The Landscape Photography Book: The Step-By-Step Techniques You Need to Capture Breathtaking Landscape Photos Like the Pros

Description

In The Landscape Photography Book, professional photographer and bestselling author Scott Kelby teaches you how to shoot and edit jaw-dropping landscape photographs. Scott covers all you need to know, as he discusses everything from his go-to essential gear to camera settings to the photographic techniques that cover a wide variety of landscape situations and locations. Whether you're looking to capture a beautiful scene at sunrise, shoot a silky waterfall, create star trails at night, or show an epic location in a sweeping panorama, Scott's got you covered. Among many other topics, you'll learn: - The best ways to scout locations (including online resources for faraway locations)- How to meter your scene for the best exposure (and when you should switch to spot metering)- Where to focus your camera for tack-sharp images from foreground to background- How to shoot HDR and panoramas (and HDR panos!)- The best night photography techniques for shooting the Milky Way, strair trails, and light painting- When and how to use landscape-specific gear and techniques such as ND filters, focus stacking, and Bulb mode Once the shoot is over, Scott covers his process for editing landscape images. You'll quickly learn the essential ways to bring out the wow factor in your landscape images--from the basics of white balance and exposure settings to the use of graduated and radial filters, how to make your colors pop, when to convert your image to black and white (and how to do it), and much more. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Essential Gear Chapter 2: Camera Settings and Lenses Chapter 3: Techniques Chapter 4: Composition Chapter 5: Panos and HDR (and HDR Panos) Chapter 6: Long Exposure Photography Chapter 7: Post-Processing Chapter 8: Landscape Recipes Chapter 9: Other Gear and Techniques Title Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments About the Author Contents Chapter 01 Essential Gear There Is Some Stuff Ya Kinda Have to Have You’re Going to Need a Sturdy Tripod Avoid Using the Center Column Extending Your Tripod’s Legs Hanging Weight for Sturdiness How to Splay the Legs Get Really Low Using a Platypod You’ll Want a Ballhead You’ll Need a Cable Release Get Your Horizon Line Straight, Method 1 Get Your Horizon Line Straight, Method 2 The Awesomeness of a Quick Release Plate and an L-Bracket In Every Landscape Photographer’s Bag: A Circular Polarizer You’ll Need a Graduated ND Filter And, You’ll Probably Want an ND Filter Seeing Your LCD in Bright Daylight You’ll Need a Small, Powerful Flashlight The Greatest Stuff on Earth: Gaffer’s Tape A Good, Cheap Lens Cloth Which Type of Memory Card to Use A Drive for Backing Up in the Field Extra Batteries (Especially in Cold Weather) A Good Backpack (but Not a Big One) Chapter 02 Camera Settings & Lenses How to Get the Right Settings for the Job Set Your Camera at Its Lowest Native ISO Shoot in Aperture Priority Mode Which Aperture (F-Stop) to Use What Shutter Speed to Use Shoot in RAW (Wider Dynamic Range) Right Now, Go Turn On Your Highlight Warning Is the Highlight Warning You’re Seeing Really Accurate? Well . . . No How to Deal with Clipped Highlights Which Metering Mode to Use When to Switch to Spot Metering Set Your White Balance to Cloudy You Have to Check Sharpness During the Shoot Live View Super-Sharp Focus Trick Which Focus Mode to Use Mirror Lockup Your Cable Release Alternative Wide-Angle Lens (Why and Which One) When to Use Ultra-Wide Lenses Chapter 03 Before Your Shoot The Art of Prepping for Success Do Your Research Start with Pinterest Then, Check 500px.com Google Images Search & Google Maps Location Scouting Great Landscapes Make Great Landscape Shots When to Shoot: Dawn When to Shoot: Dusk What to Shoot Other Times Shooting at Blue Hour What Time to Get There for Sunrise Shoots What to Do the Night Before Your Dawn Shoot Chapter 04 Composition Framing Is Everything! Choosing Your Shooting Position Should You Shoot Tall or Wide? Where to Focus Or Use Infinite Focus, So Everything’s in Focus Where to Put the Horizon Line How to Lead the Viewer’s Eye Drawing the Viewer’s Eye Using Negative Space Drawing Their Eye with Light Why You Need a Foreground Object You Need a Clear Subject Simplify the Scene Avoiding the Border Junk That Ruins Images Why We Need Clouds in Our Shots Getting Still Water Reflections Taking Great Shots of Mountains Mountains as Backgrounds Photographing Mountains from Down Low Shooting with the Sun in the Frame Shoot Right Before or Right After Bad Weather Study Other Landscape Photographers’ Work Chapter 05 HDR & Panos Ummm, It’s How to Make HDRs and Panos The Advantage of Panos Versus Wide-Angle Camera Settings for Shooting Panos Picking a Lens for Panos That Limits Edge Distortion Make Certain Your Camera Is Level Keeping Your Camera Centered Three Advantages to Shooting Them Tall Put Your Ballhead’s Notch on the Left for Tall Panos The Key to Panoramas That Stitch Together Perfectly The Two-Finger Trick Pano Helper Pano Trick for Keeping More with Less Cropping Be Quick About It Shooting Vertical Panos Shooting Multi-Row Panos How to Stitch Your Shots Into a Pano Which Is Best: Auto Crop or Boundary Warp? Stacking Your Panos to Keep Things Tidy Printing Panoramas How to Shoot HDR Images How to Merge Those Into a Single HDR Image Creating HDR Panos Chapter 06 Long Exposures The Art of Showing Movement It Starts with a Tripod and Cable Release Start with Auto Focus, Then Switch to Manual Turn Off IS/VR Where to Set Your ISO How Long to Keep Your Shutter Open How to Shoot Longer Than 30 Seconds Cover Your Viewfinder to Avoid Light Leak Why You’d Want to Lock Your Shutter Release You’ll Need an ND (Neutral Density) Filter Stack ND Filters for Even Longer Exposures Try Using Live View to Focus Take a Second Shot in Aperture Priority Mode for Sharp Detail Long Exposure Noise Reduction Making Waterfalls and Streams Look Silky You Want the Clouds Moving How to Do Light Painting Chapter 07 Starry Skies & The Milky Way Shooting the Heavens Your Goal: a Landscape Shot with a Starry Sky Avoid Light Pollution Check the Weather, ‘Cause You’re Gonna Need a Cloudless, Clear Sky, Too! The Moon Is Your Enemy The Milky Way Is Only Visible for a Few Months Each Year Where Exactly Will the Milky Way Be? There’s an App for That Red Light Headlamp for Night Shooting Hold Your Camera Steady You’ll Need to Shoot in Manual Mode Here’s the F-Stop to Use Here’s How Long to Set Your Shutter Speed When to Bump Up Your ISO You Need to Shoot in RAW Use a Very-Wide-Angle Lens Turn Off IS/VR How to Set Your Focus on Stars, Method 1 How to Set Your Focus on Stars, Method 2 Use Live View to Focus Use Focus Peaking for Super-Sharp Stars Lighting Your Foreground Landscape, Method 1 Lighting Your Foreground Landscape, Method 2 Post-Processing Milky Way Shots Chapter 08 Post-Processing Take Your Images from Flat to Fantastic! Opening JPEG or TIFFs in Camera Raw Choosing a Better Starting Place Set Your White Balance First Choosing a More Creative White Balance Now Set Your White and Black Points Setting the Exposure Slider Fixing Damaged Highlights (Clipping) Opening Up Dark Shadow Areas Enhancing Detail and Texture Making Your Colors Look More Vibrant Adding a Graduated ND Filter in Post Cropping and Straightening Converting to Black and White Two Methods for Adding Contrast Removing Haze from Your Scenes Correcting Lens Problems Dealing with Purple or Green Color Fringing (Chromatic Aberrations) Sharpening Your Landscape Images Creating Reflections Dealing with Glows Post-Processing Focus-Stacked Images Blue Sky Trick Using the Auto Button as a Starting Place Adding That “Dreamy Look” Cloud Replacement, Technique #1 Cloud Replacement, Technique #2 Removing Distracting Stuff Noise Reduction Just Where You Need It Combining Long Exposure Images Get Detail in the Moon by Combining Images Chapter 09 Even More Tips Really, There’s More? Yes, More! Rain Gear (and Why You Need It) How to Dry Your Wet Gear Small Ponds or Puddles for Reflections Cloudy Days—Enjoying Nature’s Softbox Don’t Shoot Black & White In-Camera Putting People in Your Landscape Creating Mystery with Fog and Atmospheric Effects De-fogging Your Lens The Secret to Getting an Amazing Sky How to Get Detail in the Moon Longer-Lasting Batteries in Cold Weather Creating Beams of Light in Forests Creating Sun Starbursts Increasing Your Depth of Field Through Focus-Stacking Avoiding Sensor Dust Changing Lenses On Location Your “Landscape Assistant” Phone App Shooting Time-Lapse Photography Chapter 10 Landscape Recipes How to Cook Up Some Tasty Looks You’ll Need These Two for Most of These Recipes Leading Lines Composition Mirror-Like Reflections Strong Foreground Elements Dramatic Skies Mountaintops Waterfalls Creeks with Silky Water Oceanside Sunrise Daytime Landscape Long Exposure Water HDR Landscape Mountainscape with Layers Simplicity Panoramic Images Low-Angle Wide Atmospheric Effects Canyon Slots