Katie Barton of Colorado has always loved spending time taking in the beauty of nature. Still, her love and appreciation grew significantly when Katie Barton of Colorado started to get interested in landscape photography. Anyone looking to appreciate the beauty of what surrounds them should consider taking up landscaping photography as a hobby. Today, Katie Barton of Colorado will offer advice to anyone looking to grow as a landscape photographer. It won’t be long before a beginner turns a beautiful landscape into a beautiful piece of art.
The first thing anyone who wants to make landscaping photography a serious hobby should do is invest in a good camera. Katie Barton of Colorado recommends looking into DLSR and mirrorless cameras. Sure, you can use your phone to take high-quality landscape photographs, but there’s a different level of quality when you utilize a professional camera. What is nice about professional cameras is that they allow for the widest possible views through the lens.
Speaking of lenses, Katie Barton of Colorado recommends looking for a wide-angle lens to pair with your camera. If only looking to shoot landscape photographs, it makes sense to go shorter than 24mm of an ultra-wide-angle lens. The higher the quality of the lens, the more important it is to keep the lenses clean. Katie Barton of Colorado recommends watching a few different lens cleaning tutorials.
Once you have the camera, a photographer should look to invest in a good tripod. Katie Barton of Colorado notes that holding a camera by hand will often cause a picture to look off-center once it is magnified. When you want to capture a landscape as a still piece of art, a tripod is the best tool for the job. As a photographer advances and grows more daring in the landscapes they shoot, the tripod they use will need to be increasingly sturdy. Strong tripods can withstand windy conditions while maintaining a weight that isn’t too cumbersome to bring on photography trips. The bottom of an ideal tripod will feature either spiked feet or rubber overshoes. This allows for the tripod to be set evenly on rocks, grass, and other surfaces where a flat floor isn’t available.
The best way to improve as a landscape photographer is to get out and shoot pictures. Katie Barton of Colorado believes a photographer should put in hours with their mirrorless camera on Manual Mode. Manual Mode allows a photographer to learn the exposure triangle: shutter, aperture, and ISO. Shutter speed will determine how quickly the shutter closes after the photograph is taken. With aperture, a photographer can regulate the amount of light that enters the lens, which basically impacts the depth of the field. ISO level is what measures a camera’s sensitivity to the light outside. By manually changing these settings, a photographer can start to get a feel for where they want these settings to be placed.
Once a photographer starts to grow more comfortable with the settings on their camera, they can begin to understand what good lighting for a photograph actually means. Typically, the best shots will occur just after sunrise or right before sunset. Photographers call this the golden hour. Katie Barton of Colorado recommends that new photographers try to shoot at different times of the day and get to know how different lighting settings impact the result of their photograph.
Filters are the next step in the photography process. Those familiar with Instagram filters may have their head spinning thinking of all the filters they would need to master to advance their skills as a landscape photographer. Katie Barton of Colorado is happy to report that there’s only two filters that most landscape photographers utilize. The first is called the polarizing filter. The polarizing filter helps manage reflections and suppress glare. When clouds really pop in a landscaping photograph, the photographer was probably utilizing the polarizing filter.
The second filter that landscape photographers utilize is the neutral density filter. This filter again helps gauge the amount of light entering the lens to allow for slower shutter speed and higher ISO levels without distorting the image. Both filters offer a significant upgrade to landscape photographs. Katie Barton of Colorado recommends looking into these filters only after a year or so of getting familiar with landscape photography.
