Landscape Photography: The Four Seasons 9780240817866

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Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier Inc. 225 Wyman Street, Waltham MA 02451, USA Copyright © 2011 The Ilex Press Ltd. All rights reserved This book was conceived, designed, and produced by Ilex Press Limited, 210 High Street, Lewes, BN7 2NS, UK PUBLISHER: Alastair Campbell CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Peter Bridgewater ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Adam Juniper MANAGING EDITOR: Natalia Price-Cabrera and Zara Larcombe EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Tara Gallagher ART DIRECTOR: James Hollywell DESIGNER: Ginny Zeal COLOR ORIGINATION: Ivy Press Reprographics DIGITAL ASSISTANT: Emily Owen

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: Phone (+44) (0) 1865 843830; Fax (+44) (0) 1865 853333; Email: [email protected]. Alternatively visit the Science and Technology Books website at www.elsevierdirect.com/rights for further information Notice: No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Trademarks/Registered Trademarks: Brand names mentioned in this book are protected by their respective trademarks and are acknowledged. E-ISBN: 978-0-240817-86-6 For information on all Focal Press publications visit our website at: www.focalpress.com

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CONTENTS SPRING Introduction ESSENTIALS Cameras Lenses Spring accessories EXPOSURE & FOCUS Exposure modes for landscapes Metering modes Focusing Depth of field Hyperfocal distance ASPECTS OF SPRING The wider view Spring in bloom

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SUMMER Introduction ESSENTIALS Time of day Locations Raw power CONTRAST Summer extremes In-camera contrast control Post-capture contrast control HDR SUMMER CREATIVITY Summer shooting blues Panoramas Infrared Lensbaby Color grads

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FALL Introduction ESSENTIALS Fall camera kit Filters Clothing LIGHT & WEATHER Sunrise & sunset Frost Mist & fog Overcast & wet EXPLOITING COLOR Contrast Abstract color WINTER Introduction ESSENTIALS

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Cold considerations Essential kit Dressing for the occasion EXPOSURE Exposure issues Reading the histogram Exposing for snow LIGHT & WEATHER Winter sun Overcast Storm front Night shots Index Picture credits

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INTRODUCTION

Spring is the first season of the year and, for many photographers—both novices and the more experienced—it marks the ideal opportunity to get out in the landscape. Capturing the essence of a season is all about exploring the changes in the landscape that occur at particular times of the year, but the start of spring is one of the most challenging—and often subdued—seasons for landscape photography. Unlike the snow-covered landscapes of winter, the brash colors of fall, or even the harsh sun of the summer months, the signifiers of spring can be far less obvious, requiring you to approach your photography of the landscape in a slightly different way. At the start of the season, trees remain bare and the ground is often worn—where plowed fields have yet to see crops creeping out through the soil, or as a result of winter’s bitter hand. The result is that the broader landscape in early spring can be less attractive than it is at other times of the year—there’s no snow, no leaves of any color on deciduous trees, and what were once grassy meadows or crop-yielding fields can be little more than brown earth.

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However, this all changes as the season develops, with new shoots reaching out above the soil and buds developing on tree branches to refresh the landscape. From a distance this new life may not always be immediately obvious, which makes getting closer to the land all the more important for your photography if you want to capture spring’s subtleties. Of course, as time moves on, buds are replaced with leaves, and many plants come into flower—especially later in the season. At this point, vibrant colors return to the landscape, with the season’s fresh growth providing myriad creative opportunities, whether it’s using flowers to add a splash of color or foreground detail, or turning your lens away from the wider landscape to focus on a much smaller, but no less significant, area.

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As with any season, preparation is key, and the camera gear that you carry will (largely) reflect what you hope to achieve with your photography. With this in mind, the opening chapters to this volume provides a guide to the essential equipment and skills you need for successful landscape photographs, as well as the options you should consider if you want to expand your creative repertoire.

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ESSENTIALS

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CAMERAS

When shooting on film was the only option for landscape photographers, bigger was always considered to be better. Large-format cameras loaded with sheet film provided the ultimate quality, followed by medium-format models and roll film, but, for most enthusiasts, a 35mm SLR was the most realistically affordable solution. With the advent of digital, this is no longer the case, and DSLR (or digital SLR) cameras are now considered the tool of choice by most landscape photographers. However, advances in digital camera technology have meant that there is now a wide range of suitable cameras, and a DSLR is no longer the only option for your year-round landscape kit bag.

DSLR CAMERA Large sensor sizes, interchangeable lenses, and sophisticated exposure and metering modes mean that DSLRs remain the tool of choice for professional and enthusiast landscape photographers alike. Full-frame sensor models are generally considered the best option, with their physically larger sensors capable of recording less noise, finer detail, and a higher dynamic range than cameras with smaller-sized (APS-C or FourThirds) sensors. However, even the lowest priced, entry-level DSLR can be perfect for producing great landscape photographs.

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ADVANTAGES • Access to a wide range of lenses/focal lengths. • High-resolution sensors. • Full range of manual controls and Raw file capture. DISADVANTAGES • Weight: DSLRs are larger and heavier than compact cameras. • Cost: Not only to buy, but the additional cost of lenses and other accessories.

NON-SLR CAMERA

INTERCHANGEABLE-LENS

Before 2009, cameras fell broadly into two categories: single-lens reflex cameras with interchangeable lenses (DSLRs), and fixed-lens cameras that used an electronic viewfinder or the rear LCD screen to compose the image (bridge cameras and compact cameras). However, this

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changed when Olympus launched its Pen E-P1. This was a camera that looked like a high-end compact and relied on its rear LCD for composing images, but also used interchangeable lenses, a DSLR-sized sensor, and boasted a level of control previously reserved for DSLR cameras. Since then, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony have all launched variations on this theme, with both compact and SLR-styled models providing a smaller and lighter—but no less versatile—alternative to the traditional DSLR.

ADVANTAGES • Smaller and lighter than DSLRs—ideal if weight is a consideration. • DSLR-sized sensors. • Full range of manual controls and Raw file capture.

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DISADVANTAGES • Lens ranges not as expansive as more established DSLR models. • Electronic viewfinders or reliance on rear LCD screen for composing images may not feel as natural as an optical viewfinder.

BRIDGE CAMERA At a time when even the lowest-priced DSLR had a four-figure price tag, most manufacturers had a “bridge” camera in their line-up. The name came from the fact that they “bridged the gap” between the compact cameras and DSLRs of the time by combining DSLR-style features, controls, and design with a non-interchangeable zoom lens and an electronic (rather than optical) viewfinder. Some, such as Sony’s DSC-R1, even offered a DSLR-sized sensor. Although the number of models available has decreased in recent years, no doubt due to the reduced cost of DSLRs and non-SLR interchangeable-lens cameras, this design has not disappeared entirely. Indeed, the all-in-one approach remains popular with some photographers, especially as the range of focal lengths offered can be as expansive as 28–840mm on some models: far greater than any single DSLR lens.

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ADVANTAGES • DSLR-style handling, features, and controls. • All-in-one design helps prevent entry of dust. • Wider optical zoom range than DSLR lenses. DISADVANTAGES • Small sensor sizes can exhibit increased noise and reduced dynamic range. • Electronic, rather than optical, viewfinder may not be to everyone’s taste. • Wide zoom range can result in increased distortion and reduced image quality.

HIGH-END COMPACT CAMERA The final—and often overlooked—option for landscape shooters is a high-end compact camera. This shouldn’t be confused with a point-and-shoot model, though—what I’m talking about here are fixed-lens cameras that offer a full range of exposure modes (including Aperture Priority and

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Manual) as well as Raw files. This type of camera will typically offer a 3×–5× optical zoom, covering a focal-length range that is capable of accommodating wide angle through to mild telephoto options, as well as good closeup capabilities: optional lens adapters are often available to extend the focal-length range in both directions.

ADVANTAGES • Small, compact, and light, making it the perfect portable companion. • Raw capture for greater control over your pictures. • A wide range of exposure modes for DSLR-style control. DISADVANTAGES • Small sensor size means a reduced dynamic range and increased noise at higher ISO settings.

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• Need to buy lens adapters if you want to expand the (fixed) range of focal lengths.

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LENSES

Unless you opt for a camera with a fixed lens, you’re going to need a lens, and the good news is that there is no right and wrong when it comes to focal lengths for landscape photography. You could argue that the majority of landscapes are taken using wide-angle lenses, but equally striking images can be created using telephoto lenses as well. Focal-length magnification When you’re considering lenses for your camera, it’s important that you take the focal-length magnification into account if you are using a camera with a sensor that is smaller than full frame (36 × 24mm). Although the focal length of a lens never changes (an 18mm focal length is always an 18mm focal length), a smaller sensor uses a smaller part of the image circle created by the lens, which effectively narrows the angle of view of the lens, making the focal length appear longer. This varies depending on the specific size of the sensor, but most cameras that are not full frame have a focal length magnification factor of 1.5×–2×, which is the amount by which they effectively extend the focal length of the lens. For example, an 18mm lens on a Nikon camera with a DX-format sensor (which has a 1.5× focal-length magnification), will behave more like a 27mm lens on a full-frame camera, while an 18mm focal length on a FourThirds camera body will be

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the same as using a 36mm focal length on a full-frame camera, due to its 2× focal-length magnification.

The focal length of a lens doesn’t physically change (an 18mm focal length is always 18mm), but the area of the scene that it covers will change depending on the size of the camera’s sensor. Smaller sensors effectively crop the image.

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Focal-Length Manufacturers Magnification Canon, Leica, 36 × 24mm 0× Nikon, Sony Nikon (DX), 23.7 × 15.7mm1.5× Pentax, Samsung, Sony 22.3 × 14.9mm1.6× Canon Olympus, 17.3 × 13mm 2.0× Panasonic

Sensor Type Sensor Size Full frame APS-C * APS-C* FourThirds

* APS-C is not a fixed size—many manufacturers use sensors that are slightly smaller or slightly larger than the measurements given, but still describe them as APS-C. Wide-angle lenses Wide-angle lenses are widely used for landscape photography. Their main advantage is their ability to get as much of the landscape in the frame as possible, allowing you to record sweeping views in a single frame. However, to use a wide-angle lens to best effect, you need to work hard to ensure you don’t end up with a lot of dead space in the photograph—the wide view increases the risk of recording a lot of dull sky! This makes your viewpoint paramount, and many professionals will look for an interesting foreground to make the most of a wide-angle lens’s unique perspective and increased depth of field. In terms of full-frame cameras, wide-angle focal lengths cover approximately a range of 18–35mm. Anything wider represents a specialist super-wide lens, while anything longer will lose the wide-angle effect.

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A wide-angle lens is the perfect choice when you want to include foreground elements that are close to the camera with a more distant landscape.

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Telephoto lenses Consisting of focal lengths upward of (roughly) 70mm in full-frame terms, telephoto lenses are perhaps more closely associated with portraiture, wildlife, and sports photography than landscapes, yet they are capable of producing incredibly striking results. The reason for this is their apparent ability to compress the elements in a scene, making them appear closer to one another. This makes them ideal for picking out distant elements in the landscape to create slightly more abstract, graphic images, as well as helping you get closer to smaller details.

A telephoto focal length is the ideal option when you want to pick a detail out of the wider landscape.

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ZOOM VS. PRIME Fixed focal-length (or prime) lenses used to be the only option for photographers, and their quality—compared to early zoom lenses—was significantly higher. Today, however, the quality difference has narrowed, and many zooms can take images that are every bit as good as a prime lens of a similar focal length. The possible exception to this is what are known as superzooms—zoom lenses containing an extreme focal-length range of 15× or upward (18–300mm, for example). These are often seen as a convenient all-in-one lens solution, covering both wide-angle and telephoto options in a single lens, but, with so many focal lengths, the manufacturers have to make compromises in the lens design, which means that quality can be reduced.

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SPRING ACCESSORIES

A camera and lens is just the starting point for your explorations of the spring landscape—to fully exploit the potential of the season, there are certain accessories that you also shouldn’t be without:

MACRO LENS With all those spring flowers coming into bloom, and buds appearing on the trees, Spring is the ideal season to consider closeup details in your photography. Assuming you can change the lens on your camera, then nothing makes this easier than a dedicated macro lens.

CLOSEUP LENSES If your budget won’t stretch to a macro lens, then a set of closeup lenses—often mistakenly called filters—could be the answer. These screw into any lens like a filter will, but allow closer focusing. Different strengths of closeup lens are available, depending on how much closer you want to focus, and as the lenses fit on the lens, your camera’s exposure metering and focusing systems can still be relied on.

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EXTENSION TUBES Extension tubes (or extension rings) are available in a range of different sizes and fit between the camera body and lens on an interchangeable-lens camera, allowing the lens to focus closer. Unlike closeup lenses, there are no additional glass elements that could reduce image quality, but extension tubes can reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor (especially if multiple tubes are used at the same time), resulting in longer exposure times.

TRIPOD Essential for landscape photography, regardless of the time of year—no serious landscape photographer should be without one. Not only will it help you avoid camera shake when you’re using slow shutter speeds, or precisely frame an image, but it will also slow you down, which will naturally make you think a little more about what you’re doing.

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REMOTE RELEASE An electronic release will allow you to take a shot without touching your camera—a common cause of slight camera shake. If you don’t want to pay for an optional remote release, you can also use the camera’s built-in self-timer function; assuming your camera is on a tripod, of course.

ANGLE FINDER If you’re shooting flowers at ground level, then using your DSLR’s viewfinder to frame your shots can be a challenge. An angled viewfinder extension will make things easier with DSLRs that don’t feature a live LCD screen and a flip-out screen.

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HOTSHOE LEVEL Although you can straighten an image easily in an editing program, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get your horizons level in-camera. Some cameras feature built-in electronic levels, but if yours doesn’t, a low-cost hotshoe-mounted spirit level could be the perfect solution.

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EXPOSURE & FOCUS

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EXPOSURE MODES FOR LANDSCAPES

Digital camera manufacturers are cramming ever more exposure modes into their various camera models, regardless of whether they are compact models or DSLRs. This change has brought with it a level of sophistication that means that almost every camera is now capable of creating a correctly exposed and focused picture with a single press of the shutter release. This is a world away from the cameras used by iconic landscape photographers such as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, but just because your camera can make a lot of decisions for you doesn’t necessarily mean you should allow it to. In fact, it should be quite the opposite: you should be the one making key decisions about your photography. The starting point for this is to choose the correct exposure mode, but with countless modes on offer, which ones should you be using? Full Auto This is the starting point for many novice photographers, and a feature of both compact and entry-level DSLRs alike. However, it is also one of the most dangerous exposure modes, simply because it requires almost zero thought (or input) on the part of the photographer. Aside from deciding where to aim the lens, all other decisions are left to the camera, which will select the file type (usually JPEG), ISO, shutter speed, aperture, white balance, and even attempt to pick the

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subject to focus on—and that’s only including a few of the camera-determined parameters! While this is a great option for snapshots, anyone with even a remote interest in photography should treat it as though it doesn’t exist. Period. Landscape Scene mode Scene modes may often be referred to, rather disparagingly, as “idiot modes,” but for first-time photographers with no experience of digital cameras they’re certainly a step up from Full Auto—so long as you understand precisely what each of the modes (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, and so on) is actually doing to your image. With Landscape mode, the camera will typically set a small aperture to give you a large depth of field, and it will also adjust other shooting parameters as well, perhaps increasing the in-camera sharpening, and boosting the saturation of blues and greens in the image for more vibrant photographs. While you still may not be calling many of the shots, switching to Landscape Scene mode at least demonstrates that you are aware of what it is you are hoping to photograph!

A Landscape Scene mode typically combines a small aperture with vibrant colors that add vibrancy to grass and skies.

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Aperture Priority Unlike Auto and Scene modes, Aperture Priority mode allows you to change the vast majority of the camera settings, whether it is the image size and file format, the white balance and ISO, or any other in-camera setting or feature. More importantly, it puts you in charge of the aperture, which is perhaps the most crucial photographic control for landscape work, as it controls the depth of field (see here). When it comes to shooting in Aperture Priority, you are free to set any of the aperture settings offered by the lens you are using, and the camera will automatically set an appropriate shutter speed to produce a good exposure. If the result isn’t quite right, then you can use exposure compensation to fine-tune the exposure. This is the mode to master for successful landscape photographs.

In Aperture Priority you set the aperture. This is a key control in landscape photography as it regulates the depth of field. Manual When you switch your camera to Manual, you are effectively adopting the shooting mode used by the earliest photographers. It is down to you which aperture and shutter

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speed combination you set, although, unlike your predecessors, you have an electronic in-camera exposure meter to guide you to the correct exposure. This removes a lot of guesswork from the process, but it also makes the notion of shooting manually something of a misnomer: if you’re simply going to rely on the exposure suggested by the camera, you could just as well choose Aperture Priority instead. Manual comes into its own when you want to take a spotmeter reading from a specific area and then recompose the image without worrying about the exposure settings changing, or if you’re using a handheld lightmeter to take an incident light reading that you need to transfer to the camera. If you’re doing neither of these things, then you should perhaps be asking yourself why your camera is set to Manual.

Manual gives you absolute control over the aperture and shutter speed used to take your photograph.

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METERING MODES

In addition to its multiple shooting modes, your camera is very likely to offer a selection of metering patterns—the fundamental light-measuring tools that guide your camera to its suggested aperture and/or shutter speed. Most DSLRs will provide you with a trio of metering patterns. Knowing which to use can be the difference between being consistently disappointed, or delighted, by your results. Multizone metering Canon calls it Evaluative Metering, Nikon calls it Matrix Metering, and other manufacturers refer to it as Multi-Segment or Multi-Area Metering, but all of these metering patterns fall under the broad “multizone metering” heading as they all work in a similar way: the full area seen in the viewfinder (or on the rear LCD), is broken down into segments that are evaluated individually to produce the camera’s suggested exposure. This is the most sophisticated metering pattern offered by your camera, and should be the most reliable, as the scene you are shooting is being assessed in its entirety. However, this sophistication brings with it a certain element of mystery, in that you can never be sure precisely how the camera is reaching its exposure decision. Nikon’s Matrix Metering pattern, for example, compares what the camera is seeing to a database containing tens of thousands of typical

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images and attempts to match the intended photograph to one of these. Most often it will get it right, but not always.

Multizone metering takes an exposure reading covering the entire frame equally, and produces the right result in most averagely lit situations. GOOD WHEN • The scene comprises predominantly midtone areas. • The bright and dark areas of the image largely balance each other out. NOT SO GOOD WHEN • Faced with scenes that are naturally bright or dark overall. Centerweighted metering Centerweighted metering patterns have been around for many years, and were often the main metering pattern offered by manual 35mm SLRs. Like multizone metering patterns, it takes a reading from the scene as a whole, but the exposure is weighted toward the central area, based on the assumption that this is where the main subject is and that it should be recorded as a midtone. As a result, centerweighted metering is 36

more prone to delivering under- or overexposed images than multizone metering if the center of the image is significantly brighter or darker than a midtone.

Centerweighted metering is useful when there are overly light or dark areas at the edges of the frame that might affect a multizone meter reading. GOOD WHEN • The central area of the scene translates into a midtone (sunlit grass or a deep blue sky, for example). • There are overly bright or dark areas toward the edges of the frame that you don’t want to affect the exposure. NOT SO GOOD WHEN • The central area of the framed scene is particularly bright or dark—specular highlights on water, for example. HANDHELD READINGS

LIGHTMETERS

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INCIDENT

Although in-camera lightmeters can do a remarkable job of gauging the exposure, they are all limited by the way in which they reach their decision: they all measure light reflected off

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the subject, so a dark subject would give a very different exposure reading to a light subject. A handheld lightmeter, however, can take an incident light reading, which is a measure of the light falling onto the subject. This means that it doesn’t matter if the subject is dark or light—the handheld meter will give the same reading. For landscape photography, this is a great way of getting the exposure right when it is a tricky scene.

Strong backlighting will likely fool a camera’s built-in exposure systems into underexposing, but will not affect a handheld lightmeter’s reading. Spot metering Spot metering is the most accurate and consistently reliable metering pattern your camera has, yet at the same time it’s the one that will often produce the wrong result. This may sound contradictory, but used correctly, spot metering is capable of producing the correct exposure with absolute certainty. The

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reason for this is because it takes a reading from an ultra-precise area of the frame—as little as one or two degrees with some camera models. This means you can precisely target a midtone area, safe in the knowledge that it will indeed be exposed perfectly. However, this is also where the problems begin: if the area you take the meter reading from isn’t quite a midtone, the result is guaranteed to be over- or underexposed to a greater or lesser degree. For this reason, spot metering is often used to take an exposure reading from a photographic gray card, which is the precise tone that matches the calibration of the meter. The result: a technically perfect exposure. It may not match your creative intentions (you may prefer a slightly lighter or darker result for the image you are looking to create), but, technically, the exposure will be as accurate as it can be.

When you have a predominantly light or dark scene, your camera’s spot metering pattern can be used to take an exposure reading from a midtone area. GOOD WHEN • You want to take a reading from a precise area of the scene, or a gray card.

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• You want to measure the contrast range between the brightest highlights and deepest shadows. • The scene is predominantly bright or dark, but there’s a small area of midtone that you want to expose correctly (a rock in heavily backlit water, for example). NOT SO GOOD WHEN • You struggle to identify a midtone.

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FOCUSING

When selecting a focus point, the first thing to do is to consult your camera manual to find out how you switch your camera to its manual Focus Point Selection mode. This shouldn’t be confused with Manual Focus; you simply want to be able to select any one of the individual focus points for yourself. Once you’ve done that, all you need to do when you’re out in the landscape is choose the focus point that sits over the main area in the image that you want to be sharp—it’s that simple. Or at least it can be. On the surface, focusing with a digital camera would seem like a fairly straightforward process: all you really need to do is press the shutter-release button and the camera will find something in the scene to focus on before it takes the picture. That is usually all there is to it. However, despite the sophistication of modern auto-focus (AF) systems, there is no guarantee that your camera will get it right. Most digital cameras have multiple focus points which are spread across the frame, and each one of these focus points has the potential to snap the lens into focus on the part of the scene that is falling under it. If you let the camera decide which one of these focus points to use, then you’re essentially asking it to determine what it feels is the most important part of your picture. To put it simply, it doesn’t matter how much your camera cost, it just has not got the intelligence to know what it is you want from your photo. So it is time for you to take control. 41

Most digital cameras have multiple focusing points, each of which can be activated to focus the lens. However, if you leave the decision on where to focus to your camera, it may not always get it right.

Auto-focus systems typically look for areas of strong contrast to focus on. With this scene, the camera might focus on the distant mountains (top) or the flowers in the foreground (bottom). Depending on the depth of field, this could create two very different results. Picking a focus point manually makes sure that the camera focuses where you want it to. Focusing and recomposing The main problem with the method outlined above is that it relies on your subject falling perfectly under one of the camera’s AF points, and this isn’t always the case. As an

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example, let us say you were photographing a sweeping landscape and wanted a distant building that was very small in the frame to be your point of focus. If the position of the building doesn’t conveniently fall under an AF point, you have two choices. The first is to focus on something that is roughly the same distance away from the camera as your subject—perhaps a tree near the building that happens to be under a focus point. Alternatively, you can physically move your camera so the currently selected AF point sits over your main subject (in this example, the tree) and then focus by half-pressing the shutter-release button. You can then lock the focus and recompose or reframe the image before you take your shot. Locking the focus can usually be achieved by either continuing to hold the shutter release in its half-pressed position while you reframe your shot (which can be awkward), or by pressing an Auto-focus Lock button on the camera (often marked AF-L). However, it’s important that the AF-L button only locks the focus, and doesn’t lock the exposure also. Most cameras do both by default and, as a result, when you recompose your shot the exposure may not be correct. You can usually prevent this from happening by customizing your camera—most have a menu option that will allow you to change the AF-L button so that only the focus is locked, and not the exposure.

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If none of the AF points sit over the point that you want in focus, move the camera and lock the focus before recomposing the image and taking your shot. MANUAL FOCUS The alternative to using your camera’s auto-focus system is to focus your lens manually, which gives you total control over what you focus on in your landscape image. This is not necessarily as easy as it sounds, though, as—ironically—digital photography has actually made this harder than it used to be with SLR or SLR-style cameras. The reason for this is the design of modern auto-focus lenses and cameras, where manual focus is a decidedly secondary option. Many lenses now have a physically narrow focusing ring that is not only hard to operate, but can shift the focus dramatically with the slightest turn. Distance scales on the lens (which give an indication of the distance the lens is focused at) aren’t always a feature, either, and long gone are the days when a camera contained a split/microprism screen to help facilitate accurate focus. Because of this, manual

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focus should be approached with caution—it gives you full control, but the way in which it does this is no longer as precise or as easy as it once was. DEPTH OF FIELD AND IMAGE SIZE From much that is written about it, it is easy to believe that depth of field is a distinct zone in the image in which everything appears sharp, with everything outside it appearing blurred, but this isn’t the case. In any photograph, only one distance (the plane of focus) is in focus. Everything else exhibits a degree of softness and depth of field is simply the term used to refer to those areas that are acceptably sharp. What is acceptable is, of course, subjective—what you may find acceptably in-focus may appear out of focus to someone else. In addition, it also relates to the size at which the image is viewed: a picture will naturally appear sharper when viewed at a small size on a computer screen, but when enlarged to create an exhibition-sized print, slightly soft areas will appear even more out of focus. For this reason, depth of field should always be treated as a guide, rather than an absolute measurement.

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As this illustration shows, the smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field: at f/22, a far greater area will appear sharp compared to using an aperture of f/4, for example.

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DEPTH OF FIELD

Even when you are focusing on a single point in a scene, a certain amount in front of and behind the point of focus will also appear sharp in the photograph. How much of the scene appears sharp depends on the depth of field, which is a crucial concept to understand, not only for landscape photography, but for all photography. Put simply, depth of field is the distance from the nearest to the furthest point in a photograph that appears acceptably sharp, though this isn’t a constant distance for every photograph. This is because depth of field is based on the specific combination of focal length, camera-to-subject distance, and aperture setting, and each of these has an impact on how large or small the depth of field is. • The focal length of the lens: wide-angle focal lengths produce a larger depth of field than telephoto focal lengths. • The distance from the camera to the point of focus (subject): the greater the distance, the larger the depth of field. • The aperture setting that’s being used: smaller apertures produce a larger depth of field. This is the most important of the three factors listed here. Arguably, for the majority of your landscape photographs you will want to make sure that as much of the scene appears in focus as is possible, which means you will look to maximize

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the depth of field. Thankfully this is fairly easy to achieve—especially with sweeping views—as it is likely that you will want to use a wide-angle focal length to fit as much in the frame as possible, while distant views are, by definition, at a distance. So all you really need to do is set a small aperture (say f/22 or f/32) and you will have done almost everything you can to make sure that all elements in the frame, from the closest to the most distant, appear sharp. These are the three ideal settings, but you won’t always be able to achieve them. Sometimes a limited vantage point may determine the focal length you have to use to frame your shot, or there could be more subject-dependant considerations. Say for example you wanted to photograph a blossoming tree filling the frame with its colorful flowers. You could do this with a wide-angle focal length setting (to maximize the depth of field), but this would mean getting physically closer to the tree, which would reduce the camera-to-subject distance, and so the depth of field. Switching to a telephoto lens to enable moving away wouldn’t necessarily help, as the use of a longer focal length would reduce the depth of field. In both cases, the only control that is guaranteed to affect the depth of field is the aperture.

This shot could be achieved with a range of focal lengths, but the camera-to-subject distance required to fill the frame

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would counter any depth of field advantage that comes from your lens choice. SMALL APERTURE DIFFRACTION While a small aperture increases depth of field, there is a drawback—smaller apertures increase diffraction, which softens the image overall. Thus, while you may get a greater depth of field with an aperture of f/22, you will get a slightly sharper image at f/16. How significant this is will depend on the lens you are using and the result you want, but it is something that unfortunately has to be accepted. In some cases a slightly sharper image with a shallower depth of field might be better than the maximum depth of field.

A distant landscape will often be shot using a wide-angle focal length at a focusing distance that gives a deep depth of field. Using a small aperture will help ensure that everything remains sharp.

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HYPERFOCAL DISTANCE

I had said previously that you will have done “almost everything” to maximize the depth of field when photographing a distant landscape by using a wide-angle focal length and a small aperture. The word “almost” is important here: there is one further technical consideration that cannot be avoided when talking about landscape photography and depth of field—the hyperfocal distance, or hyperfocal point. To understand what this is, you first need to appreciate that depth of field doesn’t extend an equal distance in front of and behind your point of focus: it stretches 1/3 in front, and 2/3 behind the actual point that is focused on. It is quite natural in landscape photography to focus on a distant subject that is, in terms of focusing, at infinity—the furthest point that a lens can focus on. However, as soon as you do this you lose 2/3 of the potential depth of field, as the focal point can’t extend beyond infinity. This is where the hyperfocal distance or hyperfocal point comes in. What is the hyperfocal distance? The hyperfocal distance is the point at which everything from 1/2 the hyperfocal distance through to infinity is covered by the depth of field. In other words, it is a specific distance that you would focus at to truly maximize the depth of field in a shot.

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So what is this magic distance? Unfortunately, because the hyperfocal distance is determined by the aperture and focal length being used (as well as the size of the sensor in the camera), it is impossible to give a single figure. That doesn’t mean that you can’t work out the (approximate) hyperfocal point, though—there is a formula for the mathematically inclined, which is easily found online, while websites such as www.dofmaster.com allow you to print out ready-made (or customized) hyperfocal distance tables. Hyperfocal distance in practice It is one thing knowing that the hyperfocal distance for an 18mm focal length is 5ft (1.52m) at an aperture setting of f/11, or 39ft (11.89m) for a 60mm focal length at f/16, but this isn’t necessarily going to help you when you’re on location: the landscape doesn’t tend to have convenient distance-markers on it. Nor is this helped by the fact that many modern lenses don’t have distance scales marked on them any more, so focusing manually using measurements marked on the lens may not be an option.

The lens has been focused on a subject at infinity. The depth of field extends a short way in front of the subject, but not behind it: depth of field can’t create any further sharpness beyond infinity.

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This illustration shows what would happen if the lens was focused at the hyperfocal distance instead. The depth of field now extends from half the hyperfocal distance to infinity, so more of the foreground will be sharp, as well as the most distant areas.

Focusing at the hyperfocal distance is often the answer when you want both the foreground and distant elements to appear sharp in your landscape photograph. In the past, setting the hyperfocal point was incredibly simple as most manual-focus lenses had a distance scale with aperture and depth-of-field markings on them: focusing the lens so the infinity focus mark aligned with the furthest point on the aperture/depth-of-field scale, allowing you to set the hyperfocal distance with very little effort. However, many modern lenses don’t have a distance scale marked on them or, if they do, it’s unlikely there will be aperture markings as 52

well. This makes it harder to set the hyperfocal distance, though not impossible. The first tool that will help you is your camera’s depth-of-field preview button (if it has one). This will physically close the aperture down to the setting you will be using to take the shot, and you can see the effect this has on the depth of field by looking through the viewfinder. Although the viewfinder image will be dark, it should be clear enough to allow you to set your focus manually so that infinity is the furthest point that appears sharp. This is unlikely to have you focusing at the precise hyperfocal distance, but it will ensure that the parts of the image you want to be in focus are sharp.

Older, manual-focus lenses (top) have a very useful focus scale that helps maximize the depth of field in an image. Modern lenses (bottom) tend only to tell you where you are focusing, without the more useful depth-of-field information. Unfortunately, if your lens doesn’t have a depth-of-field scale, and your camera doesn’t have a depth-of-field preview function, setting the hyperfocal distance becomes far more of a challenge. It isn’t impossible, however, as there is still a way that you can exploit the hyperfocal distance. Perhaps not with pinpoint accuracy, and definitely not scientifically, but certainly well enough to get you close. This method is simply

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to guess and focus on something that looks to be roughly the right distance away from the camera. How accurate this will be comes down to how well you can gauge distances, and, generally speaking, this is easiest when you are working with a hyperfocal distance that is fairly close to the camera. Judging a distance of 5ft (1.52m), is easier that trying to pick a spot that is 39ft (11.89m) away from the camera, for example. If in doubt, focus slightly further away from your estimated point to be sure that infinity is the furthest point that appears sharp in your photograph, and if your guesses are consistently wrong, consider using a slightly smaller aperture as well. For example, if you calculate the hyperfocal distance for the focal length you are using and set f/16, but actually use f/22 when you take your picture, this will give you a little extra depth of field. This may all sound as though working with the hyperfocal distance is too convoluted, vague, or simply difficult, but it is a focusing technique that is worth bearing in mind when you’re on location—if nothing else, it will help you think about depth of field. BREAK THE RULES! There is no law that states you have to slavishly use the hyperfocal distance to keep everything sharp in a landscape photograph. Sometimes, restricting the depth of field so that a precise area appears sharp can produce equally striking results. A telephoto lens used at a wide aperture setting, for example, will reduce the depth of field, and while this is a technique that is commonly used in portrait photography to

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help the subject stand out against a blurred background, there’s no reason why you couldn’t—and shouldn’t—use it for landscapes to help draw attention to a specific part of the frame.

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ASPECTS OF SPRING

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THE WIDER VIEW

One of the most challenging aspects of photography in spring is encapsulating a true sense of season in the wider landscape: by which I mean creating a definite sense that a photograph was taken in spring, when the scene in question is a distant, sweeping view. In fall, any such photograph is likely to contain warm, yellow-and-orange leaves, while winter will likely consist of already-bare trees and perhaps a covering of snow—both clear indicators of the season in which the photograph was taken. Even summer, with its high, direct sunlight, often-blue skies, and rich green foliage will leave us in no doubt as to when a photograph was made. By comparison, the broader landscape of spring will not necessarily reveal the subtleties of budding leaves on the trees when they’re viewed from afar, and nor will a distant view disclose the emergence of the year’s first flowers. But this doesn’t mean that photographing the landscape on a large scale isn’t possible—you simply have to work a little harder. Light & weather Spring is a great time of year to get out and photograph the end of the day. Since the days are typically short, you can avoid a spectacularly early start or late night while still capturing the times of day when the light is at its best for the majority of landscape photography. In addition, the sun doesn’t rise as high in the sky during the early spring months, which extends the post-dawn period, where the low

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angle of the light casts beautiful, sculptural shadows across the budding landscape.

This lush landscape doesn’t show the subtleties of spring, and so lacks seasonal context: it could have been taken in spring, summer, or early fall. Spring is also a time of year when the weather can be immensely changeable throughout the day: overcast, almost wintery skies can readily give way to rain-showers, which in turn can see the clouds break to create truly magical visuals as the sun radiates through. As a result, the main attribute you need in spring is patience. Rather than taking a shot and moving on to a different view or vantage point, wait a while to see what the weather and light will do. Often, the weather can change dramatically in a relatively short time—especially when weather fronts are moving in or clearing—allowing you to capture multiple photographic interpretations of the same scene.

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Spring’s highly changeable weather provides you with the opportunity to photograph the landscape showcasing a wide

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variety of moods, from warm sunrises (top), to overcast days, (top) to the arrival and departure of storm fronts (top). Framing Although spring may confront you with perfect light and the most spectacular weather conditions for your wider landscapes, one question remains—how best to produce a photograph that truly captures those small-scale changes that signify the season? The budding leaves and flowers are easily lost in a broad landscape view, but there is a sure-fire way of ensuring their inclusion: get close and include them in the foreground.

Including strong foreground elements in the frame adds seasonal context. This view of a young cornfield tells us

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which season this shot was taken in, and helps pull the viewer into the shot. You will hear a lot of experienced landscape photographers talk about the importance of the foreground in a landscape image, and nowhere is this truer than in spring photographs. This is a perfect opportunity to include your telltale seasonal signs at a scale that allows them to register with the viewer, helping to add context to the broader scene as a whole. However, the foreground is much more than a place in a photograph to include areas of finer detail, as the inclusion of both near and far elements in the frame will naturally create a greater sense of depth and scale in an image. It also helps prevent your distant view becoming precisely that—a view. Distant views are something that anyone can see while they are driving through the landscape, while details are often lost in a blur. By including details—perhaps sharply in the frame—you are transforming an otherwise broad view into a considered landscape, which is almost certain to hold the viewer’s interest for longer. Wide and close If you want to include more of the foreground in your landscape, then “wide and close” is a mantra worth repeating: “wide” for the focal length or lens, and “close” for the shooting position. Using a wide-angle focal length will naturally increase the amount of the scene that fits in the frame, which may include more of the ground immediately in

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front of you, but you will also need to be close to the foreground to maximize its impact in the frame. Shooting with a wide-angle focal length may result in more of the sky being included in the frame if you keep your camera level. Instead, aim your camera downward slightly, which will immediately bring more of the foreground into shot while reducing the amount of potentially empty sky. At the same time, however, consider physically lowering your camera as well, so rather than taking your photograph from eye level, you are shooting from a lower height. If you are handholding your camera, kneeling or crouching—or perhaps even lying down—will get you to a lower vantage point, but you will have much greater flexibility if you have your camera mounted on a tripod that can drop to a low level. It is also easier to take multiple frames if your camera is fixed to a tripod. This is a time when a multi-angle rear screen can be a great asset, as it will allow you to use your camera’s LiveView (if it has it) to frame your shots, rather than trying to get down low enough to see through the viewfinder. Alternatively, an angled viewfinder extension will help by allowing you to look down into the viewfinder from above the camera.

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Getting low to the ground and using a wide-angle focal length will help emphasize the foreground, but setting the hyperfocal distance is important if you want to keep everything in focus. In both cases, you need to pay careful attention to the depth of field—while a wide-angle lens will provide you with a greater depth of field than a telephoto, you will still need to use a small aperture (f/16, or f/22 for example) if you want to ensure that the near and far elements in the shot are acceptably sharp. Focusing at the hyperfocal distance (see here) will also help. If you find that you can’t quite get the closest and furthest elements in your scene in focus even when focusing at the hyperfocal distance, then focus slightly closer to cover the foreground: distant elements that are slightly blurred appear more acceptable, and are less noticeable, than a slightly soft foreground. SHOOT VERTICAL Although most landscape pictures work naturally when the camera is in its horizontal orientation (often referred to as 63

landscape format), turning your camera on its side for an upright composition is a simple, yet effective, way of including more of the foreground in your picture. Not all landscape subjects will suit this format, but with those that do, the results can be stunning.

Shooting in a portrait (upright) format is a great way to include more of the foreground.

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SPRING IN BLOOM

One of the most significant indicators that winter has passed, and spring has definitely arrived, is the gentle emergence of new plants. None of this new life has greater impact on the landscape than flowers, which can transform once-barren meadows into a field of color, or rejuvenate shady woods and forests that have suffered a damp winter. As a result, flowers are perfect for filling the foregrounds of your spring landscapes and, as we have just seen, “wide and close” is the general rule when it comes to photographing broader views. Look for clusters of flowers rather than individual stems, as this will maximize their impact. A single flower may hint at spring, but a dense patch of colorful blooms will leave the viewer in no doubt that a new year is beginning.

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Flowers make the ideal seasonal foreground detail for your spring images, but look for swathes of new blooms: individual blooms are easily lost in a broad view.

Two different approaches to a similar scene. In the first image (top), a small aperture keeps both the flowers in the foreground and the distant trees in focus. A smaller aperture has been used for the second shot (bottom), which shifts the emphasis onto the flowers covering the foreground: the content and balance of the frame remains very similar, but the result is markedly different. Flowers do not simply have to be a bit-player in your spring landscapes, though—they can also become the main focus of an image. In meadowlands, for example, there is no reason why you need to include the sky, or any distant elements in your photographs. Instead, fill the frame with wildflowers and grasses to create an almost two-dimensional image where the random pattern of plants becomes the entire picture. The perspective can appear compressed if you use a telephoto

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lens, creating a stronger impression of densely packed flowers. Conversely, a wide-angle lens will better communicate the sense of quantity, with the wide viewing angle covering a larger area of apparently smaller flowers. In both instances, the focal length will determine the outcome, so experiment with different lenses, or alternate zoom settings. The aperture setting can be an equally powerful creative control in these situations, with smaller apertures providing universally sharp images, while wider apertures can be used to isolate a specific area within the frame. Best of all, you don’t need to travel very far—once you have found a suitable location, multiple perspectives can be created from just one flowering meadow or woodland.

These spring-flowering bluebonnets are not simply filling the foreground in this shot—they are the main subject of this sunset landscape.

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Varying your focal length can create distinctly different wildflower landscapes: long lenses help fill the frame (Top) while a wide-angle focal length (Bottom) will record a greater number of smaller blooms.

Setting a Tungsten white-balance setting in daylight will add a cool, blue cast to your images, which can give them an equally cool, contemporary feel.

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Using a long exposure and panning the camera while you take a photograph can create bold, abstract images. A similar result can be achieved by applying a motion blur filter to the image using your image-editing program.

Handholding the camera and using a slow shutter speed can transform spring flowers into an abstract blur of color that says just as much about the season as a sharply focused shot. Abstracts With so much intense color, spring flowers make great subjects for less conventional, more abstract imagery, where their bold hues stand out in stark contrast to their typically green surroundings. This technique is less about traditional landscape shots, or indeed photographing a recognizable subject, and much more about using your camera to express the feel of the season—in this instance, the vibrant colors of spring. Long exposures and panning the camera during an exposure are all covered in greater detail in the Fall volume, but here are a few ideas to get you started: • Use slow shutter speeds to blur the movement of flowers in a breeze.

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• Handhold your camera and use a slow shutter speed to introduce random movement into your shots. • Pan or tilt your camera during a long exposure to create a sense of directional energy. • Experiment with your image-editing software’s blurring filters to reduce your floral landscapes into bold splashes of color. • Use the wrong white-balance setting on your camera to create an all-over colorcast. If you shoot Raw files, this can also be done when you convert your images on your computer.

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INTRODUCTION

Typified by long, warm days and bright, sunny skies, summer is the season when the weather is kinder to us, and heading outdoors becomes a pleasure rather than a chore. It’s this natural desire to be outside that makes summer the perfect time to get out and about with your camera. It is all too easy to race from the house ready to capture stunning summer landscapes, only to return despondent, with memory cards full of images that just aren’t quite special enough. You are not alone if this has ever happened to you, because summer is a surprisingly challenging season to photograph. It would seem as if everything is on your side: fair weather, good light, and clear skies. However, the reality is that as soon as the sun starts rising, it rises high, and fast. As a result, the early morning shadows quickly retreat, becoming small, hard, and dark as the sun bears down on the planet. This quickly diminishes any sense of depth in the landscape, with green fields running seamlessly into green trees, both potentially backed by a uniform, featureless blue sky. Without shadows to help describe shape and form, your resulting photographs—although beautifully saturated and rich with summer color—will undoubtedly appear flat.

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At the same time, contrast can also be a major problem in summer: those hard, deep shadows can become impenetrable, while anything reflective is likely to create intense highlights that no camera can possibly be expected to record—at least not if detail is required elsewhere in the picture. So in addition to flat shots, you are also likely to return home with a selection of images that feature heavily blocked-up and burned-out areas, neither of which is particularly welcome.

In the opinion of some photographers, with the exception of sunrise and sunset, summer days are best avoided for photography. While this makes a certain amount of sense, it is a rather lazy answer. What is really needed is an understanding of the problems you are likely to encounter 73

while shooting on a summer’s day, and a mental “photographer’s toolbox” containing the skills you can use to overcome them. This will not make the lighting any easier to work with, or the contrast disappear, but slap on the sunscreen and head out regardless: stunning summer landscapes are possible!

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ESSENTIALS

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TIME OF DAY

More than any other time of the year, landscape photographers seem to apply rules regarding when you can shoot outdoors in the summer, with some going so far as to suggest that an hour or so after sunrise you might as well put away your camera and head home. But this simply isn’t true. As with any season, there is always the potential to create a striking landscape, no matter what time of day it is—you simply have to appreciate the light that you have, and try to work in a way that will make the most of it.

Sunrise & sunset Regardless of where you’re taking your photographs, or the season you are in, sunrise and sunset are universally considered as the best times of day for landscape photography. The reasons are fairly straightforward. First, the low sun casts long shadows that help define the landscape and enhance the sense of three dimensions in a photograph (which is fundamentally a two-dimensional product). Second, the sun has to travel a much greater distance through the Earth’s atmosphere than it does during the day. As a result, it travels through more airborne particles that scatter and diffuse the light, making it softer, and helps to create the warm colors associated with dusk and dawn. When these two elements combine, the result is soft, yet defined, shadows, and an added warmth to the landscape that is naturally appealing. It

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is at either end of the day that you are likeliest to encounter these most attractive of lighting conditions.

The warm, directional light of sunrise (and sunset) is great for landscape photography, but beware of increased contrast when the sun is in the shot. Some form of contrast control may be required if you want to avoid losing detail in the highlights and/or shadows.

Daytime Unfortunately, sunrise and sunset are shorter in summer than they are at other times of the year, as the sun rises more quickly in the sky and also sets more rapidly. For this reason some photographers see the window of opportunity for successful summer landscapes as particularly short. While it is true that the high sun can produce quite difficult lighting conditions, with short, deep shadows creating incredibly high contrast that can easily result in dark “blocks” of tone and/or burned out highlights, it doesn’t mean that photography should be abandoned altogether. For a start, not all summer days are “blue sky” days. There may be small patches of cloud, for example, and no matter 77

how thinly these are spread across the sky, it takes just one small cloud to pass in front of the sun to immediately diffuse the light, lowering the contrast and transforming the landscape. The key is to be patient, and to study the skies—look at the direction clouds are moving in, and be prepared for that brief moment when the sun is not quite so intense. Even if you are shooting on a cloudless day, this still doesn’t mean that you have to let high-contrast lighting put an end to your photographic endeavors. As you will see in the following chapter, recent developments in digital image processing mean there are now ways in which high contrast can be controlled—either in-camera, or by producing HDR (High Dynamic Range) images—providing you with a useful workaround that is capable of delivering great images in even the most challenging of conditions.

During the day, the sun rises high, casting deep, short shadows that make the landscape appear more two dimensional. However, this doesn’t mean you need to head home: a passing cloud can be enough to soften the light, while

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techniques such as HDR may also help you achieve a great result. SUMMER STORMS Although summer is associated mostly with warm weather and sunny skies, the season does have its darker side: thunderstorms. Caused by a combination of moisture and warm air rising into the atmosphere, when thunderclouds start to gather and the skies darken, there is every chance that lightning will not be far behind. Lightning makes a great subject in its own right, but it is definitely something that is easiest to photograph at night—during the day, it is exceptionally difficult to time your exposure to coincide with a bolt of lightning.

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LOCATIONS

With sunrise and sunset offering the most appealing times of the day to shoot, it is important that you research potential locations before you head out. As the sun rises and sets quickly, you don’t want to arrive at your location to find that the sun is in the wrong direction, or that the scene isn’t quite what you had been hoping for. Maps are one way of ensuring that you are in the right place at the right time, as it is guaranteed that the sun will rise in the east and set in the west: as long as you can identify these directions on a map, roughly determining where the sun will be at either end of the day should be simple. What a map cannot clearly indicate, though, is the terrain that you will find when you arrive. While contour lines, rivers, and forests will all be marked to give you an indication of the terrain, translating this two-dimensional information into a three-dimensional mental picture is not easy. Thankfully, there are a number of websites that can help you visualize precisely what it is you are going to see. Perhaps the most commonly used is Google Earth (www.google.com/ earth), which can provide you with a three-dimensional view from almost any point on the planet. By adjusting the viewpoint, you can see precisely the terrain that you are likely to encounter, using the program as a virtual camera to pinpoint potential shooting positions. Of particular use to landscape photographers is the ability to set the date and time

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of the map (including future dates), and to show the direction of the sun.

Image © 2011 Getmapping plc., Image © 2011 Terrametrics, Image © 2011 and DigitalGlobe. Google Earth © 2010 Google (top, middle, bottom) When it comes to finding and scouting a location, Google Earth allows you to do your research from the comfort of your armchair. Not only can you move around the 3D preview to see the terrain and perhaps identify potential shooting positions, but you can also visit a location on a set day and at a set time. These examples show the same potential location at midday (top), 5:30 a.m. (middle), and 7:00 p.m. (bottom), giving a good indication of where the

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shadows are likely to fall throughout the day, and the time that you need to be there for the first and last light of the day.

Certain websites, such as Flickr and Picasa allow you to plot your images on a world map using the geotagged data to identify the location where the image was taken. This makes it easy for other people to see where your landscape was taken, rather than having to guess where in the world you were.

Nikon is just one of a number of digital SLR manufacturers to offer a dedicated GPS unit for certain digital SLR models. The unit fits into the camera’s accessory shoe, and once

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connected will record the latitude and longitude of your location when you take a picture. Geotagging Whenever you take a picture, your camera records what is known as “metadata,” which is information about the camera and settings used to take the photograph. “Geotagging” is a process that adds the geographical location where a photograph was taken to this list of data, so alongside the shutter speed, aperture, focal length, ISO, and so on, you will have also the latitude and longitude of the location where each of your photographs was taken. Alone, this isn’t essential information, but there are an increasing number of programs (and websites) that can read the geotagged data and display it on a map: Flickr has a world map, for example, and Google Earth is also capable of displaying geotagged images. This is great for showing where in the world a particular image was taken, but it can also have a commercial benefit. If you start to sell your images, for example, and someone contacts you looking for a picture of a specific location, you can find relevant images easily. To help with this process, a (small) number of digital cameras now have built-in global-positioning systems (GPS) that automatically add the location data as you shoot. For those that do not have GPS built in, manufacturers are increasingly adding external GPS units to their list of camera accessories, which records where you are when you take a shot and then adds this information to the metadata as your images are downloaded to the computer. You will likely need to use the

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manufacturer-supplied software to achieve this, but the advantage is that every image you shoot can be pinned accurately to the location.

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RAW POWER

In spring, we looked at the cameras and lenses that might form the basis for a year-round shooting kit. What all of these have in common is their ability to record Raw files. Raw capture should be a key consideration for landscape work, especially in summer: it will help you get better images. Unlike a JPEG, a Raw file isn’t processed in the camera, so it is, in effect, the “raw” data from the sensor. This is important because it means that any settings that form part of the in-camera processing—white balance, sharpness, contrast, and color adjustments, for example—are not embedded in the image data. Instead, you process the image using Raw conversion software on your computer, and it is here that you apply all of your image adjustments—often with much more control. For example, while your camera may offer four sharpening options—high, medium, low, and off—a Raw converter might provide multiple sliders that allow you to control various aspects of the sharpening process for a much more refined outcome. Or you might want to change the white balance. With a JPEG this means adjusting the color of an already processed image in your image-editing program, which can degrade the quality. In a Raw file, you make your changes to the raw data, giving you a better picture. Another fundamental advantage of a Raw file is that it is recorded at a higher bit-depth than a JPEG. I’m intentionally not going to get immersed in the technicalities of bit-depth,

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but in real terms what this means is that a JPEG image (8-bit) can contain up to 16.7 million colors, while a converted Raw file (16-bit) can contain billions of colors—a huge difference. This isn’t as much of a problem as it may appear, as the human eye is believed to be able to differentiate between only 100,000 to 1 million colors (depending on which scientist or color theorist you listen to). What it does mean, though, is that any changes you make are less likely to have a negative impact on the image, because there is more information to start with. Again, this gives you a better end result. TIME WELL SPENT? Achieving the best result you can is something you will want to strive for, but processing Raw files does add an extra stage to your post-production work. If you have the time, and want the highest quality images possible, then Raw is the best option, but shooting JPEGs is still a valid alternative if time isn’t on your side, or you don’t intend to undertake a great deal of image-editing work.

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One Raw file, three very different results. Each of these images was processed using the same Raw software to create a different look. Because the process doesn’t degrade the image you can go back quite easily to produce as many versions as you like.

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CONTRAST

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SUMMER EXTREMES

The harsh summer sun can create high-contrast lighting conditions that aren’t always conducive to general landscape photography, but despite what many photography magazines and websites will tell you, that doesn’t mean it should be put on hold when the sun has reached its peak. You need to find a way of working with the conditions rather than surrendering to them, and as you will see in this chapter, a number of options will become available to you. Scene dynamic range Before we start to look at solutions, it is perhaps worth looking at the problems caused by high-contrast lighting. To do this, we need to refer to the term “dynamic range,” which is the term used to describe the ratio between the brightest and darkest tones in a scene. It is important to note that the dynamic range doesn’t necessarily cover the extremes of pure black to pure white: in some situations the dynamic range will be much lower, extending only from light gray to dark gray in mist or fog, for example. For all practical purposes, there isn’t a problem photographing low dynamic range (low contrast) scenes; although the results might look a little flat due to the low contrast, this is resolved easily by boosting the contrast in your image-editing software. However, high contrast scenes (those with a high dynamic range) can be more problematic.

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The reason for this is because digital cameras have a fixed dynamic range. Most digital SLRs have a dynamic range of around 10–13 stops (the actual range depends on the make/model), which means they can only record detail within this range: if the darkest shadows and brightest highlights exceed this, then the dynamic range of the scene is higher than that of the camera and you will be unable to record detail in one or both of the tonal extremes in a single exposure.

Shooting into the sun: having the sun in shot, or including reflections on water are scenarios that are guaranteed to give you a high dynamic range that exceeds the capabilities of your camera.

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To determine the dynamic range of a scene, you use your camera’s spot meter to take an exposure reading from the brightest and darkest parts of the scene (as indicated) and note the difference.

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In this example, the difference between the two points is around 12 stops, so a small amount of detail-loss in the highlights and/or shadows would be expected. The histogram shows that the exposure has been set to preserve the highlights, resulting in a slight loss of detail in the shadows, but it is important to note that this does not affect the image adversely.

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Measuring dynamic range If you think that the dynamic range of your potential summer landscape is too high, then you need to measure it to make sure. The easiest way of measuring the dynamic range in a problematic scene is to switch your camera to spot-metering mode. Then, with the camera on Aperture Priority, set the aperture to a “mid” setting (f/8 is ideal), and take an exposure reading from the darkest area of the scene. Note the shutter speed the camera gives you, and then take a spot-meter reading from the brightest area of the scene, again noting the shutter speed. The difference between the shutter speed readings is the dynamic range. Now, let’s say that your camera suggests a shutter speed of ¼ second for the darkest area and 1/125 second for the brightest area. This tells you that the two tonal extremes are 6 stops apart: your camera will cover this in a single exposure. However, if your camera gives you ½ second for the darkest area, and then 1/1000 second for the brightest, that’s a difference of 10 stops, which is likely to be on or around your camera’s limits. Finally, let’s take an example: shooting across a lake, in the direction of strong sun. You take a spot-meter reading from the far bank (almost in silhouette due to the backlighting), and get a suggested shutter speed of 2 seconds. At the same time, the light is bouncing off the surface of the water, producing brilliant white highlights that give a shutter speed of 1/8000 second. The dynamic range is now 15 stops, and you can be fairly sure that you will be

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losing detail in the highlights, the shadows, or both, which means that you may want to consider some sort of workaround.

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IN-CAMERA CONTRAST CONTROL

Knowing that the dynamic range of a scene exceeds the limits of your camera and its sensor is one thing, but how do you overcome this and preserve as much detail in your summer landscapes as possible? Realizing that high-contrast scenes create problems for digital cameras, all of the leading camera manufacturers have introduced in-camera contrast-control features into some of their camera models, particularly those that appeal to landscape photographers. Canon has Auto Lighting Optimizer, Nikon has Active D-Lighting, and Sony has D-Range Optimizer. Each of these systems approaches the challenge of contrast-control in a slightly different way, though all aim for a similar end result: a photograph that appears to have recorded a better dynamic range than the camera and sensor is actually capable of. This typically involves manipulating the exposure slightly when the photograph is taken, so that highlight detail is preserved. Totally burnt-out highlights contain no information, so it is impossible to bring out any further detail once the exposure has been made. Extracting detail from shadow areas is slightly easier, so as well as preserving the highlights, the in-camera processing will lighten the shadows to make whatever detail is present all the more apparent. There are a couple of slight drawbacks to this, though. First, as in-camera optimization is a processing feature, it applies only to JPEG files, not Raw images.

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Second, lightening the shadows increases the level of noise in those areas.

D-LIGHTING OFF

D-LIGHTING ON (HIGH)

Nikon’s D-Lighting is available on a number of the company’s cameras and can be used at the time of exposure (Active D-Lighting) or applied after capture (D-Lighting). However, post-capture contrast control can only work with the information that has been recorded, so you need to be careful with your exposure: it cannot restore highlight detail that has already been lost.

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ND GRAD If balancing a bright sky with a darker foreground, there is a far simpler solution to controlling contrast than relying on sophisticated electronic processing: fit a graduated neutral-density filter. Available in various different strengths, an ND graduated filter has long been favored by landscape photographers looking to even out the exposure in their images, or indeed to overly darken skies for creative effect.

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POST-CAPTURE CONTRAST CONTROL

Although in-camera processing is one option for trying to tame high-contrast scenes, it is important to remember it is just that: one potential solution. Image-editing software often features tools that are equal to, or indeed are an improvement on, the in-camera algorithms. Raw optimization If you are shooting Raw files (which is recommended for quality), you have a choice of Raw conversion software: either the Raw converter supplied by your camera manufacturer, or third-party software which includes the Raw capabilities of image-editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop. While many photographers automatically opt for the latter option as it fits neatly into their regular workflow, the software that came with your camera may allow you to apply dynamic-range optimization in a similar way to the in-camera controls. Nikon’s software, for example, allows you to apply Active D-Lighting to Raw files, effectively providing you with the same processing algorithms, but applying them to an already-saved image. Highlight/shadow recovery Most image-editing programs now have some form of highlight and shadow adjustment, which provides you with a dedicated set of tools that control the intensity of your

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shadows and highlights independently. As with in-camera dynamic-range optimization, this is far more effective at lightening shadow areas than it is at restoring highlight detail, so if this is your preferred solution, you must take care when you expose your images to start with. In high-contrast situations, always give preference to the highlights, and don’t be afraid to underexpose your images slightly if you want to be sure that detail in the brightest areas is preserved.

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There is not too much wrong with the in-camera exposure here, but the contrast is high between the clouds and shaded trees. Using Photoshop’s Shadows/Highlights tools helps bring out a little more detail in both the lightest and darkest areas, producing a slightly more balanced result.

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Triple-processed Raw For those who shoot Raw, there is one further trick that is worth considering, and that is to triple-process your Raw file. Every Raw conversion program will allow you to adjust the exposure to a greater or lesser degree. You can use this to produce three converted files; one at the default exposure setting (your base image), and two further conversions that have the exposure shifted to produce a lighter and darker result respectively. Then, in your image-editing software, layer the over- and underexposed images on top of your base file, and erase or mask out areas from each so that you preserve the best of the image. Thus you can take the sky from one picture, the foreground from another, and the middle-distance from the third. Because they are all made from the same Raw file, it is incredibly easy to blend them by hand.

AS SHOT

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+2EV

-2EV For this shot, a single Raw file was processed three times: first at the “as shot” exposure, and then twice more, adjusting the exposure to +2EV and -2EV for each Raw conversion.

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The three images were layered in Photoshop and, using layer masks, the best bits of each were used to maximize the detail in the image. Notably by lightening the foreground and darkening the sky before cropping to a squarer shape.

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HDR

High dynamic range (HDR) imaging is a relatively recent addition to the photographer’s toolbox, but it is certainly a very powerful way of dealing with high-contrast scenes that exceed the limitations of your camera’s sensor. The premise is simple: you take a number of photographs of the same scene, and adjust the exposure between your shots so that the sequence covers the full dynamic range. So you have an image (or images) that reveal detail in the shadows, others that retain the highlight detail, and exposures in the middle that optimize the midtones. This sequence is then combined into a single HDR image using software on your computer, with a process known as “tone mapping” controlling precisely how the highlight, shadow, and midtone areas are dealt with. The end result is a single photograph that contains detail in all areas—from light to dark—regardless of the contrast level. By its very nature, the high contrast created by the midday summer sun is perfect for HDR imaging, and, as you will see, you can record naturalistic images containing a full tonal range, or take your shots into the realms of hyper-realism to exaggerate the intensity of a harshly lit summer scene.

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HDR imaging doesn’t just have the ability to correct high contrast, it also offers the potential to create hyper-real images from your summer exposures.

Although the sun appears in this shot—sending the dynamic range through the roof—HDR imaging is more than capable of bringing the contrast back under control. Shooting for HDR The key to shooting a successful HDR sequence relies on two things: image-alignment, and making certain that the full dynamic range of the scene is covered by your sequence of exposures. Ensuring that your images align is less important of the two, as most HDR programs will automatically attempt to align your images, but you should keep the images as close to one another as possible to avoid any odd-looking artifacts. The auto-alignment might be good, but it is not infallible, so 105

using a tripod is recommended. You also want to avoid scenes that contain any obvious movement, as this can create ghosting artifacts when the moving elements are combined in a single shot. With your camera set up, the next step is to determine the dynamic range of the scene so you know how many exposures you need to make. To do this, use your camera in Aperture Priority, set the aperture, and use your camera’s spotmeter to take precise readings from the brightest and darkest areas. The reason you use Aperture Priority and not Shutter Priority is because you need to shoot all of the images at the same aperture setting. If you don’t, the depth of field will change between frame, and your software will struggle to combine areas that are sharp in one frame, but out of focus in another. Let us assume that you have taken your spotmeter reading for the highlights and you have a reading of 1/2000 second at f/11, while the reading from the shadows is 2 seconds, also at f/11. This tells you the exposure range you need to cover with your sequence of shots: from 1/2000 second for the highlights, down to 2 seconds for the shadows—a total of thirteen stops. To shoot your sequence, switch your camera to Manual, set the aperture to f/11, and the shutter speed to 1/2000 second. Take a shot, and adjust the shutter speed to 1/1000 second (a difference of one stop) before shooting the next frame in the sequence. Continue adjusting the shutter speed one stop at a time and taking a shot, until you reach 2 seconds—the other end of your exposure range. You will now have 13 shots that

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cover the entire dynamic range of the scene and are ready for processing into a single HDR image.

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A sequence of exposures that cover the dynamic range is necessary for an HDR image: the brightest exposure should contain detail in the shadow areas, while the darkest exposure should reveal detail in the highlights. HDR RANGE There are no rules as to how many (or few) shots you need to take to produce an HDR sequence, as this will largely come down to the dynamic range of the scene: the greater the dynamic range, the more exposures you will need to make to cover it. Equally, there is no set gap between your exposures. The example used here suggests making your exposure in 1-stop increments, which guarantees a wide range of exposures to cover the scene’s tonal range. However, there is no reason why you couldn’t experiment with using 2-stop increments between your exposures, and taking fewer shots to cover the range from the brightest to darkest exposures. HDR image-processing There are numerous pieces of software dedicated to producing HDR images, and many image-editing programs now include HDR tools also, but every one of them aims to do the same thing: to combine your sequence of images and map again the high dynamic range of the scene into a single, low dynamic-range image. This final image will still appear to contain the extreme tonal range recorded by your exposure sequence—so you will have detail in the highlights and shadows, no matter how far apart they are in terms of brightness—but this is compressed so the range fits within the dynamic range of an ordinary image.

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The process begins by identifying your sequence of images, not just in terms of the physical number of images, but also the difference in exposure between the frames. Most software will determine this for itself, using the EXIF data recorded alongside the images, but if for some reason it cannot determine the exposure for each image you will need to set this manually. At this stage you may also have additional options, such as asking the program to try and align the images in the sequence for you (useful if you were shooting handheld); noise reduction; and “ghosting removal,” which simply tells the software to try and minimize the appearance of anything in the shot that has moved between frames. Once you have done all this, the HDR tool or program will combine your exposures into a single high-resolution image. It is a surprise at first to see how awful this appears on screen: highlights will be burnt out and shadows blocked up, and the image as a whole will look a lot worse than a single exposure would. The reason this happens is because your computer monitor is simply incapable of displaying the high dynamic range of the image, in much the same way as your camera was unable to record it to start with. However, this will change at the next step: tone mapping.

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The first task performed by your HDR software is to assemble your exposure sequence into a single high dynamic range, which begins by identifying the images and the exposure difference between them.

Depending on your software, you may be presented with a number of additional processing options: Photomatix Pro (shown here) can attempt to reduce ghosting, noise, and chromatic aberrations if you want it to.

When you first see your image sequence combined, it is normal to think you might have done something wrong—the tonal range usually looks worse, not better, at this stage.

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Tone mapping As its name suggests, tone mapping is the part of the HDR creation process that takes the high-dynamic-range image created from your multiple exposures and re-maps it so that it fits within a normal dynamic range, whilst simultaneously ensuring that detail at the extremes of the tonal range isn’t lost. There are many and varied ways in which this is applied, and some programs do it a lot better than others. Despite its high price, Photoshop, for example, offers a fairly rudimentary set of tone-mapping tools that either leave the entire process to the program (often with less than perfect results), or provide minimal user-input, again producing images that are far from desirable. HDRsoft’s Photomatix Pro goes to the other extreme, offering numerous tone-mapping options with a multitude of controls that are almost certain to confuse anyone who hasn’t read through the manual. Thankfully, the latest incarnation of the program includes a selection of useful preset options, with thumbnails showing how each will render the final image. These can be used to produce a finished image immediately, or used as a starting point from which to experiment further with the other controls on offer. Other programs offer yet more variations on the tone-mapping theme, each with their own particular strengths and weaknesses. With experience, it is quite possible that you will find you prefer to use certain elements of one program, combined with features from another: for example, creating your initial high-dynamic-range composite in Photoshop (where you can take advantage of its comprehensive Raw 111

processing), and then performing the tone mapping with the complex processing algorithms found in Photomatix Pro.

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Photomatix Pro has a bewildering array of tone-mapping controls (left), so thumbnailed presets (below) are a welcome addition to the latest version of the program. They can be used as the starting point for your picture, or a simple one-click HDR solution. Either way, the preview screen (right), with its histogram and magnified display will show you what’s going on with your image. Output Once tone-mapped, your image will look much better than the initial high-dynamic-range preview, with (hopefully) detail in all areas from the highlights to the shadows. You can now save the file, with most HDR programs offering a choice of 8-bit (TIFF or JPEG), or 16-bit (TIFF only) output. If you don’t intend to perform any further image-editing to the picture, an 8-bit image is fine, although many experienced HDR photographers will go on to fine-tune their HDR images in an image-editing program, perhaps adjusting the saturation or manipulating the contrast using a Curves tool or similar. In this case, a 16-bit image is the better option, allowing more work to be done to the image with a reduced risk of losing quality.

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If you intend to edit your HDR image further, outputting it as a 16-bit TIFF file is the best option. TONE MAPPING A SINGLE IMAGE As well as using your tone-mapping tools on an HDR picture generated from multiple files, some programs also allow you to use them on a single image. This won’t magically reveal any more detail in areas that have been clipped, but it does allow you to re-map the tonal range, often producing a dramatic (if not always realistic) result. In this example, a single JPEG file was tone-mapped using Photomatix Pro, using its black-and-white preset as the starting point. The whole distribution of the tones has been changed, adding much greater drama to an otherwise static subject.

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SUMMER CREATIVITY

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SUMMER SHOOTING BLUES

It’s fair to say that within an hour of the sun rising, the best photographic light of a summer’s day has passed, at least until the sun starts to set. What you are left with isn’t going to be casting beautiful, sculptural shadows across the landscape, nor is it going to imbue your images with an attractive warmth. When the light is high, direct, and hard, it is easy for the “pack up and head home” mindset to creep in, and for you to convince yourself that it isn’t worth taking any more pictures. It’s true that the combination of high contrast and short shadows is rarely conducive to great landscapes, but the more often you succumb to the urge to pack up for the day, the more likely it is to become a personal mantra. Before long you simply won’t bother even looking for potential pictures (let alone switch your camera on) and if that happens, you know you’ve got the “summer shooting blues.” But it doesn’t need to be like this. All you need to do before you pack your bag is to stop and think for a moment. Just as high contrast can be overcome, so you can work around the lighting created by the high sun. You may not be able to improve it, but as you will see in this chapter, producing a striking image is not impossible.

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During the day in summer, the sun is often hard and overhead, reducing shadows and creating rather two-dimensional images such as these. It’s easy to start thinking that the conditions make it impossible to create striking pictures, but don’t: you just need to think creatively!

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PANORAMAS

It is worth stating at the outset that creating a panoramic image isn’t going to transform an average shot into a great one, but it is a great solution when you want to include a wide view, but without an unwanted expanse of sky or foreground, as this is naturally accommodated by the elongated shape. Of course, you could simply take a single frame and crop the image to get rid of the dead space at the top and bottom of the frame. This is perfectly valid, and requires nothing more than your image-editing program’s Crop tool. However, in doing this you will be discarding a lot of the picture, and this means you’re throwing away a lot of the pixels that your camera uses to make your photographs. The result may look great onscreen, but you could easily find that you struggle to print it out at a reasonable size. The answer is to set out to deliberately produce a panoramic image instead, which requires work at both the shooting and image-editing stages. It is a little more time-consuming, certainly, but the results are well worth your effort.

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Panoramic images can be combined with other techniques, such as HDR, to create stunning landscape images that capture the true essence of a place. Shooting To create a panorama, you need to shoot a sequence of images that cover the full width of the scene that you want in your final picture. It is best to have your camera tripod-mounted, and to ensure that it is level—the horizon may look straight through your viewfinder, but if it is at even a slight angle this will be very noticeable in an elongated panoramic photograph. Some cameras have a built-in level, which should be activated, or if your tripod has a built-in leveling bubble, use that instead. If you have neither, consider investing in a hotshoe-mounted level—they cost very little and can be used for all photographs that include the horizon line in the frame. The next step is to frame your first image. This should enclose either end of the scene, although most photographers will naturally work from left to right, so let’s assume you are starting with the left-hand end of the scene as you look at it.

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Switch your camera to Manual mode, and determine your aperture and shutter speed. These settings will be the ones you use for the entire sequence to ensure that the shutter speed or aperture doesn’t change between shots, so take care to meter accurately: use your camera’s spot meter and a gray card if you have to. Then take your first shot. Having made your first exposure, you now need to turn the camera so that you are photographing the next part of the scene. Don’t move it too far, as you need to ensure that you have a good overlap between each of the images in your sequence—allowing a 1/3 overlap between frames is sufficient. Take your second shot. Continue turning the camera, making sure to overlap, and making additional exposures until you reach the end of the scene. You should now have a series of images that cover the entire scene that are now ready to be stitched together.

HORIZONTAL SEQUENCE

VERTICAL SEQUENCE

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Both of these sequences would create a good panorama, with one major difference: the sequence opposite has been intentionally photographed in an upright or portrait format, rather than landscape. Though it means shooting more images, the resulting panorama will have a higher resolution, and so will produce larger and higher quality prints. Stitching The majority of image-editing programs have some form of panoramic stitching tool, which is essentially designed to convert the single images in your sequence into a seamless panoramic picture. The approach differs between programs, but the fundamental steps are basically the same: you select the images you want to use to create your panorama, and the software pieces them together in a single file, using the overlapping information in the individual pictures to align the frames.

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In Photoshop the individual images are placed on their own layer by the Photomerge tool, so should you need to fine-tune the position of one of the frames you can do this without having to start the whole stitching process again. This is useful if you have a large number of images in your sequence, as stitching is particularly demanding on your computer—especially if you are using a high-resolution camera—and the more files you have in your original sequence, the longer the stitching process will take.

Stitching is a largely straightforward process: you select the images that you want to use, and your image-editing program will do the rest.

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Gigapixel images As well as using your image-editing program’s stitching facility to create panoramic images, you can also use it to produce ultra-high-resolution—or gigapixel—images. The principle is simple: rather than shoot a single row of images to create a panorama, you shoot multiple rows, which will later be combined. Start by stitching each row together (into a panoramic image), and then stitch the rows together to build a more rectangular image. You need to be aware that this will place very heavy demands on your computer, as you will essentially be working with multiple image files at the same time: hence images often being described in gigapixels, rather than megapixels.

This summer landscape was created using a total of 39 images. If you did this with an 18-megapixel camera, the result would be an image of around 700 megapixels: not quite a gigapixel (1000 megapixels), but not far off.

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INFRARED

Infrared (IR) photography is something of a paradox, as it effectively produces black-and-white pictures using light that cannot be seen. Without getting overly scientific, the visible spectrum of light (light that you can see with your eyes) extends from violet at one end, through to red at the other. Beyond the red end of the spectrum lies infrared, which is invisible to the human eye, but close enough to the visible spectrum to be recorded by a camera that is suitably equipped. Previously, recording infrared images meant loading a camera with specialist infrared film, and using an opaque filter that blocked visible light, but allowed infrared wavelengths through. Focusing was a challenge, and there were numerous other practical considerations that further added to the difficulty, but it was not impossible. The results, when successful, would reveal an entirely different world, with trees and foliage glowing white, and blue skies turning pitch black. Similar results can be achieved using a digital camera, although the process is no less challenging, and still requires the use of an opaque filter over the lens. It isn’t helped by the fact that infrared light degrades ordinary images, so camera manufacturers fit IR-blocking filters in front of the sensor. Ironically, this means that the digital cameras that are best suited to landscape photography are often the worst for IR imaging—a digital SLR will have a high quality IR-blocking 125

filter, which makes it next to useless for IR photography unless it is modified, but an ultra-cheap digital point-and-shoot camera is likely to have a less sophisticated filter, meaning produces better IR results, although it will typically have dubious image quality to start with. So in-camera infrared—even in the digital age—remains something of a specialist pursuit. However, there is an alternative: post-capture IR.

A classic infrared image will turn foliage white and blue skies black, because of the amount of IR light they reflect. Thus, this is the perfect creative technique for cloudless summer days. DIGITAL SLR CONVERSION It is possible to have the IR-blocking filter on a digital SLR removed, allowing the camera to record fully the infrared wavelengths of light. However, this specialist process is not particularly cheap, and has several significant drawbacks: it is an irreversible process; the camera will only be able to take infrared images, not regular full-color photographs, and it will certainly invalidate your warranty.

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Post-capture IR The majority of image-editing programs that have a reasonably sophisticated black-and-white conversion tool are also likely to feature an infrared option: in Adobe Photoshop Elements, for example, Infrared Effect can be found nestling in the styles menu of the Convert to Black and White window. Choosing a preset option from a menu is certainly far more straightforward than trying to shoot in-camera IR images, and you also benefit from having an original color file that you might want to process differently later. This is not necessarily a one-click solution to IR, though, as it is fair to say that the results that these preset options give often fall short of a true infrared look. Common side-effects include foliage that is so white that all detail is lost, and skies that should show a deep black will often come out as a much softer shade of gray: it is close to looking like an infrared image, but not quite close enough to match the classic look of a film-based IR shot. This doesn’t mean that such options are a total loss, as there will often be some way in which you can fine-tune the outcome to produce a more striking look. In Elements, for example, you have three sliders in the Convert to Black and White window for changing the balance of the red, green, and blue channels separately, as well as a slider for fine-tuning the contrast. In the image shown here, it didn’t take long to improve Elements’ default Infrared Effect—moving the red slider right, and the green and blue sliders to the left was all it took to transform a would-be IR conversion into something more convincing.

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Almost all image-editing programs will allow you to convert a color image into a black-and-white infrared picture (right), often using the black-and-white conversion tools. However, you may find that you need to fine-tune the settings to get the best result (opposite).

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LENSBABY

Lensbabies have become so popular in recent years that they perhaps need little introduction, and some landscape purists would no doubt prefer that they have no introduction at all. Yet whether you love the effect that they can create, or hate it, there is no doubt they can add a distinctive look to your summer landscapes that can make an average shot more striking. As the name suggests, a Lensbaby is a lens unlike any other. The flexible design allows the front element of the lens to be turned, twisted, and tilted, manipulating what is known as a “sweet spot” of focus. This circular area of sharpness can be moved around the frame to isolate a particular area in the scene, while the aperture regulates the size of the focused circle (rather than affecting the depth of field): areas outside the sweet spot drift into a hazy, dream-like blur. A Lensbaby can really come into its own in summer, helping to combat those days when you are faced with an unrelenting sun, a vast blue sky, and an expanse of green. In these conditions, a regular lens will record the scene as it is, with the short, deep shadows flattening the landscape. However, a Lensbaby can change this—it won’t physically alter the scene or the lighting, but it will change the appearance of it, adding a little extra creative interest.

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MUSE

CONTROL FREAK

COMPOSER LENSBABY OPTIONS If you like the look that a Lensbaby gives, there are three options to consider, as shown opposite. The Muse is the simplest design, which is moved manually into position and held in place with your fingers while the exposure is made. This is great for handheld shooting, but for landscape (and long exposure) photography, the Control Freak is perhaps a better option, as the lens can be locked in position and you can fine-tune the lens movement. However, for the greatest flexibility, the Composer is undoubtedly the model to go for, as the lens is not only lockable, but the design means that it

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can be used readily for handheld shots as well: this is, however, the most expensive option.

The distinctive “sweet spot” created by a Lensbaby can be recreated digitally using selections and blur tools, but using the lens on your camera is a lot more fun!

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COLOR GRADS

Using colored graduated filters over the lens was a once-popular technique with film photographers looking not only to balance the exposure of their summer skies with the landscape (in a similar way to an ND grad), but to inject a little color into them at the same time. However, like many photographic trends, this is no longer a commonly used technique, and photographers who want to create colorful, but unrealistic skies see image-editing software as a simpler and reversible option. In some ways using lens-based filters can be beneficial. As noted above, a colored graduated filter can be used to balance exposure, as well as add color. It is worth bearing in mind that your choices will be limited, though, as there are not as many colors used to produce graduated filters as there are colors in your image-editing program’s palette. However, this can actually work to your advantage, as being limited to just a few colors (a tobacco-colored grad is an established favorite) means that you are less likely to overuse the technique. Given the millions of colors available in an image-editing program, it is quite easy to carried away with your experiments, and use colored grads for all of your shots, rather than a select few. If you want to add your graduated color digitally, then most editing programs will have a Gradient tool, which will allow you to apply a color-to-transparent gradient. Applying this to its own layer above your landscape image (rather than to the

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image itself), will allow you to fine-tune the effect—adjusting the color, increasing or reducing its intensity, or removing it. What a digital gradient can’t do, though, is reveal detail that isn’t there to start with—the initial exposure still needs to be considered carefully if you want to retain detail.

A colored graduated filter will never produce a realistic photograph of the landscape, but it doesn’t have to: creating or enhancing a mood can be just as effective.

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INTRODUCTION

What makes this season special? It’s a simple question that all landscape photographers should ask themselves, but in fall the answer is relatively straightforward: color. Although every season marks a change in the natural world, fall is perhaps the most visibly obvious, as the lush greens of summer give way to barren winter landscapes in a fanfare of color. As the leaves triumphantly die, fall is a brash season—in your face, and impossible to ignore. Even in the city there will be trees that burn brightly among their concrete, steel, and glass surroundings, leaving you with no doubt that summer has passed and winter’s bite approaches. And it all screams out to be photographed.

Yet at the same time, it’s important to realize that fall—like any season—is transitional. The intense reds, oranges, and golds may transform the landscape as deciduous trees prepare

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to shed their leaves, but this rarely happens overnight. As the change is gradual, fall photography shouldn’t just be considered a onetime exercise, but approached as a continual study: a series of images taken from the same viewpoint, maybe a week apart, can document this particularly well.

However, the turning leaves are just one aspect to the season, and color isn’t the sole reason why you should pick up your camera and head outdoors. As the temperature turns from warm to cold—perhaps in the space of just a few days—there is every possibility that your sorties into the landscape will be met by ever-changing weather. Early morning is a time when the conditions can vary wildly, with low-lying mist, thick fog, and frost all possible. Rain, too, is never that far away in more northerly U.S. and European regions and, while many of these conditions may make you think that staying indoors in the warm is the best option, don’t! Sure, rain and fog aren’t usually considered the ideal conditions for photography, and might hamper your efforts, particularly if you have a

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preconceived idea about what it is you want to achieve. But that doesn’t mean that they make it impossible to take pictures. Fall has something to offer photographers regardless of the weather conditions. If you can keep an open mind about the subjects you photograph—as well as an open creative eye for spotting their potential—you should return home with some stunning images.

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ESSENTIALS

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FALL CAMERA KIT

To make the most of your photography in fall, there are a number of items you should be sure to pack in your kit bag:

MACRO LENS Ideal for getting close to frost-encrusted leaves and fungi for frame-filling fall details.

TELEPHOTO ZOOM A fast zoom with a long focal length is perfect for compressing distant trees and accentuating their blaze of color. It’s also great for getting closer to wildlife.

TRIPOD A tripod that drops to ground level will help you capture low-level subjects or shoot from more interesting angles. It will also offer general stability for more distant landscapes.

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WHITE BALANCE DISC Fits over your lens to simplify setting a custom white balance for those perfect fall colors. Some manufacturers also offer a “warm white” option that is perfect for enhancing naturally warm colors. Picture courtesy of Expodisc.

WATERPROOF CAMERA CAPE Protects your camera from the damp if you’re shooting in mist and fog, and won’t let a rain shower send you packing. Camouflaged capes will also help break up your shape if you’re photographing wildlife, helping prevent you from startling your prey. Picture courtesy of Kata.

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POLARIZING FILTER For reducing reflections and enhancing color, see here.

NEUTRAL DENSITY FILTER For extending shutter speeds with watery subjects or using a wider aperture to pick out details, see here.

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FILTERS

Although lens-mounted filters have largely been superseded by their digital equivalents, there are two filters that should be considered essential kit-bag additions if you want to make the most of your landscape photography opportunities: a polarizer, and neutral density filters (plain or graduated). A slot-in filter system will provide the greatest versatility if you have several lenses with different filter ring diameters, as you can use the same filters on each of your lenses: you just need an appropriately sized adapter ring, rather than a full set of filters for each lens.

In the past, landscape photographers needed to arm themselves with a wide range of creative and technical filters, but these are largely unnecessary for digital photography.

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Care needs to be taken when using a polarizer on a wide-angle lens, as the polarization can result in an uneven sky.

POLARIZING FILTER TIPS Whether you use a screw-fit polarizer on the front of your lens, or attach it using a slot-in filter holder, the effect of a polarizing filter is controlled by rotating the filter, with the greatest polarizing effect achieved when the sun is at a 90-degree angle to the camera. If you’re using a full-frame camera, be aware that using a polarizing filter on a wide-angle lens can lead to vignetting due to deep profile of the filter’s rim. If your camera doesn’t have a full-frame sensor this isn’t going to be a problem, but if it does, you may want to think about investing in a slightly more expensive polarizer with a narrower profile. Polarizing filters reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor. Depending on the intensity of the polarization, this light loss could be anything up to 2-stops, so if you have any moving elements in your shot, keep an eye on the shutter speed to avoid them blurring.

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A polarizing filter has several uses, one of which is to intensify color—especially in blue skies. Polarizing filter Although a polarizing filter is a year-round landscape essential, it is all the more useful for photographing fall. In addition to its two most obvious properties— darkening skies and reducing reflections on water—a polarizer is also capable of delivering stronger colors. How? Well, the colors of fall leaves are naturally vibrant, but sometimes our eyes can overestimate just how intense that color is. On an overcast day the colors will appear to be richly saturated when they are set against a flat gray sky, but the actual intensity of the color can be diminished if they’re wet: the color may appear bold, but the light reflecting from the wet surface will have a desaturating effect. Fitting a polarizing filter and using it to

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reduce this reflected light will quickly bring the color back, and increase the intensity of your fall shots.

Polarizing filters can reduce reflections caused by water, which means they can help enhance the intensity of wet fall leaves.

TYPES OF POLARIZING FILTER There are three main types of polarizing filter available, but the right one to choose will be determined by your camera. Linear polarizer: The most effective type of polarizer (and the least expensive), a linear polarizer also creates problems with auto focus and through-the-lens metering systems, to the point that neither will work effectively. Only useful if you own a fully manual (film) camera. Circular polarizer: Polarizes the light in a different way to a linear polarizer, which retains the functionality of your camera’s AF and metering systems. More expensive, but the only option if you’re going to be using it on a digital SLR.

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Combined Polarizers: Some polarizing filters combine the polarizing effect with another effect, such as warming the image or adding neutral density. Singh-Ray’s Vari-N-Duo, for example, combines a variable-strength neutral density filter with a polarizer for added versatility in your shooting.

A polarizing filter reduces the amount of light entering the camera, so it can also be used to increase exposure times. This can be useful if you want to use a long exposure to blur water, for example. Neutral Density filters Neutral density, or ND filters, have long been used by landscape photographers to control the amount of light entering the camera, or balance the brightness of the land and the sky. Put simply, a plain ND filter has a semi-opaque coating that physically reduces the amount of light coming 146

through the lens by a fixed amount. Because the coating is neutral, the colors in a scene are unaffected (or should be), so the only impact the filter has is on the exposure. The strength of an ND filter is measured in stops—typically full stops from 1 to 3, or higher—which determines the effect it has on the exposure. Using a 2-stop ND filter, for example, the exposure increases by two stops. If you’re shooting in any mode other than Manual, your camera’s through-the-lens (TTL) exposure metering will automatically take the filter into account, either by increasing the shutter speed, or by opening the aperture. This makes it important to use an exposure mode that’s appropriate to the effect you want the filter to have: use Aperture Priority if you want the shutter speed to increase (to blur motion, for example), or Shutter Priority if you want the aperture to be affected (to get a shallower depth of field).

ND filters are available as both slot-in filters and screw-in types, and come in a variety of strengths. Typically, a 0.3 ND reduces the light entering the camera by one stop, a 0.6 ND reduces it by two stops, and a 0.9 ND by three stops. Stronger ND filters are also available.

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HOW NEUTRAL IS NEUTRAL? As there is a wide range of filter manufacturers and suppliers, it’s hardly surprising that prices for ND filters vary wildly, which reflects the fact that not all ND filters are created equal: some are less neutral than others. For color-critical photography with slide film, it is important to bear this in mind, because a filter that isn’t neutral (or very close to it) will introduce a permanent color cast into your images. This is slightly less of an issue if you’re using negative film, as color adjustments can be made at the printing stage, and with digital photography, color changes are far easier to implement, either by fine-tuning your white balance or correcting your images in an editing program. However, a higher quality, neutral ND filter will save you the hassle.

A classic use of an ND filter is to extend the exposure time for water, to transform it into a blur.

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Graduated ND filters As well as plain ND filters that affect the entire image, there are slot-in graduated ND filters (ND grads) that are used in a filter holder on the front of the lens to affect just part of the frame. These rectangular or square filters have a graduated neutral density coating that goes from full strength at one edge of the filter to clear at the opposite edge, with the “cut off” of the ND coating often at the center of the filter. As with plain ND filters, ND grads are available in a variety of strengths and their main use in landscape photography is to balance a bright sky with darker land. By positioning the filter so the sky is affected by the ND coating, and the land is clear, the difference in the relative brightness of these two areas can be equalized, allowing more sky detail to be retained at the time of capture.

A graduated ND filter is commonly used to balance a bright sky with a darker foreground. Holding the filter up to the scene shows a clear difference in the area of sky covered by the ND grad—there is more detail, and the highlights are less likely to burn out.

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Even when the sky isn’t obviously bright, a graduated ND filter can be used to heighten the drama. ND GRADS: SOFT OR HARD? Although the strength of the ND grad is one consideration, you will also have a choice of soft or hard. This refers to the transition from the clear part of the filter to the neutral density coating: a hard transition is more obviously defined, while a soft transition is more gradual. As a general rule, hard gradations are best used when the horizon is relatively even, such as when you’re shooting a seascape, while a soft transition will work better when you have elements of the scene that break the horizon line, such as hills or buildings, for example.

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SOFT ND GRAD

HARD ND GRAD

INSECT REPELLENT The often warm and wet conditions of early-to-mid fall are the ideal environment for biting insects, including mosquitoes. This makes insect repellent a worthwhile investment, especially if you intend to shoot in damp, wooded environments, or anywhere near water.

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CLOTHING

In the northern hemisphere, early fall can bear many similarities to summer, as long, warm (or even hot) days continue to remind us of the sun’s presence. At the end of fall, winter beckons, with plummeting temperatures, frosty mornings, and fewer daylight hours. Between these extremes, the weather can fluctuate: warm one day, cool and overcast the next, with rain always a possibility. With such disparate conditions, and the weather potentially changing on an hourly, as well as daily basis, you need to be prepared for these changes—there’s nothing worse than having to abandon your shoot and head home just because a heavy rain shower passes through. With this in mind, waterproof footwear is a must, and a lightweight waterproof jacket will ensure you have the option of staying dry if the weather turns, but without the bulk of a heavy coat. A jacket that can be stuffed into a pocket of your camera bag is ideal, and a camouflaged pattern (or at least a neutral, earthy color) is preferable to a bold, primary-colored jacket. This is simply because wildlife can be quite active during fall, and if you blend in with your surroundings this will improve your chances of getting close and including the wildlife in your landscape compositions. A military surplus store is a great place to find the sort of thing you’re looking for.

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LIGHT & WEATHER

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SUNRISE & SUNSET

Sunrise and sunset are rightly known as the magic hours, with often-warm light and, at the start of the day, clear, pollution-free air that means greater visibility for your landscape photography. Perhaps more than any other season, the colors of fall respond best to shooting early or late in the day. We’re not talking about the spectacular color of the sky at sunrise or sunset, or the long shadows at either end of the day that lend a landscape a greater three-dimensional appearance; instead, it is all about the warmth of the light—a warmth that naturally enhances the colors of the season. Of course, you can inject a little extra color into your shots using your image-editing software, so you might say that shooting at sunrise or sunset is unnecessary, but why spend time on your computer when nature is more than willing to do the job for you? The ends of the day are the warmest of all in terms of color temperature, and it’s this warmth that you want to exploit in your landscape shots. As with any digital photography, this means getting the white balance right, and asking your camera to automatically set the color temperature for you is a lazy answer—you need to take control for yourself. Under a clear sky or on a cloudy morning, this requires nothing more than switching your camera’s white balance from auto to the appropriate preset to get the “correct” colors and retain the richness of your sunrise or sunset. But there are ways that you can go further still in the pursuit of accuracy, or perhaps to inject a little more warmth into your shots. 154

Early-morning mist and the warm colors of a sunrise can combine to create a magical atmosphere for your landscape photographs.

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Set to Auto, your camera’s white balance will attempt to neutralize any color bias, potentially removing the atmospheric warmth of dawn and dusk (above). Instead, use the daylight preset or set a custom white balance to retain the color, or even to enhance it. Custom white balance For the most accurate results, a custom white-balance can’t be beaten. This is usually achieved by photographing a white or gray card under the same lighting conditions as your subject and telling the camera to use this as a reference for the white balance, but you can also use a white balance accessory that clips to the front of your lens in a similar fashion to a lens cap. The result will be the same, but a lens-based option will take up less space in your kit bag, as some double as a lens cap. SHOOTING RAW The exception to getting the white balance right at the time of capture is if you shoot Raw images. The reason for this is because the white balance setting isn’t embedded in the file, so you’re free to alter it when you convert your Raw image into a TIFF or JPEG.

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Warm white As well as neutral white balance discs, some manufacturers produce slightly warmer versions. These are often marketed for portraits as they produce a custom white-balance setting with a warm bias that is good for adding a healthy glow to skin tones, but they can also be useful for landscapes where you want to exaggerate your fall colors. An alternative (and cheaper) solution is to set the wrong white balance. For example, using a cloudy or shade preset on a sunny day will add a little more warmth to the shot, or your camera may allow you to manually adjust the color temperature. This won’t be enough to make the picture look wrong, but it can enhance the already warm hues of dusk and dawn. Side-lighting The low angle of the sun at dusk and dawn often casts elongated shadows across the wider landscape, which is vital if you want to create a sense of three-dimensionality in your images, and the best time for creating exciting landscape photographs. As well as increasing the length of the shadows, the sunlight has to travel a much greater distance through the earth’s atmosphere at either end of the day, which means that it is more heavily diffused by particles in the atmosphere (including pollution) than when the sun is overhead. As a result, the shadows that are cast are far less intense than they would be if the sun were higher in the sky, which means the contrast range can often fit within your camera sensor’s

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dynamic range—assuming you aren’t including the sun in your shot, of course.

In this example, the light is coming from the right, and slightly toward the camera. As the sun is low in the sky, shadows are quite long, helping to define the contours of the landscape. As well as allowing you to produce great images of a sweeping vista, side-lighting also works well on a more localized scale, throwing dramatic shafts of lights through woodland, for example, or adding definition to smaller subjects such as mushrooms and toadstools.

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Side-lighting works equally well for the closer landscape, as well as distant views. Here, for example, the shadows from the tree trunks add another level of interest as our eye travels toward the light. Silhouettes With the sun low in the sky, sunrise and sunset are also ideal times to think about shooting silhouettes. The most obvious example in fall is toward the end of the season when the trees are bare, using the black of the tree to provide interest and seasonal context to a picture that is otherwise all about the color of the sky. This means you need to position yourself carefully so your subject is against the bright sky, which can sometimes mean including the sun in the frame. If you do have the sun in shot, then composing the photograph so the sun is behind the tree’s trunk will avoid a hot spot in the image, and potentially add a dramatic halo of light. Alternatively, compose your shot so you’re shooting toward the light, but with the sun just out of frame, remembering to

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shield your lens with a lens hood or your hand to minimize the risk of flare.

A classic fall silhouette that sets the solid black branches of the tree against a fiery sunset.

Less obvious, but very dramatic silhouettes can be created as the early-morning sun floods a dark forest interior, especially if there is a light mist also. When it comes to gauging the exposure, this needs to be based on the sky and not influenced by the dark, silhouetted tree. So, rather than use your camera’s multizone metering pattern, switch to centerweighted metering and take an exposure reading from the sky itself. Reframe the shot to include your subject, and set the aperture and shutter speed manually to ensure that the sky is correctly exposed and the subject is dark in the frame. If not, assess the histogram to see where you’ve gone wrong (see here, Winter), adjust your camera settings, and shoot again.

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The key to exposing for a backlit silhouette is to take a spotmeter reading from the bright sky, rather than the darker foreground. Flare Whenever you’re shooting with the sun in the frame (or close to the edge of the frame), there is always a risk of introducing flare into your shots. Flare is caused by non image-forming light that is reflected by and from the glass elements in your lens, and there are two possible consequences: a series of colored shapes or artifacts appearing to emanate from the light source across the frame, or a simple reduction in contrast across the entire frame.

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Flare can occur whenever you aim your camera in the general direction of the sun. Here, the non image-forming light has reduced the contrast of the scene dramatically, although this adds to the atmosphere.

The series of colored artifacts emanating from the sun is a classic example of lens flare, and one that is hard to avoid if the sun is in shot. To prevent this, always ensure that you have the correct lens hood fitted to your lens, or at the very least, shade the front of the lens from the sun using your hand, a piece of card, or indeed anything else that can be used as an impromptu shade. Hiding the sun behind the subject you are photographing can also help reduce the effects of flare, but don’t forget that flare can also be used to enhance the atmosphere in a shot—if you 162

have the option, take photographs both with and without flare so you have a choice.

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FROST

The sure sign that fall is with us and winter is on its way is the arrival of frost, caused when moisture in the air freezes on contact with a cold surface. Frost is closely associated with early-morning photography, especially after a cloudless night has allowed the heat from the previous day to dissipate, leaving the ground hard and frozen. From a photographic standpoint, frost changes the mood of a landscape considerably, giving it anything from a light white dusting to a heavier, snow-like appearance. As the frost reflects more light, your in-camera meter may err on the side of underexposure if left to its own devices, so keep an eye on the histogram and be prepared to increase the exposure: applying +½–1 stop of exposure compensation is usually sufficient.

Frost can transform the look of a landscape, but in lightening the land it can occasionally fool a camera’s exposure meter in a similar, but less extreme, way to snow.

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Types of frost There are a number of specific types of frost, each of which has its own unique causes and characteristics: • Hoar frost: Hoar frost forms when water vapor comes into contact with cold surfaces such as plants and soil, and freezes on them instantly. This is the most common type of fall frost. • Window frost: Window frost occurs when water droplets freeze on glass that is exposed to cold air on one side, and moist air on the other. This often creates a pattern similar to the leaves of a fern (it is also known as “fern frost”), which can make a great close-up study. • Rime frost: In extreme weather, icy winds blowing across already-wet surfaces can result in rime frost. Forming far quicker than other frosts, it is not common in fall unless conditions are exceptionally cold.

FROSTED DETAILS Although frost has the ability to transform the wider landscape, don’t forget to look for smaller details: heavily frosted leaves on the ground, or backlit fern frost on a window, for example. Although slightly removed from

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landscape photography, these detail shots shouldn’t be overlooked, so as well as your regular landscape kit consider packing a macro lens for your morning photographic excursions.

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MIST & FOG

As well as the risk of encountering heavy frosts in fall, the start of the day can often bring mist and fog, especially in low-lying areas close to water. Like frost, the cause of mist and fog is due to the temperature and the level of moisture in the air: when the air temperature drops to a point that it can’t hold water as a vapor (known as the “dew point”), that water becomes liquid and creates what is effectively a cloud. This can happen at ground level, often creating a low-lying mist over fields, around rivers, lakes, or the sea, which commonly results in thicker fog, and is particularly noticeable in valleys as the moisture in the air sinks down. For photographers, mist and fog can be a help or a hindrance, depending on what it is you are looking to achieve and where you are photographing from. If you’re shooting from a high vantage point, looking down over mist-shrouded valleys below, for example, then pockets of fog can add an extra layer of interest to the image that may be welcome. Similarly, shooting a distant range of hills or mountains that are partially concealed by mist can strip these geographical features to their basic shape, concealing unwanted detail and leaving a stark, graphic impression of the outline of the landscape.

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A light mist can add a hazy mystery to distant landscapes, especially around water.

Damp woodland is prone to early-morning mist, and with the addition of strong, directional sunlight this could be the perfect recipe for magical images. However, move to ground level and mist and fog may not be quite so welcome. While a low-lying mist may help add a sense of mystery to a dawn landscape, a thick fog can easily obscure everything in front of you, reducing visibility to the point that photography is almost impossible. But note that I say almost impossible—no matter how thick the fog, you will always be able to see something. Sure, you might not be able to photograph a sweeping vista, but there are details in the landscape that can be photographed instead: a stone wall that retreats and fades into the fog, for example, or semi-distant trees that have been reduced to a low-contrast near-silhouette by the damp in the air. The first thing to realize is that you will need to get closer to your subject to ensure that it can be read in the final picture: the actual distance will be determined largely by the density of the mist or fog. Even when you get close, the landscape may still be reduced down to a minimal, ethereal world of looming, indistinct shapes, so look at it as an exercise in

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creating mood rather than recording detail. With this in mind, pay careful attention to the focal length you use: a longer focal length will allow you to stand further back from your subject, increasing the diffusion caused by the mist, while getting closer with a wide-angle focal length will help keep things slightly more distinct. In both instances, subjects that have a readily identifiable shape work better than those that rely on detail to tell the viewer what they are—a bare tree is more easily interpreted in mist than a bushy shrub, for example—and also consider working in monochrome. With its ability to effectively desaturate the landscape and leave it near gray, mist and fog are natural candidates for a black-and-white treatment, or the wrong white balance for creative effect.

Unlike mist, a thick fog can reduce the visibility to almost zero. However, even in challenging conditions it is still possible to create striking photographs. MIST AND FOG: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? Although mist and fog are both caused by moisture in the air, there is a distinction between them, with fog being the thicker of the two. The basic rule is that if the visibility is less than 1 kilometer (approximately 1100 yards) then you’re in fog, but if you can see further than that, it’s mist.

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Mist (above) and fog. The difference is in the density. EXPOSURE TIMES The water droplets that form the basis of mist and fog heavily diffuse the light above them, meaning that any subject you photograph in these conditions will be weakly lit. At the same time, the individual droplets do a great job of reflecting light and, as when photographing a heavy frost or snow, this can mean that your camera’s exposure metering system may be fooled into underexposure. To see if that’s the case, assess your camera’s histogram after you’ve taken your shot, and apply positive exposure compensation (if necessary) before retaking the shot.

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OVERCAST & WET

When fall isn’t delivering brilliant sunrises and balmy days, there’s every possibility that it will be providing you with rain, or at least heavy gray skies. This is never great weather for photography, but it doesn’t mean you have to abandon your camera altogether. As you’ll see on the following pages, just because it’s overcast or wet outdoors, that doesn’t mean that you can’t take some excellent photographs—you just need to change your expectations and seek out the most appropriate subjects.

Changeable weather conditions can create dramatic skies, which can be emphasized even further with a graduated ND filter.

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Contrast Perhaps the most disappointing element of photography in overcast conditions is the flat light created by the thick clouds diffusing the sunlight above. The shadows that are vital for creating the impression of three dimensions in your photographs are often non-existent, leading to low-contrast and generally dull and lifeless images. However, although the contrast is flattened in terms of brightness, when it comes to color this isn’t necessarily the case: in fact, color contrast can be heightened as the warm fall colors are offset against drab surroundings, with the potential to create a stronger mood. With this in mind, think about looking for patches of color that contrast strongly with their surroundings, be it a bank of distant trees whose leaves are ablaze with golden hues, or smaller details such as an individual fiery leaf set against a heavy gray sky—both have the potential to give you a striking shot on an otherwise mediocre day.

Some subjects, such as this mill, can actually benefit from being photographed on an overcast day when the contrast is lower. Harsh shadows could easily detract from, or obscure, the fine detail.

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To increase the impact of your photographs, it’s worth remembering that even if the colors appear lifeless at the time of shooting, you can boost the color contrast further by increasing the saturation in-camera or in your Raw conversion or image-editing software. Regardless of when you do this, it’s unlikely to affect the gray of the sky, or other desaturated colors, but may help give your fall foliage a little more punch. The same goes for the contrast, which can also be boosted through careful use of your camera or software, but if you want to be successful with either of these changes, you need to be sure that the colors are correct to start with. Increasing the saturation or contrast will only amplify the colors that are already there, and if the white balance isn’t set precisely, your adjustments will only make this more obvious. A custom white balance is again the best solution, although setting your camera to its cloudy setting will provide you with a good starting point.

When the sky is flat and gray, a simple solution is to exclude it from your fall landscapes, perhaps using a telephoto lens to fill the frame with color.

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WET-WEATHER DETAILS The warm, damp weather that typifies fall is the perfect time for mushrooms and toadstools to grow, so don’t just look for distant landscapes: get down low and look for fungi amongst the fallen leaves. As well as making an interesting subject in its own right (especially some of the more colorful specimens), fungus can also provide foreground interest in a broader landscape, especially if you use a wide-angle lens and a small aperture to maximize the depth of field.

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As both of these shots demonstrate, picking out a small patch of color in a predominantly gray, rain-swept environment can lift an otherwise uninspiring and drab image. .

Rain When overcast skies turn to rain, landscape photography becomes a pretty uninspiring prospect, and rightly so—your camera can get wet, you can get wet, and the visibility (not to mention contrast) can decrease rapidly. Yet before the rain reaches you, the sky can be at its most dramatic. As thick, dark rainclouds roll in, they may be interspersed by shafts of light or fingers of God breaking through and beaming out across the landscape, or there might be a rainbow in the distance as the rain has already started falling further away. The same applies immediately after rain, as the clouds begin to break, so just because rain is predicted, don’t let that prevent you from heading out with your camera, and don’t let what could be a passing shower make you head for home.

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Unless you’re sure the rain will stay, be prepared to sit it out and take advantage of the unique effect it has on the landscape. CAMERA PROTECTION When it’s raining, the last thing you want is to get wet, and it’s the same for your camera—water and electronics just don’t mix. A specialist rain cape for your camera is the ultimate wet-weather solution, covering your camera entirely to protect it from the elements, while providing you with a clear port at the front to shoot through, and easy access to your various controls. If you anticipate photographing wildlife, then a cape with a camouflage pattern will also break up your outline and help you photograph animals unnoticed.

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EXPLOITING COLOR

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CONTRAST

Fall is a season that is full of contrasts. Whether it’s the conflicting weather as warm summer-like days become interspersed with the first chill bites of winter, or the juxtaposition of evergreen and deciduous trees as one retains its thick green foliage and the other is transformed into fiery hues, contrast can separate great fall photographs from lesser ones. Perhaps the most powerful is the contrast of color. As anyone with a passing knowledge of color theory will appreciate, hues that oppose each other on the color wheel are complementary, so red is complemented by green, and orange by blue, meaning these particular color combinations work very well together. Conveniently, when it comes to taking photographs in fall these are the exact juxtapositions of color that appear naturally in the world around us, as warm orange-red leaves are offset against evergreen trees, still-lush grass, and blue skies. So, rather than fill the viewfinder purely with the hot colors of fall, look for color contrast, whether it’s a close-up of a golden leaf against a blue sky, or a rogue orange-leaved tree in a forest of evergreens.

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You don’t need an in-depth knowledge of color theory to exploit contrast in fall: the warm oranges and reds that typify the colors of fall foliage sit opposite the cooler blues and greens of grass and the sky. These naturally complement each other and heighten color contrast.

Putting theory into practice: complementary colors form naturally striking color combinations. These are found widely in the natural world during fall, both as close-up details and in the broader landscape.

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Alternative contrasts Although the contrasting colors of fall are perhaps the most obvious and attractive elements to look out for in your fall photography, it only tells part of the story of the season and certainly isn’t the sole reason why you should set up your tripod and take the lenscap off your camera. Toward the end of the season, when the majority—if not all—of the golden leaves on deciduous trees have fallen, there is a new contrast: the contrast of bare trees against still-green fields, or a lone evergreen that stubbornly refuses to shed its foliage, no matter what time of year it is.

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Contrast doesn’t just have to rely on complementary colors. In these examples, contrast also comes from differences in form: the rigid trunks and branches compared to the random patterns of the leaves. This is the time to seek out specific tree species, such as the Paper Birch (also known as the White Birch) or the European Silver Birch, whose light-colored trunks will stand out starkly from the landscape. Grouped together, and photographed through a telephoto lens, the bright pillars created by the trunks can be isolated against a single-color background, creating stark, graphic photographs that contrast light and dark, rather than color. They look great in black and white, too. There are other less obvious contrasts in fall, such as the contrast between the regular furrows of a freshly ploughed (brown) field lined by the apparently chaotic entanglement of a forest’s boughs and branches, or perhaps nothing more than a field that has yet to be prepared for the new season—the simple contrast of a smooth, green field and a textured, earthy one seen through a telephoto lens can create a natural, calming abstract that still says much about fall.

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ABSTRACT COLOR

The complementary colors of fall are perfect for creating beautiful abstract images, where color, rather than an identifiable subject, becomes the main component of the shot. Whether you use a slow shutter speed to blur leaves as they move in a strong breeze against a deep blue sky (perhaps using a polarizing filter to enrich the colors even further), look to pick out color details, or even pan or rotate the camera during a long exposure, the impressionistic results you can achieve can create an equally compelling celebration of the season as a static shot. Long exposures On a windy day, using a slow shutter speed can transform the waving boughs of trees into a blur of color that stands out starkly from the static world around it. You will need to have your camera tripod-mounted for this (to avoid camera shake), but the process is straightforward. Start by setting the lowest ISO setting on your camera (such as ISO 100) and switch your camera to Aperture Priority. Set the smallest possible aperture (f/22, for example), and the combination of a low ISO and small aperture will naturally make the camera select the slowest possible shutter speed to maintain the exposure. If this is slower than ½ sec, then you are fairly certain to see movement in the leaves during the exposure, resulting in a gentle blur. If the shutter speed is faster than this, or you’re working in a light breeze, consider fitting a neutral density

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filter or a polarizing filter to your lens to extend the exposure time.

It is hard (but not impossible) to tell what the subject is in this abstract photograph, but it’s the broad bands of color that are important here, not what is being shot. Water Moving water is a popular subject for landscape photography, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that there’s a lot of debate about how it should be done. On one side are people who insist that water should be frozen, so every drop can be identified in the image, while on the other side there are those who argue that as water is a fluid, ever-changing entity it should be recorded as a silky blur. Searching the Internet, you will discover proponents from both sides who are so zealous in their belief, that they will only accept there is one right way to photograph water. This is nonsense— photographing water is no different 183

to shooting any other landscape subject, so personal preference is all that matters.

Although taken on an overcast day, the color of the fallen leaves is still strong, making them the perfect counterpoint to this watery shot. The result you get is determined by one thing—the shutter speed. Shutter Priority is the ideal mode to shoot in as you can set the duration of the exposure for the result you are looking for: a fast shutter speed will freeze water, while a slow shutter speed will emphasize its movement. Don’t worry about the middle ground when it comes to the shutter speed. Instead, look to the extremes, choosing ultra-fast or ultra-slow exposure times for maximum effect—1/500 sec or faster if you want every droplet to be pin-sharp, or 1 second or more for a dreamy blur. If you need to, shoot with a wider aperture and a higher ISO to increase the shutter speed, or drop the ISO right down and use your lens’s smallest aperture setting for maximum blur. Adding a polarizing filter or a neutral-density filter will increase your exposure times further, but don’t forget to use a tripod—water blurred through the creative use of shutter speed is very different to a water shot blurred due to camera shake!

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Photographed with an ultra-slow shutter speed, the fast-moving water has been transformed into a mist-like blur. The red leaves mean there is little doubt as to the season, while the vibrant red hue contrasts with the cool (blue) surroundings. Reflections While moving water can be treated in a variety of ways to create uniquely different images—even from the same vantage point—still water is not quite so dynamic. However, what it does have that water in motion does not, is a far greater capacity to act as a mirror, reflecting the land around it. Lakes, ponds, and even puddles have the potential to

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reflect the colors of fall, and this can be achieved in numerous ways. The simplest option is to show the water in context, revealing the land around it so the viewer knows precisely what they are looking at: a body of water within the landscape that happens to be reflecting the fall colors. However, far more interesting results can be achieved when you can exclude the surrounding landscape and focus solely on photographing the reflections in the water. Without the context of the land, the viewer will have to work a little harder to read the image, which can mean longer spent studying a photograph, and greater reward when it is realized precisely what the image is of.

Cropping the original photograph so just the reflection remains, and then flipping the picture quickly creates a slightly distorted, abstract fall image.

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A classic treatment might be to photograph the reflection of fiery trees by the shore, and then invert the image so the upside-down reflection appears the right way up in the final print. In essence what you are creating is a visual illusion, where what appears at a glance to be a straight landscape view reveals distortion-producing ripples. Be sure to focus on the reflection, and not the surface of the water: reflections can easily confuse even the most sophisticated auto-focus systems, so you may need to switch to manual focus.

These reflected images include the colors of fall to give them a seasonal context without the obvious inclusion of any trees in the frame. Panning, tilting & rotating Panning and rotating techniques are similar to using a long exposure, in that you want to start with a low ISO and small aperture setting to achieve a slow shutter speed—possibly by using filters over the lens as outlined previously. However, rather than keeping your camera still during the exposure, you 187

will be moving it, so it isn’t the movement of your subject that creates the blur, but the movement of your camera. The easiest place to start is panning or tilting. Mount your camera on a tripod, but make sure that your tripod head is freed so that you can move the camera in one direction: either vertically to tilt it, or horizontally to pan across the frame. As a guide, panning works best when the colors of your subject are themselves in horizontal bands (panning across golden trees edging a green field, for example), while tilting is most effective with naturally vertical subjects (such as tilting upward along tree trunks). Regardless of the direction of movement you choose, trigger the shutter to start your exposure and then physically turn (or tilt) the camera body for the duration of the exposure. The result should be a blur of expressive fall color, although there will be a certain amount of trial and error involved in trying to get the speed of the camera movement to match the exposure time for the optimum result. Alternatively, why not remove your camera from the tripod and, with a long exposure set, rotate it for a whirlpool-style result? Or simply move the camera around in a random fashion to blend your colors? You may well end up with nothing more than a muddy mess, but you could just as easily end up with an abstract masterpiece that celebrates the rich colors of fall!

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Panning your camera during a long exposure can create bands of rich fall colors against a green field for a compelling celebration of the season. Rotating the camera can create similarly exciting, abstract results. Software-based abstracts Fall abstracts don’t just need to be conceived at the time of capture—image-editing programs can also be used to creatively treat straight shots. The tools to experiment with are motion-blur filters (to emulate panning and tilting) and radial blurs (for rotated abstracts). You can also attempt to recreate long exposures by selectively blurring parts of the image—the options are endless. The advantage of working in this way is that you can see the effect in an instant.

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Everything is also reversible, so if you don’t like the result you get from a particular filter you can simply remove it and try again until you get a result that you are pleased with.

Photoshop’s Motion Blur filter was applied to this image with the Angle set to 90 degrees (vertical) and the Distance set to 250 pixels to create the abstract panorama shown above.

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INTRODUCTION

Snow. It’s common in some places, less predictable in others, and perhaps unheard of in some countries, but regardless of where you live, it is somehow intrinsically embedded in our collective psyche as a sure sign that winter is upon us. If you don’t believe me, simply type “winter” into your internet search engine and take a look at the pictures associated with it—almost all of them will contain a snowy element. It is perhaps because snow can be both infrequent and short-lived in many places that it is so exciting to photographers. Yet this also makes it more challenging than photographing in more clement conditions: if you’re not used to taking pictures of something on a regular basis, you can’t practice and improve. In the case of snow, its often temporary nature may mean that you don’t get another opportunity to exploit snowy conditions for a year, maybe more, so getting it right when it happens becomes all the more important. With that in mind, the main impetus of this book is about making the most—photographically speaking—of this most wintry of events.

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Of course, this isn’t to say that snow is the only subject worth photographing during the final season of the year. The onset of winter is often heralded by frosts that settle overnight and are gone shortly after sunrise. Ranging from a light dusting through to thick, snow-like coverings, early-risers have the opportunity to witness and embrace winter’s dawn through their lens at a time when the landscape is powdered with white, rather than obscured by it.

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At the same time, when the cold night air meets the warm air of daybreak there is an increased possibility of encountering the splendor of early morning mist and fog as the first fingers of sunlight inch across the frozen landscape, turning frost into vapor as it gradually melts away. In both scenarios—frost and mist—the key is to rise early and get out with your camera. Even though the temperature may be below freezing outside and a few minutes more in bed would be welcome, this isn’t the time for lethargy; it’s a time to embrace one of the most photogenic seasons of the year.

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ESSENTIALS

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COLD CONSIDERATIONS

Landscape photography in winter requires a different mind-set to photographing at other times of the year, with no small amount of dedication needed to drag yourself out of the warm and into the potentially freezing temperatures outside. In the cold, everything takes longer, from simply preparing to step outside, through to getting around once you’re out there: if there’s snow and ice on the ground everything from walking to driving can become a challenge. This means that you not only need to be 100 percent committed to the undertaking, but you also need to be ready for most eventualities—if something goes wrong, or you forget to take something with you, there’s no going back. At least, not in any hurry. With this in mind, if you’re planning a pre-dawn journey to capture a potentially stunning sunrise, preparing your kit the night before is definitely the way to go. Rather than fumbling around half-asleep in the morning, make a checklist of your winter photography essentials and get everything together before you go to bed. Check and double-check that you have packed everything you need, so all you have to do in the morning is grab your bag(s) and head out. SAFETY FIRST If you intend photographing in a remote area, or one that is not readily accessible, be sure to tell someone where you are

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going, and what time you plan to be back. It may sound unnecessary, but if something happens to you the alarm can be raised sooner, rather than later.

Batteries Regardless of whether they use alkaline or lithium technology, batteries don’t like the cold, which means the number of shots you can take using a fully charged cell will be reduced dramatically. But there are ways of making sure you don’t have to end your shoot prematurely: • Though carrying spare batteries should be something you do all year, consider two or more spares in cold conditions. • Keep your spare batteries warm so they maintain their charge a little longer, ideally by putting them in your pockets, rather than your camera bag, and under as many layers as possible. • Store discharged batteries in your pockets: an apparently dead battery can often be revived when it’s warm, allowing you to take a few more shots with it later.

Condensation Condensation plagues winter photography, and given that it is effectively water (and cameras and water don’t mix well) it needs to be given a certain amount of thought. • If your camera is in its bag before you go indoors, it will be a little warmer than if it was swinging on its

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strap around your neck. This will reduce the amount of condensation that forms, so before you go indoors, make sure your camera has had time to warm up a little first. • When you take your camera out of the bag, you’ll likely have a thin film of condensation on the front of the lens, and on the camera body. Do not wipe it off! This can make the condensation puddle and force it into your lens or camera body where it can cause more harm. Just let it evaporate in its own time.

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ESSENTIAL KIT

The camera gear you choose to take with you will largely be determined by the type of landscapes you intend to capture, but if there’s one winter rule that operates regardless of your personal style, it’s to take only what you need with you out in the field. This is especially true if you’re planning to hike or trek across snow-covered hills to your location: a flask of hot coffee or tea will be a lot more useful to you than an extra lens or a spare camera body.

CAMERA AND LENS If you’re using a DSLR camera, then a camera body and two zoom lenses is all you need; a wide zoom for sweeping vistas and a telephoto zoom for picking out details at a distance.

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BACKPACK Carrying your camera in a backpack will keep your hands free when you’re trekking, enabling you to better keep your balance on icy terrain. Look for a bag with tripod straps so that can be taken out of your hands as well.

TIP: WINTER TRIPOD If you use an aluminum tripod, get it ready for winter by wrapping pipe insulation or cloth tape around the thickest leg tubes. This isn’t to protect the tripod, but to cover the cold metal so you don’t have to handle it when you’re setting up your shots. If you use pipe insulation it will also make your tripod more comfortable to carry if you’re going to be resting it over your shoulder.

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TRIPOD Essential for all landscape photography—winter is no exception.

MONOPOD It’s not quite essential, but a monopod is quicker and easier to set up than a tripod for fleeting shots of winter wildlife. It can also be used as an alternative to a walking pole, and for checking the thickness of ice before you step on it.

SPARE BATTERIES These should be in your camera bag year-round, but in winter you may want to take more. Keep them in your pockets, under your outer clothing to prevent the cold from sapping their power before they’re used.

POLARIZING FILTER Perfect for intensifying blue skies on crisp wintry days, and for reducing reflections on ice and snow, as well as water.

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LENS HOODS With the winter sun low in the sky, shading your lens from flare on a bright day is vital. Take hoods for each of the lenses you will be using or use your hand to shade the front of the lens when you shoot.

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HANDHELD LIGHTMETER As we’ll see in the next chapter, snow can make metering your winter landscapes a challenge; a handheld meter will simplify the process.

CELL PHONE Fully charged in case of emergencies.

GPS When the world is blanketed by snow, familiar landmarks and trails can become indistinct, so for remote trekking a handheld GPS will prevent you from losing your way.

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DRESSING FOR THE OCCASION

Although your camera equipment is important for taking great pictures in winter, the gear you personally need is essential; if you’re in a remote location with cold, wet feet, and you’re shivering so violently that you can’t change your camera settings, you may as well have stayed at home. Worse than that, you could be in very real danger of hypothermia, so do not underestimate cold weather. There are two things you need to combat: wet and cold. Whether it’s snow, rain, or ice on the ground, your first priority is to ensure you stay dry, because as soon as the damp gets in, the cold won’t be far behind. Waterproof footwear is vital, so waterproof hiking boots should be high on your shopping list, followed closely by an outer jacket and trousers that are both water- and wind-resistant. Even if you aren’t planning on venturing far, the journey will be far more comfortable. Protected from the wet, you also need to keep yourself warm, and layered clothing is best for keeping the heat in. Most camping and outdoor supply stores will have the necessary items to keep you warm, and don’t forget a hat that can cover your ears: outdoors in cold weather it’s an absolute necessity. Gloves will help protect your extremities in the cold, and two pairs are better than one—a thin pair of inner gloves that allow you to operate your camera and change settings without exposing your hands, and a thick pair of waterproof outer

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gloves or mittens to keep your fingers warm and dry while you wait for the light to change.

ESSENTIALS

BOOTS If you’re trekking through snow, your footwear needs to be waterproof and insulated, and boots that have been designed specifically for hiking are the best option.

HAT It’s debatable precisely how much heat is lost through your head, but one thing is certain: wear a hat and you will reduce the amount of heat-loss.

WATERPROOF COAT AND JACKET As well as hiking stores, you can get suitable trousers and jackets from ski/snowboard, hunting and fishing, and yachting suppliers. Make sure you get a jacket that is large enough to allow for plenty of layers underneath.

GLOVES A thin pair of gloves worn inside thick outer gloves or mittens means you can switch between being able to adjust your

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camera setting and maximum warmth without exposing your digits to the elements.

SUNGLASSES Even on a relatively overcast day snow can reflect a lot of light, so pack your sunglasses to protect your eyes from the incessant glare.

LIP BALM/SUN-BLOCK Prevent your lips from cracking in the cold and protect your face from sunburn—it may be winter, but snow will reflect the UV rays on sunny days.

CHEMICAL HAND WARMERS These are perfect for slipping inside your gloves or pockets if the temperature plummets or you find yourself waiting for the light to change.

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EXPOSURE

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EXPOSURE ISSUES

Snow is such an exciting aspect of photographing in winter that it deserves a chapter of its own. It is exciting because for many of us it’s something that happens relatively infrequently, making it naturally special when it does occur. Yet as exciting as snow is, it is incredibly challenging, and can play havoc with your in-camera exposure metering, no matter how sophisticated it is. The main problem is that a camera’s exposure meter is calibrated to 18% gray— a measurement that it considers will be the overall average tonality of every single scene you photograph. While there may be deep shadows and sparkling highlights, the camera is programmed to work on the basis that these will cancel each other out, so if the tones in the scene were averaged out, the result would be a midtone. It uses this as the basis for your exposures no matter which metering pattern you use. Because of this, when your camera is faced with a predominantly dark scene, or an overly bright one (such as a snowy landscape), it will attempt to make them fall in line with its midtone programming— lightening a dark scene or darkening a bright scene so it complies to the average, midtone result. For this reason, if your camera is left to its own devices it will record bright snow scenes that look dull and gray. This isn’t a problem with your camera, it is simply the way it has been programmed to work in a consistent way.

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The fact that it does this is actually a good thing, as it means you can preempt the camera and take preventative measures.

A camera’s lightmeter is programmed to assume that every scene it is aimed at will average out as a midtone. With snowscapes, this isn’t necessarily the case, making an underexposed result likely, unless you take steps to avoid it.

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READING THE HISTOGRAM

The most accurate way of making sure that your snow-filled scene is exposed correctly is to check your camera’s histogram. There’s no point relying on the rear LCD screen to guide you, as these are easily influenced by the lighting conditions you are viewing them under; on a bright day the preview image will look darker than it might actually be, while in low-light conditions the image will appear much brighter. Instead, you need to call up your camera’s histogram. This is essentially a graph that displays the distribution of tones across the image, from pure black at the left end of the scale, through to pure white at the right end. The various peaks of the histogram show the number of pixels containing each tone on the black-to-white scale, but what it most important is where the graph starts and ends, and where the bulk of the histogram is sitting. The following examples show what you need to be looking for, and what you (ideally) want to try and avoid. HIGHLIGHT WARNING The majority of cameras—compact or DSLR—have the option to activate a highlight warning when you review your images. When the image is displayed on the rear LCD screen, any areas that have been overexposed to the point that they

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contain no detail will flash or blink to provide you with a visual warning that information has been lost.

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UNDEREXPOSED The histogram is shifted to the left, which means the majority of tones in the picture are quite dark. Unless the subject is dark (or meant to appear dark), this would suggest the image may be underexposed. Increasing the exposure by dialing in positive (+) exposure compensation and reshooting will help.

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OVEREXPOSED Here, the bulk of the histogram is shifted to the right, meaning it is made up of light tones. Unless the subject is light (or you want it to be light), this could indicate overexposure, in which case you may want to use negative (-) exposure compensation to reduce the exposure and shoot again.

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SHADOWS CLIPPED When the histogram stacks up against the left side of the graph, there are areas of solid black in the picture and detail in the deepest shadow areas has been lost. This may be due to underexposure or it could be that the scene is high in contrast.

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HIGHLIGHTS CLIPPED If the histogram is stacked against the right side of the graph, your highlights have been clipped, meaning there are areas of pure white in the image that lack any detail. Lost detail in highlight areas is near-impossible to recover, so this should be avoided unless it is for creative effect, as here. To avoid it, reduce the exposure and take the photograph again, rechecking the histogram to be sure.

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LOW CONTRAST When neither end of the histogram comes close to the ends of the graph it means there are no strong blacks or strong whites in your picture, which can make for a low contrast, or flat result. With some subjects this is perfectly acceptable—contrast is naturally low when you are photographing in mist or fog, for example—but with other subjects it is less appealing. You could increase the contrast using an in-camera setting and take the shot again, but a better solution is to increase the contrast in an image-editing program, which will give you more control.

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SCENE EXCEEDS DYNAMIC RANGE When the histogram stacks up at the extreme ends of the graph, detail has been lost in both the shadows and highlights. This is typical of very high contrast scenes and means that the brightness range of the scene exceeds the brightness range that the camera can capture—otherwise known as the camera’s “dynamic range.” There is little you can do when this happens, as increasing the exposure to retain detail in the shadows will lose further detail in the highlights, and vice versa. Given the choice, however, always look to preserve the highlight detail; the shadows can be more easily recovered in an image-editing program. Alternatively, consider shooting a sequence of images as the basis for an HDR image.

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SCENE FITS In this final example, everything fits within the graph. The ends of the histogram sit nicely at either end of the graph, which means there isn’t any clipping, and as the shadows and highlights are both close to their respective ends of the scale there’s a full tonal range.

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EXPOSING FOR SNOW

As we’ve seen, your camera’s meter is programmed to interpret each and every scene you aim it at in the same way, and when it comes to photographing very bright scenes—such as snow—it is quite likely to get the exposure consistently wrong. Fortunately, we can use the histogram to see what went wrong, and this will guide us toward the solution. However, because your camera’s built-in metering system is designed to have a fixed response, regardless of the subject, we can also preempt when it will get things wrong and, more importantly, use one of a number of techniques to help us get the exposure right—or at least not far off— with the first click of the shutter. As you’ll see on the following pages, there are a number of approaches that can be taken, using a range of metering patterns and techniques, so don’t feel there is just one right way—if one method works better for you than another, then use that. METERING SOLUTIONS FOR SNOW Switch to snow/beach mode if your camera has it. Some cameras offer a highlight metering mode that is specifically designed to tell the camera you are exposing for a bright area, rather than a midtone.

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Use your multizone metering pattern with exposure compensation and/or automatic exposure bracketing. Take a spot reading from a highlight area and apply exposure compensation. Use a gray card. Use a handheld lightmeter to take an incident light reading and set the exposure manually.

METERING PATTERNS MULTIZONE METERING Whether your camera calls it Evaluative, Matrix, or Multi-Segment, it will have one metering pattern that takes an exposure reading from across the entire frame. Unless you have a mix of highlights and shadows, it may underexpose snow scenes.

CENTERWEIGHTED A centerweighted metering pattern also takes a reading from the entire frame, but with an added bias toward the center as this is where it assumes the main subject will be. If this area happens to be a patch of sun-lit snow, underexposure is certain.

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PARTIAL/SPOT The exposure reading is taken from a small, central area of the frame, making it a very precise metering pattern. However, care must be taken to meter from a midtone if you want an accurate result.

Snow-scene mode Most compact cameras and enthusiast DSLRs house an array of pre-programmed, subject-specific scene modes, such as Landscape, Portrait, and Sports. A number of manufacturers also include a Snow-scene mode (or Snow & Beach). Activating this mode tells the camera to anticipate a large expanse of sky and a lighter foreground, be it snow or sun-kissed sand. Knowing this is what it can expect, the camera’s automatic metering won’t be tempted to underexpose the bright subject. However, whenever you use a scene mode, you are handing most of the control over to the camera. This may restrict you to shooting JPEG images (not Raw), using an Auto white balance, as well as preventing you from choosing the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. So, while you may get a better exposure using a Snow-scene mode rather than Full

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Auto, you will still be limited when it comes to creative camera control.

Setting your camera to a Snow-scene mode tells it to anticipate a scene that is brighter at the bottom (the snow) than it is at the top (the sky). Knowing it can expect this, the camera won’t be tempted to underexpose the snow. HIGHLIGHT TONE PRIORITY Highlight tone priority is found on an increasing number of Canon’s DSLRs as a custom function designed to help prevent highlights from blowing out and produce a smoother transition between the lighter tones in an image. When you’re dealing with the subtleties of near white-on-white snowscapes, this can help you retain a greater level of detail, but you still need to meter carefully to start with: Highlight tone priority should be considered an addition to precise metering, not a replacement.

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Multizone metering When it comes to photographing snow, the basic rule is simple: for snow to appear white, but still retain detail, it needs to be 1–2 stops brighter than a midtone. In a scene that contains small areas of snow, your camera’s multizone metering pattern will likely set an adequate exposure, but if the frame is filled with snow, everything will be bright and, as we saw earlier, this means underexposure is probable. The solution is to preempt this by dialing in exposure compensation: setting +1–2 stops of exposure compensation will increase the exposure, and give you white—rather than gray—snow. Unfortunately, gauging the brightness of snow is not an exact science, so sometimes you may find you need more, or less, compensation. Rather than constantly referring to your camera’s histogram to check, activating automatic exposure bracketing will allow you to take three images at different exposure settings, with the aim of getting one that’s just right. Start by dialing in +1½ stops of exposure compensation; this will be your base exposure. Then, set the automatic exposure bracketing to record three frames in ½-stop increments. This will give you a bracketed sequence of three exposures; one at +2 stops (two stops lighter than the metered exposure), a second at +1½ stops, and a third at +1 stop. This should be a wide enough range to give you one perfect exposure in almost all situations.

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The brightness of snow varies depending on the light, so there is no single answer when it comes to applying exposure compensation. A value of +1 and +2 stops should prove sufficient, though.

Spot meter If there is a midtone area in the predominantly snow-covered scene you are photographing, then switch to your camera’s spot- or partial-metering mode and use that area for your meter reading, whether it’s a stone wall, a patch of grass revealed during a thaw, or something similar. This will give you an exposure reading that you can set manually before reframing the shot. To be sure you’ve got it right, check the histogram and shoot again if necessary. Alternatively, if there aren’t any midtone areas in the scene, use a snowy highlight as the basis for your exposure reading. Target a bright, sun-lit area, and use your spot- or partial-metering mode to take an exposure reading. Adjust this by +1–2 stops when you manually set your camera—for example, increase the shutter speed from 1/125 sec to 1/60

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sec, or 1/30 sec, or open up the aperture from f/8 to f/5.6 or f/4. Again, check the histogram after you’ve taken your shot to make sure you haven’t lost any detail in your highlights—you should always base your snow exposures on retaining detail in the brightest part of the image.

THE AREA CHOSEN FOR SPOT METERING

THE RESULTING SHOT WITH THE EXPOSURE INCREASED BY 2 STOPS Using your camera’s spot meter to target a midtone is ideal, but you can also use it to take an exposure reading from a highlight area. Set the exposure manually, increasing it by 1–2 stops to avoid underexposure.

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HIGHLIGHT METERING Some cameras have a dedicated highlight metering mode that allows you to take a meter reading from the brightest area of the frame that you want to retain detail in. The camera will set the exposure accordingly, preventing your highlights from blowing, and is clearly beneficial when you want to shoot a bright, snow-covered, sun-lit landscape. In effect, it’s like having automatic exposure compensation built in.

Use a gray card Taking a piece of card out with you on your photographic excursions may seem slightly low tech in the digital age, but a gray card will take a lot of the guesswork out of your snow-based exposures. This is because a photographic gray card is designed to match the 18% average gray that your in-camera meter is calibrated to, so the exposure won’t be influenced by any overly bright or dark areas that may be included in the scene.

Rather than taking your exposure reading from the scene in front of you, hold or position the card in front of your camera under the same lighting as your subject (so it is in direct sun if your scene is predominantly sun-lit) and take a meter reading from it using your camera’s spot-or partial-metering mode. Once you’ve taken your meter reading from your card, switch to Manual mode to set the aperture and shutter speed, and 227

then frame your shot. After your image has been recorded, a quick check of the histogram should confirm your snow is bright, but free from clipped highlights. HANDHELD LIGHTMETER A slightly more high-tech method of metering manually is to use a handheld lightmeter that measures the light falling onto your subject, rather than the light being reflected off it. This is known as an incident light reading. In practical terms, this makes a handheld lightmeter incredibly useful for taking foolproof exposure readings for your snowscapes because it isn’t influenced by the brightness of the subject. Simply hold the meter in similar lighting conditions to the subject (so avoid having the meter in shade if your subject is sun-lit), and the reading it gives you can be transferred manually to the camera.

In challenging lighting conditions, a gray card or a handheld lightmeter will help you get the right exposure with minimal fuss.

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LIGHT & WEATHER

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WINTER SUN

Regardless of the time of year, the best lighting conditions for landscapes occur when the sun is low in the sky, when the shadow-forming angle of the light creates a strong sense of three-dimensional form in your pictures. During the more clement months, this is typically found early in the morning or just before sunset, but when the sun comes out in winter it remains low in the sky for the entire day. So, while winter may often be associated with wet, gray, and generally downbeat weather conditions, when the sun makes an appearance it is perfect for landscapes. With daylight hours becoming short, the ends of the day are also very accessible at this time of year, requiring neither an early start or a particularly late finish to capture glorious sunrises and sunsets across (potentially) snow-coated scenes. But this is just the tip of what winter sunlight has to offer: the low sun can be used equally for stark monochromatic images and color shots, and it is the perfect opportunity to look for backlighting that throws a subject into silhouette, or partial backlighting that creates a strong warm glow around a subject—especially when the sun is included in shot.

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When the winter sun makes an appearance, it is the ideal time to head out with your camera and look for stunning landscapes.

Sunrise The winter sun may perform a relatively shallow arc across the sky compared to other seasons, but sunrise and sunset remain particularly special times of day that are capable of creating truly magical images. However, at sunrise, it’s not just about looking for spectacular colors in the sky—especially if you’re photographing in low-lying land or close to water. While the sun may rise strongly, mist and fog are likely, as warm air collides with cold air, or passes over cold water, which adds another option to your winter landscapes. Shooting from a high vantage point such as a hill or mountainside, low-lying mist may partially obscure the landscape below, while shooting the same subject from a physically lower height will create a sense of mystery as

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scenic elements appear suggestively indistinct. At the same time, a lake or pond photographed from ground level can appear to steam in the early-morning light, which, if the light is golden, can transform what might otherwise be a rather mundane subject into something very special indeed. The key is to know where you need to be, and when. Check the weather forecast for clear skies at night that will lower the temperature, followed by equally clear conditions for sunrise, and scout your location in advance so you can anticipate where the light will be coming from and seek out potential camera positions. Above all, revel in the low-contrast mystery that fog and mist can bring: while they may not be quite as pronounced as the fogs of fall, winter still has plenty of potential.

Get out early and you could be lucky enough to be rewarded with a warm-colored sky as the sun rises above the horizon. This is a great time to shoot near water as ice can reflect the colors of the sky for added atmosphere.

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Coping with contrast The low angle of sun in the winter may bring with it fantastic lighting, but it can also cause problems when it comes to contrast in your images. It doesn’t matter what time of the year it is, directional lighting is guaranteed to cast deep shadows that increase the contrast between the brightest and darkest parts of the scene you are photographing. This is especially true when it has been snowing, as snow is easily transformed into white or near white when the sun hits it, while other elements in the frame such as trees, a fence, or a wall will likely appear significantly darker. When you encounter high contrast winter scenes (and you will), the main area of the image to protect is the highlights— once these have burnt out you will have no chance of recovering them. So pay attention to your camera’s histogram to ensure detail is retained in the lightest tones. Then, on your computer, use your editing program to lighten any deep shadows areas, using Photoshop’s Shadows/Highlights tool, or similar. Alternatively, if the scene exceeds the dynamic range of your camera consider shooting a bracketed sequence of frames and using HDR software to manage the contrast digitally. TIP: LOW CONTRAST SNOWSCAPES Not all sun-lit snowscapes exhibit high contrast—some may be quite the opposite. This is because snow is great at filling in shadow areas by bouncing sunlight like a giant reflector, making shadows less intense. Sometimes, you may find that

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contrast needs to be increased post-capture, rather than decreased.

With the sun in the frame, dark, shaded areas are to be expected, but there are ways to help lessen the effect. Here, for example, the photographer waited until a cloud passed in front of the sun: we can still see it’s a sunny day, but the cloud has reduced the sun’s intensity slightly, and lowered the overall contrast of the scene. IN-CAMERA CORRECTION Many DSLRs, and some point-and-shoot cameras, now feature built-in systems for helping you deal with high-contrast scenes; systems such as Canon’s Auto Lighting Optimizer, Nikon’s Active D-Lighting, and Sony’s D-Range Optimizer. These work to preserve highlight and shadow detail, making them very useful for high-contrast snow scenes. Otherwise, if you’re shooting Raw files and using the manufacturer’s own Raw conversion software, you may be able to apply these at the processing stage to re-balance your images.

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Color The color temperature of light changes throughout the day, and nowhere is this more obvious than when it comes to photographing snow. You’d naturally assume that snow is white, so wouldn’t pose too much of a challenge, but it can be anything other than white depending on the lighting. The problem is that snow is highly reflective, so on a clear, blue-sky day, for example, you can easily find you get white snow where the sun is hitting it directly, but distinctly blue shadows from the reflected sky. Similarly, at sunrise and sunset, snow can take on a peachy warmth as the first and final rays of light cross it, while a clear sky at sunrise can result in a mix of both cool blue shadows and warm, orange snow. If you rely on your camera’s Auto white balance setting then it’s very likely it will be fooled into thinking it has set the correct color temperature, when in fact, it hasn’t—it will see the sunlit snow as white and consider its work is done. Even using the correct preset may still present a color cast as reflections from the sky and surrounding areas tint the image, so the answer is to set a custom white balance. An area of sunlit snow makes the perfect target for this (or you can use a gray card) and, combined with an accurate exposure, it guarantees that your snow comes out crisp and white.

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In this landscape, taken at sunrise, the sky is warm, but the snow—in shadow—is a much cooler color. Because of their very different color temperatures it is impossible to make both areas neutral, so some compromise has to be accepted.

Setting a daylight white balance for this snow-filled landscape has resulted in slightly blue shadows, but this doesn’t detract from the image. Indeed, the cool shadows add to the feeling of a cold subject. USE A POLARIZING FILTER A polarizing filter will work incredibly well at intensifying blue skies and boosting the contrast between the sky and the

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snow below, often producing skies that are significantly darker than the foreground. Polarizers also help reduce reflections on wet surfaces—water, ice, and snow—making it an essential addition to your winter camera kit.

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OVERCAST

Before, during, and often for some time after a snow-shower or snow-storm, the clouds overhead are likely to be a low, white-gray blanket that covers the sky with as little contrast as the landscape beneath it. This is the type of sky that would normally see a photographer pack their bags for the day and head home, but not so in winter. It only takes a relatively small amount of snow to transform the landscape into a sparse, undulating expanse of white and, when snow is on the ground, even the most uninspiring, featureless sky can be used to create striking vistas. You won’t have to battle with the high contrast seen in the previous chapter, for example, which straight away means that you don’t have to worry as much about clipped highlights or scenes exceeding the dynamic range of the camera: under a flat gray sky, contrast will be lowered. This may not be conducive to landscapes where the lighting plays a key part in the picture, but there are plenty of other options open to you, and the potential for some truly striking images.

The muted tones of the overcast sky in this shot form the perfect complementary background to the isolated tree detail.

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When skies are overcast, there’s always the chance that the clouds could break and sunlight stream through. In this shot, the warmth of the sun contrasts strongly with a scene that predominantly comprises cooler blues and grays.

Black & white When both the land and the sky are stripped of all their color, and shades of gray dominate, it is the perfect time to start thinking in black and white and, more specifically, about images that rely on graphic details picked out from their low-contrast surroundings. A lone tree peeking through its white-coated surroundings, for example, or dark, freshly cleared roads snaking across a predominantly white landscape are just two of the many potential subjects you can look for under overcast skies, and the graphic qualities of both would certainly be strengthened by a monochrome treatment.

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The strength of this image comes from its simplicity: a single, dark subject against a white sky and equally white foreground. In color, the impact would be lessened. There are two ways in which you can achieve your monochrome images: either by switching your camera to its monochrome mode, or by shooting in color and then converting the picture to black and white in an image-editing program. Most DSLR cameras will let you switch to a black-and-white mode and apply digital filters—red, green, yellow, and so on—but this is only worth considering if you intend to shoot JPEGs and print the pictures directly from your memory card, or at least without any further editing on your computer. Part of the reason for this is because the relevant monochrome mode is often found as a picture style, which means it is only applied to JPEG files; with Raw images it can be selected (or deselected) during the conversion process. Even if you are shooting JPEGs, there is still a strong argument against shooting black and white in-camera. Your

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image-editing software is likely to offer far greater control over the black-and-white conversion than your camera, possibly with a wider range of filter effects (and certainly a higher level of control over them). For example, while your camera might allow you to digitally apply a red filter or green filter to your monochrome shots, your computer will allow you to fine-tune the intensity of the filter-effects so you get the result you are after, rather than the result your camera has been programmed to deliver. FILTERS FOR BLACK AND WHITE It doesn’t matter if you’re shooting on black-and-white film, with filters in front of the lens, or applying your filter effects digitally—the effect they have is the same: Yellow: Darkens blue skies in landscapes. Orange: Increases contrast in many landscape scenes by absorbing blue. Red: Strong darkening effect on blue skies, creating strong contrast between the sky and clouds. Green: Lightens foliage, which can be useful, but also lightens blue skies, reducing the overall contrast. Blue: Lightens blue skies and decreases contrast— largely unused in landscape photography.

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Repeated graphic shapes that fill the frame, such as these snow-covered trees, are a perfect subject for black-and-white winter abstracts.

Creative color As well as being the perfect time to consider converting to black and white, snowscapes taken under an overcast sky also provide you with the opportunity to explore color in a more creative fashion. When your images are likely to consist of little more than light shades of gray, why not consider adding color by toning your shots? However, rather than rely on your in-camera toning options, or even the color adjustments in your editing program, consider experimenting when you shoot by using an incorrect white balance setting. While most photographers will aim for a realistic color rendition for their landscapes, deliberately opting for an alternative white balance can produce a far more striking-colored monochrome image when the sky is a flat tone and snow lies on the ground.

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Shooting an outdoor landscape using a Tungsten white-balance setting, for example, will imbue the picture with a strong, overall blue color, while a Fluorescent white balance will take the color in the direction of purple—both wrong, but both capable of producing a more atmospheric result. The easiest way of trying this for yourself is to shoot Raw. As the white-balance information isn’t embedded within the image, you can change it when you convert the Raw file, allowing you to create multiple color interpretations from a single shot. This works particularly well when the scene you are photographing contains just one or two elements—possibly in silhouette—with an overcast sky and snow-covered foreground. Play around with the exposure too, as slight under- or overexposure will have a significant effect on the final image’s color.

Setting the wrong white balance can produce striking images: using a Tungsten setting in daylight, for example, will result in a cool, blue color-cast that can exaggerate the cold, wintry feel.

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Adding color to a monochrome winter shot using image-editing software allows you to choose from a wide range of hues, including some that are less traditional, such as this purple tint.

Details As well as the excitement of a sprawling, snow-covered landscape, overcast conditions are also a great time to start looking for simpler, more graphic images. Whether it’s a part-buried fence post, grass poking through freshly fallen snow, or a single tree on a white hilltop, set against a near-white sky, minimalist compositions abound when it’s been snowing and can make for beautifully simple compositions. The key word here is composition, as where you place your subject, and its scale in the frame, will have a profound affect on the image as a whole. The rule of thirds is a classically cited compositional tool, and as clichéd as it

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might be, it works, so don’t be afraid to adhere to it, perhaps more rigidly than you would otherwise. When it comes to positioning a single subject, a dark tree in an otherwise white frame will naturally work if it sits on the intersection of horizontal and vertical thirds lines, allowing you to shoot quickly and confidently, with a fantastic end result. Look also for repeated patterns in your snowscapes: boundary walls or fences jutting abruptly from an otherwise barren expanse of white, or the apparently random patterns of trees and their snow-covered branches filling the frame like a Jackson Pollack painting. Using a telephoto focal length from a distance can really compress the perspective and add to the abstract appeal, while a slightly cool white balance, as discussed on the previous pages, will also take your image away from the real and into the non-representational world of art.

A telephoto focal length helps fill the frame, and flattens the perspective, creating a two-dimensional look to these trees. A cool white balance adds to the slightly abstract, wintry feel.

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When composing a single subject, such as the classic lone tree, applying the rule of thirds and placing your subject on a thirds line is a well-used, but successful approach.

In this study, the bare branches create a natural frame for the landscape.

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STORM FRONT

While winter can be a quiet, tranquil season, it can also be one of the harshest, bringing with it low temperatures and the potential for thick ice and heavy snowfall. It’s at these times that many photographers will stay indoors, preparing in anticipation of treks through the crisp white to take their ethereal landscape images. But instead of sitting indoors, watching and waiting until the ground has been covered, why not head out and immerse yourself in the elements? The prelude to a heavy snowstorm can see skies darken, so get to your location beforehand and, as the storm rolls in, use a graduated neutral-density filter to intensify the already-darkened sky even further, heightening the drama of what is to come. And when the snow begins to fall, keep shooting, looking for images that have a distinctly different atmosphere to the stillness that will eventually follow. In a blizzard, you can encounter near white-out conditions, where everything becomes indistinct as falling snow obscures the broader view, but don’t let this stop you. It’s at these times that the photo-realistic landscape can be relinquished in favor of a pencil sketch, where the use of a long exposure can create the impression of a thin veil being drawn across a scene, transforming once-distinct elements into suggestive shadows. It may be cold and wet, but landscape photography is all about capturing the essence of the season, and that doesn’t just mean those picture-postcard moments.

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This sequence was taken across a five-minute period as a storm rolled in and the sky collapsed.

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NIGHT SHOTS

Snowscapes can make stunning subjects for nocturnal images, as it just takes a small amount of moonlight on a clear winter’s night to cast an unworldly glow across the landscape. Moreover, you may not need to set out at an unreasonable hour to capture the splendor of a moon-lit scene—depending on your geographical location you may well be heading home from work after dark, so photography can be seamlessly incorporated into your daily routine. Night can also be the perfect time to capture eerily quiet urban landscapes, turning your camera away from distant views and toward subjects that are much closer to home. Under the glow of streetlamps, the lighting from offices and houses, and the colored neon of storefronts, the streets you live in can be transformed by fresh snowfall, with roads and sidewalks reflecting the multicolored lights from once-familiar surroundings. Contrast and color are perhaps the greatest challenges here, so if you have distinct light sources in shot, consider shooting HDR sequences, and experiment with a variety of white-balance settings—often, keeping things simple and relying on a daylight white balance will help the color of any reflected lights to really stand out.

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At night, snow will naturally appear more blue than it does during the day, which will contrast strongly with the warmth of incandescent or tungsten lighting.

You don’t always need to travel far from home to take exciting night-time shots in winter: this photograph was taken in a park illuminated by a number of different light sources. SAFETY FIRST! Although nocturnal winter landscapes can produce stunning images, they’re not worth risking your life for, but that’s precisely what you could be doing if you set out unprepared. Unless you are incredibly familiar with the location you are visiting it’s simply not worth exploring new settings at night in winter, so stick with places you know that are within easy

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reach of civilization and always travel with someone else: the dead of night isn’t the time to set out for remote destinations on your own. Be sure to tell someone where you are going, dress appropriately, and take a fully charged cell-phone with you. And if you have the slightest doubt that what you’re doing isn’t safe, then don’t go. Period.

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INDEX

A abstracts, black and white 1 abstracts, floral based 1 accessories 1 Active D-Lighting (Nikon) 1, 2 Active D-Lighting (Nikon) 1 Adams, Ansel 1 Adobe Photoshop 1 infrared effects 1 stitching 1 tone mapping 1 angled view finder 1, 2 aperture priority mode 1, 2 aperture

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depth of field and 1, 2, 3, 4 landscape scene mode 1 small aperture diffraction 1 Auto Lighting Optimizer (Canon) 1 Auto Lighting Optimizer (Canon) 1 B backpacks 1 batteries 1, 2 black-and-white images 1 C camera cape (waterproof) 1, 2 camera kit, for fall photographs 1 cameras 1 condensation protection 1 cameras bridge cameras 1 depth-of-field scale/preview 1

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DSLR 1 high-end compact 1 non-SLR interchangeable-lens 1 cameras DSLR dynamic range 1 GPS units for Geotagging 1, 2 IR conversion for DSLR 1 cell phone 1 centerweighted metering 1 centerweighted metering 1 clothing 1 color 1 abstract color 1 reflections and 1 color contrasts 1 overcast conditions 1 color grads 1

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color temperature 1 color theory 1 color creative monochrome 1 white balance 1, 2, 3, 4,5,6 condensation 1 contrast coping with 1 histograms and 1, 2 in-camera correction 1 contrast in-camera control 1 post-capture control 1, 2 summer problems 1, 2, 3, 4 see also light D D-Range Optimizer (Sony) 1

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D-Range Optimizer (Sony) 1 daylight shooting, sunrise and sunset 1 depth of field 1 aperture and 1, 2, 3, 4 and hyperfocal distance 1, 2 landscape scene mode 1 digital gradients 1 dynamic range 1, 2 see also HDR (high dynamic range) dynamic range, scene exceeds 1 E equipment 1 evaluative metering 1 exposure 1 histograms 1 manual mode with grey card 1 snow 1

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exposure meters/lightmeters handheld 1, 2 in-camera 1, 2, 3 exposure modes 1 aperture priority 1 full auto 1 landscape scene 1 manual 1 metering modes 1 exposure in frosty conditions 1 long exposure for abstract effects 1 metering for 1 in mist and fog 1 F filters 1 adapter ring 1

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digital 1 motion-blur software 1 ND (neutral density) filters 1, 2, 3 ND (neutral density) filters—graduated 1 polarizing 1, 2, 3 filters, color graduated 1 filters black and white images 1 polarizing filters 1, 2 flare 1 flare, protection from 1 Flickr, world map 1, 2 flowers 1 source of abstracts 1 focal length, lenses and 1 focus 1

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auto-focus systems problems 1 manual focus 1 wide-angle focal length 1, 2 focus, “sweet spot” 1, 2 focus, on reflections 1 focusing and recomposing 1 fog see mist and fog foreground flowers 1 wide and close 1 framing 1 frost 1 frost, problems and opportunities 1 G Geotagging 1 gigapixel images 1

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Google Earth 1, 2 GPS units for cameras 1 GPS, handheld 1 gray card, use of 1, 2 H hand warmers (chemical) 1 HDR (high dynamic range) 1 image processing 1 see also dynamic range highlight metering mode 1 highlight warning 1 hyperfocal distance 1, 2 I image editing software, blurring filters 1 infrared (IR) photography 1 post-capture IR 1 insect repellent 1

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J JPEG files, black and white 1 JPEG images 1, 2 JPEG images, black and white 1 L lens hoods 1, 2 lens hoods 1 Lensbabies 1 lenses 1 lenses close up lenses 1 extension tubes 1 focal-length magnification 1 macro lens 1 telephoto and zoom 1, 2 wide-angle 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 lenses

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macro lens 1 shielded from direct light 1 telephoto zoom 1, 2 level shooting, hotshoe level 1 light meters electronic in-camera 1 handheld 1, 2 spotmeter readings 1, 2 light backlit scenes 1 side-lighting 1 sunrise and sunset 1 warmth of 1 weather conditions and 1 light extension tubes 1 weather and 1

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light time of day effects 1 see also contrast lightmeters see exposure meters/lightmeters lightning 1 lip balm 1 locations, choosing 1 low level shots 1 low light photography 1 M matrix metering 1 metadata 1 metering, for correct exposure 1 mist and fog, problems and opportunities 1 misty conditions 1, 2, 3 mobile phone 1 monopods 1

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multi-angle rear screen 1 multi-area metering 1 multi-segment metering 1 multizone metering 1 multizone metering 1, 2 N neutral-density filter, graduated 1 night shots 1 o outdoor shooting, clothing 1 overcast conditions, color contrasts 1 P panning and rotating techniques 1 panning, abstracts 1 panoramas 1 partial/spot metering 1, 2 photo infrared (IR)

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photography, post-capture IR 1 Photoshop, motion blur filter 1 Picasa, world map 1, 2 polarizing filters shooting water 1 types of 15 R Raw files 1, 2, 3, 4 Raw files 1, 2 raw images, shooting for white balance 1 reflections 1 reducing 1 reflections 1, 2 remote release (electronic) 1 S safety considerations 1, 2 shadows 1

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shutter speed for abstract effects 1 ND filters and 1 and water photography 1 silhouettes 1 skies, light and dark balance 1 skies overcast 1 storm front 1 snow 1 detail and pattern 1, 2 exposing for 1 metering solutions 1 snow-scene mode 1 software abstract color and 1 image-editing 1, 2

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software color and monochrome 1 HDR 1 software HDR image-processing 1 image-editing programs 1, 2 tone mapping 1 spot metering 1 spot metering see partial/spot metering spot-metering, for dynamic range 1, 1 spring, a sense of season 1 stitching, to create panoramas 1 summer shooting, time of day 1, 2 Summer storms, dramatic effects 1 sun-block 1 sunglasses 1 T

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TIFF files 1, 2 tone mapping 1 trees, color contrasts 1 tripods 1, 1 tripods 1 tripods 1 W water, movement and reflections 1 weather conditions 1 weather, changeability 1 websites, location choosing 1, 2, 3 Weston, Edward 1 wet weather shooting 1 white balance discs 1, 2 white balance, Tungsten or Fluorescent 1 white balance auto or preset 1

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in overcast conditions 1 Z zoom lenses 1

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PICTURE CREDITS SPRING

iStockphoto (www.istockphoto.com)/ Xavier Arnau: 1; AVTG: 2; Brytta: 3; Giorgio Fochesato: 4; Evan Gearing: 5; Angela Gyo6rfy: 6; Robert Hunt: 7; Alessandro Marzo: 8; Klaas van der Ploeg: 9; Luboslav Tiles: 10; Matt Tilghman: 11; Jason Verschoor: 12; Ingmar Wesemann: 13 and 14; Sara_Sprter: 15 Fotolia (www.fotolia.com)/ Daniel Fuhr: 1; Joda: 2; Stefan Körber: 3; Marina Karkalicheva: 4; Mhiser: 5; Peter Wey: 6, 7, 8, 9; Pitrs: 10; Pwollinga: 11; Sppepper: 12; Stocker1970: 13; Leonid Tit: 14; Vibe Images: 15. Joe Cornish/Digital Vision: 1, 2. Equipment shots courtesy of Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, and Panasonic. Andrew Magill: 1. SUMMER

iStockphoto (www.istockphoto.com)/ Daniel Brunner: 1; Michael Hieber: 2; Milos Jokic: 3; Kamo: 4; Konradlew: 5;

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Jill Kyle: 6; Anna Minkevich: 7; Vyacheslav Osokin: 8; Andrey Popov: 9, 10; Merijn van der Vliet: 11; Nick Webley: 12; Bogdan Zaytsev: 13; Peter Zelei: 14. Fotolia (www.fotolia.com)/ Horváth Botond: 1; Kacper Kida: 2; Kilerus: 3; Nazmoo: 4; Alexey Stiop: 5. Google (www.google.com): 1. Flickr (www.flickr.com): 1. Camera Raw (www.adobe.com): 1. Chris Gatcum: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Natalia Price-Cabrera: 1. Equipment shots courtesy of Leica, Lensbaby, Nikon. FALL

iStockphoto (www.istockphoto.com)/John Brueske: 1; Doxa: 2; Duilio Fiorille: 3; FotoTravel: 4; Gaspr13: 5; Jpique: 6; Ooyoo: 7; Cole Vineyard: 8; Kerstin Waurick: 9. Fotolia (www.fotolia.com)/Georgios Alexandris: 1; Arokas: 2; Kushnirov Avraham: 3; eAlisa: 4; Joy Fera: 5; Gburba: 6; Javarman: 7; Joda: 8 and 9; Stefan Korber: 10; Henrik Larsson: 11; Sainte-Laudy: 12; Carsten Meyer: 13, S. Mohr Photography: 14, Dean Pennala: 15,Thierry Planche: 16: Radu Razvan: 17; Reises: 18; Michael Shake: 19; .Shock: 20; 271

Charles Taylor: 21: Christy Thompson: 22; Fred Tinsel: 23; A. Jess-TouTouke: 24; Vibe Images: 25; Vicky: 26; Wilma: 27. Photocase (www.photocase.com)/Manuela Neukirch: 1. Joe Cornish/Digital Vision: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Chris Gatcum: 1. Ben Frantz Dale: 1. Expodisc (www.expoimaging.com): 1. Equipment shots courtesy of Sony, Canon. Expodisc, Cokin, and Kata. WINTER

iStockphoto/4FR: 1; Georgios Alexandris: 2; AVTG: 3; Elena Elisseeva: 4; Robyn Mackenzie: 5; Nikolay Nachev: 6; Youra Pechkin: 7; Klaas van der Ploeg: 8; Lorenzo Puricelli: 9; Ann Taylor-Hughes: 10. Fotolia/Ariwari: 1, 2; Judith Bender: 3; Coco: 4; Anna Dobrovolskaya-M: 5; Bert Folsom: 6; Adam Gryko: 7; Megan Kwasniak: 8; John Maldoror: 9; Vladimir Melnikov: 10; Christian Pedant: 11; Tomas Sereda: 12; Iosif Szasz-Fabian: 13; Tahorg: 14; Patrizia Tilly: 15; Leonid Tit: 16, 17; David Woods: 18.

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Joe Cornish/Digital Vision: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Equipment shots courtesy of Nikon, Canon, Garmin, Lowepro, and Blackberry.

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