A couple more landscape tips.

[owen]

Hey guys.

If you saw my post a few weeks ago I went to a landscape workshop and would just like to post a few tips I learnt from it.

- Use a wideangle lens.

- Use leading lines.

Lines that lead the eye into the picture, whether it be a straight line, curved line, curly line whatever. It could be made up of a row of flowers, rocks, train tracks you name it.

- Sometimes put a 'blocker' on the leading lines.

Put something that stops the eye from following the leading line all the way out the frame. Eg. on a train track that leads from bottom left to the right hand side, if you have a train at the right then your eyes will not continue out, but rather stop and find more interest in the train.

- Use foreground objects

Good landscapes have objects close up in the foreground which enables the eye to be lead into the picture, and also provides a more 3-dimensional image.

- Colour in foreground

Brightly coloured objects in the foreground can be used to entive the viewer, and also be used to counteract larger areas of duller or opposite colour.

- Use hyperfocal focus.

In order to get everything in your image sharp when using a small aperture (eg f11-22) if you focus on the distant mountains or whatever then the foreground object will be soft. If you bring the focus in a bit then you will be able to get a greater depth of field (eg. from 3ft to infinity) for more information have a search for hyperfocal focussing.

edit: USE A TRIPOD!

Hope this helps you guys out!

Cheers.
Owen.

[the foto fanatic]

Thanx for these tips owen - all informative & relevant.

[Manta]

Thanx for these tips owen - all informative & relevant.

Likewise from me, Owen - thanks very much.

[Onyx]

Thanks Owen - all very good and useful points. To think, you went along to the landscape workshop (presumably it wasn't free) and now you're sharing that knowledge with us for free!

[owen]

$20 you cheapskates owe me!

I'm more than happy to share... actually a lot of this info came from a camera club meeting a few weeks ago... the landscape workshop wasn't that great and it's only stuff you can read about when looking at composition anyway.

Thanks for checking it out though chaps.

[Marvin]

Actually, I found them very useful. I guess I have lost count of the number of times I have gone out and seen a cool scene and just shot away with no thought to leading lines or foreground interest. I then get them back and think about how crappy they are!
Thanks Owen!

[robw25]

thanks for the tips owen ... i would love to go to a workshop... you guys in the big smoke get all the luck

cheers rob

[owen]

Actually, I found them very useful. I guess I have lost count of the number of times I have gone out and seen a cool scene and just shot away with no thought to leading lines or foreground interest. I then get them back and think about how crappy they are!
Thanks Owen!

Hey Marv.

That's why I thought I'd post them. My landscapes were turning out very ordinary. Using a tripod makes you think about the shot a bit more, and take the time to compose it properly.

Cheers,
Owen.

[owen]

thanks for the tips owen ... i would love to go to a workshop... you guys in the big smoke get all the luck

cheers rob

I'm not in the big smoke mate, I'm in the small-medium smoke. If you haven't already try and find a photography club, they're great fun and you learn heaps.

[ozimax]

Good points, thanks, Max

[agriffiths]

Thanks for the great tips Owen.... now where's my tripod got to

[xerubus]

some great tips owen... thankyou for sharing.

cheers

[Suri]

Wonders what hyperfocal focus means - love to shot landscapes though.

[xerubus]

Wonders what hyperfocal focus means - love to shot landscapes though.

have a quick look at this:

http://www.vividlight.com/articles/3513.htm

cheers

[Glen]

Thanks Owen

[WadeM]

WOw, that's some really good advice there Owen. Thanks a lot! I've always wondered how the Ansel Adam's of this wolrd get such great DoF from the rocks to the mountains etc!

--Wadem