Keep your eyes on the Horizon...

-Landscape photography

Have you ever photographed wonderful landscapes, and returned home just to see the photos didn't come close to what you where experiencing? Landscape photography is quite fun, if you just have a plan for what you want to capture, and how you want to execute the shoot.

EXIF: f/8 - 1/125 sec - ISO200- 55mm - no flash

Professional landscape photographers shoot their photos at two times during the day. I guess you know this already; at sunrise and at sundown. The reason why is very simple; these are the two times during the day when the light is soft and beautiful. In the middle of the day the sun is too sharp, the contrasts get too big and the shadows too dark.

The photo to the right is from mid winter, when the days are short and most of the light during the day is soft and beautiful. The wood in the water is the remains of an old ship wreck. 

The timber is black, but it reflects just enough light because it is covered with a thin layer of ice. It's sundown, the sun has just dipped beneath the horizon making the sky look like champagne. This is of course the dream lighting for any photographer.

Wide angle lenses are the best choice for landscape photos, but you can shoot great photos with your kit lense as well. The photo above is shot with the 18-55 kit lense that came with my camera kit. 

Many seem to think great photos depend on great equipment, but this is not true. You can be a great photographer with the equipment you have. People are often a bit  suprised when I tell them I "only" have a Canon eos 450d.

Back to the photo, and back to the headline of this post "Keep your eyes on the horizon...". The horizon is your secret guide to landscape photography. The horizon gives dept to your photo. In this shot I have placed the horizon in 2/3 of the frame; 1/3 sky - 2/3 sea. I did this because I liked the small ripples in the water in the foreground, and the sky wasn't all that interesting. I think it's a good rule to always think in thirds when shooting photos. This brings dynamic to the shot.

Now, to the mistake I've seen too many times. The horizon line. Look at the horizon in the first picture. It's a straight line, and in 90 degrees to the frame of the image. If you look at the photo to the left you see the horizon line lean to the left making the sea pour to one side.

ALWAYS STRAIGHTEN YOUR PHOTO! Please. All photo editing programs have a feature called straighten. 

I think landscape photography is much more interesting when there are several textures in them, like reflection from water, clouds, rocks and so on. If you shoot early morning photos waters are almost always like mirrors. If you want the whole photo to be in focus, you turn your program wheel to Av (Canon) / A (Nikon) and choose the highest f-number avaliable. To use high f-numbers requires a tripod. It doesn't matter if the exposure is long, the landscape is not moving anyway.

EXIF: f/7.1 - 1/4000 - 20mm - WB/sun

Silouettes are often great in landscape photography. The photo on the left is shoot in broad daylight, so I had to compensate by turning the shutter speed to the max. It's also shot with backlight which helps to enhance the silouette of the diving tower. I have used the diving tower to decide the section within the frame, usually I wouldn't put the horizon line in the middle of the photo.

There's a lot more to landscape photography than what I've mentioned today, so I'll have to come back to you on that...

Hope you all are having a great day!

Focus!

Yesterday I mentioned my ambition to always post razor sharp photos, but I didn't really elaborated the techniques that leads to razor sharpness. So in todays blog post I'll give you some hints and tips.

EXIF: f/4 -  1/200 sec - 60mm - ISO100 -WB/sun - no flash

There are several actions you can take to make sharper photos.

ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The lower the number the less sesitive your camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to compensate so you get faster shutter speeds. The cost of high ISO is noisier shots, or high grain.

Now, we don't want noisy shots, do we? Look at the top of your camera, you'll see a button called ISO. Turn on you camera, twist the program wheel to M, click the ISO button and set the ISO to 100. From now on have your ISO set to 100. Don't worry, you can always turn the ISO up whenever you need to, and in Auto mode the camera will always choose ISO for you.

By now I'm starting to think I can write an entire book just about camera settings...

Light is crusial. Having turned the ISO down, you have to make sure the lighting is good. You can use studio lamps, flash or natural day- or sun light. You might also have to turn down the shutter speed. When turning down the shutterspeed the camera is much more sensitive to movement. Most lenses have an in built IS (Canon) VR (Nikon) -to reduce vibrations. In situations you're not able to use a tripod the IS/VR is a great helper.

EXIF: f/5.6 - 1/80 sec - 60mm - ISO100 - WB/shadow -no flash

Triphods are very useful if you want sharp images, and in combination with a set timer or remote control you really have a winning setup for sharpness. This ensures that the camera doesn't move at all. Just make sure the subject is in focus, and move away.

In situations you can't use a triphod, you are much better off if you can lean against something or twist the camera strap around your elbow. 

EXIF: f/14 - 1/160 sec - 60mm - ISO100 - WB/flash
This photo is shot today. I got this wonderful gift from my dear
friend Marion by mail this morning.

Finally; editing! You always have the opportunity to do some after work on your photos before showing them off. All editing programs have a feature called sharpen, but be careful to use it. It's always pretty obvious if you have sharpened your image too much, because all edges will look thick and unnatural. In practice this means that the photograph must be reasonably sharp before you add the final touch. 

Today I have talked about sharpness in general. I will talk more about focal point and dept later on.

Hope some of this has been useful. Enjoy your day!