Landscape Photography and What I've Learned

[D-B-J]

Added a few more I realized on my latest trip.

 

[astroNikon]

Here's a photo of a stream without covering the viewfinder - sunrise light to my back, ie going right into the viewfinder. 6 second exposure

 

[D-B-J]

Here's a photo of a stream without covering the viewfinder - sunrise light to my back, ie going right into the viewfinder. 6 second exposure

Perfect example!

 

[timor]

That's really bad.

 

[fotomonkey]

#24. Buy a L-Bracket!
I still have yet to do this, but I wasted about 3 minutes on a recent shoot trying to change from horizontal to portrait orientation...

I'm a huge fan of the L bracket. I had Kirk brackets on my D2H and D70. I hope they come out with one for the 5300.

Along those lines, if you're shooting a 70-200 or larger it's hard to beat a good lens plate.

 

[D-B-J]

#24. Buy a L-Bracket!
I still have yet to do this, but I wasted about 3 minutes on a recent shoot trying to change from horizontal to portrait orientation...

I'm a huge fan of the L bracket. I had Kirk brackets on my D2H and D70. I hope they come out with one for the 5300.

Along those lines, if you're shooting a 70-200 or larger it's hard to beat a good lens plate.

Yeah I really need one. It's no so much that it's expensive but I've been doing a lot of shoots lately that require my money to be spent on other things like renting lenses and such.

Soon enough!

 

[JTPhotography]

Great tips!

L brackets are great.

The d800 absolutely will light leak on long exposures in bright light. Petty sure all cameras will.

I have a few tips of my own to add if you don't mind.

Gear is a nightmare. If you want to do landcsape photography just accept the fact that you have to, and need to, do lots of gear tinkering, cleaning and organizing.

Agree on the GNDs but will go one step further and say that I only use Reverse GNDs for my landscapes. These allow you to retain the detail at the top of the frame.

THE most important thing when it comes to landscape photography IMO is this...... shoot, shoot and reshoot. You can't visit one spot and expect to get THE shot. Light and weather conditions change. When you find a scene you like, make it your girlfriend for a while. Take my sunrise photo in the October POTM competition as an example, I waded out to that stump at least 10 mornings before IT happened.

 

[D-B-J]

Great tips!

L brackets are great.

The d800 absolutely will light leak on long exposures in bright light. Petty sure all cameras will.

I have a few tips of my own to add if you don't mind.

Gear is a nightmare. If you want to do landcsape photography just accept the fact that you have to, and need to, do lots of gear tinkering, cleaning and organizing.

Agree on the GNDs but will go one step further and say that I only use Reverse GNDs for my landscapes. These allow you to retain the detail at the top of the frame.

THE most important thing when it comes to landscape photography IMO is this...... shoot, shoot and reshoot. You can't visit one spot and expect to get THE shot. Light and weather conditions change. When you find a scene you like, make it your girlfriend for a while. Take my sunrise photo in the October POTM competition as an example, I waded out to that stump at least 10 mornings before IT happened.

Excellent add ons! You're right, there's always a ton of gear and much work to be done keeping it tip top. I use reverse GND's in combination, because I think I sometimes like the dark top of the frame look. And definitely! Shoot places over and over and over [emoji5]️

Jake

 

[runnah]

How about

Get up early
Nothing good is found on the side of the road so hike your lazy ass.

 

[JimMcClain]

#24. Buy a L-Bracket!
I still have yet to do this, but I wasted about 3 minutes on a recent shoot trying to change from horizontal to portrait orientation...

Although most of my shots are on a tripod, a great many are also hand-held - and usually both ways in the same session. An L-bracket would add more weight to the camera/lens combo (my D810 is already pretty heavy). My tripod, as well as most I've seen, can easily tilt from landscape orientation to portrait very quickly. Is there something about an L-bracket that makes this easier?

Get up early
Nothing good is found on the side of the road so hike your lazy ass.

Well, some of us are not so much lazy as somewhat disabled. Lung disease limits me considerably. I use a Segway for a mobility aide, which helps me get off the side of the road some, but 90% of my pictures are within 10 yards of my car. On a good day, I can go maybe 20-25, but there's no hiking for me and I find lots of beautiful pictures.

One of my goals has been to promote tourism to Feather River Country and I like to show people the beauty they might see just by driving through. The hope is that it will look so nice from the car that they will venture out to our more remote areas. I had a picture nominated for POTM this month that was shot not more than 3' from the pavement's edge. One of an abandoned cabin that has received a lot of likes and comments was shot only 10 feet from the edge of the highway. You don't have to hike to find good pictures.

Jim

 

[D-B-J]

How about

Get up early
Nothing good is found on the side of the road so hike your lazy ass.

I will say I've found some photo-gold within a hundred yards of the road [emoji6]

 

[dennybeall]

Isn't the point of a good l bracket to keep the camera sensor in the spot on center of rotation.

 

[D-B-J]

Isn't the point of a good l bracket to keep the camera sensor in the spot on center of rotation.

I thought it was to go from vertical to horizontal without having to adjust the ball mount of head. That's why I want one, anyways.

 

[JimMcClain]

I thought one of the most important features of a ball head was ease of positioning. I don't have an L-bracket for testing, but I'm guessing that moving the ball head and recomposing is at least as fast as dismounting, remounting and recomposing with the bracket. And far cheaper. And the camera is lighter for the hand-held shots (I'm assuming most people who use an L-bracket leave it on). It's not like you can leave out the recompose part - I haven't seen a picture through my viewfinder that didn't require a little re-composition from landscape to portrait mode.

Sorry, I still don't get it.

 

[weepete]

Isn't the point of a good l bracket to keep the camera sensor in the spot on center of rotation.

If you are doing panoramas then a bracket can be used for rotating the lens around the centre point to eliminate distortion.

The L bracket still just flips your camera to portrait orientation though. It's the other bracket which would move your camera on the Y axis (back and forward to normal people )