Digital Camera Master

You could spend your entire lifetime studying how to make great landscape images. There are, however, a few key techniques that will improve your nature shots right away while you learn the subtleties of the craft. Keep these few tips (demonstrated in Figure below) in the back of your mind while shooting.

This image employs a few helpful landscape techniques. First, the horizon line is low in the frame, allowing for a “big sky.” There are dark tones at the top and bottom of the frame that lead the eye to the brighter tones in the middle third of the composition. The image was recorded in late afternoon, taking advantage of “magic light.” Finally, the picture was shot at high resolution, allowing for some cropping to fine-tune the composition.

1. Work with “magic light.”
Landscape pictures shot before 9:00 a.m. and after 5:00 p.m. look better, especially with digital cameras that have a hard time taming harsh midday sun.

2. Keep your compositions simple.
Clutter is the bane of powerful landscape imagery. Look for simple, powerful compositions, and skip the rest.

3. Don’t put the horizon line in the middle of the frame.
Landscapes become more powerful when the horizon line is in the lower or upper third of the composition. You can create a very dynamic composition by putting the horizon very low in the frame and letting sky dominate the scene.

4. Look for converging lines to give the eye a path to follow.
A diagonal line adds energy to the composition and can help lead the eye to a primary point of interest.

5. Alternate dark and light tones.
This is a technique that Ansel Adams used quite effectively, finding a dark tone for the bottom of the frame, then a light tone, then another dark area (usually a shadow of some sort), then bright again, and possibly dark again at the top of the frame. Alternating tones adds plenty of visual interest.

6. Use a tripod when possible.
By keeping your camera rock steady, you will squeeze every bit of sharpness out of the lens, rendering even the tiniest elements with clarity. Plus, photographers who use tripods tend to study their scenes more and have more refined compositions.

7. Be patient.
Sometimes you have to wait for nature to paint you the perfect picture. Allow enough time to stay put for a while and watch the light change.

8. Use a polarizing filter.
If your camera accepts accessories such as auxiliary lens and filters, consider adding a polarizing filter to your bag of tricks. Polarizers remove unwanted reflections, deepen color saturation, and bring an overall clarity to the scene. The effect is strongest when the sunlight is coming into the scene from over your shoulder.

9. Protect against lens flare by shielding the front glass element of your camera from the sun.
Lens flare is that demon that degrades the color saturation of your images. Lens hoods were once standard issue for 35mm cameras, but no one seems to use them for digitals. To improve the quality of your shots, make sure the sun is not reflecting off the front of your lens. If it is, shield it with your hand, or better yet, this book, which is a perfect size for the job.

10. Shoot at the highest resolution and sharpness your camera allows.
Landscapes look best when printed big, but to do so you need all the resolution your camera can muster.

11. Get out and walk.
If you see a good shot from the seat of your car, chances are it’s even better a few hundred yards away from the road.

12. Don’t increase your ISO speed setting to cope with low light.
Bumping up your speed will degrade the quality of your image. Use a tripod and your self-timer instead.

By keeping these tips in mind, and by reviewing the section “Composition” in Chapter 2, you can begin mastering the craft of landscape photography with your digital point-and-shoot camera, and take some great shots while doing so.

15. Shoot Infrared Images
Infrared photography has been around for a long time, but capturing these stunning pictures on film required true perseverance. Digital imaging has changed all of that. Shooting infrared photos, such as the one shown in Figure 3-16, has never been easier or more fun.

When you shoot infrared, you’re actually dealing with a spectrum of light that’s outside our normal range of perception. But with the assistance of a special filter, such as an IR 87 or Hoya R72, many digital cameras can produce the telltale dramatic effects, including a darkened sky, vivid clouds, and foliage emitting an eerie glow.

But not all digital cameras see the infrared spectrum equally. Ironically, as manufacturers made improvements in color fidelity, they often compromised the camera’s infrared capability. For example, the older Canon G1 records fantastic infrared, but the newer models don’t work quite as well. (This is a good argument for holding on to your previous cameras after upgrading.)

This infrared image was captured at mid day, using a Canon G1 with a Hoya R72 filter attached. Because the filter is so dense, the shutter speed was a slow 1/3 of a second.

If you want to test your digicams to see which one will work the best for this type of shooting, line them up on a table in a darkened room. Enable picture-taking mode and make sure the LCD monitor is on. Then point your television remote control at each lens and press a control button, such as the channel changer. The camera that shows the brightest light emitting from the remote control will be your best infrared capture device.

Attach an infrared filter such as the Hoya R72 to your camera, grab your tripod, and look for a brightly lit scene that has sky, clouds, and trees. Set your aperture at f-5.8 or f-8 to help compensate for the different way infrared “sees” the world; the focusing plane in this type of photography is slightly different, and the added depth of field produced by a smaller aperture will help keep things sharp. Be sure to turn on the self-timer so you don’t jar the camera during exposure, and record a frame. The world you see in your LCD monitor will look much different from what you observe with your eyes.

Pro Tip:
If you shoot your infrared images in color, you can later convert them to black and white on your computer. You can also create some interesting effects on the computer by converting only selected areas to black and white and leaving others in color. You’ll need a good image editor (such as Photoshop Elements) to achieve this effect.