Landscape /waterfalls

[Epphoto]

I will try to explain a little about How to make a good landscape picture, and the way I do them

1 : Location it is the hardest on photography, to fine the right location to shoot


2: weather, it takes a log time to find the right day to shoot. I prefer overcast day's
For landscapes without including the Sky , and very early or very late on day for shot with sky on them ,I will NOT take any pictures between 10am-3pm,except HDR


3: Filters, A very important in landscape photography ND grand, ND, PL, Warm filters,
Tobacco filters, I Use the Tobacco grand filters for a moody Sky's if I want to add a little color, I use ND 90% to give me the balance between the sky and the ground



4: White balance ,I'm sick to hearing guys saying : I shoot raw ,I can really fix my WB any time in PS,Well it doesn't work this way for me
I always take a gray card with me ,it takes 2 min to take a shot and use it as your WB
It will make your life a lot easier if you will do this



5: Aperture, you have to know what F stop your lens are the sharpest, and what you like to see clear in the picture, You get the idea


6: for waterfall pictures ,ND 3,6,9 what ever it takes to get the water blurry, Low ISO



7: 2sec timer ,or a relish cable for taking your pictures without any sakes or movements of your hands to the Camera

8: A good tripod fast and easy to use ,My self I DON'T have a carbon fiber I love my Bogen 3021

9: A good head ,you need a good and strong tripod head for your pictures

10: Some times you have to brake the rules of composition but make sure you have something to fall back to Example : If you see just one tree in your horizon don't place it dead in the middle
Make sure you have other thinks in the picture also , this way your eye doesn't stock at the tree only , I hope you get the idea



11: Sow your main subject , Try to shoot it very clearly , and try to find something in the picture to lead you to the main subject ,Ex: lines or DOF



I you do all this you will have a minimum work in PS and more time to enjoy to take pictures
I forgot one more thing ALWAYS SHOT WITH RAW and work in your pictures with 16bits and save them as 8bits files
I always work with Adobe 1998 profile

Now ....this is the way I'm making my pictures ,
I want to make something very clear here : I don't say your way of taking pictures it's wrong ,What I say was this is my way

PS I know you will have many questions feel free to ask ,and if I make a lot of spelling mistakes Please forgive me , English is my second language

[ljh34465]

If I could speak Greek as well as you speak English, I would be very pleased so don't worry about the spelling (I am assuming Greek as your first language).

Thank you for the tutorial - very nicely done with nice examples.

When you say a "minimum amunt of work in PS", do you have a standard workflow that you use on each image or is it completely different for each one?

Or saying it another way, if I do everything you suggest in the tutorial, what will I still have to do in PS to get the quality you do?

[Epphoto]

Originally Posted by ljh34465

If I could speak Greek as well as you speak English, I would be very pleased so don't worry about the spelling (I am assuming Greek as your first language).

Thank you for the tutorial - very nicely done with nice examples.

When you say a "minimum amunt of work in PS", do you have a standard workflow that you use on each image or is it completely different for each one?

Or saying it another way, if I do everything you suggest in the tutorial, what will I still have to do in PS to get the quality you do?

What i say about minimum work in PS Is :
If you shoot raw you know the colors always they will be a litle flat
Work with colors as you want them to look, sometimes i have to fix the color cast
and do the very fine adjustments were it will make your picture standout nicely
Ex: contrast, color-cast, crop them a litle for better composition ...
you will see the big deference what makes to shot a good pictures in the beginning
Then to work it with the photo shop
Tops you will spent about 10min for each picture.....
I always have a work-flow ,but you cannot treat each picture the same
Be glad to help let me know if you have any more questions

[jfrancho]

Great stuff EP. Let me simply share some additional thoughts on a few points, you don't have to agree, but what works isn't necessarily right or wrong, just different. On #3, I stick to ND, ND Grad, and CP filters. I'm generally a "get it right in the camera" kind of guy, but in the case filters that introduce colors, like warming or tobacco grads, I'd rather do this later. Maybe the results aren't as authentic as using a filter, but if I don't like the effect after all, I can simply omit it. The compromise is for my own flexibility.

This links to #4. As I said, I'm a "get it right in the camera" man, and getting the WB right from the get go fives you a more realistic preview on the camera when your in the field, and I wish more would understand that WB does actually have an influence on exposure and color saturation, especially in the red and blue channels. However, I rarely find the need to fine tune it with the use of an WhitBal or Expodisk. A plain white sheet of paper or a gray card works fine for me.

5. I think this often overlooked. I've blown more photographers' minds with actual tests using apertures and hyperfocals gleaned from a DOF chart. So many don't realize what the best settings are, and blindly set it at f/22 and focus at their feet. Go to Hyperfocal Distance and Depth of Field Calculator - DOFMaster and print up a few for your lenses. You will be surprised.

8. I do have tripod with carbon fiber legs, and this move actually got me to use the darn thing every time I go out to shoot - usually just brought the beanbag. I know using a heavier tripod is better, but I wasn't carrying the heavier pod when I should have been, so carbon fiber is better than nothing.

10. All I can say, know that you are breaking the guideline, and show it with power and intent. I love breaking rules.

11. This is one of my goals to improve this year, not because its weak, but your example picture shows how I want my images to look. I want them to tell more of the story than just the documenting the land.

That's all, and like I said, these are just my thoughts, and I'm in no way trying to contradict you here. Very good work!

[ljh34465]

Thanks, John. Appreciate your "addenda"

[Epphoto]

I'm not going to do a Quote in your Post here i will just like to reply
WhitBal or Expodisk I have one of them it work fine not a problem here
DOF man !!!! you can read this staff 1000 times , I thing it all about feel and what you see
you can really go to very detail here, but we better not, i thing it will get photographer's more confused then anything else,The ling is very good thanks, but again let's keep it very symbol here
anytime I go shoot i never take one of this cards with me
Carbon fiber is very nice to have and if you have to walk long distance or travel I love to have one
but i will stay with my heavy Bogen for now

Thanks for reading my post and for taking your time to reply

[focusedphoto62]

Some really nice pictures, and tips. Landscape is my favorite type of photography although I'm not that good at it yet. Looking to purchase a different lens, so expensive though.

Dave

[swimswithsharks]

A nice summary of your techniques. Thank you, it will be very helpful in thinking about my own photography.

[Carla_]

This is so awsome! Thanks so much for taking the time to post all these tips!

[Worm324]

Excellent stuff Eman!! Thank you for sharing your insight and experience

Best,
Jay

[h8177]

Nice tutorial write up and great pics with it.

[easypickings]

Great advice! Thank you so much for posting this. I do have a question: I was told by my local camera guy that filters aren't needed for digital cameras. that they can do damage...where does that come from? It seems that everyone uses them.

[bill8131]

Originally Posted by easypickings

Great advice! Thank you so much for posting this. I do have a question: I was told by my local camera guy that filters aren't needed for digital cameras. that they can do damage...where does that come from? It seems that everyone uses them.

That's interesting!! I'd say that came from BS... Digital for over ten years now, lots of filters and the only damage I've had is when I drop one. same why it worked with film.

You can recreate a lot of the filter effects in PS since it is digital, however I still prefer to use the filter up front if I know thats the direction I'm going to go with the final shot. And even though there are some good digital ND filter effects out there, I still don't think they are as good as doing it up front on camera. My 2 cents.

EPP, Beautiful images, and info. Thanks for sharing..

Bill

[JDArt]

Very nice work. Shots like the first are tough to do well.

[JuDiThA]

I love your work! Thanks for the tips
==Judy