Serious request for best practise.

StewartR said:
Firstly the olf "focus a 3rd into the scene" guideline is rubbish
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Can you recommend a good 'rule' for budding landscapers then? I've just started to try opening up a bit and focussing 1/3 in... and now i'm being told it's rubbish?
 
Hi Gary
Look forward to your results now you've got the knowledge, which I'm sure you had anyway.
Only thing I would add (think I'm correct) is if you want milky water your bracketing won't help so you'll need the ND filter for longer exposure.
 
Don't rely on bracketing and PP or you could spend ages in PP or stitching images together. For good dramatic skies you really can't beat an ND grad.

Oh and nip out and get a Hassy! :D

Have fun Gary.
 
68lbs said:
Can you recommend a good 'rule' for budding landscapers then? I've just started to try opening up a bit and focussing 1/3 in... and now i'm being told it's rubbish?
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See, I just don't understand how this 1/3 rule is supposed to work. Say the mountains in the distance are 3 km away. Does that mean you're focussing on a point that's 1 km away? How do you do that? How do you select the point, and how do you focus on it in practice? And what difference does it make? How much does the focus ring turn betwen 1 km and 3 km?

Anyway, I'd suggest having a play with DOFMaster (link in previous post) and come to your own conclusions.

For example, suppose you're shooting with a 40D or 400D or similar, with a 24mm lens at f/8. (Fairly reasonable for landscapes, I think.) The hyperfocal distance is 3.8m, so in theory if you focus on an object say 4m away then everything from 2m to infinity will be acceptably sharp. But as I said previously, the distant objects will be right on the edge of the zone of acceptable sharpness, and this is where you start hoping you're using the same definition of "acceptable sharpness" as the people who wrote the software...

What I would do - but I stress that I am not an expert - is this. I'd focus on the closest object which I want to be in really sharp focus, and then rotate the focus ring half way from there to the 'infinity' setting. As long as the object is more than 4m away (in this example) then you should have everything from it to infinity in "acceptable" focus, and you've minimised the possibility that either the close object or the distant mountains are right on the edge of acceptability.

I must stress again that I am not an expert in (practical) landscape photoghraphy, though I do have a reasonable (theoretical) understanding of optics. So if anybody who really is an expert wishes to tell me I'm wrong (and why), please do so.
 
Carluke - I think you'll find it is the Old Man of Storr, not the Man of Hoy, that is a sea stack off the Orkney coast!

He is right though, the run up to the Storr Lochs is worth it - then a bit further on towards Staffin there is the waterfall - signposted so you can't miss it.

Go round the top to Staffin Bay and there is a nice little river that runs into the Bay. Keep going for Duntulm Castle (ruins on the end of a point). Just past the Storr Lochs you can turn left and run up to the Quairang from that side - the road comes out above Uig. Duntulm and the north is to the right from here.

My sister has a campsite at Camus Mor - lovely sea cliffs there (township of Kilmuir) between the Uig junction and Duntulm castle.

Worth venturing into the interior up that end too - some nice hidden gems!

If you go down to Camus Mor (turn off the coast road signed for Bornaskitaig at the cattle handling pens - called a fank) just go straight, all the way to the sea. You will find McCurdie's exhibition....worth a look, very funny some of it. The basalt columns which are the other end of the Giant's Causeway are round the coast to the right. Park on the slip at Camus Mor and walk round to the right as you look out to sea - good fishing off here too! My sister's house is the last one down on the right so I know this area pretty well.

The sea cliffs to the left as you look out to sea have sea eagles nesting on them for the last 10 years. You might be lucky to see them. If you go to the right for the basalt early in the morning there is a pair of otters that live in this area - I see them quite regularly when I am up that way, had them 10 feet from me this trip. Ihad a fishing rod and no camera. They just bobbed up, looked at me for half a minute, then bobbed down and came up 20 feet to my left. Hopped up onto the rocks and went about their business. Fabulous.

Have a good time. You could spend your entire life photohgraphing on Skye and still not run out of changing light or places to go.

FUEL - fill up in Broadford on your way up, the BP on the right as you go north. It is the cheapest on the island.
 
Oh another thing to note. EVERY day, regardless of weather, you will get a few seconds of "blue light", even when it is tipping down. If it is nice, the blue light might last for 30 minutes.

Also, often when there is cloud you get a couple of minutes of really glorious light, just as the sun dips below the cloud and is between the horizon and the cloud base.....be ready for it. You will know if it is going to happen because there will be a bright strip just above the horizon - with a dark rim on the bottom of the cloud. Get ready for where the snooted sunlight is going to illuminate with a lovely, trapped, golden light. The clouds above you will also get a touch of warmth about them.
 
EdinburghGary said:
I remember when I first joined here, I bragged about being "able" to do Hand Held panorama's. How silly :D
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Can't you, aw :p I must admit that I find this thread odd. You've posted long exposure landscapes recently that are nicely composed. Your photos are 9/10 times damn sharp. I've never used mirror lockup on long exposures. Never really needed to. Suppose I should try it. Anyway, trust yourself dude. Ignore maths, distances, numbers. Set the camera to f/11-13 for most landscapes. F/22 or more if you want motion in the clouds, but then you know that already.
 
petemc said:
Can't you, aw :p I must admit that I find this thread odd. You've posted long exposure landscapes recently that are nicely composed. Your photos are 9/10 times damn sharp. I've never used mirror lockup on long exposures. Never really needed to. Suppose I should try it. Anyway, trust yourself dude. Ignore maths, distances, numbers. Set the camera to f/11-13 for most landscapes. F/22 or more if you want motion in the clouds, but then you know that already.
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Cheers mate,

I guess I was worried that I would mess up. I made a lot of mistakes on my last trip up this direction, and I am super keen to get some very nice photos. Also I thought, as the question was so open ended, others might benefit too.

There have been 5 or 6 suggestions so far which are completely new to me.

And wow, you kinda gave me another compliment, keep it coming :D

Thanks everyone for contributing to this thread. Afraid to say, weather so far, has been moody. Moody landscapes it is :D
 
I tend to focus about 2/3 of the way into the picture and set my aperture to F13.
It may seem slightly blurred in the viewfinder but the pictures are pin sharp when processed.
 
Lensflare said:
Carluke - I think you'll find it is the Old Man of Storr, not the Man of Hoy, that is a sea stack off the Orkney coast!

He is right though, the run up to the Storr Lochs is worth it - then a bit further on towards Staffin there is the waterfall - signposted so you can't miss it.

Go round the top to Staffin Bay and there is a nice little river that runs into the Bay. Keep going for Duntulm Castle (ruins on the end of a point). Just past the Storr Lochs you can turn left and run up to the Quairang from that side - the road comes out above Uig. Duntulm and the north is to the right from here.

My sister has a campsite at Camus Mor - lovely sea cliffs there (township of Kilmuir) between the Uig junction and Duntulm castle.

Worth venturing into the interior up that end too - some nice hidden gems!

If you go down to Camus Mor (turn off the coast road signed for Bornaskitaig at the cattle handling pens - called a fank) just go straight, all the way to the sea. You will find McCurdie's exhibition....worth a look, very funny some of it. The basalt columns which are the other end of the Giant's Causeway are round the coast to the right. Park on the slip at Camus Mor and walk round to the right as you look out to sea - good fishing off here too! My sister's house is the last one down on the right so I know this area pretty well.

The sea cliffs to the left as you look out to sea have sea eagles nesting on them for the last 10 years. You might be lucky to see them. If you go to the right for the basalt early in the morning there is a pair of otters that live in this area - I see them quite regularly when I am up that way, had them 10 feet from me this trip. Ihad a fishing rod and no camera. They just bobbed up, looked at me for half a minute, then bobbed down and came up 20 feet to my left. Hopped up onto the rocks and went about their business. Fabulous.

Have a good time. You could spend your entire life photohgraphing on Skye and still not run out of changing light or places to go.

FUEL - fill up in Broadford on your way up, the BP on the right as you go north. It is the cheapest on the island.
Click to expand...

Apologies mate, you're dead on, it is Storr! :bonk:
 
Day 2 and the weather has been mostly great. I really am going to struggle to do this place justice, I have never, in my entire life, seen scenery like it. I am gobsmacked at how amazing this place is, the Mountains are incredible, the lochs and glens, to die for. The scale of the place is HUGE.

Anyway! Off to Storr as I type this (well sort of, I'm driving)!

After Storr in morning, will be heading to Niest Point, before making a run for home!

We will have travelled the entire road structure of Skye when finished, we have missed nothing as far as I can tell from the map:D
 
I'm refreshing the Landscapes forum every hour or so - can't wait to see your results.
 
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