Cropping landscape photos
Discussion
Experienced photographers look away now. But if you're a beginner playing around like me, this might be useful...
For some reason, I had it in my head that you shouldn't zoom in on landscape photos. When I was out this morning I tried unsuccessfully to capture the rather dramatic mist that was swirling around on my phone:
I then tried cropping exactly the same image much closer, and hey presto! Hardly a masterpiece, but I thought it was a more pleasing image.
(Ignore the horrendous pixelation, it's a camera phone cropped right down...)
So, next time I'm playing around with the proper camera I shall try zooming in on various features.
Anyone else got any similar tips?
For some reason, I had it in my head that you shouldn't zoom in on landscape photos. When I was out this morning I tried unsuccessfully to capture the rather dramatic mist that was swirling around on my phone:
I then tried cropping exactly the same image much closer, and hey presto! Hardly a masterpiece, but I thought it was a more pleasing image.
(Ignore the horrendous pixelation, it's a camera phone cropped right down...)
So, next time I'm playing around with the proper camera I shall try zooming in on various features.
Anyone else got any similar tips?
I don't really know where the whole landscape=wide angle thing came from. Many of my favourite landscape images are 50mm+ and some way longer. I actually think it is far, far more difficult to take interesting photos with wide angles, you often end up with so much boring stuff and the thing that made the scene interesting to you in the first place representing a tiny portion of the image. Zoom away, I say!
Chris71 said:
Experienced photographers look away now. But if you're a beginner playing around like me, this might be useful...
For some reason, I had it in my head that you shouldn't zoom in on landscape photos. When I was out this morning I tried unsuccessfully to capture the rather dramatic mist that was swirling around on my phone:
I then tried cropping exactly the same image much closer, and hey presto! Hardly a masterpiece, but I thought it was a more pleasing image.
(Ignore the horrendous pixelation, it's a camera phone cropped right down...)
So, next time I'm playing around with the proper camera I shall try zooming in on various features.
Anyone else got any similar tips?
In a perfect world, landscape shots shouldn't need cropping. The beauty of shooting the landscape is that you have time to frame your shot in most cases. This is where a telephoto lens comes into it's own and you can frame the shot however you like and avoid having to crop and degrade the image in post. For some reason, I had it in my head that you shouldn't zoom in on landscape photos. When I was out this morning I tried unsuccessfully to capture the rather dramatic mist that was swirling around on my phone:
I then tried cropping exactly the same image much closer, and hey presto! Hardly a masterpiece, but I thought it was a more pleasing image.
(Ignore the horrendous pixelation, it's a camera phone cropped right down...)
So, next time I'm playing around with the proper camera I shall try zooming in on various features.
Anyone else got any similar tips?
Elderly said:
Gad-Westy said:
I don't really know where the whole landscape=wide angle thing came from. ..........................................
........................................... you often end up with so much boring stuff .................
/\ THIS........................................... you often end up with so much boring stuff .................
Wide angle isnt about getting it all in or shooting things in the distance. Long mountain range? Shoot a tele pano not wide angle.
Wide angle is all about foreground. I just spent 4 days hammering that home on a workshop. Its about identifying cool foreground features, placing them well with the mid and back grounds, getting low and getting close.
RobDickinson said:
Elderly said:
Gad-Westy said:
I don't really know where the whole landscape=wide angle thing came from. ..........................................
........................................... you often end up with so much boring stuff .................
/\ THIS........................................... you often end up with so much boring stuff .................
Wide angle isnt about getting it all in or shooting things in the distance. Long mountain range? Shoot a tele pano not wide angle.
Wide angle is all about foreground. I just spent 4 days hammering that home on a workshop. Its about identifying cool foreground features, placing them well with the mid and back grounds, getting low and getting close.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jdRdVRheb74/UlLHPkWs99I/...
But IMO 99.9% of wide angle landscape images today are clichéd, repetitive and boring.
"Unless you use the power of composition!" - Surely that applies to every image irrespective of focal length chosen?
Elderly said:
RobDickinson said:
Elderly said:
Gad-Westy said:
I don't really know where the whole landscape=wide angle thing came from. ..........................................
........................................... you often end up with so much boring stuff .................
/\ THIS........................................... you often end up with so much boring stuff .................
Wide angle isnt about getting it all in or shooting things in the distance. Long mountain range? Shoot a tele pano not wide angle.
Wide angle is all about foreground. I just spent 4 days hammering that home on a workshop. Its about identifying cool foreground features, placing them well with the mid and back grounds, getting low and getting close.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jdRdVRheb74/UlLHPkWs99I/...
But IMO 99.9% of wide angle landscape images today are clichéd, repetitive and boring.
"Unless you use the power of composition!" - Surely that applies to every image irrespective of focal length chosen?
When I think of wide angle this is what I am talking about
Ice Cold by Rob Dickinson, on Flickr
having 45% boring sky and 45% boring grass with a strip of something in the middle is just bad use of the tools.
Ice Cold by Rob Dickinson, on Flickrhaving 45% boring sky and 45% boring grass with a strip of something in the middle is just bad use of the tools.
RobDickinson said:
When I think of wide angle this is what I am talking about
Ice Cold by Rob Dickinson, on Flickr
having 45% boring sky and 45% boring grass with a strip of something in the middle is just bad use of the tools.
Stunning. Ice Cold by Rob Dickinson, on Flickrhaving 45% boring sky and 45% boring grass with a strip of something in the middle is just bad use of the tools.
RobDickinson said:
When I think of wide angle this is what I am talking about
Ice Cold by Rob Dickinson, on Flickr
having 45% boring sky and 45% boring grass with a strip of something in the middle is just bad use of the tools.
Rob - this is just ridiculously good. What a brilliant shot mate !!Ice Cold by Rob Dickinson, on Flickrhaving 45% boring sky and 45% boring grass with a strip of something in the middle is just bad use of the tools.
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