A Rarely Used Camera Setting That Can Improve Your Landscape Images

Creating a successful landscape photo often takes skills both behind the camera and at the computer, and of course, what you do in the field influences how you handle things once you are ready to process your images. This great video tutorial takes a look at a camera setting many of us never touch and how it can improve your landscape images quickly and easily.  

Coming to you from Mark Denney, this awesome video tutorial shows how changing your camera's aspect ratio can improve your landscape compositions. Most of us simply work with the native aspect ratio of our camera sensor in the field (normally 4:3 or 3:2), but when it comes time to edit our images, we will often crop to something different like 5:7 or 8:10. However, it can be difficult to visualize how different crops will look at the time of taking the shot, but thankfully, most modern cameras will let you cycle through a variety of common aspect ratios. Don't worry, though: if you are shooting in raw, your camera will usually still keep the full-resolution image, so you will still have the flexibility of the entire file back at your computer. It's a useful way to work out your composition and create more precise and intentional images. 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." 

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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1 Comment

Use the native aspect of the camera and sensor

You can always change a/r when you crop or form

But changing a/r at shooting takes away what can't be restored