Landscape shots do not always
have to be horizontal. This shot, taken after a visit to a chateau in
Loire Valley, France, plays up the trees lining both sides of the
narrow road.
This popular Kuta beach is most
spectacular when bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun.
I used Auto Exposure Compensation which slows down
the shutter speed, so that the sensor absorbs more light.
Snow landscapes can turn out
grey and slushy when taken in automatic mode. So use either
now scene mode or Auto Exposure Compensation to
deliberately overexpose by one or two f-stops to whiten the snow.
The texture and contours of the
sand dune are accentuated by the shadows cast sideways from the
rising sun. The same photo taken at midday would have been a flat
shadowless mass of grey.
I took this shot from a relative's
house in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur to capture a sense of
industry (the construction site) going to sleep at the end of a
work day. Foliage in the foreground forms the frame.
This photo of a road to nowhere
was taken in the outbacks of Queensland, Australia. The lone
tree adds to the sense of desolation.
A small aperture size coupled with
a wide angle lens (my camera was zoomed out to its maximum)
resulted in everything sharply focused, right down to the blades
of grass in the foreground.
EVER wondered why your wide vista shots of hill and vale never look as stunning as those on a postcard stand?
Well, landscape photography is a lot trickier than setting the dial to Landscape mode and hitting the shutter button.
The stunning sceneries of anything from beaches to mountain tops you see in glossy coffee-table books and inflight magazines are usually the result of weeks of preparation.
They would have been shot by a professional photographer who may have made multiple visits to the site and taken hundreds of shots just to get that perfect one.
Well, intermediate-level shutterbugs need not be left trailing in the dust.
Here are tips to transform your holiday snaps into postcards with an edge.
Shoot at the right time
The rule of thumb is to avoid shooting during high noon: The sun high up in the sky and the harsh quality of light make a scene look flat and uninspiring.
The best time for landscape shots is the hour or so after sunrise or before sunset, when the land is shrouded with the soft warm, orange glow of the rising or setting sun, lending a magical touch to the scenery.
The low position of the sun during dawn and dusk also means that shadows cast by objects are long and stretch across the scene, showing off the texture and contour of the land and adding dimension to the scene.
Composition
Landscape photography is one area where application of the rule of thirds will consistently yield good results.
Also, instead of always shooting in the horizontal format, try going vertical where a sense of height is needed, such as when you are in a forest and want to capture the towering trees.
Camera settings
Basic settings: Scenic shots usually require a fine level of detail, more so than, say, portraits. To record as clearly as possible those leaves or blades of grass, start by tweaking the camera's basic settings.
Set the image size to the maximum and the image quality to the best. Instead of using Jpeg compression, shoot in Tiff or Raw modes to capture as much detail as you can in the original picture.
Set the ISO sensitivity level of the sensor to the minimum to avoid noise.
Small aperture: For SLRs, set the smallest possible aperture (the greatest f-number) for a deep depth of field - so that everything near and far in the scene is in focus. The lens also produces the sharpest pictures when the aperture is small.
Use a tripod: Using a low ISO level and small aperture allows for a slow shutter speed to ensure the photo gets enough light. However, slow shutter speeds could also mean blurring from camera shake. So, use a tripod to steady the shot.
If you do not have the tripod with you, increase the aperture size (by selecting a smaller f-number) so that the shutter works very fast, minimising any shake. Look for the red warning symbol, which comes on to warn you of possible blurring due to camera shake.
Only increase ISO sensitivity as a last resort as the noise introduced will be almost impossible to remove.
White Balance: The Auto White Balance function removes any colour cast such as the warm orange swathes of a setting sun, stripping the photo of its original mood.
Switch the white balance to manual and select Daylight to preserve the warm colour tones.
This is the fourth of a ten-part series for intermediate shutterbugs
John Tan is a freelance writer
This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.
