How to photograph a landscape correctly and what you need to know to get masterpieces? Coursework: Photography of landscape photography.
Landscape photography is an incredibly exciting type of photography that requires the photographer to know the basics of not only photography, but also painting. Landscape photography has always been and remains a popular and interesting genre. Photographs of architecture and nature are in considerable demand in the photography market.
Landscape photography with filters
Horizon level in landscape photography
When photographing a landscape, it is important to remember the level of the horizon, and to keep the horizon line level and not obstructed. This is especially important when photographing seascapes. There is a grid in the camera's viewfinder and on the display during Live View shooting that will help you create the correct horizon.
Clear landscape photos
Author: Xin Hua Depth of field is an important factor when photographing landscapes. Landscape photography favors photographs where most of the frame is clear and sharp. To increase depth of field, you need to photograph with a narrow aperture.
Telephoto lens
To achieve the widest viewing angle, it is worth using the appropriate lens or focal length, but a telephoto lens will also be useful when photographing landscapes. A telephoto lens allows you to compress elements of a scene, bringing the foreground and background closer to each other. This way, the mountain range and the foreground background will appear closer to each other, and the picture will be richer. Telephoto lenses also help focus attention on a specific subject.
Landscape HDR
Shutter speed in landscape photography
Long exposures in landscape photography allow you to capture beautiful photographs of moving elements. Waterfalls, waves and trees in the wind, and much more will look livelier and more interesting when shooting with a shutter speed of a few seconds. It is known that using a long shutter speed during the day can lead to overexposure of the frame. You need to set the aperture to f16, or even narrower. For achievement best result You may need to use a neutral density filter. Powerful filters like the Lee Filters Big Stopper will allow you to use extremely long shutter speeds even on the clearest day.
Tilt-shift in landscape photography
Photo by: Arnar Birgisson Tilt-shift allows you to combine photos with deep and shallow depth of field. The effect is achieved by using lens shift and tilt. Thanks to Tilt-shift, frame elements will resemble miniature models. This effect will look beautiful in landscape photography. If you do not have such a lens, the Tilt-shift effect can be achieved with a graphics editor, in addition, this effect is provided in some cameras.
Black and white landscapes
If you have never photographed black and white landscapes before, but really want to try yourself in such photography, then it is better to start by photographing in color. After taking a successful photo, convert it to black and white using Lightroom or Photoshop. This will give you full control over how you modify your photo, allowing you to fine-tune your photos to create a truly beautiful black and white photo.
Panorama
To create a panoramic photograph, do not shoot in a wide-angle position as this will distort the frame. Take photos at a distance of 30-50 mm. Yes, you will have to take more frames than with wide-angle coverage, but the panorama will turn out beautiful and natural. Many camera tripods have a tripod head for panning, but in practice this is not always necessary, especially if you plan to use software. The latest version of the Photomerge application for Photoshop will be especially effective in the process of creating a panorama. Panoramic photography experts recommend using manual settings - manual exposure, focusing and white balance, to ensure maximum photo quality and the same type of all photographs created.
Infrared photography
Minimalist landscape
Author: Lisa Wood When creating a landscape, it is not necessary to adhere to the idea of capturing as many details, objects and scenes as possible in one frame; sometimes it is better to focus on one interesting moment. A telescopic lens will most likely help you with this. Pay attention to lonely trees, clouds and isolated rocks. Fog, snow and featureless skies will serve as a blank canvas for creating photographic paintings.
Introduction
In artistic creativity, “the richness and variety of speech genres is boundless, because the possibilities of diverse human activity are inexhaustible...”. These words may well be applied to photographic creativity.
The following genres have been established in photography: landscape, still life, wedding photography, portrait, architectural photographs, interior, genre photography, reproduction, photo report, panoramic photography.
From the wide variety of genres, it follows that some people like to take certain types of photographs, while others prefer to take other types of photography. In my opinion, the most relevant and interesting place in photography today is occupied by the genre of landscape. And what person doesn't like landscapes? Everyone loves him. There is no photographer who would not try himself in this genre. None of them can resist the temptation to capture in a photograph beautiful view or those changes in the landscape that arose as a result of gigantic work to transform nature. Every person is not averse to putting a photo with a beautiful view of the evening sunset near the computer, or hanging a picture of a mountain landscape on the wall.
I chose the features of landscape photography as the topic of my course work. Landscape in photography is an independent genre in which the main subject is nature under the vault of heaven: forest, garden, field, meadow, steppe, pond, swamps, plains, hills, mountains. The concept of “urban landscape” refers to architectural space.
Is it difficult? For those starting landscape photography for the first time, it may seem that this genre is simple and accessible to everyone. In fact, the landscape genre is one of the most difficult types of photography to master. In my opinion, in order to create a worthwhile shot that can be shown to others, a photographer needs to work for a long time, and sometimes even get up at five o’clock in the morning and travel hundreds of kilometers. To make a good landscape, you must, first of all, love nature, understand and feel its beauty, have artistic taste and be good at photographic techniques. A landscape is, first of all, your story about nature and its beauty, because a landscape can show nature as simple, touching and captivatingly beautiful, or it can reveal its formidable power. Not everything that at first glance seems beautiful in nature is of interest for a landscape image. Sometimes beauty is apparent, like a fleeting moment. And vice versa, sometimes you are surprised that the most ordinary, ordinary picture of nature in a photograph can appear as amazingly beautiful. So in my course work I would like to reveal all the charm of winter photography, the beauty of the evening seascape.
The winter landscape is unusual due to the looseness of the snow cover, its shimmering sparkles in the sunlight, and the snowy terry trees.
The beauty of the evening landscape lies in the illumination of the clouds, in the reflection of the brown light in the surface of the sea. These landscapes were painted by many artists of past centuries, and even now they attract people with their uniqueness.
Photography teaches you to look, observe and see the world around you, and not only with two eyes, but also monocularly, i.e. the way the lens depicts it.
It is unlikely that you can master the art of landscape photography while traveling by car or motorcycle. Sometimes in pursuit of the plot when fast movement we lose focus. Only external beauties flash before us, and at the same time we miss the life of nature, in which the earth, sky, clouds, trees form the most expressive combinations. It's better to be alone with nature. A leisurely walk with frequent stops will give the photographer the opportunity to deeply feel nature, feel like a part of it, comprehend its secrets, and reveal images of pristine beauty. Only in such a state can one discover the boundless greatness of the universe in a drop of dew on a leaf.
The ability to see everything as if for the first time, without the heavy burden of habit, is inherent only in an artist, no matter whether he is a painter or a photographer.
1. Literature review
1.1 The history of the creation of an artistic landscape
Landscape (French paysage, from pays - country, area) is a genre in which the object of the image is nature. It is customary to refer to the landscape as the image of large spaces, regardless of their “subject filling”. It can be urban, industrial, but most often the landscape is an image of nature.
The most important and most ancient look landscape - image pristine nature, rural areas. This is the original understanding of the French word “paysage” and the German “Landschaft” (image of a village, image of the land), which over three centuries have become firmly rooted in our language. The industrial landscape emerging at the end of the 18th - early XIX centuries, as well as the city landscape, constitute separate directions in the development of landscape painting.
Landscape of medieval Europe
As written in the book by V.N. Stasevich “Landscape. Picture and reality", : "In medieval Europe, the art of depicting nature for a long time experienced a certain decline. Depicting the harvest of grapes, the Garden of Eden or the end of the flood, the medieval European artist limited himself to merely decorative designation of nature, without caring about any visual similarity to the natural world.”
The conquests of ancient realism, which came into medieval painting, seem to fade away and degenerate into decorative motifs or extremely symbols places of action. This is especially typical for the art of Byzantium. In the 14th century, a certain turn towards realism was noticeable in the art of this country. Accordingly, the image of nature takes on a more specific character.
The influence of Byzantine art spread to Italy and the part of the European continent north of the Alps. Related principles of depicting trees, mountains and other elements of nature are found in Western European art, including in the frescoes of artists of the Italian Trecento - the period preceding the Renaissance.
Landscapes in European miniature of the 15th century are lyrical images of places familiar to the artist, often very accurately conveying the appearance of a particular landscape and architectural structures.
Since the early Renaissance, artists have been occupied with issues of linear and aerial perspective. Perspective images are used even in relief, which acquires a picturesque character that is not typical for sculpture. Interest in real space gave impetus to the discovery of the laws of perspective
Landscape of Holland in the 17th century
As written in the “Brief Reference Book of Artistic Terms” by N.M. Sokolnikova: “In the 17th century, Holland experienced an upsurge of spiritual renewal. In this country, genres of art such as still life and landscape are becoming widespread, which presuppose the viewer's ability to enjoy art without religious, historical or heroic reminiscences. Here, for the first time, a realistic landscape as an image of a specific area received wide recognition. Here the sea becomes the hero of the paintings. After all, it was a real breadwinner for the country of sailors and fishermen.”
Just as artisans specialized in making a certain type of object, so artists specialized in different types of landscape. One preferred to paint the sea, another - trees, the third - city corners. Artists created their paintings for the market. This prosaic stimulus, combined with excellent taste and talent, produced amazing results. The seascapes of Adrian van Velde are so excellent in their accuracy of depiction of nature, in their sense of light and color, that later art critics began to wonder whether the artist painted his paintings from life.
No less significant are the artistic merits of the works of Albert Cuyp, Jan van Goyen, and Solomon van Ruisdael.
Dutch masters of the mid-century were characterized by painting in similar tones, in brownish-silver or yellowish-silver tones. These tones attracted artists with the opportunity to convey the moisture-saturated air of Holland (Meindert Gobbema, Philipp Wouwerman, Claes Berchem, etc.). Artists loved to paint cloudy skies, when the dim light of the sun penetrates through a thin layer of clouds and evenly envelops nature.
Rice. 1. "View of Delft." Vermeer of Delft
Vermeer's landscape of Delft "View of Delft" (Fig. 1) can be called real pearls of painting. In it, “the artist depicted that moment of a summer day when it had just rained. The sun's rays breaking through the silvery clouds have not yet dried the roofs, and raindrops sparkle on the leaves of the trees, on the walls of houses and the sides of boats. The whole picture sparkles and trembles with many colorful shades and highlights.
The drawing of architectural structures in the landscapes of Vermeer of Delft is so reliable, and the composition is so natural, that there is an assumption that the artist painted the paintings from life, looking out the window. This was unusual for that time.
But Dutch landscape painters did not limit themselves to a reliable “portrait” of their native land. There were “Italianist” or “novelist” artists who painted Italian landscapes or followed the trends of the “composed” Italian landscape (Clas Berchem, Jan Asseleym, Jan Bot, etc.). A major master of the romantic style was Hercules Seghers, who was followed in his interpretation of nature by Jacob van Ruisdael and Harmens van Rijn Rembrandt. In the landscapes of these artists, Dutch realism is combined with a romantic beginning. From the realistic motif of an old cemetery or a group of trees, artists extracted the dramatic power of spiritual tension through tonal, color and linear contrasts. Such is the “Jewish Cemetery” (Fig. 2), full of mystery and alarming flashes of light, or the darkly exotic “Swamp” (Fig. 3) by Jacob Ruisdael.
These artists were much less concerned with the careful finishing of a thing than with its philosophical meaning and psychological effect when contemplating it. It is characteristic that the theme of Rembrandt’s excellent landscape sketches and drawings was not the clean, cozy streets and courtyards of Dutch cities, but peasant huts, old houses, and country bridges.
Landscape of Baroque and Classicism
And this is how it is described in the Avanta+ encyclopedia. Volume 5", : A different attitude to the image of nature is observed in the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens' art was formed under the strong influence of the Baroque. Baroque is an artistic movement prone to exaggeration, in which a realistic attitude to the objective world coexists freely with fiction. It originated in Italy and spread throughout Europe.
Rice. 2. "Jewish cemetery." Jacob Ruisdael
Rice. 3. "Swamp". Jacob Ruisdael
An exceptionally talented artist, Rubens became the head of the Flemish school, and transferred the principles of Baroque to the depiction of nature. When in his later works the artist turned to the image of Flemish nature, he painted a heroic, ideal, collective image. Hence the characteristic panoramic scope of his canvases, coming from the traditions of the 16th century.
But the landscape of the 17th century is not only Holland and Flanders. This genre received a characteristic solution in the art of France, in particular in the works of Nicolas Poussin, Claude Jelle, and Claude Lorrain. The landscapes of Poussin and Lorrain have all the necessary signs of classicism: orderly balance, thoughtful distribution of volumes, tonal and pictorial masses of the composition, fragments of antique columns, statues and even entire structures reminiscent of ancient architecture, necessary from the point of view of classicism. There are mythological and biblical motifs borrowed from literary monuments the ancient world and the Middle Ages and introduced into the landscape as staffage for its revitalization and semantic orientation.
The classical landscape is called “historical” for its connection with scenes from ancient and medieval history. Unlike the baroque landscape with its elemental heroism, the classic one has the harmony and clarity of nature. A classical landscape is a composed landscape, but composed on the basis of artistic exploration of reality.
National realistic landscape
In France, by the 30s of the 19th century, a school of artists was emerging - creators of the national landscape. Georges Michel was one of the first to turn to the image of national nature. The nature of “everyday” France, with its birches and poplars, became the theme of Camille Corot’s paintings. He loved to paint the transitional states of evening and morning, avoiding bright contrasts.
A group of Corot's contemporaries - Theodore Rousseau, Leon Dupre, Charles-François Daubigny, Constant Troyon, Narcisse Diaz de la Pena, who were not satisfied with the rational system of the academic landscape - decided on an experiment reminiscent of Constable's experiment. They began to paint the groves, fields, and creeks surrounding Paris. Sometimes they worked together, gathering in the village of Barbizon with Theodore Rousseau. The result of their efforts was a natural, life-true composition of the landscape.
20th century landscape
The 20th century introduced something completely new into the history of landscape, breaking with the centuries-old traditions of depicting nature. This is cubism, the first representatives of which were the French artists Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Cubism is based on a purely speculative constructive analysis of forms, dividing them into arbitrarily assumed elements or absolutizing their geometric meaning. Cubist landscapes are perhaps less connected with the landscape of reality than the landscapes of past centuries.
1.2 Artistic landscape in Russia
In Russia, the 19th century in landscape art began with the gradual conquest of realistic positions. As in Europe, this was expressed in the development of plein air and the national motif. At the beginning of the century, many traditions of classical landscape were still preserved. Russian artists went to Italy for landscapes.
However, artists of Sylvester Shchedrin’s generation were not satisfied with the static scheme of the classic landscape-scenery with its nameless trees. Trying to convey the life of nature, they introduce romantic lighting effects into their works, move away from the “scene” composition and brown color, and strive to capture sunlight and the specific character of nature.
Alexander Andreevich Ivanov made a colossal step in this direction (Fig. 4). His paintings are characterized by purity and naturalness of color, richness of tonal and color relationships. Ivanov, like his other contemporaries, was attracted to nature by signs of the eternal, rather than the transitory.
Rice. 4. “Olive trees near the cemetery in Albano. New month" A.A. Ivanov
The epic calm of the ideal image prevails even in those cases when Russian artists took the national landscape as a basis and sought to depict it ingenuously. native nature, as it is. These are the landscapes of A.G. Venetsianov, his students G.V. Soroki, I.S. Krylov and other pioneers of the national Russian landscape, who saw the scope and beauty of the “nondescript” Russian nature.
Among these artists, the original phenomenon was represented by the brothers G.G. and I.G. Chernetsovs, the first artists of the Volga. Intending to paint a panorama of both banks of the river, they traveled from Rybinsk to Astrakhan on a special barge and created many original sketches and sketches. One of them is “View of the Syukeevsky Mountains on the Volga in the Kazan Province” (Fig. 5).
This is what it says in the book by V.P. Rotmistrov “Russian Landscape”: “The real systematic artistic exploration of Russian nature began in the second half of the 19th century, in the work of artists of the 60s. Russian nature, discreet and “not ideal” - swampy lowlands, slushy mudflats, monotonous flatness - became the main character in the landscapes of the Wanderers. Russian artists finally “discovered” their homeland and stopped going to Italy for beauty. They discovered the beauty of the natural manifestation of life and lost the need to search for an “ideal” nature.”
Rice. 5. “View of the Syukeevsky mountains on the Volga in the Kazan province” G.G. and I.G. Chernetsovs
In the mid-19th century, the idealizing aesthetics of romanticism and classicism began to become a thing of the past. The national landscape begins to acquire leading importance in Russian art.
The very concept of “national landscape” presupposes a “portrait” of a certain geographically specific nature, characteristic of Holland, France or England. For Russian artists, this kind of nature has become such a thing for a long time. middle lane Russia. But, unlike the Europeans, Russian masters often invested social meaning into national motifs.
The nature of the Russian landscape was influenced by the principles of critical realism. Sorrowful motifs are inherent in images of nature not only in the paintings of V.G. Perov (“Seeing Off the Dead Man”) or I.M. Pryanishnikov “Empty” (Fig. 6), where the landscape serves as an accompaniment to the depiction of the negative sides of Russian life.
Rice. 6. “Empty” I.M. Pryanishnikov
Characteristic of the Russian national landscape is also an attraction to the epic, in a sense, ideal image of the Russian land, glorious for its forest wealth, wide fields and mighty rivers (I.I. Shishkin).
The beginning of the lyrical Russian landscape is usually associated with the work of A.K. Savrasov and his well-known painting “The Rooks Have Arrived”. It is difficult to point to another example of a landscape from the early 70s in which the theme of spring was resolved with such completeness and specificity. This image of Russian nature is so truthful that it seems as if the landscape was copied from life, as if all of Rus' fit into it. The spring mood is expressed with subtle insight. The landscape can rightly be called lyrical. At the same time, in other works of Savrasov - “Country Road” or “Rye” - the spirit of romanticism is alive.
The dynamic landscapes of the talented artist F.A. are imbued with a romantic feeling. Vasilyeva. In the film “Swamp in the Forest. Autumn" (Fig. 7).
Rice. 7. "Swamp in the forest." F. Vasiliev
The sun appeared through a gap in the autumn clouds, and its rays splashed onto the forest swamp. The trees and grass seemed to sparkle with precious gold, and the moisture of the recent rain sparkled. Nature smiled for a while. Soon the sun will go away, twilight will come, the frowning sky will become gray, even and indifferent, the birds will fly away. The artist, hastening to capture a brief state of nature, paints gold with energetic strokes autumn trees, without worrying about a detailed drawing of the parts.
Vasiliev’s teacher I.I. set himself a different task. Shishkin. Shishkin believed that “a painting from life should be without imagination.” There is no complete illusion in Shishkin’s landscapes. The colors here are rather conventional and do not reach the richness that is observed in living nature. Shishkin's sunny paintings are not devoid of poetry, a sense of the epic grandeur of nature.
A.I. Kuindzhi, an epic-romantic artist, believed that an artist should paint a landscape “by heart,” relying entirely on creative imagination. With a complete impression of naturalness, his landscapes are distinguished by thoughtful balance. Often the artist introduces an almost stereoscopic image of three-dimensional details in the foreground into the picture. They serve to further emphasize the illusion and scope of space.
Less common in Russian art is the seascape. This is not surprising: the sea is less characteristic of Russia than plains, forests and rivers. However, almost every major Russian artist painted the sea. I.K. Aivazovsky went through a long creative path from the romantic to the realistically convincing poem “The Black Sea” (Fig. 8) or the magnificent “Waves”.
Rice. 8. “Black Sea” by I.K. Aivazovsky
Without any overtly romantic effects, A.P. painted his “water” landscapes convincingly and truthfully. Bogolyubov.
In the last decades of the past and at the beginning of our century, the epic landscape was continued in the works of such famous masters as Savrasov’s student I.I. Levitan, N.K. Roerich, A.M. Vasnetsov. And yet, the intimate, lyrical landscape took the leading place.
Already in the landscape sketches of I.N. Kramskoy, one can notice signs of a different attitude towards the image of nature. Ivan Nikolaevich, an intelligent and far-sighted artist, found that the experience of French masters had undeniable advantages. “We absolutely need to move towards light, colors and air,” he wrote in 1874, inspired by the works he saw in Paris.
Landscape also often plays an equal semantic role in paintings of other genres: in the portraits of V.A. Serov, plot paintings by M.V. Nesterov, sketches by K.A. Korovina, A.S. Stepanov, and later in the works of B.M. Kustodiev, K.F. Yuona, M.V. Dobuzhinsky, K.A. Somov and many other Russian artists.
1.3 Landscape as a photography genre
As written in the book by A.V. Afanasyeva “History of Photography”: The genre of landscape began to take shape from the birth of photography. The world's first photograph, taken by N. Niépce in 1826, is of a landscape (Fig. 9).
Rice. 9. “View of the city roofs” N. Niepce 1826
With the advent of daguerreotype, many photographers began to photograph world-famous architectural monuments and other famous landmarks of antiquity (a number of such photographs were published in the book “Travels of the Daguerreotype”). The wide and rapid spread of the architectural landscape was facilitated by big sizes, local volumes and immobility of architectural objects, while images of living nature were achieved with great difficulty for the photography of that time with its long exposures and imperfect (low-sensitivity) photographic materials. The reason for this was the movement of leaves and blades of grass in the wind, the fragmentation of landscape details (branches, trunks), and the play of light and shadow that was difficult to recreate. Therefore, the first images of the landscape were distinguished by their generalized form and the absence of unnecessary details. At the same time, already the first masters of landscape, following the traditions of painting, learned to convey a certain mood and personal perception of nature in landscape motifs. In this sense, the development of the landscape genre was significantly influenced by impressionism, the best representatives of which perfected the art of conveying impressions of natural motifs. This distinguished the works of Russian photographers N. Andreev, P. Klepikov, N. Svishchov-Paol, S. Ivanov-Alliluyev (Fig. 10).
Rice. 10. “Man in Nature” Ivanov-Alliluyev
The further evolution of the landscape genre was associated with new possibilities of more advanced photographic equipment and the development of creative principles of photography. After a long period of depicting nature in general terms, conveying the general impression of her paintings since the 1930s. landscape photographs become more detailed, including the smallest details of landscapes and objects of a specific time. Elements of the landscape genre are organically combined with the features of reportage; the photographs take on a journalistic orientation. This was especially characteristic of such innovative masters as A. Stiglitz (USA) and M. Dmitriev. The photograph became documentary evidence of the depicted fragment of nature, the landscapes of the Lithuanian master I. Kalvalis (Fig. 11), it began to include environmental motives of man’s relationship to the environment, subject to disastrous anthropogenic influences (landscapes by V. Filonov).
Rice. 11. “Niemen Embankment” by I. Kalvyalis
In the modern landscape genre, such varieties as industrial, urban and architectural landscapes have received significant development, in which new themes and motifs and aesthetic assessments have appeared. The industrial landscape occupies a significant place in the works of A. Rodchenko, B. Ignatovich, A. Shaikhet, M. Alpert, A. Skurikhin and others.
An important feature of the modern landscape is the diversity of points of view on the captured nature. Landscapes from great heights (from hot air balloon, airplane, spaceship, interplanetary stations), incl. landscapes of the moon and planets solar system. In addition, in the light of new knowledge about nature, new attitudes towards it, the photographer’s gaze has become more insightful, sharp-sighted, larger-scale, which allows him to more deeply convey his artistic vision of the world through pictures of nature and reflect in them many other social significant events, problems, ideals.
1.4 Features of landscape photography
Landscape photography can be divided into periods of photography: summer, winter, autumn, mountain, sunset. This separation is due to natural features. Natural features include: what time the photography is taking place, temperature, and landscape of the area.
As written in the book by L.D. Kursky, Ya.D. Feldman “Illustrated manual for teaching photography”: “The main feature of landscape photography is constructive. Unlike a still life, it is impossible to make any adjustments here. It is impossible, for example, to remove a mountainside that interferes with the overall composition; it is impossible to change the location of the whole. Thus, work on the composition of the plot is limited to the only method of choosing a shooting point and choosing a lens with the desired focal length. There may be many of these points, and each of them has its own peculiarity, its own individuality.” Each landscape has several plans: near, far and middle. Their appearance is associated with a reduction in the scale of objects moving into the depths of space, towards the horizon line. The comparison of the scales of linear shapes is the linear perspective of a photograph.
An integral part of constructing a photograph is lighting. Light is one of the most determining sources of our sensations. It is considered as the main means of creating an artistic photographic work. The individuality of a landscape depends mainly on the unity and integrity that a well-chosen lighting effect gives to nature. Light makes it possible to see the really existing world. Wherein important role plays the originality and attractiveness of lighting, as it happens in different times daylight hours: at dawn, in the morning, at noon, in the afternoon, during sunset.
Rice. 13. “Dawn. Stratus clouds"
Dawn is characterized by lightly spreading fogs or layered clouds (Fig. 13), shadowless soft lighting, in which the shape of objects becomes unclear and they appear blurry. Weak evaporations of morning moisture slightly dim the distance, and depending on the depth of space, the aerial perspective can be expressed by a barely perceptible haze.
The most favorable time for shooting on location is morning light, when the sky is transparent and not covered by thick clouds. In the morning, color saturation is low and ranges from negligible to neutral saturation color range.
Midday is characterized by a particularly bright glow of the sun. Falling vertically, its rays create a high contrast of chiaroscuro and sharp light contours on the horizontal surfaces of the branches. For landscape photography, the effect of midday light is considered less expressive.
The second half of the day and the time of approaching sunset are the most favorable for location photography. The slanting rays of the sun lengthen the falling shadows; its rays lie horizontally on the ground, gently modeling the contours of trees and buildings. Sunset and sunrise, when the space is filled with gentle diffused light, is the best time to admire nature. Its very appearance resembles a picturesque landscape. The haze, which previously absorbed some of the red rays and scattered the blue ones by dissolving, colors the horizon pink or red, and top part the sky still remains blue, and surprisingly gentle transitions of various color shades are observed (Fig. 14).
Rice. 14. “Sunset. Sea"
2. experimental part
2.1 Features of winter landscape photography
Shooting in winter time has some difficulties: at this time of year the sun is low and daylight hours are short. An open landscape can be filmed from sunrise to sunset in just a few midday hours, and for filming in the forest this time is reduced to a minimum, especially in narrow clearings or clearings. Severe frost and a small number of sunny days favorable for this purpose are not conducive to winter landscape photography.
Photography in winter is technically more difficult than at any other time of the year. It is believed that a winter landscape in sunny weather has a large range of brightness, which cannot be reproduced in a photograph without losing detail in the highlights or shadows of the image. You can combat this by applying positive exposure compensation of approximately +/-0.7.
The second difficulty of winter filming is reproducing the texture of snow surfaces in the image. This is achieved by choosing the most advantageous lighting, filter and exposure value. The texture of snow is well reproduced with side, semi-backlit or campfire lighting. Due to the low position of the sun in winter, long oblique shadows appear from each irregularity in the snow, helping to reveal its structure in the image. Frontal light is unsuccessful, since with such lighting the texture of the snow is almost not revealed. The texture of snow surfaces is poorly reproduced even in diffuse lighting due to the lack of chiaroscuro, so you should not shoot a winter landscape in cloudy weather.
The snow surface in the foreground should not be smooth or untouched. Snow looks much more natural in photographs when it is loosened and traces, a ski track or a trodden path are visible on it (Fig. 16).
The correct ratio of light and shadow on the snow, ensuring a natural reproduction of its surface, is possible with the right choice of light filter. With a blue, cloudless sky, light yellow and yellow-green filters (Zh-1.4X and ZhZ-1.4X) are most often used. Denser filters of this group are used less frequently, mainly when there is a large quantity white clouds. An orange filter increases the contrast of light and shade on snow, thereby worsening the nature of its reproduction in photographs. Orange and red filters are used in winter filming only when it is necessary to emphasize the whiteness and thickness of frost on tree branches and wires, which in this case are projected against the background of a dark, almost black sky. The blue light filter G-1.4X is almost never used in such shooting, since, by reducing the contrast of light and shade on the snow, it worsens its elaboration in the pictures.
When photographing landscapes that include areas of ice sparkling in the sun, a polarizing filter can be very helpful to reduce glare. In some cases, this filter can be used to darken the sky without fear of increasing the chiaroscuro contrast.
To make the snow white and not dirty gray, it is also important to adjust the white balance. Usually a sheet of white paper is used for this, but in winter it will do for this purpose, and a fresh white snowdrift, the main thing is that there are no foreign objects on it. But such an installation will be correct only for the lighting in which it was made, and every time you change the place and light, the balance must be rebuilt - otherwise the snow will remain gray and faces blue.
Frost and frozen drops on black branches, on the contrary, are dazzling on sunny days. To prevent frost from blending into a faded background, you need to photograph it in contrast with a shady area or a dark object, and frost looks even better against a bright blue sky.
For an upcoming photo shoot with winter views, it is best to choose a time with the most suitable weather conditions. It could be a bright sunny day, or a cloudy sky with dark snow clouds that will add some drama to the photo.
Rice. 15. “Evening landscape”
In Fig. 15 shows an evening landscape. The goal was to depict how the texture of snow is reproduced. Photography was carried out outdoors in the evening. The photo was taken on Canon camera 450D. I set the aperture to 5.6 and the shutter speed to 1/125. The composition of the photo is somewhat incorrect, the foreground is empty. The lighting used was cut-off, the texture of the snow is noticeable, but not sufficiently developed. The photo has a dark tone, the snow in the picture has a grayish tint, which indicates that the exposure was incorrectly selected.
Rice. 16. "Winter Park"
In Fig. 16 shows a winter park. The goal is to reproduce the texture of snow among the trees. Photography was carried out outdoors in daytime. This photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera. A polarizing filter was used to reduce glare on the snow. To create the correct composition of the photo, I decided to place the road in the foreground and many snow-covered trees in the background. Unlike the previous photo, this photo has a light tone. To convey the texture of the snow, I used back-diagonal lighting, thanks to which the snow in the photograph has good detail.
In Fig. 17 shows trees. The goal is to show snow-covered trees. A Canon 450D camera was used to take the photograph. The trees were photographed on a sunny day using back-diagonal lighting. There are two trees in the foreground, making the frame look symmetrical. The blue sky with a pale pink transition makes the frame expressive. An orange filter was used to emphasize the whiteness and thickness of the frost on the tree branches. The shooting was carried out from afar using zoom. I set the aperture to 5.6 and shutter speed to 1/250. The tree branches are clearly drawn and have a snowy appearance.
Rice. 17. “Winter. Trees"
Rice. 18. "Frozen River"
In Fig. 18 depicts a winter landscape. The goal is to show snow-covered nature. There are several plans in the photograph. The first plan can be called the place where the bird feeder is depicted. If it were not there, the photograph would be less interesting. Thanks to this feeder, the image acquires a “circular view”. The background is trees balancing the composition of the frame. The bridge seems to connect two groups of trees on the right and left sides. The trees located behind the bridge complete the planned structure of the frame. I think the frame is balanced, it’s perfect. This photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera with polarizing filter, to soften sparks on snow. The trees were photographed from afar using zoom. I set the aperture to 5.6 and the shutter speed to 1/125. The photo is of good quality. The branches of the trees are clearly drawn. The photo is balanced correctly.
Rice. 19. “River Landscape”
In Fig. 19 depicts a winter river landscape. The goal is to show the river landscape. A Canon 450D camera was used for this shot. The landscape photography was carried out at midday. To show the entire panorama of the river, I chose a high shooting point. I set the aperture to 5.6 and shutter speed to 1/125. The subject of the photograph is interesting: there is a frozen river, a snow-covered embankment, and winter trees. On the one hand, this frame is composed correctly, but on the other hand, the big drawback is that the photo has a dark tone. This minus shows how important it is to choose the correct exposure when taking a photo.
2.2 Features of photographing an evening seascape
In the morning and evening, the lighting of the coastal landscape is most optimal for photography. The sunset is considered more colorful than the sunrise.
A sunset with a large surface of water can be made colorful. A calm sea will reflect the sky, creating a mirror image; The ripples on the surface of the water will break up this reflection, maintaining the warm glow of the water and creating a path of light from the horizon to the foreground. It is best to shoot the sunset from a higher point. This can be the top of a coastal cliff or a pier.
Sunset photography can be challenging. The most difficult of them is determining exposure. If you use an exposure based on the brightness of the sun, the result will be an image of only the sun, and the rest of the image, including the clouds, will remain completely dim. And if you determine the exposure by the brightness of the sky, the sun will turn out to be “scorched” and will look not like the golden ball that you intended to photograph, but as a white mass. Therefore, a compromise is necessary. One method is to take the average of two exposure readings - the brightness of the sun and the brightness of the sky above. Another method for determining exposure by the weighted average brightness of the frame is that the exposure reading is taken with the sun positioned at one of the edges within the viewfinder. With this position of the sun, there will be no shortcomings in brightness and contrast. The exposure parameters that are obtained in this case are then set manually before the camera is moved to the working position corresponding to the selected frame composition. Regardless of which exposure metering method is used when shooting this scene, it is advisable to duplicate frames with exposure brackets, since a difference of one stop on the aperture scale can completely change the mood of the picture.
In this situation, the aperture controls more than just exposure. If you use a small aperture, you will get something similar to a starburst effect in the sun image. The smaller the aperture, the stronger this effect. Since with this type of shooting direct sunlight enters the lens, there is a danger of flare from glare. You can use any lens, but if the sun is the focal point of your subject, use the longest lens possible. When the sun is low in the sky, the light level is also low and you will have to use a long shutter speed, which makes it impossible to hold long lenses steady in your hands. Therefore, when shooting low sun, a tripod is useful.
Large water surfaces are best photographed from a high point. In this case, the image of water occupies most of the frame area, while at a low shooting point, the main part of the frame will be occupied by the sky. To emphasize the enormity of the water space, an image of a boat or ship is included in the frame, which helps to identify scale relationships. Sometimes their reflections in the water contribute to a more accurate representation of the state of its surface and weather.
During sunset, the overall color tone changes literally every minute. The lower the sun goes, the redder its light, and long before a person notices this change in color, the matrix registers it as a transition from deep yellow to orange and then to red. The same thing, but in reverse order occurs at sunrise.
As soon as the sun sets below the horizon, the sky quickly turns dark blue with a stripe of red dawn along the horizon. Half an hour after the sun has completely disappeared, if the night is clear, a warm afterglow will fill the entire sky. This is exactly the moment when you need to install a standard lens and start taking photographs. The exposures will be long, but this time the exposure can be reliably determined by the brightness of the sky itself, since this glow is uniform and there is no solar disk in the frame that would affect the exposure reading. The same glow appears in the sky before dawn. Both of these moments are worth capturing on camera, and are often much more interesting than the sunrise and sunset themselves.
Rice. 20. "Sea"
In Fig. 20 depicts a seascape. The goal is to show the sunset on a sunny day. Photography was carried out outdoors in the evening. The photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera. An ultraviolet filter was used. I set the aperture to 5.6 and shutter speed to 1/250. You could say that the horizon divides the frame in half, but in this shot it’s justified. You cannot “cut off” the top or bottom from this photo. The presence of stratus clouds in the picture makes the photograph expressive. The sunny path also adds expressiveness to the photo. I consider the photograph to be properly balanced.
In Fig. 21 depicts a seascape. The goal is to show the sky at sunset. The photograph mainly shows the sky illuminated by the red color of the setting sun. There are red and blue color elements in the sky, which indicates the sunny weather of the day.
Rice. 21. “Scarlet Sunset”
The scarlet tone of the sunset can say: soon the sun will go below the horizon and night will come. Photography of this landscape was carried out outdoors in the evening. The photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera. A red filter was used. I set the aperture to 8 and shutter speed to 1/1000. The photo is of good quality. The sea in the photograph is dark, almost black. The sun is just above sea level and there are also a lot of clouds in the photo, which gives the photo a colorful look. The frame is balanced correctly. The intended goal was successfully accomplished.
Rice. 22. “Brown Evening”
In Fig. 22 depicts a seascape. The goal is to show the sunset. Photography was carried out outdoors in the evening. The photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera. A red filter was used. I set the aperture to 5.6 and shutter speed to 1/500. The photo is of good quality. The sky is pink, the sea is mostly dark red, and the presence of clouds makes the shot pop. When creating this image, I intended to show the colorful sky at sunset. I did the composition of the shot, what goals I pursued. I didn’t want to show the vast expanses of the ocean; the main character here is the sky. There are a lot of clouds on it, and the disk of the sun, and light yellow highlights - all this indicates that the composition of the frame is built correctly. The pursued goal has been achieved. The sunset is colorful.
Rice. 23. "Rainy Evening"
In Fig. 23 shows the sea after the rain. The goal is to show the sunset on a cloudy day. Yes, this is really shown: the haze, which previously absorbed some of the red rays and scattered the blue ones by dissolving, colors the horizon pink or red, and the upper part of the sky still remains blue, and surprisingly gentle transitions of various color shades are observed on it. Photography was carried out outdoors in the evening. The photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera. A yellow filter was used. I set the aperture to 5.6 and shutter speed to 1/125. The photo was taken an hour after the rain. The presence of black clouds in the sky indicates past rain. Main character here the sky is for this reason I chose to show the horizon insignificant.
Rice. 24. "Seascape"
In Fig. 24 depicts a seascape. The goal was to show the sunset on a sunny day. Photography was carried out outdoors in the evening. The photo was taken on a Canon 450D camera. An ultraviolet filter was used. I set the aperture to 5.6 and shutter speed to 1/250. Although the horizon divides the frame in half, in this photo it is justified. It is impossible to “cut off anything” from this photograph. The sunset has a light purple tint, which gives the photo an unusual, expressive quality.
conclusions
To summarize, I would like to note that when shooting snow, side, semi-backlit and backlit lighting conveys the texture best. Due to the low position of the sun in winter, long oblique shadows appear from each irregularity in the snow, helping to reveal its structure in the image.
It is important that photography is not carried out in cloudy weather, since with diffuse lighting the texture of the snow will hardly be revealed, otherwise you can ruin the picture in an artistic sense.
As figurative technique It is advisable to use various filters. To emphasize the blue, cloudless sky, you should often use light yellow and yellow-green filters. If you want to emphasize the whiteness and thickness of the frost, you must use orange and red filters. If you need to dim the very bright glare of snow sparkling in the sun, you can use a polarizing filter.
The best time to photograph a seascape at sunset is summer. During this period there are more clouds, which enhance the expressiveness of the plot. The clouds perceive the red glow of the sun, complementing the picture with an ever-changing light palette. Very often, when the sun is behind the clouds, its rays shine in all directions, creating a particularly impressive picture.
If desired, you can enhance the impression by placing various scenes in the foreground with a large water surface. So a calm sea or lake will reflect the sky, forming a mirror image; The ripples on the surface of the water will break up this reflection, maintaining the warm glow of the water and creating a path of light from the horizon to the foreground.
Bibliography
1. V.N. Stasevich “Landscape. Picture and reality" M.: "Impulse", 2006 - 184 p.
2. Encyclopedia “Art. Volume 5". M.: “Avanta+”, 2001 - 547 p.
3. V.P. Rotmistrov "Russian landscape". M.: "Avangard", 1999 - 205 p.
4. J. Wade “Landscape Photography Techniques.” M.: “Mir”, 1989 - 200 p.
5. A.A. Tikhonov “Photography lighting techniques.” Minsk: LLC New Knowledge, 1999 - 143 p.
Greetings, dear readers! In touch with you, Timur Mustaev. Some amateur photographers consider landscape one of the most basic genres of photography. To some extent, I share their point of view: go wherever you like, and shoot whatever comes into your head.
Plus, unlike studio shooting, which requires considerable financial costs, nature will not disappear and will not require anything in return except careful attitude to it, and the atmosphere changes depending on the time of year, giving scope for imagination.
But is the landscape really that simple? Let's figure it out together.
Let's start the debriefing, perhaps, with a definition of this genre and its place in human reality.
Landscape in photography
Scenery is a genre in which nature is the center of the image.
This trend originated in the era of the absence of cameras, when famous and not so famous artists went out into the open air and conveyed what they had seen with the help of brushes and paints.
That is why understanding the meaning of this genre should be learned from realist artists.
Paintings, like nothing else, allow you to experience all the beauty of nature; they are inextricably linked with the inner world of a person, with his feelings, mood and love for life in general.
And in photography, landscape is not thorough exact redrawing one or another corner of nature, but one’s own worldview.
Modern landscape photography is quite versatile. Exhibitions of such materials instill in the viewer an artistic taste and develop imagination by drawing associative parallels between real life and photographs.
The relationship between photographic art and life gave rise to a new direction - the urban landscape, in which the dominant element is not nature, but the brainchild of society - the city with its numerous streets, architectural objects, squares, as well as an endless stream of cars and pedestrians.
The urban and classical landscape captivates even the most stingy photographers! And there is an explanation for this: by shooting in this genre you can get excellent shots without using expensive equipment.
All you need is desire, patience, a tripod, an SLR camera, and some skills in using it.
Shooting in this genre, as in any other genre, is, first of all, a creative process, accompanied by your own vision of what is happening, but, oddly enough, there are many rules, the observance of which will save you from failure.
Landscape photography
Close your eyes for a moment and imagine: spread out before you unprecedented beauty expanses and it seems that as soon as you press the shutter, the most beautiful image that the world has never seen will appear on the camera display...
Capture this episode in your memory and open your eyes, your fantasy will remain a fantasy, and you will never learn how to photograph a landscape if you neglect the rules listed below.
- Maximum sharpness. Many photographers practice shooting landscapes with an open aperture, however, “many” is not an indicator of good work.
A classic technique for landscape photography is focusing on the entire image (shooting with a closed aperture).
Usually it is enough to produce simple settings cameras to get a sharp and moderately exposed photo: the slider is around f/11-16, but you can trust the automatic if you shoot in . However, to avoid movement, it is better to shoot landscapes using or.
- Having meaning. For any photo, it is important to have a semantic center of the composition, so that, as they say, the eye has something to catch on to. The center of attention can be anything: an interesting shaped building, a tree, a mountain, a ship in the middle of a sea, etc.
- Rule of thirds in the overall composition of the frame. The location of the semantic center relative to all elements and details of the picture is as important as the presence of sharpness.
The reference says: a photo looks most advantageous when the objects being photographed are conventionally separated by lines that divide the image into three parts, both lengthwise and crosswise.
- Thoughtful foreground. Place the semantic centers on the front part of the photo, leaving “air space” in front, this way you will be able to create the effect of lightness and convey depth.
- Dominant element. The secret of successful nature photography has been revealed - either the sky or the foreground should dominate the picture.
If your photos don't fit this description, most likely, they will be considered boring and ordinary.
If it happens that the sky during the photo shoot is uninteresting and monochromatic, move the horizon line to the upper third, so you will not allow it to prevail over the rest.
But if it seems that the airspace is about to explode or collapse on the ground with streams of lava, give it 2/3 of the frame and you will see how much the plot of what is happening can change.
- Lines. There are endless ways to capture the beauty of nature to its fullest. One of them is the technique of including active lines in the composition. With the help of lines, you can redirect the viewer’s gaze from one semantic point of the photo to another, while creating a certain enclosure of space.
Lines not only create patterns in a photo, but also add volume. This also applies to the horizon line, beyond which you constantly need an eye and an eye.
- Movement. Many people consider landscape photographs to be calm and passive. But this is not necessarily the case! You can add life to a photo with the help of water or wind, for example, use a DSLR camera to capture the violence of the ocean or a flowing waterfall, the blowing of the wind or the falling of leaves from a tree, the flight of birds or the movement of people.
The influence of weather and time on the quality of landscape photography
The Golden Rule of Landscape: “The scene and subject matter can change dramatically overnight, depending on weather conditions and the time of year.”
It is a mistake to believe that the best time for nature photography is a sunny day.
In cloudy weather, in terms of lighting effects, it’s a pleasure to shoot: hail, sleet and thunderstorms can fill any landscape with an ominous, mysterious mood.
However, there is a side effect - the possibility of getting your feet wet, getting sick and saying goodbye to your DSLR forever, since moisture can have a devastating effect on all electronics.
To avoid this, plan your day in advance, take your preparations seriously: think about what to wear and what to wrap your camera in. For these purposes, it is best to purchase a waterproof case or at least one that protects the lens from drops getting on the lens.
Shooting in the rain doesn't have to be - it's just one way to achieve artistic images.
This creates a very soft diffused light, giving the pictures a lightness and a special sleepy look.
A forest covered in fog will look much more mysterious and attractive than on a sunny day.
Although if shooting takes place in summer or autumn, the light shining through the foliage can create an interesting look at an open aperture.
During sunset, using , you can photograph no less interesting landscapes, especially if the foreground is slightly backlit.
To avoid bunnies, use a lens hood or. This filter is simply irreplaceable in landscape photography.
Night photography is technically the most difficult. Taking pictures of nature in full nature is pointless due to the lack of light. Therefore, you need to go where there are artificial light sources - the city.
In this case, it’s not worth using the flash continuously, raise the value to 800-1600 and go towards the city landscape!
A brief educational program on the topic of landscape photography has reached its point of no return! I hope this article was at least somewhat instructive and useful. I think that I have conveyed to you the meaning of how to photograph a landscape correctly in order to achieve the desired results.
If you are an aspiring photographer who wants to achieve positive success in photography, then everything is in your hands. The best place to start is with the concept of your DSLR camera. And one of the video courses below can become an assistant. Most novice photographers, after studying this course, began to have a different attitude towards SLR camera. The course will help you reveal everything important functions and DSLR settings, which is very important at the initial stage.
My first MIRROR- for owners of a CANON DSLR.
Digital SLR for a beginner 2.0- for owners of a NIKON DSLR.
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All the best to you, Timur Mustaev.
Photographing landscapes has always fascinated photographers. Photos of the sea, forests, mountains are sometimes striking in their beauty. But in order to convey all the beauty of nature, you need to know how to shoot a landscape correctly. In this issue, you will not only be able to look at several dozen beautiful landscape photographs, but also learn about what is important when shooting landscapes, and what beginner photographers should consider.
(Total 42 photos)
1. Shooting a landscape is perhaps the first thing every novice photographer takes on. It seems: what could be simpler? Find a picturesque place, wait for good weather - and you can click the shutter as much as your heart desires. Blue sky, green grass - what is not a wonderful landscape? But upon reaching a certain professional level, when the photographer finally develops the ability to critically evaluate his own photographs, these first inept shots, if not destroyed, are at least hidden away from prying eyes.
3. One can only be surprised at how commonplace the mistakes are made by beginners when shooting landscapes. It turns out that here, as in any other genre of photography, one cannot do without knowing certain rules, good taste and creative inspiration.
4. Surely, every amateur photographer is familiar with the feeling when, after a trip to wonderful places, instead of stunning landscapes in the photographs, only dull, inconspicuous copies of what was actually visible to the eyes are visible.
5. And the whole secret is that even the most modern photographic equipment is not capable of perceiving and displaying space in the same way as the human eye does. The camera lens has a much smaller viewing angle, which limits the boundaries of the frame and does not allow the scale of space to be fully reflected.
6. If the human eye adapts to different types of lighting with relative ease, then the camera’s perception of color gamut, color saturation and contrast is based on the settings specified in it, which are not always able to change adequately in automatic mode.
7. How the photograph will look largely depends on various physical phenomena occurring in the environment, which must certainly be taken into account when photographing a landscape.
8. One of the most difficult tasks in landscape photography is to convey the volume of space, because in photographs we get two-dimensional images, despite the fact that the real space is three-dimensional. This is why unprofessional landscapes often look “flat” and boring.
9. In photography, volume is created by proper lighting shooting objects. But if in the studio a photographer can always arrange light sources and adjust their intensity at his own discretion, then when photographing a landscape this, alas, is impossible. And “catching” the light suitable for the intended landscape can sometimes be as difficult as getting a successful shot when shooting dynamic objects.
10. Contrary to popular belief, a clear sunny day is not the best time for landscape photography. Too bright light entering the camera lens does not allow you to convey all the variety and richness of shades, “exposing” them and turning them into solid white spots.
11. It is best to shoot landscapes in lighting conditions when the sun is not high above the horizon, that is, at sunset and dawn.
12. It is best to shoot landscapes at dawn, 30 minutes before sunrise and for an hour after, depending on the brightness of the sun. Or at sunset. It is at this time that amazing photographs are taken, conveying the soft warm light of the rising or setting sun or light shadows.
14. In order to shoot a landscape correctly, you must use a tripod. It fixes the camera and prevents it from even the slightest movement. Thus, the pictures will be as clear as possible without any blurring.
15. Another common mistake among beginners is a “boring” sky. Even a rich blue color in most photographs will not look as impressive as fluffy clouds of various bizarre shapes shimmering in the sun.
16. The most common mistake in landscape photography is trying to capture as much space as possible in the frame. Beginners think that this way the picture will be more complete and interesting. In fact, often, everything is exactly the opposite.
17. Too many details or empty parts of the frame create a negative impression.
18. In landscape photography, the correct composition of the frame, the presence of centers of attention and leading lines are very important. Therefore, the photographer must carefully select the most suitable shooting point and frame the photo very precisely in order to create a harmonious and at the same time original composition of the landscape, which can be complemented by interesting lighting effects that give the photo a special aura.
19. The landscape should not only be beautiful, but also in some way extraordinary, spectacular, memorable, it should evoke emotions in people and awaken their imagination - these are the features that always distinguish the work of a professional photographer from the inept attempts of an amateur.
20. In order to shoot a landscape correctly, you must use a tripod. It fixes the camera and prevents it from even the slightest movement. This way, our pictures will be as clear as possible without any blurring.
21. When photographing a landscape, pay special attention to the horizon. Do not do it main mistake For beginner photographers, place the horizon in the center. This will divide the photo in half, and it will not look like a single whole. It's up to you to decide what to focus on
22. If the sky looks more attractive, make it two-thirds sky and one-third land or water. If the bottom part of the photo looks better, then it will take up more of the photo.
24. To get good photos, it is important to choose a lens for landscape photography. Long-focus lenses narrow the perspective, while wide-angle lenses, on the contrary, open it up. In general, any lens is suitable for landscape photography.
28. On a cloudy day, you should not refuse to walk with a camera. On the contrary, a gloomy day is very unpredictable, and you can take up landscape photography. After a thunderstorm, the sky can be painted in the most incredible shades, you can get a very unusual photograph.
29. After rain, trees become more saturated in color; you can also play with raindrops - shoot them at a long shutter speed or take macro photography.
30. If you want to photograph a forest, then try not to include the ground in the frame. It often doesn't look its best and can ruin a great photo. It's better to focus on the foliage of the trees, and if you can photograph the sun's rays breaking through the branches, you can get a beautiful photo.
Before this post, I wrote only about travel, but today I will break tradition and share with LJ readers a short article about landscape photography that I wrote for one of the photo magazines.
I didn’t explain all the nuances in detail and load them with photo terms, so I explained in simple terms what aspects need to be taken into account during the shooting process and in preparation for it.
Landscape themes are closest to me, so in this article I want to talk about shooting in this genre.
I’ll say right away that I have never studied this craft anywhere, and I don’t have a diploma from a photography school. Everything came somehow by itself. I bought my first DSLR camera three and a half years ago, and I still use it. During this time, I managed to take several dozen good shots and write more than 50 photo reports. Some even think that I can shoot masterpieces, but from the outside, they probably know better.
Unfortunately, I don’t yet have many opportunities and free time to travel, but at the first opportunity, I try to escape from the web of everyday life somewhere away from the city into nature, taking my camera with me. First of all, I go to relax my soul, unload emotionally and get distracted. I have no thoughts in my head of shooting a masterpiece at any cost; rather, on the contrary, it seems to me that before this I have already given the maximum of my capabilities and there will never be a better shot than before.
Very often we travel with our whole family or with friends...
My childhood spent in the village in the summer apparently left an imprint on my mind, which is why I shoot many of my landscapes in the Russian outback. I really like the grandeur and diversity of Russian nature, the unusually beautiful monuments of wooden architecture, remote and half-abandoned villages and the rickety huts and fences familiar to every Russian person...
These pictures really impress me!
Professionals believe that the “landscape” genre does not quite fit many of my photographs: some sites, as well as the organizers of most photo competitions, classify my photographs in the “architecture” or “cultural heritage” section. But I photograph what is close to me and pleasing to the eye, and it makes no difference to me what genre it is called. I would simply call my work “Photo for the soul.”
To the traditional question: “How was this filmed?” I can talk at length and in detail, but in the format of this publication I would like to briefly go over the main points that allow me to take good photographs.
Preparing for shooting
I didn’t take a single more or less decent shot by accident. All my travels and short forays are well planned and prepared...
The most important aspect In landscape photography, I consider the choice of shooting location (the so-called location). You can take as many photographs as you want of the beautiful view of the park from the window, trample the shore of a nearby lake in search of the perfect shot, or shoot the sunset near the nearest grove. You may be able to take some good photographs, but you will only get the most beautiful work by moving through time and space.
During my school years, I was seriously involved in orienteering, participated in all-Russian and international competitions, and at the same time was involved in tourism, so I am relatively well versed in maps. This helps me a lot in choosing a location and preparing a route. I would even say that studying maps and terrain is a hobby that accompanies photography.
The current possibilities of the Internet are truly limitless, so all ideas are born after studying information from worldwide network.
On Google maps maps, Google Earth, Wikimapia, Panoramio (ordered to live long) - I look at photographs and unique places from satellites. By the way, you can “drive” along many roads in Google maps in a virtual car and preview the surroundings. I look for interesting notes and articles on websites popular with photographers, travel forums, and also on networks. There is a lot of information about monuments of wooden architecture on the website Sobory.ru. Separately, I would like to mention nature reserves, national and natural parks. These territories, by definition, should be of interest to landscape painters. I put all the information received together and get the optimal route.
To get to some locations, it is sometimes necessary to provide additional means of transportation, such as a boat, bicycle or skis.
If possible, it is better to visit the object before shooting, conduct reconnaissance and “try on” angles - it will not be superfluous.
I visit both the sites of photographers’ “pilgrimage” and places where photographers have not yet reached. I like the second option much more, since the end result is often an unexpectedly pleasant result and always a unique picture. In areas where dozens or hundreds of shots have already been taken before me, I try to approach the shooting outside the box and bring something of my own to the picture.
8
Choosing a time to shoot
This is the second point I would like to mention. I take most of my shots at the so-called “regime” time: about an hour after dawn and an hour before sunset. Soft and warm light gives the photo richness and richness of colors and details the texture of objects. Transitions between bright and dark areas are smoother.
In addition, in the morning and (less often) evening hours there is a high probability of fog forming, which emphasizes the depth of the image, beautifully scatters light and blurs the contours of objects, making photographs more mysterious and fabulous.
Naturally, it is important to understand where the light source will be at the time of shooting. To do this, I look on the Internet for the exact time of sunrise and sunset, and then, focusing on the sides of the horizon, I overlay the direction of movement of the luminary on the map.
Well, and of course the most important thing is the weather.
When the chosen shooting point is nearby, it’s enough to just look outside the window and at the weather forecasters’ promises on your phone. And if it takes a long time to travel, then I get acquainted with the forecast in at least three sources and look at the estimated map of the movement of atmospheric fronts. It helps you adjust your route as you go.
Having analyzed the above-mentioned points, I already have a clear movement schedule and approximate pictures in my head, which will subsequently appear on the matrix of my camera. It must be said that it is almost always possible to carry out our plans, but you have to return to some places again...
Technical component
I shoot with a Sony A65 and three lenses: Sony CZ16-80, Minolta 70-300, Samyang 8mm. There is also a portrait prime Sony SAL-50F18.
The first lens is universal; I use it to shoot about 80% of all frames. It has excellent sharpness and color rendition.
I take landscape shots mainly with an aperture closed to f/8 - f/13 (this ensures maximum sharpness throughout the frame) with the lowest possible ISO value in auto (not always) focus mode. I set all these parameters, including shutter speed, in manual mode. If there is a need to get beautiful rays from the sun in the frame, you can close the aperture even further.
I record the frame on a memory card in jpg and raw format, and I need the second one only for backup if I suddenly have to pull out shadows or highlights. Information is restored from shadows much better than from highlighted areas, so most often I shoot landscapes with underexposure.
May many photographers forgive me, but I rarely use a tripod. It is clear that at night, in low light conditions, etc. conditions are nowhere without it. But during regular hours the light changes rapidly and, as a rule, it’s enough for me. Sometimes you even have to jog from one shooting point to another so as not to miss the moment. But I love running and extra exercise never hurts :) A tripod in this situation significantly reduces efficiency. Sometimes I shoot with exposure bracketing, but here, as a rule, I don’t need a tripod. Even panoramic photos 90% of the time I do it by hand.
About panoramic photography
I do some of my work using the panoramic technique - stitching together several frames taken from one point with overlay. In the final version, such photographs look completely ordinary. And the point here is not at all in the desire to shoot scenes for posters or to get exorbitant pixels, it’s just that a panorama gives volume, depth and sharpness to the entire frame, allows you to direct the viewer’s gaze from the foreground to the middle and background, create the effect of presence in the frame, and of course it gives wider coverage.
I really like photos with an interesting foreground, so when constructing a frame (be it a panorama or a single shot), I try to start with that. You can use stones, flowers, leaves, etc. as the foreground. If there is nothing to catch your eye on, you can improvise by dragging, for example, some kind of snag.
Treatment
I post-process the frames in Photoshop Ps5. I mainly edit shadows and highlights, contrast, saturation, apply filters and sometimes expansion technology dynamic range photo (HDR). I do not welcome photo collages. I also stitch together panoramas in Photoshop, mostly in automatic mode. I refine the inconsistencies and geometry by hand.
It should be noted that using a photo editor allows you to improve the frame, but the source must be of high quality. If the photo frankly doesn’t turn out well, then no editor will make anything useful out of it.
I am critical of many of my shots. It so happens that at the time of shooting you lose sight of some moments, and simply neglect some nuances. After some time, you begin to understand that it could have been filmed better.
That's all, in a nutshell. But perhaps I missed something.
Summarizing all of the above, I want to say the following: if you are engaged in photography, do it with soul, be creative and improve your skills. Take a responsible approach to choosing a shooting location, plan your route, study the weather...
I wish you all good luck, interesting travels and beautiful memorable shots!
