Wide-Angle Lens Tips in Landscape Photography

On a full-frame camera, focal lengths of 35mm or wider are considered wide angle lenses. These are great for landscape photography.

Settings for best results:

A) Aperture Priority Mode

Whenever I conduct landscape photography, I always shoot in Aperture Priority mode. Reason being I am able to shoot with more choices of appropriate f-stops and depth of field. I normally use the optimal aperture of my lens, and that is between f/8 to f/14.

tips for landscape photos with wide angle lens

Photo by gato-gato-gato; ISO 100, f/8.0, 1/180-second exposure.

B) Hyperfocal Point

When you are photographing landscapes with a wide angle lens, try this; include foreground interest and focus onto the hyperfocal point. The hyperfocal point is the closest distance a lens can be focused while keeping objects at infinity acceptably sharp. This maximizes the depth-of-field.

Why not just focus on infinity with the smallest aperture available? Well, using the hyperfocal point enables the photographer to access a wider aperture. Other than that, a majority of lenses work better with the aperture opened up by one or two stops.

Tip #1: Try a Polarizing Filter

Polarizing filters can bring about different effects towards your landscape photography attempts. The type of effect produced differs in accordance to the angle of the sun towards the filter.

Polarizing filters can help to increase the intensity of the blue skies. It can also help reduce the reflections on water. Even if you were to use your image-editing software, there’s no way you can reproduce the effects or results a polarizing filter can give, at least not as convincing.

This fact makes the polarizing filter a must-have lens gear for landscape photographers.

Tip #2: Bug Eye View

Place your camera on the ground to photograph landscapes. Doing this creates a bug’s eye view of a landscape. The result will turn out pretty unusual, yet dramatic composition. Reason being that a photograph of a landscape taken from an angle of ground level is not something we are used to viewing from.

It will be great if you have a tripod that can go all the way to ground level to photograph a bug’s eye view of a landscape. However, when you use an ultra-wide angle lens, you will have to be extra careful as to ensure that the tripod’s legs are not shot and will not appear in the bottom of the shot.

wide angle lens tips for landscapes

Photo by roman korzh; ISO 200, f/8.0, 1/125-second exposure.

Tip #3: Avoid Camera Shake

You can avoid the risk of producing blurry photographs caused by camera shake when you set your camera’s self-timer on a tripod or other stationary object. You can also opt to use a remote release that functions to trigger the shutter.

If you have no access to utilizing a tripod, as long as your camera has Live View, you can set your camera low to the ground and keep close to your subject.

About the Author:
This article was written by Michelle Lee Fui Jinn from tipsforphotographers. It takes time to practice and improve your photography skills.

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