Latest / Wildlife and Adventure Photography / The secrets to great landscape photographs

Transcript

The secrets to great landscape photographs · Wildlife and Adventure Photography

• 0:17
  > Graham>Hello again. I thought in this podcast we'd take a look at landscapes because again, that's one of the, I think most popular types of photography.
• 0:25
  > Graham>So I'm going to run through a dozen things for you to maybe think about. Some of them I'm sure you'll know, but maybe some others you haven't thought about so much. So I'm going to go straight into it. the first thing is to, from the planning side, look at the location that you're going to. So if you know the location then that's probably not a big deal. If it's placed, maybe you can get to pretty easily and that opens up other possibilities. So you could be doing a sequence or a series of photographs of a particular landscape, maybe as it changes throughout the year or even throughout the day. Ah, but you presumably would actually know the location and you're able to scout it. You're able to decide where the best vantage points are for the kind of photographs you want to come back with.
• 1:13
  > Graham>If you don't know how to do that or you're not able to get to your planned area very easily or at all. Maybe, just have a look at things like Google Earth. That's really good. Google Maps is another one. And often with Google Maps you can look at photographs, people have posted photographs of a particular location and that might give you some idea.
• 1:34
  > Graham>Or of course you can go back to Google Earth and look, there are others now Photo Pills is another one, that I must say I haven't used myself, but it's been recommended. So have a look around and see what is available these days to allow you to get a head start really and choose different location points. Honestly, in my opinion you can't really be going there. But as I say, you might not have that option. Or maybe that you have to go and decide on locations very quickly. And if that's the case, it's probably a good idea to have several locations, at least in mind that will give you possibly the kind of, viewpoint that you want. So that's location. Secondly, on the planning ahead part of it, think about the weather.
• 2:21
  > Graham>So obviously checking the weather is one thing, and that's not only for what kind of view and what kind of lighting you're going to have to deal with.
• 2:30
  > Graham>Also, what do you have to take? You might want to go out on a cloudy day, that might give you a certain look and maybe, you need to wear certain clothing as well. That's another aspect of it. So, when I'm talking about photography. It's very easy to get caught up in just the photography side of it. But it's also important I think to be comfortable. Ah, because you want to enjoy what you're doing. hopefully it's not an endurance test and if you're comfortable you can then relax and spend more time concentrating on the photographs that you're taking.
• 3:03
  > Graham>So think about cloud formation, storms, clear skies, they all have a very different look. If you are out in the storm, don't get hit by lightning please. I'm not recommending that.
• 3:18
  > Graham>So this is just another thing to think about though. How can you do it safely? And of course when it comes to, well, weather but also time of day is another aspect of that.
• 3:30
  > Graham>Think about shooting during sunrise and sunset. so that's your golden hour. So golden hour is the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset when the sun is very low in the sky. So you get these amazing yellow, orangey hues to everything.
• 3:50
  > Graham>And if you're shooting with your back to the sun you can get some lovely colours on whatever is there, whatever's in that landscape. It might be hills, it might be mountains, it could be whatever.
• 4:02
  > Graham>So it's a really good time to shoot.
• 4:06
  > Graham>You can also shoot in the blue hours.
• 4:09
  > Graham>So that's the hour before sunrise and the hour after sunt. So when there's still light from the sun but the sun is actually below the horizon. So again you can experiment with silhouettes if you've got hills or mountains or things like that. so there's lots of possibilities and obviously cloud formations can give you those amazing red skies. so clouds are great as long as there's a break somewhere near the horizon so that that light has somewhere to come from.
• 4:41
  > Graham>Okay, so that's thinking about the location and possibly the kind of weather and when during the day you want to shoot. And one idea is to actually shoot at different times of year and different times of the day as well.
• 4:55
  > Graham>That gives you a sequence, using the equipment.
• 4:57
  > Graham>What equipment do you need to use? Well ideally you're going to be looking at a wide angle lens. That might be a prime lens, it might be wide angle zoom.
• 5:08
  > Graham>It probably doesn't make a huge difference to whether it's a zoom or a prime. Primes generally give you bigger aperture. There are faster lens.
• 5:17
  > Graham>But I'm going to assume that you're probably are using a tripod. So that gets really important if you're shooting in low light or if you're doing A long exposure.
• 5:28
  > Graham>So you might want to try a different effect by using a very long exposure. I'm going to talk about those in a moment. And that's sort of more in the kind of effects you want to create. But generally speaking, I would assume that you'd be using a wide angle, sorry, using a tripod with the lens. Now the thing I would say there with a tripod, first of all, you need to think about your shutter release. So you might have a remote release of some sort, either a cable release or a wireless release. If you don't have one of those and you do have a longer exposure set up, then, use the self timer on the camera. You generally find that there are two settings on the self timer. One of them is 10 seconds and the other is 3 seconds or something like that. That might vary from 8 to MA, but essentially you should find two settings. The 10 second self timer is to allow you to press the shutter button and then get in front of the lens, hopefully.
• 6:25
  > Graham>And the three second is simply to later press the shutter button. And it allows any vibration that you might have introduced when you press the shutter button down to dissipate so that when the shutter itself opens, there's no vibration coming from the operation of pushing the shutter button. So if you don't have a remote release of any sort, then you just use the three second self timer.
• 6:51
  > Graham>just another thought with tripods, and this is particularly true if you're somewhere where it's a bit windy and you might be up on hill. So that's definitely a possibility if you don't have a heavy tripod because really you want everything as solid as possible. So nothing moves. But something you can do if you're able to just sort out a way of hanging a bag, maybe your camera bag from the center of the tripod, so sitting really underneath the tripod so you're adding extra weight to the lower part of the tripod. The lower down, the lower the center gravity is and the heavier that is, the better because it makes much more stable. and one other thing, not so important if you're using a wide angle lens usually, but make sure that one of the tripod legs stands always angled in front of so underneath where the lens is less important on a wide angle. But it's a good habit to have because if you start using telephotos with a long telephoto, if you don't have one of the tripod legs in front of the lens, there's the chance that, the weight of the lens, the change in the center of gravity because you're putting some weight high up and possibly towards the front. So in front of the tripod there is a danger it can topple over. So do have a think about that other equipment things to think about.
• 8:05
  > Graham>Filters. Maybe polarizing can be useful because it eliminates reflections and you can get some really cool effects on the sky. I normally use a neutral density filter anyway just to protect the front of mind lens. But it allow you, it does help when you're capturing motion or you might even want to graduated neutral density filters. So that allows you to change how much or basically attenuate the light in different parts of the frame. So if you're into filters. I'm not particularly into filters to be honest.
• 8:41
  > Graham>So it's not something I use effects like that I might do in post. But if you're into filters then you might want to take a set of filters with you.
• 8:50
  > Graham>Okay, camera settings.
• 8:52
  > Graham>So this is the third thing and here again you really need to understand the rule of thirds. Because we're looking at that relationship between aperture, ISO and shutter speed. I'm going to assume that you can get away with a fairly slow shutter speed. And certainly if you've got a tripod, that's one thing.
• 9:09
  > Graham>You may well want to have a slow shutter speed if you want to get certain effects. So if you're let's say shooting a landscape and there's a river, a flowing river, if you do a longer shutter speed, maybe less than 100th of the second, you start to get movement, you to get that more ethereal effect in moving water. It depends how quickly the water is moving obviously. And as you go to slower shutter speed, so maybe tenths of a second or even full seconds, then that effect is amplified. So you get these really ethereal kind of misty effects on flowing water. Or you might want to have a slow shutter speed. If you've got ah, clouds moving in the sky. That could be something to experiment with particularly if you've got light low down. So that sort of sunset look or even the sunrise look that could again give you something, an interesting effect if you use a slower shutter speed.
• 10:11
  > Graham>Obviously with aperture you're controlling depth of field.
• 10:13
  > Graham>I'm going to assume that for a landscape you're probably going to use a smaller aperture so you get a large depth of field, maybe as low as F8 but probably F16, F22, even smaller than that. If the lens Supports it. So as I say I'm going to assume that for landscape you really want everything in focus.
• 10:34
  > Graham>However you can always vary that experiment with depth field and that might give you an interesting look.
• 10:40
  > Graham>it can create depth in the image. So for example if you've got features very close to you, maybe bushes or something close to where you're taking the photograph and they're in frame, you could just set your depth of field so that they are out of focus.
• 10:54
  > Graham>So you start to frame the landscape. It might be that you position yourself so that within the frame, in the top of the frame there might be the branch of a tree for example. So that can give you something to frame what's in the center of the image and that can add depth to the photograph. So it's something to think about when you're sending the shot up on ISO. Really that's one I would say is also really important is to just get the ISO as low as you can.
• 11:27
  > Graham>with a low ISO you minimize digital noise in the image. So and there is a chance again depends how you're shooting. But if you've got a large area of blue sky, any noise in the image is going to show up and it will look like little pixels. It look like it'be like a speckled effect.
• 11:49
  > Graham>It's more obvious where you've got a single solid color.
• 11:52
  > Graham>So again dropping your ISO as low as you can is a good way to go.
• 11:57
  > Graham>And when you're on a tripod it's much easier to do that because you don't have to worry about the limitations of hand holding, your camera gear or your camera when you're shooting. So it does mean that you can work with a lower shutter speed. But obviously each aspect contributes something. So shutter speed, aperture and sensitivity contributes something to the overall image. So you've got to decide where the trade offs are. But obviously it comes back to just understanding the relationship between those three aspects.
• 12:31
  > Graham>Ok. Composition is another really important thing to think about. So if you don't know any composition techniques, just go to rule of thirds. So that's the one it's my go to for just starting. And there's nothing wrong with using rule of thirds. It's actually quite effective.
• 12:49
  > Graham>But think about what you're doing. So you might want symmetry, I don't know again what you're shooting. but there are various things you can do. So with the rule of thirds as an example you can place the Horizon along one of the two horizontal lines. So it might be on the higher line, which means you're emphasizing the foreground perhaps, or certainly the area up to the horizon. Or you might want to put the horizon on the lower of the horizontal lines, which means you're emphasizing the sky. So if you've got really cool cloud effects from a sunrise or a sunset, then obviously that would make sense to put your horizon somewhere around that lower line. if the sky isn't contributing very much to the overall image, but you've got great stuff going on in the landscape itself, then maybe put the horizon higher up the frame. And obviously these aren't hard and fast rules. So it's really important to just expl ###t and see what really works for you. And it might vary from image to image, from situation to situation.
• 13:53
  > Graham>other great things to think about are leading lines.
• 13:55
  > Graham>so there might be elements that draw the viewers'eye maybe from somewhere in the foreground out to the horizon. So they're very helpful in creating a more interesting photograph.
• 14:08
  > Graham>So one way of thinking about an interesting photograph is the one that engages the viewer, has the viewer looking at it. You take the viewer on a journey visually through the image and the longer they spend looking at it and perhaps the more things they can find as they spend time looking at it.
• 14:24
  > Graham>That to me is a good definition of a successful image. You might have a different definition.
• 14:30
  > Graham>It's all good, but these are just things to think about.
• 14:33
  > Graham>Again, think about foreground interest. So there might be things that, like rocks, could be bushes, it might be an animal, depending where you are, it could be again a body of water of some sort.
• 14:45
  > Graham>All of these things create depth. They make it a more interesting photograph. And I've already mentioned framing. So you might have a tree branch, something near you, but you might also have man made elements, might be an arch or a bridge or something like that. so again look at what is around that you can bring into the frame that will frame your subject or create some sort of framing, create depth, create interest in the shot. And another thing to do is just balance what's happening left and right. Is there a way of. Doesn't have to be symmetrical, but just creating some sort of a balance or do you deliberately want the out of balance? That's another way of setting the shot up.
• 15:32
  > Graham>okay, so, that's number four composition. So another thing to look at is the lighting.
• 15:40
  > Graham>So I've spoken about Gold Hour and that can give a softer light and you've got that added color, assuming you're not shooting in black or white, obviously.
• 15:52
  > Graham>in fact just on that, I always recommend, I always shooting color even if I'm kind of got a black and white image in mind because it always gives me the option later. And it's very easy to take colour out of a shot when you're in post.
• 16:04
  > Graham>I always shoot in color. but soft lighting is important as well. So obviously if you're there in its bright sunshine, you can have very harsh lighting. So you get very strongly defined shadows. And the differences between light and dark can be quite significant. So here we're thinking about contrast. So you might want a shot that's very contrasty. Also you might want something that's very grainy if you're going for a contrasting shots. So what I was just saying about keeping the ISO very low, if you want something that's really grainy and harsh and has quite a hard impact, then you might want to push your ISO right up high to actually create noise in the shot. So these are again no absolutes, no wrongs and rights here.
• 16:50
  > Graham>These are just different ways of approaching a particular subject. Obviously with an overcast sky you get much softer light so the contrast is much less. And that also has benefits. So think about that, think about how you want to use the lighting.
• 17:09
  > Graham>so how dynamic is the shot? So again on overcast days, where you've got a lot of cloud, you might have areas of very heavy cloud. So you've got quite a dramatic looking shot. So have a think about that.
• 17:24
  > Graham>Backighting is another one. So I've mentioned that, shooting something where the sun is behind it, where you start to get silhouettes, but around the silhouette you might have something really interesting.
• 17:36
  > Graham>So again, how do you make use of what's available? and finally with the harsh lighting, as I've said, just be aware that around noon, often, if it's really anyere, where it's bright sunshine, is that an aspect of the shot that you want? Do you want that harsh light? And again, there are creative elements. There's ways you can use that to create perhaps a very unusual shot. Okay, the sixth point is using perspective. So what I mean by that is where you're shooting from. So if you shoot from a high point, you can be shooting down onto a particular landscape. And that is definitely one way of shooting. So you might have a lookout point, something like that, where You've got the whole vista in front of you.
• 18:32
  > Graham>So that gives you one type of photography. You might even want to do a panoramic shot either. here's something like a smartphone can come in very handy. If you're doing a pano shot, just hold the smartphone up so it's vertical, it's in that portrait sort of position and then pan and try and keep it steady.
• 18:51
  > Graham>Obviously I see people doing portrait or doing panoramas rather and they hold the smartphone in sort of landscape format so horizontally. And the thing is you'll get a very long, long thin shot. But the trick really is to go into that portrait mode. You get generally speaking a much better photograph.
• 19:13
  > Graham>the alternative to that obviously is to get down low.
• 19:16
  > Graham>So that means that you're really emphasizing the foreground and you might even want to put the camera on the ground so you're shooting from ground level, which also can be very dramatic.
• 19:28
  > Graham>It can be useful because it's an unusual position. Generally when people shoot landscapes they shoot from their normal viewpoint. So generally standing up they might crouch down a little bit. But if you stick the camera on the ground as long as you can actually see what you're shooting, that also gives you just a different perspective. And again another way of making a photograph more interesting is to use a perspective that people wouldn't normally think ah, of perhaps themselves. So getting down low on the ground is another one. number seven is incorporating motion. So I've spoken about this a little bit anyway. But if you use a slower shutter speed you can get motion in the photograph. Now that could be anything. It could be a flowing river or stream. So you've got that if you're shooting in the hundreds of a second you'll get some movement in there but it won't be necessarily ethereal, but there'll be moveving. It'll be sort of blurred a little bit but you can still see what it is. it could be clouds moving, it might be a train in the distance, something like that. So what are the elements that you can see and do you want to build a movement? So again that's with experimentation and again as you use slower shutter speed you get a more silky effect on clouds, on water, on whatever else might be there. So again, using a tripod is really recommended unless there's something you can use where you are, ah, as a kind of fill in tripod.
• 20:59
  > Graham>It might be some rocks, something like that. but also be aware of not introducing Movement yourself by pressing the shutter button.
• 21:08
  > Graham>Okay, exposure is number eight. So just be aware of your exposure. So are other areas of the image that are getting overexposed. And think about where you're setting your exposure on a particular point.
• 21:26
  > Graham>It might be, you want to bracket your shots.
• 21:29
  > Graham>So your camera might offer an auto bracketing, capability. if you're on a smartphone you might have eye definition. So high definition shots generally's a sequence of three shots. So you've got the ideal exposure in the middle. And then it will underexpose, might be a third of a stop or a full stop, whatever it is, and then do the same in the other way. So overexpose and then combine those images equally. You might want to bracket the exposure. That simply means again that you set your exposure.
• 22:01
  > Graham>You point to the place in the landscape that you want the exposure to be correct.
• 22:07
  > Graham>the camera will take a shot if you use an auto bracketing. It will take a shot and then it will overexposed to some extent.
• 22:15
  > Graham>Might be a third of a stop, 2/3 of a stop or a full stop. And then underexposed in the same direction by the same amount.
• 22:24
  > Graham>So by the same amount. So in that way, you'll end up with three photographs. One of them is correct exposure. One is slightly overexposure, one is slightly underexposed. And you can then choose what you do with them. Because one option again in post is to just stack them and use them that way.
• 22:43
  > Graham>So there's various things you can do there.
• 22:45
  > Graham>But do understand how to first of all expose correctly and then understand things like how you bracket the shot and how that works in your particular camera. Okay.
• 23:01
  > Graham>post processing is something that you would do afterwards obviously.
• 23:08
  > Graham>But here's where you can really get creative. So you've got a shot I, think the most often or the situation where you're most likely to correct with post processing are things like sunrisees and sunsets. Because the classic experience I guess is that people will shoot a sunset and it looks absolutely amazing. And you've got these amazing colors on the clouds and all this stuff. And then you have a look at what you've shot on the camera and it looks really ordinary. And the clue there is that probably if it does look very ordinary, it's a good shot because your camera'given you a fairly neutral sort of exposure. But once you've got an exposure light that you can work with it in post. So don't be put off. If the picture you've got either on your smartphone or on your camera looks pretty ordinary once you get it into post process.
• 24:01
  > Graham>And you can then vary contrast, colors, all those kind of things and you can choose what you want to do with them. So the general recommendation is not to go crazy and not to overdo the colors and oversaturating things like that. But on the other hand, that might be the thing you're going for now. one thing to do in post is to have a look at the spectrum.
• 24:28
  > Graham>when you go into post processing you can look at the exposure on a histogram and what you will see there. And hopefully this will ring some bells because you often get them on, you'll probably have it on your camera as well. When you've taken the shot, it will allow you to look at the shot. But usually you can flick through and look at the photograph in different ways.
• 24:52
  > Graham>It might be just the photograph itself, it might be the photograph with the settings that you've used or it might be a histogram next to it and it will show you which areas.
• 25:01
  > Graham>In fact some of them give you a view of the picture you've just shot and they'll highlight certain areas so they might start flashing and that's just showing you normally. And here I'm guessing bit because it var. It will depend on camera to camera but it will show you areas to the Dr. Over exposed M In most cases that's probably fine because if you've got a scene where there's quite bright light in some areas and you've exposed for a darker area and then absolutely you're going to have areas of the photograph which are overexposed and that's just normal. When you're in post, if you look at that histogram you may well find that the areas that have information in. So that's basically the bits where there's information there. So let's say the left hand side for example might be a flat line and then as you go left to right you've got stuff going on. You've got a graph, you've got blocks of light area, all of that. Well that's just showing you where there is information. So a great tip before you do any other post processing on that image is to there's normally a slider at the bottom. So the instance I've just mentioned where all the information is to the right hand side of the frame, just take the slider along and move it along. So from left to right until you get to the beginning of where you have a histogram where you've got information and what that will do. And if I remember correctly, and this might vary from camera to camera as well, it's dark on the left, right on the right is what it means. So basically when you go from left to right you're working through where the bit on the left is where it was really dark. There's a lot of information in the dark part.
• 26:49
  > Graham>which would mean it's perhaps underexposed. If everything's down there or if everything's on the right hand side, that's where things get overexposed. It m might mean everything's overexposed. So what you really want to work with when you're in post processing is you want information all the way from left to right.
• 27:04
  > Graham>so that way the software is working on the full spread of data.
• 27:10
  > Graham>If you have an area there has s no data in it, the software is still trying to work with that and you're just wasting your time. So that's a tip and I hope that's made some sense. but where you've got that kind of display we've got that information on where the data is in the photograph. Just move the slider so that you're only working where there is data and you're not getting the software trying to work on something where there's no data. What you will see on the image, it will probably fill out a bit. So if it looks very light, very overexposed, you'll probably find that it will suddenly start getting a bit darker and the contrast will be more realistic m it more useful. And conversely if it's overexposed as you move that you'll suddenly see more details starting to come out. So that tells you you're in the right sort of network.
• 28:00
  > Graham>I'SPOKEN a lot about that so let's move on.
• 28:03
  > Graham>So obviously there's things to do with post processing.
• 28:07
  > Graham>just other thoughts really. general things. One is patience. it's always good. And for me doing a landscape I generally have a bit of wildlife in there and I'm doing the kind of photograph that puts the animal in context.
• 28:24
  > Graham>Ah so you can see the sort of environment scene. I might be emphasizing the size of it. So I've got a photograph of an elephant. this one springs to mind.
• 28:32
  > Graham>it was actually the other side of a valley that s in South Africa. And on that side it Was all trees are a lot of trees around. And I just wanted to make the point that the elephant, although it's big when you're stand right next to it, actually in its environment it's pretty small and can disappear pretty easily.
• 28:47
  > Graham>So that was just one shot.
• 28:50
  > Graham>So that's a landscape. And I wasn't doing tripods and things like that. That was all handheld with a telephoto. So what I've just spoken about might not actually be relevant or true for what you're doing, but it's just another example of a landscape, that was more something I shot in the moment, more spontaneous. Experimenting is the 11th point here.
• 29:13
  > Graham>So try different perspectives. If you've got a zoom lens or different primes, just try different lenses, see what you get. change your viewpoint, change the angle. experiment with different times of day. So there's lots and lots of variables. plus camera settings.
• 29:30
  > Graham>try a different depth of field, try a different shutter speed.
• 29:33
  > Graham>So once you start getting into this, it's very easy to find different ways of shooting the same view if it's that kind of a shot. And you might find just by experimenting that something that you hadn't really thought of, maybe just trying on the spur of the moment, that might give you a really good result and one that you hadn't thought of. So experimentation is absolutely vital.
• 30:01
  > Graham>Finally, number 12. And in some respects this is possibly the most important thing is just to respect the environment.
• 30:08
  > Graham>So one of the phrases I love is to take only photographs, leave only footprints. So yeah, don't disturb wildlife.
• 30:19
  > Graham>Don't tramp your way through lots of vegetation. Just be, stick to paths where you can. if you do see wildlife, try not to spook it. Don't stress it because often if you just stop, and don't move too quickly, just stay fairly slow, Just be slow. If you're getting a camera up to take a photograph, keep it all smooth and slow.
• 30:43
  > Graham>And there's a walk in Sydney I used to a lot which was on the northern beaches. It was spit bridged Manly. And I'd often come across these eastern valley water dragons. So, they're lizards. They varied in length from include the tail, probably a meter or so, a bit smaller, a bit bigger sometimes. And they're really pretty. And they would often be at the side of the path just getting a bit of sunshine. And if I did see one in time, I would just stop.
• 31:12
  > Graham>Sometimes I'd just sit down and then very slowly move and get My photograph and try different shots of these lizards. So if you do get things like that, take your time andeah respect where you are really I think that's that's everything other than I think I said shoot and raw if I didn't shoot and raw. And you also use the biggest file you can because seriously you might get a shot you absolutely love and you want to print it out and put it on the wall somewhere. Which is a great way to use photographs. You really need to have the biggest possible file to start with. There is software you can use to make it bigger. but you really want to start with as much information in the file as you can. So always shoot in raw and always shoot the biggest file size that you can. So some cameras will allow you to change the format that you're shooting and you might have the option of shooting jpeg. I don't recommend it unless you only ever want to use the photographs for social media. Me and sometimes you can set the file size.
• 32:18
  > Graham>So the advantage of using smaller file size is just that you can get more images on the memory card you have. And also you can probably get a faster and longer burst if you're using kind of motor drive sort of as burst. And the reason for that is the camera'spending less time writing to memory. Obviously it's much faster to write a small file than it is a large one. But on the other hand in my opinion it's worth if you're in that situation. For me it never happened very often. Maybe if a whale was breaching or I was photographing Dolphins on my EOS5DS that shooting really big file. So that would do a burst of two or three seconds and then have to draw breath and then it'll do a few more. So you just got to work with those trade offs decide what works best for you in the situation you're in.
• 33:07
  > Graham>Okay So I hope you found that useful.
• 33:09
  > Graham>Just to recap on the 10 things, things 12 things that I've mentioned. So the first was to do a bit of planning, maybe pick some spots, SC out your location if you can or have a look at Google Earth, places like that and think about the weather, time of day for the kind of lighting. I spoke a little bit about equipment so lenses, tripods and filters. So have a think about those.
• 33:35
  > Graham>The third thing was to just think about camera settings. So obviously your exposure, triangle aperture, ISO, shutter speed and the impact of using a fast Shutter speed or a slow shutter speed and then thinking about your focal point, because you want to have as sharpper an image as you can. composition was number four. So the rule of thirds and where you're positioning the horizon to get different effects. Spoke about leading lines, foreground interest to create depth as well.
• 34:12
  > Graham>Also framing the scene. So that would include fourground, but also maybe, things in the top of the frame that are close to you to give youment, framing elements and then balancing left and right. using light, so soft light, how you use that, how you use golden hour, blue hours, use soft light to have a nice even lighting. Or you might, you might want something a bit harsher.
• 34:43
  > Graham>what's the impact of the clouds? You can get more dynamic, images. And if you've got clouds there, you can get a lot of color if you time it right with sunset and sunrise. Think about shooting with the sun or light anyway, behind another element, probably be the sun. So mountains or hills or trees or something else just to create a silhouette.
• 35:07
  > Graham>or the other thing I spoke about was using harsh light deliberately to get really grainy, noisy images by pushing up the ISO.
• 35:17
  > Graham>Think about your perspectives. Was number six, are you going from a high point shooting down, maybe into a valley or something like that? That's sort of a vista.
• 35:25
  > Graham>Or get down low, maybe right on the ground and shoot from there because that will give you a completely different viewpoint. So just experiment with different angles. number seven was thinking about motion. So again, long exposures to slow everything down, make it more silky. that might give. And that also changes where you're going to point the viewer, where they're going to look in the final image. So think about that.
• 35:50
  > Graham>From, composition, you might want to do a long exposure. If clouds are moving, that might give you an effect, might be worth doing. And, again, just think about stabilizing your tripod if you're going to do that.
• 36:04
  > Graham>I also spoke a little bit about exposure and just understanding how your camera exposes. So that was looking at histogram or the image highlighter, on, some cameras where it will show you where you have, an overexposure. And think about bracketing. So bracketing is another thing you might want to do. HDR high definition resolution. I think that's what it stands for. But you get that on smartphones. It might be a default setting, but if it isn't, it's something to experiment with. It can give you quite nice results actually.
• 36:37
  > Graham>But as I've Said it's a combination of three exposures, basically is what, the camera's doing and then pulling them all together.
• 36:46
  > Graham>When it comes to post processing, that was number nine. Just have a think about really how you want to enhance the scene. You might want to restore the colour so that they have the impact that you saw. you might want to oversaturate colors. It's up to you, just as a guide, because often I'm working with color, getting the saturation correct. And what I will do is get the saturation on grass about right. That's my yardstick.
• 37:17
  > Graham>Usually there's grass in my picture, sometimes there isn't it sandy places there wouldn't be. But most of us can see grass one way or another.
• 37:26
  > Graham>And, if the grass looks natural, then thele col looks. The whole color saturation is probably about right. But as I've said, you might want to just oversaturate. I see a lot of people doing that in images. There's a much stronger impact if that's what you're going for. So completely up to you. whatever you use, just get familiar with it. So whether it's Photoshop, Lightroom or something else, it might be worth taking a little course on that, just to get you feeling confident about it.
• 37:58
  > Graham>number 10 is just being patient. So with nature, anything to do with nature, nature goes at its speed. We tend to rush about often, if that's what I do. So, do be patient, do experiment as'number 11. And, remember things like reflections, that sort of thing as well.
• 38:16
  > Graham>So changing your viewpoint might allow you to make use of reflections from something, maybe water or something else. And then finally it was just to, respect where you are. So final thoughts were just, respecting nature, take only photographs, leave only footprints, and also, think about shooting in raw. You can stack images as well. There's all sorts of other things you can do. Practice is always to be recommended. And, if you can't get out to where you want to do this shoot, if it's, maybe you're planning for a holiday or something, at least find somewhere else.
• 38:55
  > Graham>There's presumably somewhere local you can go to where you can just practice landscapes and all the things I've spoken about just so that you're most importantly familiar with your camera and, you know, how everything works. So that where you're going, if you are going somewhere to take your landscape shots, you can really enjoy where you are and what you're doing. So that's it from me on this one. I hope you found that useful and I'll speak to you in the next podcast. Bye for now.
• 39:21
  > Graham>Just before I go, I wanted to let you know that I'm running a mini workshop on Sunday 30th March, and I'll be taking you through six different areas where you can make an immediate improvement to your photography. So if you're not happy with your photography in any way, please click the link and come and join me. So with the price of your ticket you get a workbook which is 72 pages, think. And you also have access to the recording of the webinar the workshop, so that will be available afterwards. Obviously there's a transcript with that too. And you'll also get a discount off my discovering DSLR and mirrorless photography course. And that discount is worth around US$90€85 somewhere around that. Currencies, vary, but that's sort of thing. So if you do want to make a difference to your photography, please come and join me. And if you've enjoyed the podcast, please either subscribe or just buy me a coffee. That would be much appreciated. So I hope you found it useful. I'll speakh to you again soon. By now.