Landscape Photography Tips Checklist |  |
- Landscape Photography Tips Checklist
- Interesting Photo of the Day: Amazing Halo Phenomenon Photographed over Finland
- Using Innovative Paint Splashes & High Speed Photography for Stunning Results (Video)
- Stop-Motion Short Made from Hundreds of Long Exposure Light-Painted Photographs (Video)
| Landscape Photography Tips Checklist Posted: 08 Nov 2013 01:23 AM PST This article is a review of landscape photography tips and techniques I’ve covered before. Have you wondered why I’m going over previously covered ground? There are several reasons.  “Sand Lines” captured by Steve Ward (Click Image to See More From Steve Ward) First, I wanted to have all these landscape photography tips and techniques listed together so you can more easily make a checklist. I hope you’ve done that. In the excitement of the moment, it’s easy to forget important and rather obvious techniques. Second, it’s good to review from time to time, because statistically, only about 15 percent (or fewer) of you will read any particular article I write. So actually, this is new material for 85% of you. Third, I keep repeating the important points, because there is a story about a preacher. He wasn’t a dynamic speaker, but he did OK. One Sunday, he did a fire and brimstone sermon that got a lot of favorable comments from the parishioners as they left the church. The next Sunday, he used exactly the same sermon. Word for word! This drew some quizzical looks, but no one mentioned it to him. The next Sunday he did the same sermon–word for word–again! And the next, and the next! Finally, thinking he was losing his mind, someone asked him if he was aware that he was doing the same sermon over and over. He said that he was well aware of what he was doing, and he intended to keep doing the same sermon until his parishioners started following the advice. How can I dispute that? Enough said. Here are today’s landscape photography tips: Time of Day “The Hoodoos Sunrise” captured by Ivan Pena (Click image to see more from Pena.) Light–with a portrait, we have total control. We can adjust the light levels, we can place our light where we want it, we can use modifiers, like umbrellas, scrims, diffusion materials, gobos and so on. We can do pretty much anything we want to get the image our mind has conjured up. With landscape and cityscape photography, we are pretty much stuck with what nature provides us. There’s not much we can do. Or is there? With some planning, we can almost guarantee a stunning shot. In an outdoor, landscape setting, there isn’t much we can do to modify or adjust the light, but we can become hyper aware of what light does at various times of day and in various weather conditions. First and foremost, to be successful as a landscape or cityscape photographer, you have to have a desire to lose sleep. If you want to start capturing those dramatic landscape photos with all the stunning colors, there’s really only two times of day to shoot: dawn and dusk. But for a photographer, dawn and dusk are a bit more expanded than you may think. About twenty minutes before the sun first peeks over the horizon in the morning there is a “false” dawn. This time of day will give you those intense cobalt blue colors you see in contest winners but haven’t been able to see in nature. As the sun gets closer and closer to the horizon, the colors start to get pinker. The colors you see at dawn are not the same as the colors you see at sunset. (They are more red and orange.) Drag yourself out of bed a couple hours before dawn so that you will have enough time to grab a cup of coffee and make your way to your predetermined spot, get set up, and start shooting during the false dawn. See what I mean about needing a desire to lose sleep? Most of your friends and camera club competition will be snoring away while you “get the shot”. Angle of Light “Untitled” captured by Eddie Leach (Click image to see more from Leach.) In addition to the terrific colors, you also get great light angles. Think of the last photo you saw of a body builder. Where was the light? I’d venture to guess that it was to the side. Actually, about 90 degrees to the camera-model axis. This glancing side light causes heavy shadowing around the muscles, making them look more defined and actually larger. The light causes some specular highlights too, which makes the difference between highlight and shadow even more striking. Now think of your landscape or your cityscape as a muscle bound model. The shadows caused by the glancing sunlight will help define and emphasize the shapes. CompositionNext look for an interesting scene. Use foreground elements to draw the eye into the photo. Use the rule of thirds, leading lines, diagonals and other compositional techniques to draw the viewer’s eye.  “Autumn On Loch Etive” captured by Dave Murray (Click image to see more from Murray.) Throw in a few clouds to reflect the sun’s colors and add some visual interest to the sky, and you will be well on your way to winning photo contests. Another compositional element to consider is the horizon, make it level! What is the most important element in your landscape or cityscape photo? Is it the sky? If so, put the horizon on the lower third of the shot. Is it the ground? Put the horizon in the upper third. While there are times that placing the horizon in the middle is the right call, they are rare. Make sure you have a specific reason to do so. Last but not least, make sure your photo has a “star”. What attracted you to the scene? Make sure you accent that feature and drive the viewer’s attention to it. Don’t make the mistake of trying to make the entire scene equally important. You need a star. Sharpness “Untitled” captured by Austin Donnelly (Click image to see more from Donnelly.) Use a tripod! When shooting landscapes–particularly in the predawn and post sunset times–you will need a long exposure! (Creating an acceptable depth of field requires shooting at minimal apertures, which means long shutter speeds.) Don’t even think of trying to get a contest winner by shooting handheld. It won’t happen. Use the mirror lockup feature if your camera has one. Most of the better DSLR cameras do. For the ultimate in photo sharpness, in addition to locking up the mirror, use a timed shutter release. It may seem like a bit of overkill, but these sharpness techniques can and do make a big difference. FiltersPhotoshop has the ability to do remarkable things, but there are limitations. Stop trying to “fix” photos in Photoshop. Get it right in the camera and use PS for some minor tweaks. First, make sure you have a circular polarizing filter for each of your lenses. This eliminates glare and polarizes light. What this means is that you will get far more intense and saturated colors, and the clouds in the sky will “pop”. Next, have a selection of neutral density filters. At least have filters that will give you 1, 2, and 3 extra stops–more if you can afford them. There are tons of uses for ND filters, but getting that silky, cotton candy effect in flowing rivers and waterfalls is the most common. You WILL want to do this–be ready. Finally, add a couple graduated neutral density filters. This will help with your sunrise and sunset photos where the ground and the sky have dramatically different light levels.  “Batman Mountain” captured by Ævar Guðmundsson (Click image to see more from Guðmundsson.) Consider getting some colored graduated filters, too! I recommend at least having a tobacco colored filter. It is the most popular to add or intensify sunset colors. In the excitement of the moment, it is easy to forget some of these admittedly basic but essential landscape photography tips and techniques. Here is your assignment: make up a checklist (of these and any other landscape photography tips and techniques you can think of), have it laminated, and stick it in the side pocket of your camera bag. Every time you are shooting, you can pull out your landscape photography tips and techniques checklist and won’t forget anything. Finally you will have the landscape photography techniques needed to let your artistic side shine through. I challenge you to try USING these landscape photography tips and techniques this weekend, and prove me wrong! About the Author: Go to full article: Landscape Photography Tips Checklist |
| Interesting Photo of the Day: Amazing Halo Phenomenon Photographed over Finland Posted: 07 Nov 2013 06:24 PM PST The Northern Lights are the envy of many after-dark photographers who haven’t yet caught sight of them. They make for beautiful, other-worldly images. However, there are plenty of other awe-inspiring happenings in the nighttime sky for photographers to seek out. Finnish photographer Pauli Hänninen shot this almost mystical photograph of his family gazing at the sky on the outskirts of Sirkka village, near Levi fell. He and his family were lucky enough to witness the convergence of several somewhat rare phenomena. The effects in the sky are caused by events that occur only very particular conditions when the moon is full or nearly full and ice crystals form in the atmosphere.  Halo Phenomenon Photographed in Sirkka, Finland (Via Imgur, Click for Larger Size) Though the halo effect, arcs, and bright lights in the sky might appear supernatural, or even fake, they aren’t all that out of the ordinary in some parts of the world. The bright dots in the sky are known as moon dogs, or in scientific terms, paraselenae. They are caused by moonlight hitting ice crystals that form inside cirrus clouds. The halos and arcs are additional optical phenomena caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere. Next time you stay indoors on a moonlit night, imagine the photos you could be missing. There are dozens of types of night sky events that can be explained by concepts of atmospheric optics, but sometimes the wonder they create in photographs overshadows the logical explanations. Go to full article: Interesting Photo of the Day: Amazing Halo Phenomenon Photographed over Finland |
| Using Innovative Paint Splashes & High Speed Photography for Stunning Results (Video) Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:06 PM PST What happens when you give an artistic scientist a camera? Fabian Oefner, who we featured in a previous article, shows us in this peek into his studio in northwestern Switzerland: A self-described scientist, photographer, and artist, Oefner bases his projects around natural phenomena, which he tries to depict poetically. One of his inspirations is Jackson Pollock. Oefner was intrigued by Pollock’s process, rather than the finished product, so in his own work, he focuses on the process itself, combining art with science. He is fascinated by the way paint pours onto a canvas and how he can manipulate the paint with various natural forces.
He’s constantly looking at how things work to inspire his many projects with science and color. The video features three series: Black Hole, Liquid Jewel, and Orchid.
For Black Hole, he dropped paint onto the end of a drill to capture what happens to the paint when the drill begins to spin. He connected a flash to the other end of the drill. A flash fired as the drill began to turn. The final images let us see scientific phenomena frozen in time.
The images for Liquid Jewel are the result of applying paint to air-filled balloons and photographing the balloons at the moment they were popped with a pin. Amidst the interesting shapes formed by the piercing of the balloons, you can see the paint colors begin to blend in mid-air.
The final series, Orchid, focused on gravity’s effect on paint. For these images, Oefner pointed a camera down at a pan of wet paint and dropped objects into the pan to create a splash. His flash was triggered by a microphone so that it would fire each time an object fell into the paint. Beautiful, orchid-shaped forms were his reward.
Just like any scientific endeavor, each of Fabian Oefner’s projects requires hours of planning, experimentation, and innovative thinking. For all of his work on these series, Oefner is left with just twelve images that he’s chosen through his trial and error process. He took thousands of images in order to get the photographs he visualized in his head. And when this scientist shares his amazing artwork, viewers are awed by the intricacies of the world around us.
Go to full article: Using Innovative Paint Splashes & High Speed Photography for Stunning Results (Video) |
| Stop-Motion Short Made from Hundreds of Long Exposure Light-Painted Photographs (Video) Posted: 07 Nov 2013 10:38 AM PST Darren Pearson’s still frame light paintings are impressive enough on their own. He uses flashlights in the dark to sketch out intricate figures. The forms he paints–angels, dinosaurs, aliens, sea creatures, and skeletons–are difficult for most of us to draw with pencil and paper, let alone with beams of light. Take a look at what happens when he goes beyond single still frames and creates a stop motion short film with his light paintings: The film about a skateboarding skeleton, entitled “Light Goes On”, is a compilation of over 720 frames. Photoshop manipulation did not come into play; Pearson light painted each image individually, a process which took more than a year to complete.
The method by Darren Pearson is tedious, but his tools are simple: a DSLR camera capable of long exposures, a tripod, and mini LED flashlights are all he needs to make his works of art. In a tutorial on his website, he demonstrates his process by creating a simple smiley face with a 10 second exposure in a darkened room. Though Pearson’s how-to video makes light painting look easy, anyone who’s ever experimented with the genre knows how difficult and time-consuming it can be, especially when done in large quantities that require such precision. There’s no doubt that this photographer’s levels of patience and talent are phenomenal. Go to full article: Stop-Motion Short Made from Hundreds of Long Exposure Light-Painted Photographs (Video) |
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