Winter LandscapesPracticalPhotograPhy.com 41footwear, usually thermal-lined wellies or snow
boots. Being comfortable on location is an essential
part of a successful shoot.
as well as wanting a relatively simple image, i tend
to keep camera operations to a minimum. having
found a location, i’ll quickly ascertain which focal
length prime lens i’ll use – there’s no standing
around zooming a lens one way then the other,
being indecisive and shooting every option going.
Simply visualise the image in your mind’s eye and
go for it. once you know the composition you want,
the trickiest part of the procedure is metering,
as loads of snow bouncing the light around will
probably fool the meter. i’ll set the camera up to use
the aperture control and shutter speeds manually as
i like to be in charge and know what’s happening,
not the camera dictating to me. if in doubt about
metering manually, check the histogram – learn to
read it and use it without a second thought, as it’s
an invaluable tool in winter landscape situations.
most of my landscapes are shot at f/11, to strike
a good balance between heaps of depth-of-field on
a wide-angle lens and using the sharpest part of
the lens. the generally accepted rule-of-thumb is
to focus about a third of the way into the subject
when using a wide-angle lens. alternatively, you
could try a focus stack technique if conditions and
time allow, or you could use a tilt/shift lens to
enhance the depth-of-field. however, if there’s any
doubt, just make sure the main or most important
part of the subject is sharp and allow the depth-of-
field to take care of the rest. this is how i focus the
majority of my landscape images.it’s very easy to get too wrapped up in how you
should compose. many will follow such principles as
the rule-of-thirds, which isn’t a bad starting place if
you’re struggling, although some people will worry
about what the local print competition judge wants
to see and will try to second-guess them, usually to
the detriment of the image. composition is simple- shoot what you like, the way you see it, which is
Top Clean lines
and graphic
shapes abound
in this epic shot
of Kootenay
National Park.Above Jeremy
prefers to expose
manually when
shooting tricky
scenes like this.