Chapter 9: Landscape Notes

• Three types of Landscape Photography:
• The Grand Landscape
• "big view" for pictures of great outdoors.
• Wide open expanses.
• Large expanse of the scene, wide-angle lens often used to capture more of it.
• Sky a prominent part of it.
• Abstract
• images composed of lines, shapes, values and textures.
• Tree bark patterns.
• Get really close to your subject and photograph a small part of it.
• when using a macro lens on small subjects youll need as much depth of field as possible.
• Use a slow shutter speed and a tripod to get sharp images.
• Details
• Rocks
• Vibrant Flowers
• Simple trees.
• Before sunset, just after sunrise.
• close down the f-stop or choose a faster shutter speed for a shorter exposure.
• There was a tradition of landscape painting when photography was invented, so photographers looked to paintings to gain ideas.
• Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916)
• Capture the grandeur of the American West.
• Learned photography in 1854.
• Opened his own gallery in 1858 in San Francisco.
• Began photographing Yosemite Valley in 1861.
• Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
• inspired by Yosemite Valley.
• Best known images in the Valley.
• Changed the way the public views the natural world.
• Timothy O'Sullivan (1840-1882)
• learned photography in 1860 from Matthew Brady.
• Sent to photograph the Civil War.
• Priciple photographer for Gardner's famous book , the Photographic Sketchbook of War.
• lead photographer on the survery on the western lands past the Mississippi River.
• Died of tuberculosis at 42.
• inspired phototgraphers of the 1960s-70s with his documentary style.
• Composition is one of the most important aspects of landscape photography.
• Viewpoint most important aspect of Composition.
• Move the Camera in all directions to encourage different views.
• Achieve balance between unity and variety.
• Variety in everything (i.e. texture, size, color, value, appearance, subject)
• Value very important in black and white shots.
• more dramatic = large range of tones.
• "contemplative"=less differnt tones.
• Camera Settings!!
• Depth of Field
• Maximum
• f/16, f/22, f/32
• longer shutter speeds, more detail.
• tripod very necessary for these types of shots.
• Light
• just after sunrise
• just before sunset.
• low sun, shapes and textures emphasized.
• Grand Landscape photos direct lighting is good.
• Film
• 100 ISO film.
• Lots of details, slow film needed to capture all of them.
• Lenses
• Wide Angle lenses typically used.
• Telephoto lesnes used to concentrate on details.
• Macro lenses used for close up images, like detail or abstract shots.
• Filters
• yellow filter brings out the clouds.
• Red filter : dark black skies, stark white clouds.
• red with a polarizer = max contrast.
• Support
• slow film and smaller f-stops = slower shutter speeds.
• tripod needed to get non-shaky shots.





Grand Landscape





Details





Abstract Landscape