Photo Tip - Here Is An Indispensable Piece Of Camera Gear For Great Landscape Photography!

Our photo tip for today is another piece of camera gear that you really can't do without. It's the "Polarizing Filter!" If you are at all into outdoor scenes and landscape photography it is vital and you should never leave home without it.

While many filter effects can be added after the fact in Photoshop, to add the effects of a polarizing filter would be almost impossible. I suppose there is some Photoshop genius out there that could do it, but it would take untold hours.

Did you get into photography to create amazing photographs? Or did you want to sit in front of your computer all day trying to master Photoshop, and "fix" your images.

What does a polarizing filter do? It polarizes the light! (Duh.) What does THAT mean?

There are two main types of polarizing filter - a linear polarizer and a circular polarizer. This does not refer to the shape of the filter, but to the way it polarizes light.

Back in the day, both were available as photo filters but in reality, the circular polarizer was best and not many people bought the other. I don't know if linear polarizers are still available or not. If they are, the circular polarizer is the one you want.

When we see light, it is generally made up of the entire color (wavelength) spectrum. Plus it is bouncing all over the place - off objects in the scene, off molecules in the air - everything.

When the light enters the camera (or our eye) it is coming in from all directions and creates glare. Plus it is all the various colors in the light spectrum. Sometimes it is better to eliminate some of the colors or to eliminate glare.

Basically, polarizers straighten out the light wave so the light particles are all traveling into the camera in a straight line - this eliminates glare. The filter also blocks some of the light wavelengths (colors) from getting through - intensifying what is left!

An example of a polarizing filter can be found at a 3D movie. The special glasses you wear (not the old fashioned red and blue ones) are actually polarizers. Each side blocks certain wavelengths of light and allows others to pass. In this way, the movie makers are able to determine what we see to make it appear 3D.

This blocking of some light waves and allowing others to pass are what intensifies the colors in the sky of our landscape! It also makes the clouds almost "POP" out of the frame. It is this that creates those entrancing skies we often see.

As a side bonus, we can determine the amount of polarization we use! Just put the circular polarizer on your lens and - while looking through the viewfinder - slowly turn the filter. (It spins around.) You will be able to visibly see the changes in polarization. Stop when you reach the point you like best and shoot away!

More or less polarization can be achieved depending on the angle of the sun too! The sun at 90 degrees relative to the lens tends to give you the most polarization opportunity.

Most landscape photographers use polarizers to intensify the sky, but cutting out glare is a handy feature too! Note: Your filter will not eliminate glare from a metal object. The light is already polarized.

A polarizer will eliminate glare and reflections off store windows - allowing you to get better shots of the displays inside. It also polarizes the light bouncing off trees, leaves, flowers and so on, thereby eliminating glare and intensifying their colors!

No camera bag should be without a circular polarizer. It is one of the most useful pieces of camera gear you can own and it can't be easily replaced by Photoshop.

So here is your photo tip - if you want your landscape photography to grab your viewer's attention (and not let go) use a polarizing filter on all your outdoor shots. It is an indispensable piece of camera gear and you should never leave home without it! For more information check out the resource box!

To learn more and enroll in a FREE "photo tips" course, go to: http://ontargetphototraining.com/

Bonus... You will also get YOUR free copy of 7 Secrets To Stunning Photos! AND you'll get a FREE daily photo tips newsletter! Check it out right now while you are thinking about it!

Dan Eitreim has been a professional photographer in Southern California for over 20 years - his data base exceeds 6000 past clients, and he says that learning photography is easy, if you know a few tried and true strategies.

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Photo Tip - How To Create Better Landscape Photography!

At some point in our photo lives, we all give landscape photography a try. And when we see the results, for the most part we are disappointed. Today's photo tip will help you move your landscape photos to a new level, and give you something you can hang on your wall with pride.

Landscape photography isn't easy! It would seem that all we have to do is find a pretty location, set up our camera and voila! We start winning contests left and right.

Not going to happen. In fact, I once read a quote from one of the greatest landscape photographers of all time - Ansel Adams - who said he felt lucky if he could get one good shot A MONTH!

By the way, the negatives of some of his best known works are almost unprintable. My personal opinion of Ansel Adams is that he was a pretty good photographer, but nothing extraordinary. His genius was in the darkroom.

Did you know that he didn't use a light to expose the negative onto the photo sensitive paper? He had some sort of convoluted setup of mirrors etc., where he funneled actual sunlight down onto his negatives. If it was nighttime or heavily overcast, he couldn't print!

Then he created an actual book of how long each individual section of the negative needed to be exposed and so forth. For example... the clouds for half a second, the trees for 3 seconds the foreground for 1 second and so on. It took a LONG time to work out how to print each negative.

After all that, he wound up throwing out as many prints as he kept. His printing standards were pretty high!

I say all of this to point out that even with digital cameras giving us immediate feedback, and Photoshop giving us a LOT of opportunities to fix mistakes, we STILL have trouble getting that "WOW" factor into our landscape photos.

Here is a way to immediately move ahead to the next level...

Light.

Perhaps more than any other style of photography, landscape photos rely on the quality of light to give us that "wow".

Look through all your photo magazines, books and courses and one common element is that almost NONE of the photos were shot around noon. Take a few minutes to check it out - it's true.

When were they shot?

Photo tip... Typically the best light you are going to get is at dawn through to about an hour past dawn - and sunset through to about an hour after the sun dips below the horizon.

You may have a terrific eye for landscape photography composition, exposure and so forth - but if you don't shoot at these optimal times, you are out of luck.

If you are a budding (or even a professional) photographer and the sun is out when you wake up in the morning, you have forever missed an opportunity. It's the same with watching the 6 o'clock news on television. If the sun goes down and you are at home...

For most of us, even if you have to be at work in the morning you will usually have enough time to get out there and practice your landscape photography - and still get to the office on time.

It's the same with kids. Leave them with the sleeping spouse, roll out of bed (while it is still dark) go to your pre-selected location, shoot from dawn to about an hour past and you can still get home before most of them even wake up!

Note: you don't need to drive to some distant mountain range. Just go to a local park, or shoot a nice looking building. You are learning to work with light. Then, when you are on vacation, you will have the skills needed to get the landscape shots you've been dreaming of.

I know this photo tip is basic, but this is just the first of a series. Keep reading the daily Photo Tips articles on landscape photography and you will be build a skill set to be envied! for more information, check out the resources box!

To learn more and enroll in a FREE "photo tips" course, go to: http://ontargetphototraining.com/

Bonus... You will also get YOUR free copy of "7 Secrets To Stunning Photos!" AND you'll get a FREE daily photo tips newsletter! Check it out right now while you are thinking about it!

Dan Eitreim has been a professional photographer in Southern California for over 20 years - his data base exceeds 6000 past clients, and he says that learning photography is easy, if you know a few tried and true strategies.

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To Get Better Landscape Photography, Your Camera Gear Should Include Neutral Density Filters!

Today's photo tip concerns the neutral density filter. To get better landscape photography, this is another piece of camera gear that should be in your bag at all times! It's another filter effect that can't be duplicated after the fact. It has to be in the camera.

I'm sure you've seen landscape photography of a waterfall.

You can shoot it so that every drop of water is in sharp relief... or you can shoot it so that it looks like a massive string of cotton candy! And everything in between!

By the way, did you know that Niagara Falls actually stopped flowing in 1848 for about 20 hours because there was ice that was blocking the Niagara River? Imagine a before and after shot of THAT!

Anyway, back to our tip...

We know that to get the sharp image, we need a fast shutter speed and to get the cotton candy blur we need a slow one.

Another good reason to put your camera on manual! You will never get award winning shots on automatic! They will look like everyone else's.

What if we want a really slow shutter speed, but it is a bright day? As you know, only a certain amount of light can be let in for a good exposure - if you let in too much, it will ruin the shot.

So we first start closing down the aperture. What if that isn't enough? What if we are at the smallest aperture setting - and we still have too much light.

Our next option would be to go with the slowest film or ISO setting we can. That is nice, it will give us nicely saturated, noise free shots... but there are limitations.

Since our problem is that too much light is entering the lens, the simple fix is to block some of that light.

Enter the "Neutral Density Filter".

The neutral density filter is a filter that is designed to block a certain amount of light. That's all! It doesn't alter the light in any way - it's neutral. The light entering the lens has all the same properties; there is just less of it.

Voilla! You are now able to shoot that silky, cotton candy waterfall - on a bright sunny day!

Neutral density filters come in various strengths. You can block one stop of light, three, five, and so on. Plus various densities can be "stacked" for even more light blockage. You could put a five stop and a three stop neutral density filter together for eight full stops! (That is a LOT of light!)

Neutral density filters have lots of uses, not just for waterfalls. In tomorrows photo tip article, I'll go into even more cool things you can do to improve your landscape photography with these indispensable camera gear accessories.

To learn more and enroll in a FREE "photo tips" course, go to: http://ontargetphototraining.com/

Bonus... You will also get YOUR free copy of " 7 Secrets To Stunning Photos! " AND you'll get a FREE daily photo tips newsletter! Check it out right now while you are thinking about it!

Dan Eitreim has been a professional photographer in Southern California for over 20 years - his data base exceeds 6000 past clients, and he says that learning photography is easy, if you know a few tried and true strategies.

View the original article here

Using The Neutral Density Filter For Better Landscape Photography

Photo Tip - using the neutral density filter. Neutral density filters are used to block light coming into the lens so that we can have longer exposure times than the available light would allow without the filter. As a piece of landscape photography camera gear, it is indispensable.

I've written about neutral density filters in a previous article and this one will build on that!

Let's review... To explain how a neutral density filter works, I used an old standby, the waterfall - shot on a bright and sunny day.

By the way - Angel Falls in Venezuela is the world's highest waterfall, at 979 meters. This waterfall is sixteen times the height of Niagara Falls.Imagine shooting that!

Actually, don't imagine it... set a goal and find a way to go do it!

With the available light, we may have a fast shutter speed that will freeze every droplet in place. If that is what we want, great!

What if we want that long and silky cotton candy effect we see so often?

To do that, we need a longer exposure time. That's where the neutral density filter comes in. It blocks light entering the lens and allows for the longer exposure times needed.

Neutral density filters come in various filtration densities and can be stacked to get to the exposure times we want.

This works on water flowing in a river too! Fast shutter speeds freeze the water - slow shutter speeds make it a long silky cotton candy string.

If you live near the ocean, try going to the beach and shooting the waves as they crash onto the shore. With enough neutral density filters, you can totally flatten them out and make it look like there were no waves at all! Toss in a dramatic sky and you have a contest winner for sure!

Today we will delve even further into the neutral density filter.

In previous articles I've written that the best time of day for landscape photography is at dawn and dusk. That will give us the most beautiful light on our subject.

But there is a problem. Because of the dramatic difference in light (on the ground vs. in the sky) at that time of day, half your photograph is improperly exposed!

If our subject is the dramatic cloud formations in the sky, that's great. We make them the star. We expose for all the light in the sky, but that makes the ground go dark. (The ground is under exposed.)

If our star is the ground, we expose for the minimal light on the ground, but that lets the sky get blown out. (The sky is over exposed.)

How can we shoot at the best times of day, still have a star in our photo - either the ground or the sky - but not have the rest of the photo be improperly exposed?

Enter the split neutral density filter!

This is a filter where half of it is clear and the other half is a neutral density filter. They come in various degrees of density and the dividing line can be sharp or a gradual fade.

This way we can hold back some of the light in the sky and not affect the light on the ground.

All you need to do is determine what the amount of difference there is in exposure value between the sky and the ground - then add enough neutral density light blockage to the sky to make them the same!

Since it is "neutral" it will not take away any of the colors or drama in your shot... it just cuts back on the light being admitted to the lens.

Adding neutral density filters to your landscape photography arsenal it vital. They are an essential piece of camera gear that you should never leave home without - if you want to put some of the "WOW" factor into your landscape photography. For more information, check the resource box!

To learn more and enroll in a FREE "photo tips" course, go to: http://ontargetphototraining.com/

Bonus... You will also get YOUR free copy of " 7 Secrets To Stunning Photos! " AND you'll get a FREE daily photo tips newsletter! Check it out right now while you are thinking about it!

Dan Eitreim has been a professional photographer in Southern California for over 20 years - his data base exceeds 6000 past clients, and he says that learning photography is easy, if you know a few tried and true strategies.

View the original article here