The Landscape Photography Book

The Landscape Photography Book

by Scott Kelby
Released March 2019
Publisher(s): Rocky Nook
ISBN: 9781681984346

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Book description

Have you ever dreamed of taking such incredible landscape photos that your friends and family say, “Wait a minute, this is your photo?! You took this?” Well, you’re in luck. Right here, in this book, pro photographer and award-winning author Scott Kelby teaches you how to shoot and edit jaw-dropping landscape photographs.

Scott shares all his secrets and time-tested techniques, as he discusses everything from his go-to essential gear and camera settings to the landscape photography techniques you need to create absolutely stunning images. From epic scenes at sunrise to capturing streams and waterfalls with that smooth, silky look, and from photographing the night sky or the Milky Way to creating breathtaking, sweeping panoramas, Scott has got you covered.

Among many other topics, you’ll learn:

    • The secrets to getting super-sharp, crisp images (without having to buy a new lens).
    • Exactly which camera settings work best for landscape photography and why (and which ones you should avoid).
    • Where to focus your camera for tack-sharp images from foreground to background.
    • How to shoot beautiful high dynamic range images and stunning panoramas (and even HDR panos!), along with how to post-process them like a pro.
    • How to create captivating long-exposure landscape shots that wow your viewers.
    • What gear you need, what gear you can skip, which accessories work best, and a ton of killer tips that will not only help you create better images, but make the entire experience that much more fun.

It’s all here, from the planning, to the shoot, to the post-processing—taking your images from flat to fabulous—and best of all, it’s just one topic per page, so you’ll get straight to the info you need fast. There has never been a landscape book like it!


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Essential Gear
Chapter 2: Camera Settings & Lenses
Chapter 3: Before Your Shoot
Chapter 4: Composition
Chapter 5: HDR & Panos
Chapter 6: Long Exposures
Chapter 7: Starry Skies & the Milky Way
Chapter 8: Post-Processing
Chapter 9: Even More Tips
Chapter 10: Landscape Recipes

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. About the Author
  7. Contents
  8. Chapter 01 Essential Gear
    1. There Is Some Stuff Ya Kinda Have to Have
    2. You’re Going to Need a Sturdy Tripod
    3. Avoid Using the Center Column
    4. Extending Your Tripod’s Legs
    5. Hanging Weight for Sturdiness
    6. How to Splay the Legs
    7. Get Really Low Using a Platypod
    8. You’ll Want a Ballhead
    9. You’ll Need a Cable Release
    10. Get Your Horizon Line Straight, Method 1
    11. Get Your Horizon Line Straight, Method 2
    12. The Awesomeness of a Quick Release Plate and an L-Bracket
    13. In Every Landscape Photographer’s Bag: A Circular Polarizer
    14. You’ll Need a Graduated ND Filter
    15. And, You’ll Probably Want an ND Filter
    16. Seeing Your LCD in Bright Daylight
    17. You’ll Need a Small, Powerful Flashlight
    18. The Greatest Stuff on Earth: Gaffer’s Tape
    19. A Good, Cheap Lens Cloth
    20. Which Type of Memory Card to Use
    21. A Drive for Backing Up in the Field
    22. Extra Batteries (Especially in Cold Weather)
    23. A Good Backpack (but Not a Big One)
  9. Chapter 02 Camera Settings & Lenses
    1. How to Get the Right Settings for the Job
    2. Set Your Camera at Its Lowest Native ISO
    3. Shoot in Aperture Priority Mode
    4. Which Aperture (F-Stop) to Use
    5. What Shutter Speed to Use
    6. Shoot in RAW (Wider Dynamic Range)
    7. Right Now, Go Turn On Your Highlight Warning
    8. Is the Highlight Warning You’re Seeing Really Accurate? Well . . . No
    9. How to Deal with Clipped Highlights
    10. Which Metering Mode to Use
    11. When to Switch to Spot Metering
    12. Set Your White Balance to Cloudy
    13. You Have to Check Sharpness During the Shoot
    14. Live View Super-Sharp Focus Trick
    15. Which Focus Mode to Use
    16. Mirror Lockup
    17. Your Cable Release Alternative
    18. Wide-Angle Lens (Why and Which One)
    19. When to Use Ultra-Wide Lenses
  10. Chapter 03 Before Your Shoot
    1. The Art of Prepping for Success
    2. Do Your Research
    3. Start with Pinterest
    4. Then, Check 500px.com
    5. Google Images Search & Google Maps
    6. Location Scouting
    7. Great Landscapes Make Great Landscape Shots
    8. When to Shoot: Dawn
    9. When to Shoot: Dusk
    10. What to Shoot Other Times
    11. Shooting at Blue Hour
    12. What Time to Get There for Sunrise Shoots
    13. What to Do the Night Before Your Dawn Shoot
  11. Chapter 04 Composition
    1. Framing Is Everything!
    2. Choosing Your Shooting Position
    3. Should You Shoot Tall or Wide?
    4. Where to Focus
    5. Or Use Infinite Focus, So Everything’s in Focus
    6. Where to Put the Horizon Line
    7. How to Lead the Viewer’s Eye
    8. Drawing the Viewer’s Eye Using Negative Space
    9. Drawing Their Eye with Light
    10. Why You Need a Foreground Object
    11. You Need a Clear Subject
    12. Simplify the Scene
    13. Avoiding the Border Junk That Ruins Images
    14. Why We Need Clouds in Our Shots
    15. Getting Still Water Reflections
    16. Taking Great Shots of Mountains
    17. Mountains as Backgrounds
    18. Photographing Mountains from Down Low
    19. Shooting with the Sun in the Frame
    20. Shoot Right Before or Right After Bad Weather
    21. Study Other Landscape Photographers’ Work
  12. Chapter 05 HDR & Panos
    1. Ummm, It’s How to Make HDRs and Panos
    2. The Advantage of Panos Versus Wide-Angle
    3. Camera Settings for Shooting Panos
    4. Picking a Lens for Panos That Limits Edge Distortion
    5. Make Certain Your Camera Is Level
    6. Keeping Your Camera Centered
    7. Three Advantages to Shooting Them Tall
    8. Put Your Ballhead’s Notch on the Left for Tall Panos
    9. The Key to Panoramas That Stitch Together Perfectly
    10. The Two-Finger Trick Pano Helper
    11. Pano Trick for Keeping More with Less Cropping
    12. Be Quick About It
    13. Shooting Vertical Panos
    14. Shooting Multi-Row Panos
    15. How to Stitch Your Shots Into a Pano
    16. Which Is Best: Auto Crop or Boundary Warp?
    17. Stacking Your Panos to Keep Things Tidy
    18. Printing Panoramas
    19. How to Shoot HDR Images
    20. How to Merge Those Into a Single HDR Image
    21. Creating HDR Panos
  13. Chapter 06 Long Exposures
    1. The Art of Showing Movement
    2. It Starts with a Tripod and Cable Release
    3. Start with Auto Focus, Then Switch to Manual
    4. Turn Off IS/VR
    5. Where to Set Your ISO
    6. How Long to Keep Your Shutter Open
    7. How to Shoot Longer Than 30 Seconds
    8. Cover Your Viewfinder to Avoid Light Leak
    9. Why You’d Want to Lock Your Shutter Release
    10. You’ll Need an ND (Neutral Density) Filter
    11. Stack ND Filters for Even Longer Exposures
    12. Try Using Live View to Focus
    13. Take a Second Shot in Aperture Priority Mode for Sharp Detail
    14. Long Exposure Noise Reduction
    15. Making Waterfalls and Streams Look Silky
    16. You Want the Clouds Moving
    17. How to Do Light Painting
  14. Chapter 07 Starry Skies & The Milky Way
    1. Shooting the Heavens
    2. Your Goal: a Landscape Shot with a Starry Sky
    3. Avoid Light Pollution
    4. Check the Weather, ‘Cause You’re Gonna Need a Cloudless, Clear Sky, Too!
    5. The Moon Is Your Enemy
    6. The Milky Way Is Only Visible for a Few Months Each Year
    7. Where Exactly Will the Milky Way Be? There’s an App for That
    8. Red Light Headlamp for Night Shooting
    9. Hold Your Camera Steady
    10. You’ll Need to Shoot in Manual Mode
    11. Here’s the F-Stop to Use
    12. Here’s How Long to Set Your Shutter Speed
    13. When to Bump Up Your ISO
    14. You Need to Shoot in RAW
    15. Use a Very-Wide-Angle Lens
    16. Turn Off IS/VR
    17. How to Set Your Focus on Stars, Method 1
    18. How to Set Your Focus on Stars, Method 2
    19. Use Live View to Focus
    20. Use Focus Peaking for Super-Sharp Stars
    21. Lighting Your Foreground Landscape, Method 1
    22. Lighting Your Foreground Landscape, Method 2
    23. Post-Processing Milky Way Shots
  15. Chapter 08 Post-Processing
    1. Take Your Images from Flat to Fantastic!
    2. Opening JPEG or TIFFs in Camera Raw
    3. Choosing a Better Starting Place
    4. Set Your White Balance First
    5. Choosing a More Creative White Balance
    6. Now Set Your White and Black Points
    7. Setting the Exposure Slider
    8. Fixing Damaged Highlights (Clipping)
    9. Opening Up Dark Shadow Areas
    10. Enhancing Detail and Texture
    11. Making Your Colors Look More Vibrant
    12. Adding a Graduated ND Filter in Post
    13. Cropping and Straightening
    14. Converting to Black and White
    15. Two Methods for Adding Contrast
    16. Removing Haze from Your Scenes
    17. Correcting Lens Problems
    18. Dealing with Purple or Green Color Fringing (Chromatic Aberrations)
    19. Sharpening Your Landscape Images
    20. Creating Reflections
    21. Dealing with Glows
    22. Post-Processing Focus-Stacked Images
    23. Blue Sky Trick
    24. Using the Auto Button as a Starting Place
    25. Adding That “Dreamy Look”
    26. Cloud Replacement, Technique #1
    27. Cloud Replacement, Technique #2
    28. Removing Distracting Stuff
    29. Noise Reduction Just Where You Need It
    30. Combining Long Exposure Images
    31. Get Detail in the Moon by Combining Images
  16. Chapter 09 Even More Tips
    1. Really, There’s More? Yes, More!
    2. Rain Gear (and Why You Need It)
    3. How to Dry Your Wet Gear
    4. Small Ponds or Puddles for Reflections
    5. Cloudy Days—Enjoying Nature’s Softbox
    6. Don’t Shoot Black & White In-Camera
    7. Putting People in Your Landscape
    8. Creating Mystery with Fog and Atmospheric Effects
    9. De-fogging Your Lens
    10. The Secret to Getting an Amazing Sky
    11. How to Get Detail in the Moon
    12. Longer-Lasting Batteries in Cold Weather
    13. Creating Beams of Light in Forests
    14. Creating Sun Starbursts
    15. Increasing Your Depth of Field Through Focus-Stacking
    16. Avoiding Sensor Dust
    17. Changing Lenses On Location
    18. Your “Landscape Assistant” Phone App
    19. Shooting Time-Lapse Photography
  17. Chapter 10 Landscape Recipes
    1. How to Cook Up Some Tasty Looks
    2. You’ll Need These Two for Most of These Recipes
    3. Leading Lines Composition
    4. Mirror-Like Reflections
    5. Strong Foreground Elements
    6. Dramatic Skies
    7. Mountaintops
    8. Waterfalls
    9. Creeks with Silky Water
    10. Oceanside Sunrise
    11. Daytime Landscape
    12. Long Exposure Water
    13. HDR Landscape
    14. Mountainscape with Layers
    15. Simplicity
    16. Panoramic Images
    17. Low-Angle Wide
    18. Atmospheric Effects
    19. Canyon Slots

Product information

  • Title: The Landscape Photography Book
  • Author(s): Scott Kelby
  • Release date: March 2019
  • Publisher(s): Rocky Nook
  • ISBN: 9781681984346