So Don (Lammie) asked for some info on the landscape shots I posted from Mapperley Reservoir. I’ve not got the exact details of this shot but I can give you some generic settings I use for landscapes, and no doubt used for this.

Firstly this is a single image, and it was originally a j-peg (I didn’t use RAW when I took this). To get this effect I’ve used filters and I’ll explain about them later. The only difference nowadays is I use RAW. J-peg images contain around 256 colours whereas RAW’s contain thousands. Therefore images can be printed at larger sizes with much more detail.

So firstly equipment. I’ve used my slr (it would have been a Nikon D90 back then) and a wide angle lens, more than likely my Sigma 10-20mm. I’ve also used a tripod and a remote release. Don’t worry if you haven’t got a remote, just use the self timer then you won’t get any camera movement when you press the shutter. Because I’ve used a tripod I’ve gone for the lowest iso the camera had, iso 200. The lower the iso the less noise (grain) you’ll get in the shot. It will give a slow shutter speed but again because we’re on the tripod it’s irrelevant.

My next job is to open the lens right up to somewhere between F16-F22. This will ensure the shot is sharp front to back. Remember the lower the F-number the less in focus, the bigger the more in focus. I generally now select auto white balance. I’ll now go to aperture priority and select spot metering. this is the mode where the camera decides on what shutter speed to use by reading the light that only hits the little square in the middle of the viewfinder (check your camera manual on how to set spot metering). I’ll now move the camera around the scene below the skyline. You’ll notice the shutter speed keeps changing, quicker speeds in the lighter areas, slower in the darker. I’ll choose a speed somewhere towards the slower end but not the very slowest. For example the darkest parts of the shot would be around 4-5 second exposures, the lighter around 1 second. I’ll probably use three seconds. I’ll now point the camera at the sky, not the very brightest bit, just to the side of it. I might have a shutter speed of around 1/30th of a second. Because we have different exposure times for the land and the sky I’ll now select a neutral density graduated filter to use to even this difference out. A neutral density (ND) filter is neutral grey in colour so won’t alter the colours coming through it.

These are ND graduated filter.

As you can see they are half shaded pieces of glass that slide onto the front of your lens via an adapter to even out the  exposure difference between the land and the sky. As you can see they come in different shades of grey from light to dark. So how do you know which filter to use? It’s simple really. Every time we double or half an exposure time we call that a stop. For example The difference between 1 second exposure and 8 second exposure is three stops. 1 doubled is 2, 2 doubled is 4, 4 doubled is 8. Three steps three stops!!

So for the shot above we need to work out the difference between our land and sky, 3 seconds and 1/30th second. So 3 seconds halved is 1.5sec, 1.5sec halved is 1/75 sec, 1/75 sec halved is 1/30th sec. 3 steps three stops. So we use a 3 stop filter. This will be a fairly dark filter, similar to the one on the right.

We now slide the filter into the adaptor and place the darker part over the brightest bit of the shot, the sky. We’ve now effectively fooled the camera into thinking the exposure for the sky is the same as that for the land.

I now switch to manual mode and dial in F16 and 3 secs exposure. Without the filter the sky would be bright white as its exposure time was only 1/30th second but by using the filter to darken it it should be exposed perfectly. I’ll now focus about a third of the way into the shot. This should give you a good focus front to back (it’s what’s called the hyperfocal distance. The point where the lens attains maximum focus). All that remains is to take the shot.

It’s worth mentioning ND filters come in many different styles. There are ones with a hard edge where the dark part meets the light and others with  soft edge where the dark gradually blends into the light. Hard edged are mostly used over water, such as the sea where you get a very straight horizon. Soft edged are used in scenes like this where things protrude into the sky and you don’t want them to be to dark. ND grads usually come in 1,2&3 stop versions. You can combine a 3 and a 1 to make a four but don’t go to extreme or you’ll get nasty color casts in your shots. Filters are made by various companies. Cokin produce a very good range at a good price whereas Lee are the Rolls Royce. For most Cokin will be absolutely fine.

Check out the Cokin or Lee websites for more info on the different filters and holders.

Hope that’s of help to you. If anyone wants any more info please ask and if anyone would like to meet up in the field and go through all this in real time just let me know. As you probably know I do photography forums for DWT so am quite used to showing people how to use their cameras.

Cheers

Paul