just outside the town of Ålesund on the Norwegian coast is depicted in just about every tourist brochure and guidebook about the region. Even though the prospects of getting a unique shot are relatively slim at a location that is this well photographed, a visit is still worthwhile even if it is just a matter of getting your first shots ‘in the bag’. A clear haze-free day is essential when you are photographing distant, highly detailed scenes. Here I used a polarizing filter to intensify the colours and remove reflections from the foliage and rooftops.
Hasselblad XPan, 45mm lens, polarizer, centre-spot filter, Fujichrome Velvia, 1/15sec at f/11
7
Use a polarizing filter
The polarizer is a very important filter for the landscape photographer. On sunny days, it can be used to deepen the colour of blue skies, accentuate clouds and saturate other colours within a scene. This can reduce the contrast between land and sky and increase the overall impact of the shot. A polarizer is most effective when used at right-angles to the sun and when the sun is low in the sky; however, it isn’t always necessary to apply the full amount of polarization – a half turn of the filter may be all that is required. A polarizer can also be helpful on overcast days (see page 27) when it can be used to remove unwanted reflections from grass, foliage, rocks and other surfaces, thereby improving colour saturation and the definition of fine detail. Polarizers reduce the amount of light reaching the film by 1–2 stops. In-camera TTL exposure systems will take this into account, but you will need to compensate for this if you are using a hand-held light meter.
Oil-seed rape fields
White clouds set in an otherwise clear blue sky provide the perfect opportunity to exploit the effects of a polarizing filter. The blue sky becomes highly saturated, making the clouds stand out clearly. The filter has also removed reflections from the vegitation and saturated the colours throughout the image. I normally avoid using a polarizing filter on wide-angle lenses when photographing scenes that include blue sky, as I dislike the uneven darkening of the sky that can result.
Canon EOS 5, 50mm lens, warm-tone polarizer, Fujichrome Velvia, 1/45sec at f/16
8
Search for the best vantage point
One of the most important lessons in landscape photography is not to arrive at a location and instantly fix your camera to your tripod. A tripod-mounted camera is very restrictive and discourages you from moving very far or from altering the height from which you shoot. This often results in images that lack both depth and an interesting or well-conceived foreground. Always explore the location first. Step off the path and walk around, keeping an eye out for interesting foreground elements or lead-in lines. Once you have found a likely shooting position hold your camera up to your eye and consider how to compose the scene. Try both vertical and horizontal format to see which might work best. Only once you are happy with what you see should you reach for your tripod, which then becomes a perfect aid for fine-tuning your chosen composition.
Seaton Bay at sunset
Upon arriving at this pebble beach at Axmouth, in Devon, England, I walked up and down the shoreline with my camera in hand, searching for the best position from which to shoot. This was obviously a wide-angle shot so I was looking for a nice arrangement of boulders to include in the foreground. The freedom of movement that a hand-held camera provides allowed me to quickly find the best position and height from which to shoot before setting the tripod in place. This technique both speeds up the image-taking process and can also increase the compositional impact of your shots. On this occasion, the clouds overhead reflected the colours of the setting sun. A layer of haze in front of the sun prevented any problems with flare. I selected a small aperture to ensure sufficient depth of field, and added a 2-stop neutral density filter to increase the exposure time to help smooth out the surface of the sea and to record the movement of the swirling water in the foreground.
Canon EOS 3, 24mm lens, 2-stop neutral density filter, 2-stop neutral density filter, Fujichrome Velvia, 10sec at f/16
9
Learn to use neutral density graduated filters
Neutral density graduated filters (also known as ND grads) are an indispensable tool for the landscape photographer. Neither film nor digital capture is able to record the same range or brightness that we can see with our own eyes, and if you ignore this limitation you are likely to be disappointed with many of your landscape photos. We can decipher detail within a brightness range of about 13 stops, whereas transparency film can only record detail within a range of 5 stops (a little more with digital) before either highlights burn out or shadows block up. Therefore, if you photograph a scene that includes a broad range of brightness and expose for the highlights, the shadows will lack detail; if you expose for the shadows, the highlights will burn out. Expose for somewhere in between and the whole image is likely to look wrong. This is where neutral density graduated filters come in. Their 50/50 split of clear and grey (neutral density) glass or optical resin allows us to reduce the contrast between light and dark areas (often the difference between the sky and the landscape itself), helping to retain a full range of detail in our images. If there is more than a 5-stop difference between the correct exposure for the brightest highlights and the deepest shadows, you will need to control this contrast in order to preserve detail throughout the image. Even if the scene is within the 5-stop range, you will probably wish to reduce the contrast for a more balanced result. To aid precise positioning of the filter, set your shooting aperture and hold down your camera’s depth-of-field preview button (if it has one). The viewfinder image will be dark, but it will show the transition line of the filter more clearly. Slide the filter up and down in the holder to achieve perfect positioning. Remember that the smaller the aperture you use, the sharper the transition line of the filter will appear in your image. Neutral density graduated filters come in different strengths (normally 1, 2 and 3 stops) and in both hard- and soft-edged versions. Hard-edged filters are most useful when photographing a scene with a relatively straight horizon, such as a seascape, whereas soft-edged filters are of more use when the horizon is interrupted by hills, trees or buildings.
Loch Tummel
Part of this Scottish scene was illuminated by late afternoon sunlight, but the rocks that I wanted to use to provide foreground interest were in the shadow of the hillside behind me. I took a spot-meter reading (with a polarizing filter in place) of 1/15sec at f/16 from a mid-toned area of the sunlit hills, and another reading of 1sec at f/16 from the foreground rocks. This difference of 3 stops meant that I needed to position a neutral density graduated filter across the top half of the image in order to record sufficient detail throughout. I decided to use a 2-stop ND grad in order to maintain some contrast between the two areas. When you are using an ND grad to hold back a bright sky always make sure the sky records as a lighter tone than the foreground, otherwise the resulting image will tend to look unnatural. There is nothing to stop you combining two or more neutral density graduated filters to help retain detail in a very high-contrast scene, or perhaps to hold back both the sky and the foreground when shooting a snow scene.
Canon EOS 3, 24mm lens, polarizer, 2-stop neutral density graduated filter, Fujichrome Velvia, 1/4sec at f/16
Canon EOS 3, 24mm lens, polarizer, Fujichrome Velvia, 1/15sec at f/16
10
Understand
