HISTOGRAM

CAPTURE: 19 | THE HISTOGRAM

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Many photographers wonder how they ensure they get the exposure correct. With digital cameras, there's no need to wonder anymore because the histogram shows you exactly what your exposure is going to be. And importantly, as we have a two step process when it comes to our photography, after capture, there is a second opportunity to change or interpret the exposure in post-production. But all this depends on capturing the correct exposure in the first place. Here's how to use the histogram.

DEPTH-OF-FIELD

CAPTURE: 19 | DEPTH-OF-FIELD

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Understanding depth-of-field and how to maximise it is an essential skill for landscape photographers. If you want to maximise the sharpness and detail in your landscape photographs, then you really to need to understand how depth-of-field works - plus you should view the movies on testing apertures and focus stacking. With these three capture skills under control, you'll be able to capture landscape photographs full of rich, sharp, clear detail!

BRACKETING

CAPTURE: 19 | EXPOSURE BRACKETING

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Modern cameras are incredibly capable and can successfully capture great exposures most of the time with a single raw file. But in tricky or contrasty lighting conditions, such as those experienced regularly by landscape photographers, extending the exposure latitude or tonal range by bracketing will ensure you retain essential detail in both the shadow and highlight areas. 

STITCHING

CAPTURE: 19 | STITCHING

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Panoramas are popular with landscape photographers and while you can just crop an exposure taken with a wide-angle lens, more opportunities open up if you master the art of stitching a series of images together, including much wider angles of view. It's a technique worth mastering, even if you have a panorama mode on your camera.

FOCUS STACKING

CAPTURE: 19 | FOCUS STACKING

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While depth-of-field might solve focusing issues in some situations, it's not the answer all the time. Similarly, focus stacking won't work in all situations either, but it can produce superb sharpness throughout your landscape image that is superior to maximising your depth-of-field. The basic technique is all about capturing a good set of pixels and putting them together in post-production. Here's how.

MOVING WATER

CAPTURE: 19 | MOVING WATER

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Do you love the effect of blurred water and clouds in your landscape photographs? They may require a 30 second or longer exposure, but how do you do this in the middle of the day when there's so much light around? The answer is with neutral density filters and careful technique.

PC LENSES

CAPTURE: 19 | PC LENSES

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Although manual focus, a tilt/shift or perspective control lens can be used in landscape photography to capture extended depth-of-field (that really works), or to ensure your mountains and trees don't look like their falling backwards (the same technique we use for architectural work). Here's how!

APERTURE

CAPTURE: 19 | TESTING APERTURES

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If you want to create landscape photographs with as much sharpness as your equipment will allow, in addition to good camera technique, you should determine which aperture on each of your lenses gives the sharpest result (and this isn't the same as depth-of-field). Here's how to test your lenses.