Good day to all. Today I will talk a little about my approach to landscape photography.

The landscape for me is probably the most beloved and nice view shooting, after all, while photographing, I simultaneously relax with my soul, enjoying the beauty that nature has created. Taking pictures of nature is an incredible pleasure - climbing into its quiet corners, you get such a charge of energy and cheerfulness, which then lasts for a long time. The wind in your face, the sun on your lips, legs drooping from fatigue towards evening and a heart filled with love for the whole surrounding - what could be better?

For beginners, as a rule, it seems that nothing is easier than taking pictures of a landscape. I remember that one of the novice photographers on the Photo Monster forum wrote that there is nothing difficult in shooting landscapes, the only difficulty is getting to the place of shooting. At first glance, yes: here is a pond, here is a forest, here is a road, here is a sky with clouds floating on it - just take your camera and shoot. But, in general, after the first such filming, it becomes clear that it is not so easy to find an interesting plot, it is difficult to see the unusual in the ordinary, even to correctly compose the frame, to make the right accent is not always possible for a beginner. After all, it is very important for a landscape painter not only to capture the beauty of some picturesque corner, but to be able to show the mood of nature itself, its state, the harmony of color and light - all together this is the key to the success of landscape photography.

Equipment for shooting landscapes

So, I'll start with what is needed for landscape photography in terms of equipment and what I mostly use. In principle, you can shoot with any device, but, of course, full-format cameras in this regard give more when shooting. creative opportunities... I tend to shoot nature on Nikon D800 E... Landscape painters use different lenses, up to long-focus lenses - the main thing here is to know the goals and objectives that are being set. But still, landscapes are often shot using wide-angle optics - it is this that allows you to capture the breadth and expanse of the nature being filmed, and it is this that provides the sharpness that is so necessary for such shooting throughout the frame.

I originally shot landscapes with the lens. Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f / 2.8G ED. An excellent lens, I can't say anything bad about it - many of my shots were taken with it. For example, these are:

Gradually, I began to miss the angle of this zoom lens, and was acquired Nikon AF-S 14-24mm f / 2.8G ED. Now, I mostly use it when shooting landscapes - a super sharp wide-angle lens is exactly what a landscape painter needs. Here are some examples shot with this lens:

Now I will dwell a little on tripods. A tripod is an integral part of a landscape painter's equipment, it offers much more exposure control and is especially important when shooting poorly lit scenes such as sunrise and sunset. I have two tripods in my arsenal and, as a rule, I take both of them on trips (of course, if these trips are by car). One tripod is heavy and reliable - Manfrotto 055XPRO3. I use my head with him Manfrotto 410 Junior- very convenient compact 3-axis tripod head with a mechanism for precise positioning in three directions; panning, frontal and side tilting. This tripod is usually used when shooting close to the car, for long distances it becomes too heavy a burden. Therefore, for hiking I have one more tripod, it is lighter, but quite reliable and has never let me down. It is O Fotopro X5IW + 52Q. Another thing I like about this tripod is that it easily turns into a monopod and becomes my indispensable assistant when shooting sports.

It is highly desirable to have a release cable or remote control remote control to avoid camera shake when you press the shutter button and to prevent blur (especially at slow shutter speeds).

About filters. What, in my opinion, is necessary to have when leaving for landscape photography. First of all, of course, it is a protective filter - you can't go anywhere without it. It will protect the lens from dust, moisture, perhaps, if dropped, it will protect the lens (however, this has never happened to me - I take great care of my equipment, but no one is immune from this). Since I often shoot in the mountains, I use multi-layer UV filters as a protective filter, which not only protect lenses from mechanical and other influences, but also help to trap "soft ultraviolet light", and in the mountains help to fight bluish haze and decrease in contrast.

The second filter that I put in my backpack is a polarizing filter. It helps to fight glare on the water well, saturates the photo with a gamut of colors. Previously, I used it very actively to darken the sky, but recently I use it much less often - I increasingly resort to shooting with exposure bracketing and, if necessary, take the sky from a darker frame.

For a wide-angle lens 14-24, I use all the same filters, but through this mounting system:

I used to love experimenting with Cokin filters (when I was shooting only with a 24-70 lens). Here's an example using the orange gradient filter:

Gradually moved away from the use of Cokin filters - the result has ceased to be liked, the filters take up a lot of space in the backpack along with the entire fastening system, and even "screw it up" the colors you want no problem in post-processing.

A landscape painter, of course, needs ND filters with different stops (ideally, you probably need to have one ND filter of variable density - it will allow you to replace a whole set of ND filters of different densities and does not take up much space). An ND filter will help limit the amount of light when it is necessary to use the widest aperture to reduce the depth of field. Most often, such filters are used to lengthen exposure when shooting water - to obtain the effect of "milk rivers".

Now about the shooting itself. More often, landscape painters shoot with the camera horizontal - after all, this is the position in which we can create pictures with wide and far-reaching landscapes. However, a horizontal landscape shot is not always a prerequisite getting an interesting shot. If the plot seen requires vertical shooting, then all the accepted rules are thrown back. For example, if the subject becomes lonely standing tree, rock or other tall object - consider cropping vertically. I don't often take vertical shots, but sometimes it happens, as, for example, in these shots:

Composition in a landscape is the basis of photography and, as a rule, this is where the difficulties arise. When shooting landscapes and creating a composition, I took a few simple rules for myself.

1. The frame must be harmoniously filled, i.e. it should not be overloaded with unnecessary details. Even when framing on the spot, you should try to cut off all unnecessary elements. The edges of the photo should not outweigh each other - the composition should be balanced.
2. No matter how great the composition, but the light when shooting is one of the most important conditions for obtaining beautiful shots. In cloudy weather, you rarely get interesting pictures, so you often have to wait for good lighting. To get beautiful landscape photos it is necessary that the main objects in the picture be highlighted by lighting - highlighted. And, of course, the best time to shoot landscapes is morning and evening, when the sun is not in a high position - it is at this time that it gives side shadows that create the impression of volume and depth.
3. It is necessary to compose the frame, usually using the “rule of thirds”. Most amateur photographers know it, of course: we shoot in proportions 1/3 earth and 2/3 sky, or, conversely, 2/3 earth and 1/3 sky.
4. In order for the landscape to "play", an interesting foreground is needed - you need a "stroke", an accent. Such an accent can be a stone, tree, flower, any driftwood, etc. It is the presence of the foreground that allows you to more realistically convey the space in the captured landscape and get the so-called "presence effect".
5. We apply the rule of "golden ratio" for accented objects - we place them exactly on the intersection points. Obeying blindly, thoughtlessly, this rule, as well as all others, is not worth it - you should always approach each landscape photography individually, thoughtfully.
6. A landscape shot should be multi-dimensional in composition, i.e. it should have foreground, middle and background. In this case, focusing must be in the foreground.
7. To use the play of light and shadows - this is what often gives a photo a "zest", uniqueness.

Of course, all the rules that I adhere to are not a dogma or an immutable truth, but you need to know them and in most cases they help when shooting landscapes. But the main assistant for the landscape painter, of course, will be his own perception of the picture he sees, his inner sense of building a composition. The composition must be learned to "see" - if a person has at least a little artistic taste, this can be gradually learned.

Most landscape photographers like to shoot nature during the "golden hours", ie. at dawn and dusk. Photos taken at these intervals take on an absolutely magical look - the sun is close to the horizon, so the lighting is soft, diffused, everything around is filled with amazing color shades from golden yellow to crimson red. Not always, however, you can "catch" beautiful paints sunrise and sunset, therefore, if possible, it is worth visiting the place chosen for shooting more than once. For example, it was not the first time I managed to capture the beauty of the dawn over Berdue - I left three times at 3.00 am (the road is not close), but in the end I was lucky to see and photograph a beautiful sunrise:

Interesting shots of dawn can be obtained by shooting near water bodies. During dawn hours, as a rule, there is no wind, the water surface is completely calm, and the unusually soft colors of the dawn can work magic and make even the most ordinary-looking pond or lake mysterious. This golden dawn was filmed on one of the lakes of Gorny Altai:

Shoot sunsets at least interesting occupation than the sunrises. The main advantage of shooting is that you don't have to get up in the middle of the night and rush headlong, but you can safely get to the right place in the afternoon and slowly prepare for the sunset. The sunset glow sometimes simply amazes with its variety and splendor of colors. Twilight creates absolutely magical pictures, enveloping the sky with unusually beautiful lighting in color and tone, therefore, it can add emotion and expressiveness to landscapes. By the way, the most interesting and beautiful sunsets happen when the weather changes, for example, a blood-red or purple sunset necessarily precedes windy weather the next day. I managed to shoot such a sunset on Lake Teletskoye, this shooting of the sunset was not planned, accidental (the wayward spirit of Lake Teletskoye made us wait for a long time for the moment when it was possible to go out on a small boat on the way back to our parking lot), but this is only for me “ played into the hands ":

Sunset colors are so varied and uniquely beautiful that they can work wonders, transforming absolutely nondescript daytime landscapes into interesting paintings. How here, for example, a completely unremarkable place near the river in the evening became interesting precisely because of the sunset light:

What is the best time of the year to shoot landscapes? Yes, all year round. Of course, in warm weather it is much easier and more pleasant to do this (especially in Siberia, where I live), and good lighting happens much more often in summer than in winter, and colors are richer and more diverse, but in the cold season you can also get beautiful landscape shots - you just have to wait for the weather favorable for shooting. And someone will ask what the weather is favorable in winter, and I will answer - when the temperature on the thermometer drops and the lower, the better. In this regard, I'm probably crazy, but when forecasters warn of a severe cold snap, and most people, wrapped in warm blankets, sip hot tea with lemon at home, I pack up my equipment and rush thousands of kilometers so that on these frosty days have time to shoot unusually beautiful winter scenes. Here, for example, this landscape (outside minus 30 °):

I will dwell a little on technical aspects landscape photography. I always shoot nature in manual mode (M). For the most part, landscape shots require a large depth of field, so to achieve a greater depth of field, the aperture should be covered. I usually use f / 8-f / 11 in good enough lighting, I squeeze harder when shooting sunrises, sunsets, when I shoot the sun in backlight, so that the "rays" appear. If the task is to blur the background and at the same time highlight the object being shot, then the aperture must, of course, be slightly opened. Exposure will depend on many factors and objectives when shooting. If the shooting takes place in calm, windless weather, the shutter speed is not so important - set the required aperture and, guided by the exposure meter indicator on the camera, set the required shutter speed. If the wind is outside, then it is better to shoot at shorter exposures in order to “freeze” the picture, so to speak, without giving the breeze the opportunity to “smear” foliage, grass, etc. on the picture. Light sensitivity (ISO) is usually set low to avoid digital noise. Many people recommend using a value of 100 when shooting landscapes. But lately I have started to use slightly higher values ​​(200-400) more and more, this, in my opinion, gives a better elaboration of the background of the photo. But sunsets and sunrises all the same I prefer to shoot at ISO 100. Another important thing is to turn on the indicator of overexposed areas, the so-called "highlight" mode, and, of course, shooting in RAW (I don't even think about that. worth talking about).

In conclusion, I want to say that taking pictures of nature is how to get into another world - a world of amazing, unique beauty, filled with extraordinary colors that the world around us is so rich in. The main thing is to be able to “see” this beauty. If you are delighted with a beautiful view of nature, while your soul is singing, and your heart is filled with love and bursts out of your chest, then this is the first step to the success of getting beautiful pictures. I wish everyone interesting stories and good shots!

Greetings, dear readers! In touch with you, Timur Mustaev. Landscape photography is considered by some amateur photographers to be one of the most basic genres of photography. To some extent, I share their point of view: go where you like it, and take off whatever comes into your head.

Plus, unlike studio shooting, which requires considerable financial costs, nature will not disappear and will not require anything in return, except for a careful attitude to it, and the situation changes depending on the time of year, giving room for imagination.

But is the landscape really that simple? Let's figure it out together.

And let's start debriefing, perhaps, with the definition of this genre and its place in human reality.

Landscape in photography

Landscape Is a genre in which nature is the center of the image.

This trend originated in the era of the lack of cameras, when famous and not so famous artists went to the open air and conveyed what they had gone with the help of brushes and paints.

That is why understanding the meaning of this genre should be learned from realist artists.

Pictures, like nothing else, allow you to feel all the beauty of nature, they are inextricably linked with the inner world of a person, with his feelings, mood and love of life, in general.

And in photography, a landscape is not a thoroughly accurate redrawing of one or another corner of nature, but one's own perception of the world.

Modern landscape photography is quite versatile. Exhibitions of such materials instill in the viewer an artistic taste and develop the imagination by drawing associative parallels between real life and pictures.

The relationship between photography and life has given rise to a new direction - the urban landscape, in which the dominant feature is not nature, but the brainchild of society - the city with its numerous streets, architectural objects, squares, as well as an endless stream of cars and pedestrians.

The urban and classical landscape captivates even the most avaricious photographers! And there is an explanation for this: shooting in this genre, you can get excellent shots without using expensive equipment.

All you need is desire, patience, a tripod, a DSLR, and some skills in using it.

Shooting in this genre, as, in fact, in any other, is, first of all, creative process, accompanied by their own vision of what is happening, but, oddly enough, there are many rules, the observance of which will save you from failure.

Landscape photography

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine: open spaces of unprecedented beauty are stretched out in front of you and it seems that as soon as you press the shutter, the most beautiful image that the light has never seen appears on the camera display ...

Capture this episode in your memory and open your eyes, your fantasy will remain a fantasy, and you will never know how to photograph a landscape if you neglect the rules listed below.

• Maximum sharpness... Many photographers practice shooting landscapes with open apertures, however, “many” are not an indicator of good work.

The classic trick during landscape photography focusing on the entire image is considered (shooting at a closed aperture).

It is usually sufficient to produce simple settings camera to get a sharp and moderately exposed photo: the slider is in the area of ​​f / 11-16, or you can trust the machine if you shoot in. However, in order to avoid shaking, it is better to shoot the landscape with or.

• Making sense... For any photo, it is important to have a semantic center of the composition, so that, as they say, the eye has something to catch on. The focus of attention can be anything: an interestingly shaped structure, a tree, a mountain, a ship in the middle of a pestilence, etc.
• Rule of thirds in the overall composition of the frame. The location of the semantic center in relation to all the elements and details of the photo is as important as the presence of sharpness.

The reference says: the photo looks most advantageous when the objects being photographed are conventionally separated by lines that divide the image into three parts, both along and across.

• Thoughtful foreground... Place the semantic centers on the front of the photo, leaving "air space" in front, this way you will be able to create an effect of lightness and convey depth.
• Dominant element... The secret of a successful natural photography is revealed - either the sky or the foreground should dominate in the picture.

If your photos do not fit this description, they will most likely be considered boring and mundane.

If it so happens that the sky during the photo session is uninteresting and monotonous - shift the horizon line to the upper third, so you will not let it prevail over the rest.

But if you get the impression that the airspace is about to explode or fall to the ground in streams of lava, take 2/3 of the frame to it and you will see how the plot of what is happening can change.

• Lines... There are endless ways to capture the beauty of nature to its fullest. One of them is the method of including active lines in the composition. With the help of lines, you can redirect the viewer's gaze from one semantic point of the photo to another, while creating a kind of enclosure of space.

Lines not only create patterns in the photo, but also add volume. This also applies to the horizon line, behind which you constantly need an eye and an eye.

• Traffic... Many people think of landscape photography as calm and passive. But this is not necessarily the case! You can add life to a photo with the help of water or wind, for example, record the riot of the ocean or a flowing waterfall, a breath of wind or leaves falling from a tree, birds taking off or the movement of people with a DSLR.

Influence of weather and time on the quality of landscape photography

The golden rule of landscape: “The scene and plot can change dramatically overnight, depending on weather conditions and the season "

It is a mistake to believe that the best time for nature shots - a sunny day.

In cloudy weather, in terms of lighting effects, it is a pleasure to shoot: hail, rain and snow and thunderstorms can fill any landscape with an ominous, mysterious mood.

However, there is a side effect - the likelihood of getting your feet wet, getting sick and saying goodbye to the DSLR forever, since moisture can have a devastating effect on all electronics.

To avoid this, plan your day in advance, take your fees seriously: think about what to wear and what to wrap your camera in. For these purposes, it is best to purchase a waterproof case or at least one that protects the lens from getting drops on the lens.

Shooting in the rain isn't necessary - it's just one way to get artistic quality.

This creates a very soft diffused light, which makes the images light and sleepy.

A forest covered with fog will look much more mysterious and attractive than on a sunny day.

Although if the shooting takes place in the summer or autumn period Light shining through foliage can create an interesting open aperture.

During sunset, using, you can take pictures of no less interesting landscapes, especially if the foreground is slightly backlit.

To avoid bunnies, use a hood or. This filter is simply irreplaceable in landscape photography.

Night shooting is technically the most difficult. Shooting nature in full naturalness is pointless due to the lack of light. Therefore, you need to go where there are artificial light sources - the city.

In this case, you should not use the flash without interruption, raise the value to 800-1600 and forward, towards the city landscape!

A short educational program on landscape photography has come to its point of no return! I hope this article was at least instructive and helpful. I think I have conveyed to you the meaning of how to properly photograph the landscape in order to achieve the desired results.

If you are an aspiring photographer who wants to achieve positive success in photography, then everything is in your hands. The best place to start is with the concept of your DSLR. And one of the video courses below can become an assistant. Most aspiring photographers, after taking this course, have a different attitude to SLR camera... The course will help to reveal all the important functions and settings of the DSLR, which is very important at the initial stage.

My first MIRROR- for owners of CANON SLRs.

DSLR for Beginner 2.0- for owners of NIKON DSLRs.

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All the best to you, Timur Mustaev.

A lot has been written about landscape photography. I do not want to repeat myself, because here I will describe the main points and focus on the problems that I directly face when shooting.

A very short guide to landscape photography:

1. Watch the aperture, often, you need to close it tightly to F / 5.6-F / 16.0
2. Keep track of the horizon, the horizon should harmoniously "cut" the frame. Carefully and thoughtfully compose lines and proportions in the frame
3. Watch out for light sources (sun)
4. Enjoy the result

As you can see, there is nothing difficult in landscape photography. But here's the problem: getting a good shot takes some work:

• The landscape implies that you have to find it. Finding a pretty landscape is not always easy. Very often, when you find a good landscape, you don't have a camera with you.
• It is best to shoot in the morning and evening, when there is no "hard" (strong) sun. Shoot under strong and hot sunlight very difficult.
• Since it is best to shoot in the morning and in the evening, and even with closed apertures, you need a tripod. A tripod is an extra expense and excess weight during transportation.
• To catch good shots, you need an inner sense of harmony, which can either be innate or developed over a long time of photographing.

The masters of landscape photography have in their arsenal a very large stock of skills and developments, it is useless to describe them, since every little trick in the trick will be useful only in one case out of a hundred, and the person himself must choose exactly how he needs to shoot in a given situation.

Setting up the camera for landscape photography

1. Almost always, the landscape is shot at a closed aperture: F5.6-F36.0. The easiest way to do this is in priority mode.
2. The ISO value should be set to the minimum: ISO 50, 100, 200,
3. Color Saturation Adjustment - Maximum
4. Focusing is best of all - manual, focusing preferably at infinity (on the farthest object)

Theory is great, but in practical shooting, all the simplicity vanishes. First, when shooting landscapes, a very serious problem is the effect of overexposure or under-lighting of areas in the photo... The most common example is a photo of black earth and white sky. In this case: either the sky will be with details, and the earth will be completely black (dark, without details), or the earth will be normally exposed, but the sky will be strongly lightened (overexposed). This is due to the dynamic range of the camera. A gradient filter helps to solve this problem, which compensates for the difference in the "glow" of the earth and the sky. Very often, it is enough to make a correction in order to "save" the frame a little. It can be very useful for a landscape.

Secondly: landscapes are shot with closed (covered) apertures... On digital-SLR cameras, with closed apertures, every speck of dust on the matrix will be visible. This is very unnerving, frustrating and ruining the photo. For example, already on F11 "blots" appear on the matrix (they can be seen in the examples for this article). On the F14, fine dust is already quite visible. You can deal with such an ailment with the help, or, by lowering the f-number. It's funny, but conventional digital cameras (soap dishes) and film cameras are less susceptible to this ailment. On the other hand, soap dishes suffer from diffraction at closed diaphragms.

Thirdly: often, by eye, very difficult to compose the frame, so that the lines fit perfectly into the frame. The horizon line tends to bend. When I shoot hand-held, thoughtfully and attentively, and then look at the footage on the computer, the horizon often "falls" by a couple of degrees. For some plots, even 5 degrees is already an unacceptable error. To overcome the blocked horizon, I turn on the "grid" in the viewfinder. The grid draws lines, dividing the frame into 9 or 12 segments, which allows you to immediately see the symmetry in the frame, as well as position the horizon evenly. Almost all Nikon CZKs support the grid. Some cameras have a virtual horizon (for example) that allows you to control the lines. Well, if at all there are problems with lines, then you can crop the image with a rotation of the area in Adobe Photoshop or other editors.

Fourth: for landscapes, most often, needs a very wide viewing angle, for this use wide-angle and. All "super-widths" have (geometry curvature). can spoil the picture very much, and can make it unusual (such as, for example, the fish-eye effect). However, less is more. Unfortunately, all ultra wide-angle lenses have this drawback. can be overcome with the help of graphic editors, some cameras have built-in adjustments for a number of lenses (for example). Or, you can shoot with a longer lens without distortion. The photographs of the sky were taken at fifty dollars, this lens does not.

Personal experience:

If I shoot without a tripod, I use (priority). Usually I set it to a value from 1/80 to 1/200, while I know that when shooting (in good light) it will be very closed, which is what I need for a landscape. In low light, I still get a pretty sharp shot without blur when shooting handheld. When using a tripod, I work in A or M mode (priority or manual mode). Long on closed apertures are not scary with a tripod. I rarely shoot landscapes, so this is where my experience ends.

I am often asked, and which is the best for a landscape? There is no single answer. Sometimes, to shoot handheld in the evening, F2.8, ISO 800 is enough. And sometimes, in order to "freeze" the waterfall, you need F / 36.0 ISO 100. By the way, at closed apertures, almost all lenses (and whale lenses) give a very sharp image, so what, chasing a specialized landscape lens for household purposes - it makes no sense.

Shooting a landscape is very difficult if you want to shoot a person in front of nature. In this case, focusing at infinity will not always help. When photographing people in nature, I also recommend keeping track of the placement of objects in the frame, and in some cases, it is better to place a person not in the central area of ​​the picture.

Conclusions:

Shooting a landscape is not difficult, difficult to find a good place... In a landscape, the most important thing is the harmony of combinations of lines, shapes, light and shadow. To correctly compose (select) a picture, you just need to go and experiment. In practice, experience comes very quickly.

Don't forget to push the buttons ↓ ↓↓ social networks ↓ ↓↓ — for site. Thank you for the attention. Arkady Shapoval.

December 22nd, 2010, 04:54 pm

Imagine that you are looking at a well-shot landscape and suddenly it comes to life. You understand that such shots are rare, and it is not an easy task to shoot such a task.

It is difficult to convey the depth and clarity of a landscape to a flat sheet of photographic paper, but there are things that help us in this, today a few words about an important link - about a lens for landscape photography.

So what is needed?

Perfect option This is a set of lenses or one glass covering the focal length range from 24 to 200 mm (35 mm equivalent), which, taking into account the zoom factor, will correspond to the real values ​​from 16 to 125 mm.

It is clear that if we set out to find quality option, then you need to take four lenses, three with a fixed focus (24 (28) mm, 35 mm and 50 mm), as well as one telezoom 70-200 mm.

For those who are too lazy to carry such a set and for those who have no money for all this happiness, you can still think about and narrow our search down to those focal points that are most often used for landscape photography.

For landscape photographers, wide-angle lenses are generally more useful than telephoto lenses. When shooting with a wide-angle lens, we have maximum depth sharpness, as a result of which all objects in the frame are perfectly clear.

It turns out that the fix 24 or 28mm is what the "doctor ordered".

But let's remember about modern zooms, which are now not much inferior in optical characteristics to fixed focus lenses. In particular, the ideal zoom is 24-105 (from my point of view). If you take such a glass, then count all the main focal points you have closed.

Now let's touch on the aperture of glasses, it is clear that it will be much better for fixes than for zoom lenses. But how often do we set the aperture wider than 4 or 5.6 when shooting landscapes? Sharpness is important to you, which means the aperture is clamped to 8-16, so you don't have to chase the aperture.
In addition, current zoom lenses are often equipped with very useful function stabilizer, which helps with a lack of lighting.

· 09/29/2013

The text of the article was updated: 2.10.2017

Today we will compare how lenses with different focal lengths, mounted on a cropped Nikon D5100 camera, capture a landscape from the same point. But let's start in order.

Yesterday my wife and I went to Nizhny Tagil to take pictures combat vehicles at the arms exhibition at Russia Arms Expo 2013. Attendance at the much-publicized event turned out to be a disappointment for us. We are partly to blame: we arrived late and did not take a ticket allowing us to climb the podium to watch demonstration maneuvers of armored vehicles. But the organizers, I think, cheated a little, because after lunch, all modern tanks drove to the range. This means that the ticket in the afternoon should be cheaper.

Anyway. At the end of my story about visiting Russia Arms Expo, I mentioned that a couple was seen on the way from Yekaterinburg to Nizhny Tagil interesting places for landscape photography. Now it's raging with us Golden autumn, and in order not to postpone the matter indefinitely, I decided today to make another feat: get up at 6 in the morning and go to shoot the dawn.

The landscapes that I liked so much on the way to the exhibition are a section of the highway where the road is cut through the mountain and picturesque rocks hang over the asphalt. The second landscape is a section of the road on which it descends in waves from high mountain... And since there is a dense forest along the road, there were fears that at dawn the sun would not break through the foliage of the trees and it would not be possible to take good pictures.

Therefore, it was decided to start the morning photography on Lebyazhye Lake, which is on the outskirts of our city. Early in the morning, struggling with the remnants of sleep, I stuffed my SLR camera Nikon D5100, Samyang 14 / 2.8 wide-angle lens and Nikon 70-300 telephoto lens, and went to the lake.

I arrived about forty minutes before dawn. I tried to choose a place for shooting ... In this place, you need to give, perhaps, the most important advice for photographers who are about to capture their best landscape: choose a location to take landscape photos the day before. Many famous photographers come to the same spot many times before they wait for good lighting.

And if you are going to take pictures like me: “Maybe I’ll find a suitable snag for a beautiful landscape ...” - you run the risk of getting screwed up ... As an excuse, I can say that when planning to shoot a landscape, I at least look through the Suncalc website to find out in which mode the sun rises or sets and from what point it will illuminate the scene.

Knowing where and in what place the sun will rise is good for a landscape painter. Tomorrow the sun will definitely rise! But I do not know how to predict whether the sky will blaze pink ... And today the sunrise was indistinct, pale ...

In addition, the shore of Lake Lebyazhye is very swampy. The reeds prevent you from reaching the water's edge ... Well, you probably guessed that today I cannot boast of a gorgeous landscape shot at dawn with Nikon D5100 and Samyang 14 mm / 2.8 ... 🙂

I tried to shoot from a higher point - nothing impressive either.

For example, this is the sunrise I was able to capture that morning when I photographed rocks on the lake at Samyang 14mm.

Photo. Landscape shot on Samyang 14 / 2.8 and Nikon D5100 DSLR. When I manage to shoot such a dawn, I say that neither light nor dawn has risen, not in vain ...

In other words, no light - no photography. Although ... I do not regret that I got up so early in vain. The atmosphere on the swamp lake is very pleasant: ducks quack in the reeds, goldfinches and tits chirp in the neighboring trees.

After an indistinct dawn, I walked around the area with reconnaissance. Near the river. It is also all swampy and overgrown with reeds. But I noticed one place with a cluster of seagulls different types and ducks. In the future, if it comes to a photo hunt, it will be possible to start from Lake Lebyazhye.

The sun gradually climbed into the firmament. Heading towards the first point on the track, where the road cuts the top of the mountain.

I shoot at Samyang width 14 mm / 2.8. Here, too, I encountered several difficulties. First, as luck would have it, the sun was right behind us, and this is not the best light for a landscape. Secondly, the difficulty is represented by a very wide dynamic range of the scene, since the light does not penetrate into the "gorge", and the tops of the trees on the rocks are brightly lit. And thirdly, the wide-angle does not convey the full power of the rocks hanging over the road, because it tends to reduce objects in the frame.

When I got to the second point, I got the idea to conduct tests that demonstrate how different lenses convey space when shooting from the same point.

Test: wide angle lensSamyang 14mm / 2.8vs. telephoto lensNikon 70-300 on cropNikonD5100 when shooting landscapes

We all know that wide-angle lenses "stretch" space, while telephoto lenses, on the contrary, "compress" distances. Let's see this. First, install on cropped Nikon DSLR D5100 is the best, in terms of price-quality ratio, Samyang 14 / 2.8 shirik.

Photo. The wide-angle Samyang 14 mm / 2.8 lens "stretches" the space when shooting landscapes. Snapshot on Nikon D5100

CameraNikon D5100. Lens: Samyang AE 14mm f / 2.8 ED AS IF UMC. Exposure: 1/160 sec. Aperture: f / 8. Focal length: 14 mm. ISO: 500. Shooting mode: aperture priority. Flash: did not fire. Time of the photo: September 29, 2013, 10:16 am.

The hilly road is almost invisible. Only if you look very, very closely, in the distance you can see a hint of some undulation of the Autobahn. Remember how far the kilometer column is.

Now let's replace the wide-angle with a Nikon 70-300mm f / 4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S telephoto lens and try to shoot the landscape at the minimum focal length of 70 mm for this lens.

CameraNikon D5100. Lens: AF-S VR Zoom-Nikon 70-300mm f / 4.5-5.6G IF-ED. Exposure: 1/400 sec. Aperture: f / 8. Focal length: 70 mm. ISO: 640. Shooting mode: aperture priority. Flash: did not fire. Time of the photo: September 29, 2013, 10:32 am.

Better now. The beauty of this place is well conveyed. The distance seemed to shrink. The milestones approached.

Let's increase the focal length to 102mm.

It seems to me that the mountain in the background is noticeably closer. And we got closer to the "knee" of the bends of the road. Well, and if you increase the focal length on the Nikon 70-300 to 200 mm in order to fit the landscape details into the frames as much as possible? ..

Something is already overkill. The space has been compressed too much and the landscape does not look so harmonious. For my taste, of the four examples of landscape photos taken on Nikon D5100 with Samyang 14 mm / 2.8 and Nikkor 70-300 lenses, the most winning shot is taken at 102 mm focal length.

After the end of testing the shirik and zoom on the crop, I still walked around the surrounding forest and even arranged a photo hunt: I photographed either a partridge or a female black grouse. But I'll talk about this another time.

Important note... I know that my readers are prudent people, but I cannot help but warn of the danger if you decide to repeat the footage shown in this report. Being at the shooting point of a hilly road is deadly. Behind the photographer's back there is another hollow in which the approaching cars are hiding. If you turn up the throttle while going up this hill and then go down, as in the photographs, you experience a feeling similar to riding on a roller coaster. Maybe that's why cars here fly at a speed of 120-140 km / h and higher ... If such a car jumps out from under the hill (the distance to the shooting point is 100 m), there is no chance of surviving ...