NB Photography : Landscape Photography

Landscape Photography

Introduction

The UK is full of interesting places, from tranquil rural scenes to wild and barren moorland.

Some locations are touristy, and others remote.

Tourist locations are the easiest spots to take good photographs. My friend (Agnes) and I decided to photograph the Lake District. We decided to do some research on the internet before we left and decided on Ambleside and Windermere as the main areas of interest for the project.

Preparation

We visited the local tourist shops as they gave us clues to the best spots to photograph. Here we also bought postcards, maps and collected free literature. All this information gave us an idea of great locations as well as fantastic photography by other landscape photographers.

Armed with food, waterproof clothes, mobile phones, maps and cameras we went in search of inspirational scenery.

The photographers that inspired me to do Landscape Photography are:
Ansel Adams
Joe Cornish
Tim Parkin
David Ward
Richard Childs
Tony Howell (Trees)
Charlie Waite
David Norton

Looking for a view

We decided on a location : Ambleside, Waterhead Pier.

We arrived here at 10.30 am on 3.11.2012

I looked around for the best viewpoint.

I tried to be creative and tried to find a scenic vantage point .I looked at the fore ground, could i include something to give my picture more depth? A tree branch cutting across the picture may add a frame and keeps the viewer within the picture, while a rock or fence in the foreground can lead the viewer into the photo.

A tree branch cutting across the picture keeps the viewer in the picture

A fence in foreground leads viewer into photo

a rock in the foreground leads the viewer into the photo

I took a series of pictures of landscape shots by placing points of interest in the foreground. When i did this it gave the viewer a way into the image, and also created a sense of depth in my shot.

Depth of field
Landscape photography desires an image that appears sharp throughout the scene, so elements in the foreground interest, such as rock in a lake look just as sharp as the distant horizon. This can be achieved using the principles of depth of field, here the smaller an aperture used, such as f/22, the greater teh area both before and beyond the point of focus also appear to be sharp.

When you use small aperture you'll need to compensate with slow shutter speeds, so a tripod becomes essential.
There are times you want to get a little creative and experiment with narrow depth of field for landscape photography (as above) - the normal approach i used to ensure that as much of the scene is in focus as possible.

The simplest way to do this was to choose a small APERTURE SETTING ( a large number) as the smaller the aperture the greater the depth of field in my shots.

I kept in mind that smaller aperture means less light is hitting the image sensor at any point in time, so that will mean that i need to compensate either by increasing my ISO or lengthening the SHUTTER SPEED (or both). For this project i experimented with f values of f/9, f/16, f11 , f/10,f/5.6 and f/6.3
The shutter speeds were between 1/80 to 1/500.
The ISO 160 to 400

FUTURE projects I would improve my pictures by using a tripod. As a result of the longer shutter speed to compensate for a small aperture (a value of say f/22), I would in the future use a tripod to ensure the camera stayed completely still during the exposure.

To improve the shot even further in the future i could consider a cable or wireless shutter release mechanism for extra camera stillness.

Looking For a Focal Point

All shots need some sort of focal point even landscapes. Some photos i took without a focal point look rather empty and did leave me wondering through the image, nowhere to rest my eyes on. The ones below are some without a Focal Point:-

These pictures were discarded quickly.

For this project i used Focal Points such as:-
Boats
Buildings
A striking Tree
A boulder
A Pier
A rock formation
A silhouette

focal point pier used leading you into the picture

The lines above give the image depth and the pier lines themselves create pattern of interest in the above shot.

Focal point a tree

My project was based on enjoying sailing on Windermere. In relation to the i not only thought What the Focal Point is but where I placed it in the picture. Here The Rule Of Thirds were useful.

Lines

I asked myself the question as i took the Landscape shot "How am I leading the eye of those viewing this shot?"
I used a number of ways of doing this for the Composition of the photos.

1.Foreground

2.The best ways into a shot is to provide viewers with lines that lead them into an image.

Lines that lead you into the image

The lines give an image a depth, scale and can be a point of interest by creating patterns in the image above.

Considering The Sky

Another element i had to consider in landscape photography was the sky. Since i was taking photos at Windermere the sky became a very important part of the composition, if not the most important. This was evident at 5 pm. The following photographs show the importance of sky, light at 5pm and the sun and the result it has on the final image.

sun and cloud creating interest

Most landscapes will either have a dominant foreground or sky - unless there is one or the other images can end up being fairly boring.

If i had a bland, boring sky; i didn't let it dominate the shot. I placed the horizon in the upper third of my shot - and i made sure that my foreground is interesting.This is what i tried to achieve in the following shot:-

Foreground is more interesting than the sky

However when the sky was filled with drama and interesting cloud formations and colours i let it shine by placing the horizon lower.

The Sky creates drama

Capturing Movement

When i used to thing of landscape; i thought of calm, serene and passive environments. However landscapes i found are never completely still and to convey this movement in my image that will add drama, mood and create a point of interest. I have tried to do this in the image below:-

The ducks create movement and interest in the image

Other examples that could be used:-
wind in trees,waves on a beach, water flowing over a waterfall, birds flying overhead, moving clouds etc.
In future projects i hope to capture this movement by using longer shutter speeds.

The Magic Hour

Beautiful landscape photos are often defined by the quality of light they were taken in. As a consequence, photographers tend to shoot early in the morning or during late afternoons when the sun is lower, less contrast and often displays a subtle colour palette of moody hues. For this reason, the hours after dawn and before dusk are known as the "magic hours".