The Three Scapes

Introduction of the Three “Scapes”

A few popular locations, or “scapes” you may wish to shoot when you encounter them are:

Setting the Scene

How much of the scene is needed to convey your vision? What key elements should you include? What is distracting from your vision? What colours add to the story you're telling and which detract from it?

Conveying Emotion and Intimacy Through Pictures

Your focus needs to be on what's most important in the scene. Avoid distracting elements and include only that which enhances the feel and emotion. You want your audience to remain connected to your image. Remember, sometimes less is more.

Draw your audience in, make them feel as if they're part of it, as if they belong in the scene and are there in it. Being able to do that will help them feel connected to your work.

Macro, Close-Up Shots, Or Wide Angles – Which Is Best?

One thing to consider is how much to include in your image and not work in too much.

If you are concerned about diluting your vision, you may alter the lens you're using, the angle you're shooting from, or the layout in your frame.

When shooting “scapes,” there are different elements in play. If the elements look lost or overpowered by something else, narrow down your focus to highlight specific elements by enlarging or cropping things out. Draw attention to the element you want your audience to see.

A Few Tricks and Tips For Shooting Seascapes

Timing Is Everything

Because waves break quickly, you may miss the shot. Release your shutter just before the wave breaks to capture the image - the sheer force of the water crashing down and the explosiveness of the spray.

Be prepared and have your camera mounted on a tripod and set in a ready position. It might also be a good idea to employ a remote shutter release.

Take Care to Keep Your Composition In Mind

It's vital to consider the composition of your image. You want one that will resonate with your audience.

If you need to brush up on composition, go back and review that course.

When considering your composition, it's important that you remember to highlight specific details that add depth and detail to the scene.

A Reminder About Composition

When Positioning Your Subjects, Keep The Rule of Thirds in Mind
When considering your leading lines, think diagonal, curved, straight, or converged.
When dealing with the light and contrast of your image, consider the color, angles, and shadow.
When adding additional elements to your image, take the collective and combined into consideration.
As you consider shape, keep the form and texture of them in mind.
When considering colours, you want to pay close attention to the tonal variations.
Be selective within your framing.

Landscapes

Landscapes are popular and most people take shots of them without even realizing it.

From vast forests and jungles, to wide open spaces, there are a million different forms in landscape photography.

Many landscape photographs are free of man-made structures and materials. Photos devoid of man-made objects often convey a sense of peace and natural beauty.

Incorporating Additional Elements Into Your Image

From mountains to the ocean, to fields of flowers to desert vistas, landscape photography comes in many different forms.

Complementary elements in your image can give it a unique feel and make it more your own. Derelict barns, run-down farmhouses, or rusted out cars, add depth and substance.

Personal elements like a kayak or raft will help share your adventures while providing your audience with some additional visual appeal.

Soak In The Scenery

One difficult aspect of photography is choosing what to include. You can sometimes forget all about techniques you've learned as you snap away. This will leave you with fewer stunning images, and more with a flattened, postcard feel. Listen To Your Gut Your inner voice can be your best guide. Before snapping away, take time to walk the location. Soak in the place and let it draw you in. Chances are, if you feel connected to a place, it's the best place to focus your attention.

Adding in the Human Form to Provide Scale

It's sometimes helpful to include people in your images. Depending on the type of landscape you're shooting – waterfall or large rock – adding a human form can help provide scale. And it certainly adds power and majesty of the landscape you're shooting.

When an audience sees a small human next to a massive waterfall, it immediately conveys a sense of intensity and power. It shows our insignificance compared to nature, eliciting a sense of wonder.

Adding the human form can also add to the atmosphere. It tells the story by adding to the environment. You want your audience to feel connected to the surroundings and share in that journey with you.

If you're concerned about the distraction of people, incorporating a selective or layered focus would help. Or use a shallow depth of field. If the lighting conditions allow for it, just silhouette the people in your photograph.

Another technique you can try is using the waterfall as the background of the image.

Utilizing Sunlight

We've all seen photographs of sunlight streaming through holes in the canopy of a forest. It is beautiful, awe-inspiring imagery that takes practice to get right.

If you hope to capture this type of image and illuminate the finer details, you'll need to address the contrasting and conflicting elements. You'll need to consider the bright shaft of sunlight as well as the dark and shadowy trees in the forest.

There isn't one all-encompassing how-to style when it comes to achieving an image. It will depend upon your personal style and what you hope to achieve when you shoot. You will first need to decide whether you are looking to capture a sharp and focused image, or one that is a bit more abstract.

The process is going to be one that is mainly trial and error, so reviewing your images between shots will be critical. The range between the dark and the light can be so clearly defined and dynamic, that there is little room for compromise. Review your work early and often.

Mastering this difficult style and technique will pay off. It will leave you with some very striking images.

Additional Tips and Tricks Shooting Landscapes

Make sure everything remains sharp and in focus from the foreground to the background.

When trying to gain a greater depth of field, you have a couple options.

A wide angle lens is going to have a greater depth of field than a longer one, and smaller apertures will provide a greater depth of field than larger or wider ones.

Seascapes

There is something about the wide-open ocean that is awe-inspiring – which is why seascapes are popular to photograph.

The ocean is a dynamic, living force. The way light reacts and reflects in any given shot is going to differ, which makes every image unique. It also creates opportunities for excitement and drama within the scene.

For all of the advantages and excitement shooting seascapes can provide, it is a double-edged sword. Because it is in perpetual motion, that movement can create challenges of their own.

The reflection of light off the surface of the water can wreak havoc with your camera's light meter, leading to exposures being incorrect and highlights being blown out.

Keep Creative Eye Out

When building the scene you want, look for objects of interest to incorporate. Boats, surfers, lighthouses, bridges, and rocky cliffs can add visual appeal to your image.

Take one photograph with the additional elements and one without. And then compare the two side-by-side. You'll probably find that you've added some depth and drama to the scene, as well as boosted the overall visual appeal of your image.

Conveying a Sense of Scale

It's easy to lose a sense of scale if you're focusing primarily on the sea or sand, and have no visible horizon in your piece. Without those elements, it's important to do something to convey that sense of scale.

Take care to add contrast to your image by incorporating tone and texture. Providing a layered effect can help prevent your image from becoming flat.

Think Fast, Act Faster

Because nature is a dynamic force, the world around us is in a constant state of flux. The ocean, shadows, and cloud formations can change in the blink of an eye. You will need strong observational skills, patience, and fast reactions.

Because nature changes constantly, you can create a wide array of imagery. But because change happens so fast, it also means you can lose out on an opportunity if you don't react quickly.

Preparation

If capturing the raw power of the sea, the ferocity of crashing waves, or the sun off gentle swells, observe the patterns and timing of it all. You'll need the patience to observe the swell of the ocean and move fast when the time is right.

Anticipate the movement of the sea. One tip is focusing on a certain spot where there is some activity – a splash or a wave crashing – have your camera set up and ready to go, and then be ready to move on a moment's notice.

Lens Hood

To minimize the reflections and protect your image form lens flare, employ a lens hood.

Filters

Making water look crystal clear and the sky a richer shade of blue is an easy trick to accomplish. All you need is a circular polarizing filter. Using it will suppress the reflections upon the surface of the water and give you that effect you're striving for.

Variation

Creating a stunning visual image requires practice. Experiment with your shots by taking several images in the same location at different times of day. Not only will it add some variety to your images, it will create a stunning series of photographs.

Creating a Sharp Water Image

To get an image of water that is clear and sharp, it's recommended that you use a shutter speed of 1/250sec.

If your goal is to freeze water motion entirely, something in the neighbourhood of 1/1000sec should work. Experiment with your shutter speeds and take multiple images until you achieve the effect you want.

Creating a Cloudy Water Image

If you prefer cloudy or opaque water, use much longer exposures, a maximum depth of field, and the slowest shutter speeds possible on your camera.

Start experimenting with your shutter speeds at around 1/60sec. Adjust from there until you achieve the effect you desire.

Framing Your Composition

Always consider your framing. Rock formations in seascapes work particularly well, so be on the lookout for unusual rock formations and caves.

In the following photographs, you can see the effect of framing. Different angles and different positions can radically alter the photograph, giving you a completely different image.

Cloudscape

With so much attention paid to landscapes and seascapes, let's not forget the beauty and dreamlike quality that can be imparted by cloudscapes.

Like the sea, the sky changes constantly. Weather conditions, the time of day and seasonal changes, as well as lighting, all combine to present you with a dynamic range of colours and textures.

To keep important details and tones while darkening bright areas, you are going to want to use filters.

If you don't use a filter when shooting during daylight hours, the exposure meter on your camera would measure far too much light, resulting in underexposed images.

If you are trying to capture a rich blue sky, you're going to want a polarizing filter. A polarizing filter suppresses reflection and can improve the contrast and colour saturation of an image.

Polarizing filters are useful on days that are bright and sunny. But a neutral density filter is another type of filter that can help you with exposure and comes in different sizes and strengths.

To darken one half of an image while keeping the other half at normal exposure, use a graduated filter.

A graduated filter will give you an effect of a dark, dramatic sky while retaining the rich details of the landscape below.

Tips and Tricks for Shooting Cloudscapes

To add depth and detail, break it up by introducing elements like aircraft and skyscrapers peeking through the cloud cover.
Because it does a good job of capturing the immensity and depth of a cloudscape, it's suggested that you use a wide angle lens.
Keep your compositional guides in mind to add depth to your image.

Landscape, Seascape and Cloudscape

Let's look at a range of situations and circumstances that may arise as you prepare to shoot a “scape.” The hope is these tips help you create stunning photographs.

Panoramic photography

If you wish to capture the beauty within landscapes and seascapes, experiment with panoramic photography.

Panoramic shots offer an extremely wide angled view of a “scape” providing a cleaner, sleeker image.

To create a panorama, absorb the entire scene by panning your camera from side to side. During the post processing of your images, you'll stitch them together in a computer program.
Because it makes it easier to keep steady and level, mount your camera to a tripod if you are shooting a panorama.
Overlap your shots by around 30% or so. That makes it easier to blend the images together seamlessly during post processing.
When choosing a location, avoid areas that have large obstructions or distractions that could be intrusive and detract from your image – telephone poles, garbage, road signs, etc.

Shooting in Black and White

Shooting in black and white, sepia or monotone will draw the focus of your audience to the form and scale within your landscape or seascape.

When combined with a dark, stormy sky in the background, the effect can be especially stunning.

If you wish to provide depth, quality, and some striking visual contrasts to your black and white images, use a dynamic composition.

Photographing in Low Light

Because the sun is in continual motion, the natural light that surrounds you is too. Obviously, that movement creates changes in lighting conditions.

Depending upon the time of day, shadows may vary in length and clarity. Be aware of them as well as the impact they can potentially have upon the scene you are creating.

While it's nice to see people smiling and enjoying themselves, it can also become repetitive. As you travel, take some time to experiment with low light photography and practice those techniques.

From creating a mood or establishing ambiance, low light photography offers opportunities to incorporate new elements into your work. But, if being outside during the dawn or dusk hours isn't practical, you can still experiment with low light photography. It just takes a little creativity. Find a darkened or shady spot. Once you find your spot, it's just a matter of experimenting and honing your skills.

Sunrise and Sunset

While most sunrise and sunset photographs feature the rich colours found in sky, you should push beyond that. Give sunrise and sunset imagery a twist.

Be innovative. Find some interesting trees, rocks, or maybe even silhouettes of people that can act as the primary subject in your image.

The sky really sets the mood and tone of your piece. But you can help take your image to another level and boost its visual appeal by using something as simple as a silhouetted object as a focus piece.

Sunrise and sunset provide terrific opportunities to practice your skills with a light meter. If your camera has a spot meter, you can start by turning it on and then aiming it roughly 30 degrees or so away from the rising or setting sun.

Continue experimenting with it. If you think the sky looks too dark, aim it further away from the sun before shooting again.

Experiment with different lenses, use both a long and short focal length lens and see what your preference is.
Using a longer lens, something around 140mm or so, will make the sun appear larger in your image.
Using a wider angle lens can help create a rich spectrum of color, adding a visual appeal.
To obtain the greatest depth of field, you might want to set your aperture to the smallest possible setting, something around f32 or f22.
Long exposures and moving subjects can help you achieve some very interesting effects. Experiment with longer exposures to create something visually stunning. You should only do so with your camera mounted to a tripod.
Always consider how to use the sun to your advantage. Make sure the light is complementing, rather than detracting from it.

Using Different Filters

Certain filters enhance the saturation of the image, improve colour and the quality of both water and sky.

Filters are recommended even if you're a digital photographer. Despite the effects that can be achieved with high-end software, a polarizing filter on a camera can still do some pretty wonderful things.

Using Colour Correction Filters

Certain types of film tend to record a certain colour cast in your images. You can however, neutralize that effect by using a colour correction filter – which can also enhance your black and white images.

Polarizing Filters

Keep a polarizing filter in your camera bag. They not only enhance the sharpness and colours within the sea or sky, they help mitigate unwanted reflections.

You may also need a graduated neutral density filter, as well as a circular polarizer. Especially if you're shooting a scene like dark clouds or a storm in action.

They help illuminate the drama within storm and make them appear intense.

Shooting in Extreme Weather Conditions

Shooting in the Rain

Inclement weather can present you with an opportunity to create some incredibly dramatic and atmospheric images. Though, it's also suggested that you take care with your equipment to ensure it's not damaged.

The power of the rain alone can create a mood and have a tremendously dramatic impact on the overall scene.

Shooting Rainbows

Typically, when you spot a rainbow in front of you, it's because the sun is behind you. And the best time to spot them is right after a rain shower as the sun tries to break through the clouds.

Make sure your contrast and colour saturation are at a high level. To do that, set your camera to a high sensitivity. You can make any adjustments required during post processing.

Shooting Thunderstorms and Lightning

To shoot a lightning storm, mount your camera to a tripod and be ready. You'll also want a long shutter speed or a DSLR with a “bulb” shutter setting if you hope to capture multiple flashes over several seconds.

As soon as you see – or merely anticipate – a flash of lightning, start snapping.

When shooting lightning, longer exposure times produce some dramatic and beautiful results. Experiment with intervals and exposures to achieve the greatest effect. Begin with an exposure of 10 seconds and perhaps move up to an exposure interval time of 30 seconds.

Shooting in Snow

There is something about a landscape dusted in snow that imparts a sense of wonder and enchantment.

If you are planning on spending time in the cold, icy climates, invest in a high quality camera bag that will protect your equipment from extreme temperatures.

Tips for Beating the Cold

Prevent condensation on your lenses by keeping your camera as warm as possible.

One low-tech method of keeping your camera warm is by tucking it beneath your jacket. Your body heat will keep it warm and hopefully prevent condensation.

If you're unlucky enough to find that condensation has occurred, move quickly. Empty the battery and memory compartments. Keep them open until they dry out. If your camera has suffered from condensation, do not take it outside again until it has dried completely or you run the risk of it freezing and doing permanent damage.

Tips for Beating the Heat

To keep your camera safe, avoid leaving it in extreme heat. Don't leave it sitting in the sun, behind a glass window, or even locked in a hot car for long periods of time. Doing so can cause permanent damage to your camera.

If you can't do anything about the temperature, keep it tucked away in the shade. If shade is not plentiful, throw a light towel over it to try and keep the worst of the heat from it.

When you find yourself shooting on a beach, take very good care with your equipment and avoid getting sand into it. Avoid putting your camera on the ground. If you are done shooting, put it into your equipment bag and keep it safe.

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