How Various Settings Can Create Different Landscape Photographs

The cool thing about landscape photography is that there are generally a variety of appropriate settings for any specific scene or subject; it really comes down to your creative vision and the sort of final image you're looking to create. This great video talks about choosing settings to match what you're trying to portray.

Coming to you from Adam Karnacz of First Man Photography, this video follows him as he shoots a variety of landscape images at various settings and focal lengths. There can be a bit of a trope in landscape photography: every shot taken with a wide angle lens on a tripod at base ISO, a narrow aperture, and whatever shutter speed matches those settings. And while there's certainly nothing wrong with those shots (after all, it's a trope for a reason), they're not the only way to shoot a scene, and you could be missing out  by not exploring the different options. Try taking out multiple focal lengths, shooting at wider apertures and faster shutter speeds, and exploring how varying all these things can render a scene in drastically different ways. You may be pleasantly surprised by how many different images you can create from one area. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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