Wide angle lenses are normally the optic of choice for the majority of landscape photography, but they come with their own unique set of challenges and potential pitfalls. If you are new to landscape photography, this informative video details some of the common mistakes beginner landscape photographers make with wide angle lenses and what you can do to fix them.
Coming to you from Mark Denney, this fantastic video discusses some of the most common mistakes beginners make when using a wide angle lens for landscape photography. Personally, the mistake I made many times when I was new to the genre was not including a foreground element. Wide angle lenses tend to push everything away from the lens, and without a foreground element, an image can feel very empty and two-dimensional. Adding a foreground element can not only remedy this, it can create a lot of depth through the use of multiple layers and help to lead the the viewer's eyes into the image and to the subject. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Denney.
And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out "Photographing The World 1: Landscape Photography and Post-Processing with Elia Locardi."
Mark Denney nails the wide problems to watch for. Our eyes have peripheral vision, hold arms out with thumbs up and look straight and when you see both, but a lens is a straight forward view. But when you just look straight ahead and what is focused is a 50 to 55mm, in the film days we put our thumbs together and extended our arms out and that is what our eyes are focused on. Canon had a 14mm in the film days but mostly a 24mm was used. Today 16mm is common but in full frame went 14mm then 12mm and even 10mm (without fisheyes) APS-C needed fisheye lenses to go wider. The point, what we see with our peripheral vision we have wanted to capture with the camera, main reason for doing panoramas. Also wide is not to get it all in but concentrate on the composition. Without knowing the mm used in a landscape photo you would never be able to tell, even when a 200mm is used. Like the full moon at night our eye sees it as huge with a lot foreground, But you need a 300mm to get the same size but you get no foreground, reason for the darkroom back in the day and PS today. We want to capture what all the eyes see but must maintain what is being focused on and what draws the eye in the first place. Example you can stand 10 yards from a tall pecan tree with a12mm (looks 50 yards) and it will be all in the frame but what you want is the background that makes it great. Or getting it all with a 10mm. or narrow with 24mm, But can you tell the mm in the last even pinpoint stars (ya! 41mm 13s with 24-240).
Alex Cooke hey just an unrelated question.. what ballhead are you using?
Been searching for something good with quick lock...coming from bulky Manfrottos that need to hold my 1D series and 300mm to R5 and want to go for something lighter.
Thanks!