Learning Landscapes - Skies and Mountains

[Mike Buckley]

Another tip when using polarizer to reduce glare on leaves: If your photo is not going to include the sky, temporarily point the camera toward the blue part of the sky. Position the polarizer so the sky is at its darkest. When you return the camera to the composition that you intend to capture, the glare will be removed as much as possible in that situation. This technique can be helpful because sometimes it's more difficult to detect reduced glare than a darkened sky.

[Brownbear]

Thank you for the explanation. I will try that shot at my earliest opportunity.

The issue that can adversely affect photos on your camera, which has a 1.5 crop factor, could perhaps occur at any focal length below 35mm and certainly at anything at 24mm or below. It's important that you understand what you're trying to avoid, so take a photo of the sky using a filter and your widest angle lens. If you use maximum polarization when the sun is in the ideal position, you'll see that about half the sky in the photo is a completely different color than the other half. You have to experience it to fully appreciate it, so be sure to try to make that bad photo.

I think most people generally consider any focal length at 24mm or shorter as wide-angle focal lengths.

[batmura]

I'm blown away, Christina. Someday I hope to shoot something half as good as #2 or #3. You live in such a beautiful place! I can't stop looking at these images.

[Digital]

It's great to see photos that turned out so much better due to your control rather than luck. Your recent photos show a consistently higher quality.

About polarizers:

It's fine to leave the polarizer on when the sun is to your back and any advice to the contrary can be very misleading. (That assumes that the reduced amount of light entering the lens is not problematic.) It's not just the angle of the sun to your camera that is important; it's also the angle of reflected surfaces relative to the sun and the camera that are also important. That's because the light's angle of entry onto a surface is equal to the angle of exit. (There are two terms other than "entry" and "exit" that are usually used but I can't think of what they are at the moment.)

Though the sky probably won't be affected by the polarizer when the sun is to your back and though other surfaces may not be affected as much as in other situations, it's possible that some glare on the surfaces of shiny materials such as leaves can be somewhat minimized even in that situation.

Hold the part of the polarizer that screws onto the lens in your fingers without touching the other part. Alternatively, attach the filter snugly onto a lens. Then turn the element itself separately from the part that screws into the lens. That's the control that Manfred mentioned.

The results of that control are most easily seen when you point the camera toward the blue part of the sky when the sun is low and 90 degrees to your right. Turn the polarizer in that situation and you'll see the color of the sky magically change in your viewfinder. Similarly, avoid the sky and instead point the camera to leaves of grass or leaves on trees. Slowly turn the polarizer and suddenly at one point most of the "colorless" glare disappears, revealing the color and texture in the leaves.

The moral of the story is that you not only have to attach a polarizer to a lens, you have to turn the polarizer to a position that achieves the look that you desire. Your polarizer might have a white dot displayed on the part that turns after the filter is attached to the lens. Though I have never used the white dot, it is there so you can keep track of the position of the polarizer.

Two tips:

Remember not to use a polarizer on a wide angle lens when photographing the sky. Remember to use it when not photographing the sky.

When looking through the viewfinder or at the camera's LCD, always turn the polarizer counterclockwise. If you turn it clockwise, you may accidentally unscrew the filter from your lens.

Mike, are you thinking of reflection, and deflection?



Bruce

[Mike Buckley]

the light's angle of entry onto a surface is equal to the angle of exit. (There are two terms other than "entry" and "exit" that are usually used but I can't think of what they are at the moment.)

I just remembered the standard way of saying that: The angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.

[Digital]

I just remembered the standard way of saying that: The angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.

Good thing to know when you are using a flash to take a pic of someone with glasses.


Bruce

[Brownbear]

Following are my PP edits based on the suggestions and advice received. Thank you to all for your help.

This time in LR I sharpened and added clarity to the land portion 25% and 29%, respectively. I also played with the curves tool a little more aggressively, and the blacks and whites and shadow tools to increase the contrast and bring out the mist as much as I could before the image started to look odd. I also downsized and applied an unsharp mask in Elements 9.

First Edit (which I'm now fond of)




2nd Edit (improved)

I decreased the blue saturation in LR by 20% (easy as pie to fix the blue sky), and eliminated the little cloud on the left side and cropped according to Kaye's and Susan's suggestions.



3rd Edit


I like this crop a lot... In this image I also selected a portion of the clouds (the horizontal bank) in Elements 9 and applied a selective curves adjustment to try and bring out more detail which I think worked, but I can see my selection line even though I feathered it, so I will revisit this image at a later date to see if I can do it with more finesse.



Thank you to all. It has been a great lesson in cropping and post processing, for me.

[Brownbear]

Hi Murat,

I adore your landscape images greatly, so your comment means a lot, and also comes as a surprise. I think you are likely just smitten by the different scenery which likely seems exotic to you. Yes, it is beautiful here. I would love to visit Turkey one day, as the images you share show how beautiful it is.

I am going to try that bridge shot again at sunset, with silky water which will make the foreground more appealing, and I will be pleased if I manage a image half as nice as your images. It will be a while because I have to get to the other side of the bridge in a secluded forested area and because it will be dark on my return trip I will have to wait for a day when my husband or a friend can accompany me, which may take a while, but I will do. Thank you.

I'm blown away, Christina. Someday I hope to shoot something half as good as #2 or #3. You live in such a beautiful place! I can't stop looking at these images.

[batmura]

Hi Murat,

I adore your landscape images greatly, so your comment means a lot, and also comes as a surprise. I think you are likely just smitten by the different scenery which likely seems exotic to you. Yes, it is beautiful here. I would love to visit Turkey one day, as the images you share show how beautiful it is.

I am going to try that bridge shot again at sunset, with silky water which will make the foreground more appealing, and I will be pleased if I manage a image half as nice as your images. It will be a while because I have to get to the other side of the bridge in a secluded forested area and because it will be dark on my return trip I will have to wait for a day when my husband or a friend can accompany me, which may take a while, but I will do. Thank you.

Thanks, Christina. Your edit of number 3 is unreal. I love it!

[nimitzbenedicto]

The sky was beautiful this morning. In the following images I tried to capture that beauty. I think my focus and DOF is fine in these images but would appreciate hearing if that is not the case.

Processed in LR, with some lightening of the trees in the foreground.

All Aperture Priority ISO 100

My favourite for the light and the star sun...

#5 In this particular image the sky seems too blue and some of the clouds over the mountains look a bit odd but post processing was minimal, except for increasing the vibrancy to +30, perhaps that was too much.

I focused on the mountain peak covered in clouds thinking that the other mountains would lead the eye to this peak... Something about this photo doesn't work and I'm not sure why...

SS 1/50 Exp Comp +.33



I would appreciate some general feed back on images 1-4, ie; like or not.... and some more constructive feedback on image #5 because something is not quite right and I would like to try this one again.

Hi Christina,

I like #5. For me its blue sky is just fine.

Perhaps crop from the top down to the clouds on the mountain.
For a preview, what I did was just scroll up/down your photo to "crop"
until I "cropped" off the top.

HTH

[Mike Buckley]

Christina,

Everything about the last three revised versions is so much nicer. Well done!

[Brownbear]

Hi Victor,

Thank you for your feedback and suggestion. While I prefer the less blue sky, likely because I know how blue it really was I truly appreciate that you and others may prefer the bluer sky. I think your crop idea will work better and I will try it later. Post processed out now.

Hi Christina,

I like #5. For me its blue sky is just fine.

Perhaps crop from the top down to the clouds on the mountain.
For a preview, what I did was just scroll up/down your photo to "crop"
until I "cropped" off the top.

HTH