Post Your Landscape Photos

Mike D90 · Mar 20, 2014

I am not much of a landscape photographer but I want to work on it. I need to find some places around here that offer a beautiful landscape view. Just for practice I shot this scene, that I found pretty while I was there, but I am not sure my photograph depicts what I saw while sitting there amongst the nice weather and wild flowers.

Hints? tips? Advice?

MeSess · Mar 20, 2014

Mike d90 said:
I am not much of a landscape photographer but I want to work on it. I need to find some places around here that offer a beautiful landscape view. Just for practice I shot this scene, that I found pretty while I was there, but I am not sure my photograph depicts what I saw while sitting there amongst the nice weather and wild flowers.

Hints? tips? Advice?

View attachment 78588

You may not be much of a landscape photographer, I'm not much of a photographer at all but that's why we practice right? I personally would have used a different perspective and wouldn't have gotten any of the road in the shot because I usually feel like stuff like that can take away from the moment I'm trying to capture. Unless you incorporate the road better I feel like it's better left out.

jrleo33 · Mar 20, 2014

MeSess said:
When focusing on something in the distance how to do you keep the foreground in focus? I was trying to take a picture of something sitting in the middle of a field using the 55-200 and the background and object were in focus but foreground kept coming out blurry. Could that be because the field was made up of small flowers? I tried aperture priority mode and setting just the aperture from large to small and nothing worked. I tried different focal lengths, focus points etc.

You might have better luck with a 35mm or 50mm Prime lens. The art of everything being in focus is to focus at infinity, and have nothing in the foreground, or in front of infinity. As MikeD90 points out below, if the have foreground included in your photo, and your camera is focused on infinity, something in the foreground will be fuzzy, or visa-versa. I don't know of a lens that has that much depth-of-field to cover foreground and infinity.

MeSess · Mar 20, 2014

jrleo33 said:
You might have better luck with a 35mm or 50mm Prime lens. The art of everything being in focus is to focus at infinity, and have nothing in the foreground, or in front of infinity. As MikeD90 points out below, if the have foreground included in your photo, and your camera is focused on infinity, something in the foreground will be fuzzy, or visa-versa. I don't know of a lens that has that much depth-of-field to cover foreground and infinity.

Thanks guys!! The only way to find these things out is to ask and now I know.

Mike D90 · Mar 20, 2014

I also shot these in portrait orientation trying to get the tree tops and sky in the shot too. I am just not yet sure how to present landscapes in my photography. Lots of work left to do here!

MeSess · Mar 20, 2014

Mike d90 said:
I also shot these in portrait orientation trying to get the tree tops and sky in the shot too. I am just not yet sure how to present landscapes in my photography. Lots of work left to do here!

View attachment 78612

View attachment 78613

I like the composition in the first portrait photo. The fence and walkway have more to do with the area than in your original photo and seem to give the foreground more life. It isn't just a random fence on the side anymore it's part of the scene. I also like that you framed the picture so that the trees vanishing point goes right to left and the fences vanishing point is left to right giving the photo more depth.

Deezey · Mar 20, 2014

jrleo33 said:
You might have better luck with a 35mm or 50mm Prime lens. The art of everything being in focus is to focus at infinity, and have nothing in the foreground, or in front of infinity. As MikeD90 points out below, if the have foreground included in your photo, and your camera is focused on infinity, something in the foreground will be fuzzy, or visa-versa. I don't know of a lens that has that much depth-of-field to cover foreground and infinity.

If you want it all in reasonable focus you will need to learn to shoot at the hyper focal range for your lens. This will give you the best chance of a sharp image from foreground to background. Everything from half the hyper focal distance to infinity will be relatively sharp. So if your hyper focal length is 7 feet, then everything from 3.5 feet on will be in focus.

Deezey · Mar 20, 2014

Mike d90 said:
I also shot these in portrait orientation trying to get the tree tops and sky in the shot too. I am just not yet sure how to present landscapes in my photography. Lots of work left to do here!

View attachment 78612

View attachment 78613

Portrait orientation is good for showing depth. Say you have an interesting foreground...(wild flowers)...you will want to highlight them by putting them up front in the photo. Shooting them portrait style will give you separation from the background and make things less 2D feeling.