Photographers who are active on social media often get a lot of questions about the technicalities of photography. Especially about nightscape photography – the subgenre of landscape imaging where you basically have a dark landscape set to some celestial backdrop featuring twinkly stars.
There's probably no other genre in which long exposures are so heavily used than landscape photography. The convenience of mostly static subjects combined with the necessity of low ISOs means landscape shooters are often pushing their exposures well past the one-minute mark.
Autumn is upon us and the great migration is in full swing with hordes of photographers descending upon small towns all across the northeastern United States to capture the changing colors of the leaves. Leaf peeping (and photographing) is hard work. It requires patience, solitude, and the ability to put up with the constant aroma of pumpkin spice latte in the air.
Thomas Heaton put out a new YouTube video a few days ago that many photographers, especially those who hike out to destinations, will have a lot of interest in. Heaton is downsizing not only the amount of equipment for his next landscape photography adventure, but he’s also trying out Canon’s APS-C mirrorless system that’s on loan from Canon.
This past week, Minnesota-based Photographer Rich Hoeg had the opportunity to photograph the aurora over Stewart Lake in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Hoeg describes himself as an enthusiast photographer with a love of photographing birds.
That's right, it's just about every photographer's favorite time of year. The last thing that anyone wants is to have the season come and go without having had the chance to capture as much of it as we can.
Our newest photography tutorial with Elia Locardi, "Photographing the World 3," was released earlier this week and once again, we filmed a massive behind the scenes series on the creation of this tutorial. This season has 13 episodes and today we are releasing episode 1.
Over the years, I have come across several different ways to give your photo a dreamy look. When I first started my journey into photography I came across a lens filter with the sole purpose of creating the dreamy look, but I found that too much detail was lost so I never used it again. So what is a good way to add the dreamy look to your photos?
I have a confession to make: this past week I've been playing around with images that I've taken with my cell phone over the last year or so. I went to backup my phone's photos and decided why not try and play with them a bit in Photoshop during some downtime. You know what?
There's often the belief that creating a fully polished photo requires the use of Photoshop at some point in the process. However, Lightroom is itself a very powerful program, and often, one can create a finished image using only it. Here's how to do just that with a landscape photo.
I am excited to announce the release of one of the most epic projects Lee and I have been working on this year. As many of you know, Fstoppers teamed up with Landscape Photographer Elia Locardi back in 2014 to produce two separate tutorials on landscape and cityscape photography.
Normally, we're taught that one of the basic rules of composition is to have a strong subject; in fact, that's almost taken as a given most of the time. However, compositions without a dominant or obvious subject can also make for great images, as this interesting video discusses.
I've never been one for collecting souvenirs, not even remotely. I have always much preferred to take some extra time to hunt down a few locations in which to shoot some landscape photographs. For me, the pictures that I get to take home are the best souvenirs that I could hope for. In many ways, the more work that it takes to capture such images, the more the pictures end up meaning to me.
Jim Reed is a renowned extreme weather photographer who, in 1992, started a 30-year project on climate change. His day-to-day work includes tornadoes, blizzards, floods, and droughts - not to mention 19 hurricanes, including Katrina. Here's what he's discovered.
On September 14, 2017 the Royal Observatory Greenwich announced the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards.
In the last few years, Laowa, a Chinese company, released some very interesting lenses. Several of their wide-angle lenses have been praised for excellent performance and can be bought at relatively reasonable prices. The Laowa 15mm f/2 is one of these lenses and is currently the fastest 15mm lens that you can buy.
I came across this interesting video in which a frustrated photographer examines the issue of too many people and impolite behavior making landscape photography difficult at beautiful locations. It's definitely an issue that deserves to be addressed, and his take on it is worth hearing.
I love landscape photography, both for its subject matter and its meditative quality. Undertaking it requires serious commitment of time and resources, however, or so it may seem. This great video highlights what's possible with just a little time and a short walk.
Thomas Heaton is a landscape photographer based in the United Kingdom and has grown exponentially in popularity since gaining steam on his YouTube channel in the early part of 2016. While known for giving a great professional insight into the world of professional photography, he’s also a great educator on handling yourself in the outdoors.
Our friends at ViewBug are proud to present the Earth First contest series. These contests awards top-end gear that was lovingly used by another creative individual. Providing high-quality, pre-owned prizes puts less strain on the planet, and allows ViewBug to offer even bigger prizes. Classic win-win!
Let's be honest, regardless how creative you may be we all have our highs and lows. In the field of photography, creativity should be an essential part of why we started. Our passion needs to be unleashed. Here are some ways to help you unlock your creativity.
Part of the fun and challenge of landscape photography is that while you can choose your compositions, you don't get the privilege of modifying your subject. Sometimes, you come across a scene that begs to be photographed, but doesn't readily lend itself to a composition. This video examines such situations and how to shoot them.
When we think of landscape photography, we likely don't think of driving rain and 50 mph winds. But just because the weather isn't all blue skies and mild air doesn't mean we shouldn't be out there with a camera, braving the elements.
Since the beginning of time, humans have been drawn to the mountains. Naturally, if you’re a photographer and have a taste for adventure, the mountains seem like the best place to go shoot. Dramatic landscapes, beautiful colors, and natural majesty of the great outdoors is the perfect recipe for compelling imagery.
I think most photographers understand the desire to continuously acquire piece after piece of equipment.
In order to evolve as photographers, we need to keep making pictures and push our personal and professional boundaries. Stagnation can be one of the most demotivating situations to experience, as a photographer and as a human being.
Just like everyone else, my social media feed was flooded with solar eclipse images yesterday. While there were a number of truly amazing shots and at least one potentially politically controversial one, my hands-down favorite was the remarkable photograph of a silhouetted climber at the moment of totality, captured by professional Outdoor and Commercial Photographer Andrew Studer.
About a year ago I was drinking in a bar in Leicester, England. I got chatting to a gentleman who I sort of recognized from various events I'd attended in the past. After a few drinks, I discovered he owned a helicopter. At this stage, I was a bit worse for wear and thought it would be a grand idea to ask if he'd like to fly me above our hometown to take a sunset cityscape.
When I first found out a full solar eclipse was passing through Charleston, South Carolina, I marked my calendar hoping I would be able to photograph it. Today the eclipse passed through the final stretch of America, and even with a full year of forewarning, I was not prepared to photograph it at all.
Popular landscape photography locations can be a bit of conundrum in some sense: they're likely popular because they offer great images, but that reputation means it can be difficult to produce original work from them. This vlog follows one photographer as he seeks out those compositions in one of the most popular locations in the world.
My passion for photography stemmed from a series of trips I had taken overseas and a desire to capture the beauty of those places with more finesse. Landscapes were a natural draw for me and it didn’t take long to come across the concept of exposure blending.
It's been several years since I first had the chance to visit Yellowstone National Park, but I can honestly say that it was an incredible experience throughout and I can't wait to go back. The trip to the national park was honestly a game-changing experience for me and how I approach my own landscape photography.
You may have heard Morten Rustad’s name being bandied about alongside words like “time-lapse,” “Norway,” and “that’s-so-fricken-cool.” That last one might not be an actual word, but you catch my drift. Morten’s pretty good at what he does, and he’s teamed up with film equipment company Syrp to let you in on how he does it.
“A picture is worth a thousand words”, so goes the idiom.They can recall memories so profound; the song on the radio, the light in the room, or the laughter that surrounded you.They can make you feel the joy that was in your heart all over again in an instant. If I close my eyes, I can transport to the very spot where I felt truly alive.
HDR is a beautiful but rather complicated editing process, or at least that was the case until Aurora HDR was designed by Macphun and photographer Trey Ratcliff. It’s now become an effortless and unintimidating retouching technique to bring the most out of your architectural and landscape images.
Luminosity masks are a fantastic way to make precise selections based on luminance values (hence the name). As with all things Photoshop, there are multiple ways to achieve the same result. I find using channel selections to be the easiest way to manually create my masks.
Sometimes when you're out shooting that epic landscape, in order to capture the entire view, you need to shoot a series of images on location and then stitch them together afterwards in post-processing. I think we've all been there. Depending on which lens you're using, that can create the particularly frustrating challenge of dramatic image distortion.
If you really love landscape photography, it can be more than a professional pursuit or a hobby, it can almost become a way of life. This awesome video shows how a day of shooting long exposures can become a meditative experience.
If you’ve ever wondered how to create rich seascape photos with silky waves that convey the motion of the sea, you’ll want to check out this tutorial. Freelance Landscape Photographer Michael Breitung describes how to capture various types of seascape images, and has one particular post-processing tip that you won’t want to miss.
What’s holding you back? Is it work or responsibilities? Is it just life getting in the way? Is it you making a commitment to taking that next step? This morning I was overlooking the Rio Grande into Mexico and I thought that there's no place I’d rather be than right here in this moment. This is what getting out of your own way feels like.
If you like to shoot waterfalls, you've likely noticed that they often have a distinct blueness to them, whereas you likely desire them to be white, as they normally look to the naked eye. This quick tutorial will show you exactly how to remove the blue from waterfalls and restore them to their original shade.
Adding drama to images without humans to express it is its own art, and taking advantage of the play between light and dark is one of the best ways to do it. This great video follows a landscape photographer as he uses shifting light to accentuate his subjects and create excitement in his images.
When it comes to architectural photography, tilt-shift lenses are quite possibly the best option available. The flexibility and amazing image quality make them very popular amongst architectural photographers and even some landscape photographers.
Over the last several weeks, my social media feeds have been flooded with a torrent of lavender images, each seemingly more beautiful than the last. Late June is generally the high season for the lavender bloom in the famous Provence region of southern France.
As photographers, we generally tend to overpack our gear bags, because it feels much better to have too much equipment at our disposal rather than too little. At the same time, though, too many choices can be paralyzing. This great video goes the other direction by limiting the bag to one camera and lens, then restricting the shots to one crop.
Getting colors that are vibrant and pop without being gaudy is a challenge in which many landscape photographers are constantly engaged. This helpful tutorial shows you how to use selective color adjustment layers to subtly give your images that desired look.
We've all see those "what's in my bag" videos on YouTube, but this one was particularly interesting to me, as it's a fun walk through camera history. Check out how one professional landscape photographer's gear bag has evolved over the course of three decades.
For the last 10 years I have been regularly visiting this remote and pristine island state. Tasmania is about a 1.5 hour flight from Sydney to the city of Launceston. The diverse choice of landscapes and close proximity by car make this a unique and accessible environment still largely untouched.
The largest single landscape print I have made to date is a ten-foot-wide panorama of the Painted Rock at Fort Irwin.
The closest art to photography is painting, and thus the two primary visual art forms share basic precepts regarding light and composition. In the same way photographers use different lenses, filters, and lights to achieve their vision, so too might they learn to use various time-honored, classical techniques in composition.