Landscape photography is not just one of the oldest forms of photography but has also consistently remained as one of the most popular disciplines in photography. Dating back to some of those amazing black and white fine art landscape photography of California, Utah and New Mexico by legendary photographer Ansel Adams, to the more modern and vibrant images we see today from the likes of landscape photographer Peter Lik.
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Landscape photography
Wherever or whenever, photographers have always had a deep love for all things landscape photography.
Landscape photography tips
In this article we are going to be going through some of the landscape photography questions we get asked about most often on our photography workshops and tours.
Best landscape photography settings?
There is no real right or wrong answer to this question as every scene is completely different. You also have to take into account your artistic impression of the scene. As a general rule, I would select what you want to shoot on as low an ISO as you can so 50, 64, 100 or 200.
I appreciate this isn’t always possible but its good practice to get into and will show off the image quality of your high-resolution sensor size.
I would then select my preferred aperture. This would usually be somewhere between f/8 to f/16 depending on my landscape photography subject. The majority of lenses are sharpest and achieve the best results between f/5.6 and f/11. A quick google of your lens model will provide the information you need.
Finally, I would select my shutter speed. I should point out now that if the shutter speed I am left with to achieve the correct exposure doesn’t suit the scene then I would go back and adjust the aperture or ISO depending on which is more desirable.
For example, if I am already on ISO 64 and need a faster shutter speed, then I would be happier to put the ISO to 100 or 125 than I would go with a wider aperture in general.
Whilst it may not be that necessary to get your white balance correct in camera now that is can be so easily adjusted in Adobe Lightroom, I do my best to get an accurate white balance for all my landscape photography.
Best camera for landscape photography?
I hate this question as I am a big believer that great landscape photos can be produced on any camera. But there are a few cameras that will help improve your final shot. Its not actually the camera brand you choose but rather that it is full frame. Full frame sensors provide a higher resolution so your images contain even more detail which is particularly important when printing your landscape photography.
Weather sealing is a very undervalued aspect of cameras but once you are out in the field in the rain, snow or dusty environments you will be very thankful you went with a well-sealed camera.
This isn’t such a big issue for some but I also like a camera to have long battery life. There have been a few cameras in recent times that have had very short life spans. Not great when you have hiked to get that great sunset landscape photography spot with those killer conditions and your battery dies.
Best lens for landscape photography?
There are so many great lenses for landscape photography from wide-angle to telephoto lenses. A lot of landscape photographers prefer to use prime lenses for the added quality they can give to you.
I personally use a mixture of primes and zooms when I’m shooting in the UK or local Europe. When I’m on longer trips I would generally have the holy trinity of lenses from 14mm to 200mm.
Black and white landscape photography or not?
With black and white landscape photos, it’s really a matter of taste. I personally think black and white landscape photography looks incredible and have lots of prints on my walls. I don’t shoot black and white images myself very often as colour images have a more commercial value and better suited to my work. Whereas I feel black and white images are more geared towards the fine art photography spectrum.
Best filters for landscape photography?
Filters are a big part of our photography workshops and we always have a selection of Lee filters neutral density, neutral density grads and polarizing filters on hand for our attendants to use. These three types of filters are what I would recommend anyone serious about landscape photography to have in their camera bag.
Best times photograph landscapes?
The very best times for landscape photography are generally at sunrise and sunset. These are closely followed by the blue hour and golden hours, the hour to 30 minutes before sunrise and after sunset and the hour after sunrise and before sunset. I personally prefer sunset landscape photography for the colures and additional shooting opportunities but there is nothing quite like watching the sunrise.
Best locations for landscape photography?
There are literally endless locations to shoot some great landscape photos. My personal favourites are anything to do with the Lake District, Scotland, Yorkshire or Dartmoor landscape photography here in the UK.
I am also a big fan of shooting city landscape photography or cityscapes. I’m lucky enough to live very close to London which is an incredibly beautiful and vibrant city to photograph. Some other city landscape locations that I enjoy shooting are New York, Paris and Tokyo.
Some of my favourite worldwide locations include southern Chile and Argentina, Iceland, the Italian Dolomites and Utah.
Like any other form of photography, there more you practice, the better you will become. So get out there and capture those amazing landscapes around you.
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Jordan Banks is a travel photographer with almost 20 years of experience shooting assignments and campaigns for some of the worlds leading brands and companies featuring is landscape photography . Jordan is well versed on Landscape Photography and has 100s of landscape photography tips.
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