leisure of scoping out your shoot locations first (in the day light) and finalize where you would like to position yourself for the shoot the following day for the most optimal details. Take note of any things that could be a distraction or out of place; with these findings make any adaptions to your plan or make a plan to remove the distractions in post-production. Secondly, you can take note of safety issues of the location you plan to shoot; if marshes and water is involved you will be able to find high ground and exit areas. This is especially important if the water ways are tidal, we as photographers can get carried away at a shoot and lose track of time easily; getting tracked or worse yet getting caught up, by the tide can be deadly.
The Day of The Landscape Photo Shoot
The night before you should go to bed early and get plenty of rest; this will allow you to wake early and be out at the location quickly. Its recommended to allow some time for set up and last minute things. We usually try to get to the shoot location at the very least 30 minutes before we think we might want to start shooting. So if sunrise is about 7:13 am we’re on sight by 6:40. This gives us plenty of time to set up and then watch the show so to speak.
The bottom line is that no plan is perfect, there are always going to be pitfalls when it comes to landscape photography shoots. However, with research, a plan and time to explore you will be able to focus more of your attention on the subject and less on how to overcome an obstacle in order to get your shot on the spot.
Landscape Photograph by Melissa Fague
Exposure Bracketing
Today, most cameras come equipped EV or Exposure Compensation feature built in. This allows photographers to take multiple photographs of the scene each at a different exposure. A good practice for any photographer is to take three photographs of the scene. One of the shots is your starting point, were you feel the correct exposure of the scene is. The second shot is 1 stop above (+1) and the third shot is 1 stop below (-1) the normal exposure (0). As a beginner photographer think of it as insurance for your landscape photograph but as you grow as a photographer you can use those images to create HDR photos. HDR is when you blend the photographs together to create a image that showcase a High Dynamic Rate (HDR) of light (more on this later). The process of bracketing gives you a better shot of getting a correctly exposed of the photograph and details to work with in the shadow. If you don’t want to save the extra photos for later use or practice then you can simply delete them.
