Landscapes Nature Macro Lenses Flowers Gardens Wildlife
Master outdoor photography Discover how to add mood and atmosphere to your landscapes
The art to capturing Gardens Learn the techniques you need to get stunning pictures of flowers
macro masterclass Discover the joys of getting up really close and personal with nature
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Welcome
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ou can shoot great pictures of the great outdoors at any time of the year – but there is something special about the opportunities that you get in late spring and early summer. Everything around us is coming alive, providing a colour palette that it is all-but absent in the winter months. More importantly, though, the hours of daylight are much longer – allowing us to plan more adventurous excursions into the wilderness, and giving us better odds of chancing upon those spectacular lighting conditions that we dream of as photographers. In this issue of Outdoor, Landscape and Nature Photography will show how to get the most from your camera. We will show you great compositional tricks, we will teach you key settings, and we will aim to inspire you with great pictures and projects you could be shooting this weekend. This edition is split into four chapters. The first covers some of the key things to bear in mind when shooting landscapes and gardens. The second gives you a range of specific projects that you can try, that will hopefully teach you some new photographic tricks. We then follow some readers, as they put the theory into practice tackling different challenges that we have set them. Finally, we talk about the kit... with group tests of key lenses and musthave accessories that you may want to take with you when you head off into the hills. We hope you enjoy this guide, and if you do please visit www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/photography to discover the huge range of other great magazines, handbooks and DVDs in we produce for photographers.
Chris George, Group Editor-in-Chief
Outdoor landscape and nature photography
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Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA www.digitalcameraworld.com Series Editor Chris George chris.george@futurenet.com Art Editors Rodney Dive, Chris Hedley Future Publishing Limited Group Editor-in-Chief Chris George Group Art Director Rodney Dive Head of Photography Matt Pierce Managing Director Joe McEvoy Advertising Senior Sales Executive Tel: +44 (0)1225 788186
Sasha McGregor sasha.mcgregor@futurenet.com
CIRCULATION & MARKETING Trade Marketing Manager Michelle Brock PRINT & PRODUCTION Production Controller Vivienne Calvert vivienne.calvert@futurenet.com LICENSING Senior Licensing and Syndication Manager Tel: + 44 (0)1225 442244
Matt Ellis matt.ellis@futurenet.com
Back issues www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/photography Printed in the UK by William Gibbons on behalf of Future.
Future produces carefully targeted magazines, websites and events for people with a passion. Our portfolio includes more than 180 magazines, websites and events, and we export or license our publications to 90 countries around the world. Future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR). Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne Non-executive chairman Peter Allen Chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand Tel: +44 (0) 1225 442244 www.futureplc.com
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All information contained in this magazine is for informational purposes only and is, to the best of our knowledge, correct at the time of going to press. Future Publishing Limited cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies that occur. Readers are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers direct with regard to pricing. Š Future Publishing Limited 2016. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.
The text paper in this magazine is totally chlorine free. The paper manufacturer and Future Publishing have been independently certified in accordance with the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council.
Outdoor landscape and nature photography
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Essential skills
shootout
The secrets of great landscapes . . . . . . 8
Garden photography . . . . . . . . . . . 104
12 great ways to shoot
Mountain photography . . . . . . . . . . . 110
breathtaking landscapes . . . . . . . . . . 20
Coastal photography . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Time for adventure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Bird photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Unleash your lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Flower power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
outdoor gear Supertelephoto zooms . . . . . . . . . . 130 Camera holsters & clips . . . . . . . . . . 137
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projects
Wide prime lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Take it slow with seascapes . . . . . . . . . 68
Memory card cases . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Improve your landscapes . . . . . . . . . . 72
Telephoto zooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Broaden your horizons . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Macro lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Blur your landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Cable releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Go with the flow to shoot water . . . . . . 80
Daypacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Control bright skies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Say hi to a blue sky! . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Make your zoo shots natural . . . . . . . . 88 Ring flowers with light . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Fill the frame with flowers . . . . . . . . . . 94 74
Paint with light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Zoom your way to explosive shots . . . . . 98
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Essential skills The secrets of great landscapes . . . . . . 8 12 great ways to shoot breathtaking landscapes . . . . . . . . . 20 Time for adventure . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Unleash your lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Flower power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Outdoor landscape and nature photography
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Essential skills
The secrets of
g r e at l andscapes
Want to add drama and impact to your landscapes but don’t know how? Don’t miss our easy skills checklist and exclusive tips from our outdoor experts!
Essential skills
a fresh take on an oft-photographed beauty spot? It’s easy to get overwhelmed and discouraged when shooting landscapes. Hence this essential, yet easy-to-follow, checklist that’ll get you taking great landscape photos in no time. Here, we’ve broken down the crucial elements of landscape photography into bite-sized chunks. Over the next ten pages you’ll find all you need to know about the importance of good lighting and effective composition.
Essential landscape kit
You don’t need to get a second mortgage, but you do need the following: 1 Standard zoom lens (eg 18-55mm) The bread-and-butter landscape lens 2 Ultra-wide zoom lens (eg 10-22mm) Great for capturing lots of foreground 3 Telephoto zoom lens (eg 55-250mm) Perfect for picking out distant details 4Tripod Keeps shots sharp; a big help when using narrow apertures 5 ND grad filter Boosts skies while balancing overall exposure
6 ND filter Perfect for slow-shutter seascapes and milky waterfalls 7Circular polariser Deepen blue skies and kill watery reflections 8 Lens cleaning cloth Essential for removing dust and dirty finger marks from your lens 9Plastic bag Handy for keeping your gear dry if the weather changes 10 CABLE release Minimises unwanted camera vibrations as you don’t have to touch the camera when you shoot
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Outdoor landscape and nature photography
Photos this spread by Chris George (Future) and Ben Brain (Future)
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ost of us like to take landscape shots. Even if you live in a big city, you don’t have to go too far to find nice countryside or coastal vistas, and scenic shoots are a great way to make the most of the capabilities of your digital SLR. But serious landscape photography raises some questions. What lens should you use to fit in vast vistas? Do you always need a tripod? How can you find
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The power of light Get the light right and you can transform dull landscapes into something extraordinary
Contre-jour
Where’s the sun? Most people assume photographers want to shoot with the sun behind them so the light falls onto the subject. This does produce the richest colours, but there are times when exactly the opposite can create great results. So don’t be afraid to try shooting into the light, also known as shooting ‘contre-jour’.
Side Lighting
Shoot towards the light and your light meter can be confused by the area of bright light in the frame – taking this light and over-compensating for it. The result will be an image that’s underexposed and too dark. Use the Exposure Compensation function to ‘dial-in’ a higher exposure setting.
Spot metering For more accurate metering use the Partial or Spot metering mode. With this setting your D-SLR will take a light reading from a small central area of your scene. These metering modes are ideal for more challenging situations, such as backlight.
Outdoor landscape and nature photography
Shooting with the light to the side of the scene creates strong shadows in your landscapes. This can accentuate the three-dimensional form of buildings and the surface texture of the land itself.
Essential skills All D-SLRs allow you to alter white balance, so you can specify the light (eg, Fluorescent) for more accurate results. If you’re shooting RAW, you can change the white balance in software, but it’s quicker to get it right in-camera.
Most landscape photographers prefer working in the early morning or early evening. These moments are often referred to as the ‘magic’ or ‘golden’ hours, and while it can be a drag getting out of bed so early in the morning, the subtle qualities of the light at these times will make it worth the effort. Light can change in seconds, especially if there are fast-moving clouds in the sky. These images (below) were shot over one minute. You can see how much the changing light has altered the final effect.
Tungsten
Fluorescent
Flash
Cloudy
Shade
You don’t always have to use the ‘correct’ white balance. Your SLR’s Auto White Balance (AWB) and preset options (see above) are great in most circumstances, but try experimenting with different colour settings to enhance the mood of your scene.
Daylight
Photos this spread by Chris George and Ben Brain
The golden hour
White balance settings
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Tips from top pros “Light can completely transform a scene, so be prepared to head out early or late in the day during the ‘magic’ hour. When the sun is close to the horizon, try shooting into the light to give your images an evocative feel. You must take care with exposure, though, and check the histogram on your camera’s back LCD to ensure you have held detail in the highlight areas. Look for fleeting light, when the sun peeps through gaps in the cloud and sends shafts of light downwards. Planning is the key, so research your location thoroughly and choose your shooting points in advance so that you can make the most of any fleeting situation.”
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Composition
Struggling to nail a perfect composition? Here are some tips…
Foreground interest Many otherwise promising landscape shots are undermined because all the focus is on the mid-ground and far distance. Try to include some foreground interest, be it a rock or a stone wall, to balance the image.
Can’t find anything suitable to feature in your foreground? Try creating some interest of your own. On a visit to Kilve, Somerset, we piled stones on top of each other to create some foreground focus.
Make sure your foreground interest is actually interesting. A couple of mouldy rocks or scruffy bushes won’t always do the job. Don’t just ‘tick boxes’. Look for genuine interest and then compose the rest of the scene around this eye-catching starting point. Ensure that the light is falling on your foreground, otherwise the viewer’s eye won’t be lead into your landscape. It doesn’t matter if you include long shadows in the distance.
Outdoor landscape and nature photography
You may need to use a little fill-in flash to brighten up the foreground. We found that a flashgun on an off-camera lead worked best, pointing the flash to light one side of the stones to recreate the effect of sunlight.