The beauty of landscape photography is how much simply manipulating the exposure triangle can alter your image in different creative ways. If you are ready to take full control of your images, this great video will show you everything you need to know about mastering manual mode for landscape photography.
Coming to you from Mark Denney, this great video will show you how to master manual mode for landscape photography. The beauty of landscape photography is that you can get a multitude of distinct images from the same scene simply by varying the fundamental exposure parameters. This is why it is so important that you have a strong understanding of exposure fundamentals, as leaving your camera in auto mode may make it difficult to get the exact results you have in mind. Furthermore, landscapes often have a massive dynamic range, and you will have to make careful decisions about your settings to ensure the final exposure is proper ("proper" in the sense that it matches the technical parameters to your creative vision). Check out the video above for lots of helpful guidelines from Denney.
And if you want to continue to improve your landscape images, check out "Photographing the World 1: Landscape Photography and Post-Processing With Elia Locardi!"
I don't think I've ever taken a photo in Auto mode. Instead I use aperture priority + exposure compensation. Unless I'm using flash, in which case, fully manual. The camera does a great job of choosing shutter speed so I don't have to worry (unless it goes to slow).
Sorry Alex, I can't agree that this is a great video it concentrates almost totally on the use of simple exposure indicators to guide the manual adjustment of aperture and shutter speed. There is only a single passing reference to the use of the histogram and no discussion of the influence of different exposure metering modes (spot evaluative etc) on the finally settings chosen.
I bought a Brian Peterson book as soon as I got a camera and read it cover to cover so I’ve only ever used the manual settings on my camera, I often use aperture priority when handheld but it’s a choice not a necessity.
After taking this path I can never understand the fuss made about manual and why it’s seen as some next level thing that’s hard to grasp. I can understand some people may just struggle with it but I’m fairly certain, like most things in life, people will get out what they put in and the people who don’t learn to use their camera properly either don’t have the patience or real motivation to bother learning. If they really really wanted to learn it they would.
Enough with the camera Modes already. It's about understanding what the numbers mean. It matters not one whit whether you use Av, Tv, P or M. All lead to the same place, which is the camera telling you what its meter recommends. Up you you to interpret that info. Nothing more.
Personally I find A with Exp Comp works just fine for me; others use M, fine, whatever, do what works for you.
Instead of fiddling around like this guy, manually taking over what the camera meter suggests he should concentrate on the depth of field (aperture) and/or the time for whatever he wants to achieve. - That said, he could easily use aperture priority and dial in exposure compensation.
What about spot metering? What about using the histogram? What about the idea of using a light meter and measuring the light falling on the subject? Nothing! But then the subject says "A Guide to Mastering...".
With the great ISO invariance of today's cameras, exposure can easily be changed in post processing. To darken an image is always possible. To recover shadows has never been that easy before. So check for highlights in the critical parts of your image because these will never be recoverable in post. Mastering begins here and not by using manual mode.
'The first thing you wanna do is identify where your light meter is...'
Is this for real? Fstoppers finally reaches out to the kindergarten generation.
All I ever use is manual for landscapes . Its how I learned photography back in 1979 in High School Photography class. I first used a Yashica FX-2 35 mm. It was only manual, none of that auto crap.