INTRO So, what is the best light for landscape photography?… At the risk of stating the obvious – the title is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. There’s a myriad of conceivable potential landscape scenes, and even more inconceivable ones. All of which are not served equally well by the same kind of light. And if you were to …
Telephoto Landscapes of the South Downs …AND WHAT MADE ME CHOOSE LANDSCAPE While South Downs landscapes taken with telephoto lenses have been a strong foundation of my body of work over the past 15 years, it wasn’t my first “serious” focus in photography. In reality, at the beginning of my photographic journey I never thought …
INTRO Why is landscape photography difficult? Many beginners, and even seasoned photographers specialising in other areas, struggle with landscape photography. Composition is probably the number one cause of their frustration. So often it’s not obvious at all what should be the focus of your frame. You have to create it, craft through your creative choices. …
Why do my landscape photos look flat?… Obviously, photographs are usually flat (unless they’re wrapped around or projected on some curved or uneven surfaces). So, that explains everything… And still, compelling landscape images often exhibit a certain three-dimensional quality. Since the actual scene is represented on a flat surface, the effect must be an illusion …
Case study: a telephoto landscape from conception to editing The image above is relatively old, taken one evening in early June of 2010. But I still quite vividly remember the outing, the decisions I made, and the hurdles I had to overcome. And I’d like to share with you what went into the creation of …
Why worry about contrast? If you’ve been taking photos for any length of time, you will have noticed that sometimes the camera fails to properly capture contrast in your scenes. Or in other words, sometimes the picture looks more contrasty than the scene did to your naked eye. In extreme cases vast portions of the …
How to use polarising filter to control contrast Read More »
Case study: a seascape from idea to postproduction Everyone has a preferred way of learning. If you like learning by example and analysis of others’ work, and you feel you can improve your seascapes, then read on. As I shall explain in detail how I created the above photo from idea to postproduction. Including all …
Technically almost everything we see, and our cameras capture, is reflected light. Unless we happen to be looking straight into a light source. So I am referring to something more specific in the “magic of reflected light”. Perhaps you could call it secondary reflected light, or use a more technical term – indirect illumination. Hallowe’en …
If you’ve ever tried to photograph a woodland, you’ll know that it’s not easy to do it justice in a still image. Woods and forests are visually busy environments. And that often makes carving meaningful compositions out of them a challenge. Moreover, if you try to shoot in direct sunlight, harsh patchy contrast makes things …
I sometimes get confused looks when I ask my audiences, photography workshops guests or just friends interested in photography – do you know what “blue hour” is? I’ll try to explain what it means in this article, as it is one of my favourite lighting scenarios for landscape, especially cityscape, photography. First what Blue Hour …
