Erman Y Photography » Landscape

Landscape Photography

admin — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:46:10 +0000

Did you ever experience something like this; You see a beautiful scene while you’re traveling or driving to somewhere, you stop and take pictures of this beautiful scene. But when you get home you find that pictures boring and flat. Are you familiar with this? Well, i experienced it a couple of times.

But why this beautiful landscape turns in to a boring picture when we get home? Actually answer is human brain. We don’t see with our eyes but we see with our brain. So when we are in a beautiful scene, our brain eliminates all unnecessary elements and focuses on the most impressive points elements of the scene. But unfortunately our lenses, films and cameras are unable to do so. That’s why they still need us photographers.

So how to get the scene that impresses us in real life, look good even better in the picture? Simply do what your brain do when you are looking that scene with your eyes, eliminate unnecessary elements. Ask your self what makes me want to take this picture, what is fascinating in this scene. And try to capture those.

Landscape photography requires scouting to get good results. Walk, hike or drive in the place and try to find different points, positions and angles to shoot. Another important element of landscape photography is daylight. If you have time, watch the changes of the view, in different times of the day to find out is it looking better in the morning light or afternoon? If you don’t have time to wait all day long, figure out where sun rises and sets in the scene. If you know the effects of light in the different times of the day on the landscape, you can find out when to come back and take the picture. Photographers mostly prefer to take pictures in golden hours, first lights of the morning and low angled lights of afternoon. A little information about temperature of the light and daylight from my previous posts;

Color Temperature

This term defines color quality of light sources in K° (Kelvin). Redness increase and blueness decrease as Kelvin value of the light decrease, vice versa. So low Kelvin values create a warmer picture, and high Kelvin values create cooler pictures. You can make your pictures cooler or warmer on purpose, to create certain feelings. As an example; a mother hugging her baby look better in a warmer light. Average Kelvin values of some light sources;

1700K : Match Flame

1850K : Candle Flame

2800-3300K : Incandescent Light Bulb

3350K : Studio (CP) Light

3400K : Studio Lights, Lightfloods, etc.

4100K : Moonlight, Xenon Arc Lamp

5000K : Horizon Daylight

5500 – 6000K : Typical Daylight, Electronic Flash

6500K : Noon Daylight

9300K : CRT Screen

Colors of Daylight

Daylight contains more blue in winter comparing to summer, also in a day with cloudy sky the light is cooler than a light in a day with a clear sky.

Direct sunlight is a warm light.

Light in afternoon is reddish and early morning light is more yellowish.

Color of light gets close to blue as climb up to higher grounds like mountains or skyscrapers.

Photography; Composition; Horizon Part 2

admin — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:19:34 +0000

Yesterday i wrote about horizons, today i want to show some examples. Generally horizon divides the frame 1/3 to 2/3. But i like exaggerated skies, and sometimes i place the horizon down very close to lower edge of the picture. I can not say that it is a good composition, but i like it. Some of my viewers like this, some of them not. I just want to show you something different, and out of “rules”. You may like it or not, but remember after learning the rules, sometimes it is good to break them on purpose, in order to create original, unique and different works.

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As you see, i like filling the frame with sky. Not always but sometimes trying something different is good.

Photography; Clear the Scene

erman — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:18:10 +0000

I’m sure lots of time you noticed some unwanted things in the scene while you are reviewing your pictures that you didn’t see while taking the pictures. It happens… There can be a tree trunk, power lines etc. Try to be more careful about them, before taking the shot scan the scene from your visor and change your position if necessary. One step back or forward , left or right , or slightly changing the angle, zooming in will solve the problem (most of the time).

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I personally hate the power lines, especially when I’m taking pictures in the city. In a narrow street it is hard to eliminate them, Imagine there are cables of a power line in front of a nice old building , if you get closer to the building to get rid of the cables, the angle gets narrower and you cannot capture whole building, if you want to capture the whole building and move back a little then you also include the power line cables in the scene, and this makes me crazy. But if you are shooting landscapes away from city, it is easier to eliminate the high-voltage power lines by closing your subject (which is probably quite distant) until you prevent the cables entering the scene.

Sometimes these unwanted things are more simple and you don’t need to move yourself, just move them out of screen. It can be a plastic bag in the scene or box etc. In some cases people can be the unwanted things in the scene, just wait until they leave. As an example you want to take the pictures of Niagara Falls from observation tower, in this case do not wait for people to leave the scene, they won’t , i mean of course they will leave but than another group will come and stand right in front of your camera, just ask them kindly to leave the area empty for a couple of seconds. As i mentioned before if the scene is not that crowded just wait, be patient.