Shoot grand landscapes with a wide-angle lens or zoom lens with wide-angle capability to capture the breadth of a scene. A focal length range of 35mm or shorter works best.
Purchase a wide-angle lens made especially for your phone. It will increase the field of view your phone normally captures. Newer iPhones/operating systems have a panorama feature that can be accessed through the device’s native camera.
Use a small aperture for broad landscapes and have a tripod to accommodate the slower shutter speeds generated. You’ll most likely want to capture details throughout, which requires deep DOF. A general range of f/11 to f/22 is preferable, with the smallest apertures being best for recording the most detail. Note: I have seen some creative landscape photography purposefully created with wide apertures; try it.
If you’re shooting a close-up of a subject within the landscape, the DOF will always be more shallow than if you were farther away from the subject, even at f/22.
When using a tripod to capture a landscape scene, use the lowest possible ISO setting to avoid visible noise. If you’re sans tripod, bumping up the ISO might increase shutter speed enough to get a handheld shot, depending on how bright the scene is. Here’s how to get that small aperture:
Use the Landscape Scene mode, which generates a small aperture setting. If you are capturing a fast-moving subject in your landscape scene, use Sports Scene mode instead. If in P mode, you can indirectly control aperture with the program shift feature. Turn the dial to the left to decrease shutter speed and indirectly reduce the aperture size.
If you are in Aperture Priority mode or Manual mode, anywhere between f/16 and f/22 will give you the most clarity from front to back. Remember that when you get smaller than f/22, diffraction can occur, causing unwanted blur.
In Aperture Priority mode, lock in a small aperture like f/22 and dial in the lowest ISO speed possible. A slow shutter speed will most likely be generated. If you’ve got a tripod, embrace it. If you have a fast-moving subject in the scene, you might use Shutter Priority mode, as locking in a fast shutter speed to freeze motion will be paramount. Using Manual mode is another possibility for landscape shots. Start by dialing in a small aperture like f/18 or f/22. Select the lowest ISO speed possible and embrace the slow shutter speed that is required if you have remembered to bring along your tripod.
What if you have a wiggly subject in your landscape scene whose motion you want to freeze? Start by dialing in a faster shutter speed—try 1⁄250 sec. or faster. If you want to maintain detail in the background, try a smaller aperture. See what kind of ISO you would then need to bring the light meter marker to center. Make adjustments as you see fit; perhaps you decide to sacrifice some background detail and go with an aperture that’s a bit wider, or maybe you go with a faster ISO speed and embrace the grain.
Think about leading lines, focal point and framing. An appealing photograph takes your eye somewhere, so look for leading lines that go to a focal point. Think about how you want to compose the shot. Perhaps you’ll follow the rule of thirds or maybe you’ll be more nontraditional and have mostly sky in your composition with a little bit of ground at the bottom. Most compositions work best when there is a feeling of balance.
Most DSLRs have a grid display feature that you can use to help keep your horizon straight. Or purchase a special level that attaches to your hot shoe mount.
You can straighten a crooked horizon in Photoshop CS/Elements or Pixlr by rotating and cropping.
Mobile camera apps that have a built-in grid feature include Camera+, 645 Pro, Pure and 6×6. If you need to rotate your mobile photo, you can use PhotoWizard or Perspective Correct.
Telephone poles and wires, forest debris, etc., can all detract from your scene.
You can remove some unwanted pixels in Photoshop Elements or CS with the Spot Healing Brush tool or Clone Stamp tool.
Consider using bracketing for high-contrast scenes, such as when you have a bright sky and a darker ground. Your camera’s bracketing feature will take multiple shots—at dead center on the light meter and then shots that are above and below that center. You can do one of two things with bracketing. You can choose the best exposed shot from the batch or synthesize the multiple images with special High Dynamic Range (HDR) editing software to achieve a perfectly exposed scene. Photoshop (Elements and CS) has this capability.
If you are trying to capture a high-contrast scene with an iPhone device, you can use an app like Pro HDR, which has bracketing and HDR capabilities all in one app.
A general rule of thumb for landscape photography is to focus one-third of the way into the scene. Use the center focus point, as it is most sensitive. If you have a subject in the landscape scene that is off to the side, choosing an AF point closest to the subject is preferable. If you are not focusing on a subject somewhere else in the scene, this method of focusing one-third of the way in is a nice alternative to the more complex technique of calculating what is known as hyperfocal distance.
Hyperfocal distance is the place in the scene you should focus on if you want to yield maximum DOF (the area of the scene that is in focus). But I have to say, all that can get mighty sticky and confusing, especially if you throw DSLR crop factors into the mix. I don’t even go there myself.
Here’s a simple technique you can use instead of making yourself crazy over hyperfocal distance calculations: Focus one-third of the way into the scene and depress your DOF preview button to see how much of the scene you actually got in focus. Make adjustments as you wish. Ta-da!
This will ensure you get some great shots from the batch.
Your DSLR’s aperture will stay in wide-open position until you press the shutter button. If you want to see what your landscape shot will look like at say f/22, press the DOF preview button and look through your viewfinder or on your LCD in Live View mode. The viewfinder preview will look darker than the actual photo.
Capture leading lines that take your eye somewhere. The diagonal line in this shot takes the viewer down the river to three boats staggered in the background, a pleasing odd-number arrangement. The sharp reflection and fog rising off the water add intrigue to the shot. 15–85mm f/3.5–5.6 lens at 21mm, ISO 100, f/14 for 1⁄125 sec.
Use a very small aperture for broad landscape scenes, like I did at f/22 with this shot, to ensure clarity from foreground to background. 15–85mm f/3.5–5.6 lens at 85mm, ISO 400, f/22 for 1⁄160 sec.
I used a short focal length to capture a wide-angle view of this scene. It allowed me to record the expanse and grandeur of the vista. 15–85mm f/3.5–5.6 lens at 15mm, ISO 400, f/16 for 1⁄250 sec.