- Tips, Tools, and Techniques to Get the Best Landscapes and Cityscapes
- Poring Over the Picture
- Sharp and In Focus: Using Tripods
- Selecting the Proper ISO
- Using Noise Reduction
- Selecting a White Balance
- Using the Landscape Creative Style
- Shooting Beautiful Black-and-White Landscapes
- Golden Light
- Shooting Compelling Sunrises and Sunsets
- Making Water Fluid
- Composing Landscapes and Streetscapes
- Where to Focus
- Easier Focusing
- Using Manual Focus Assist
- Using DMF Focus Mode
- Expand Your Range
- Shooting Panoramas
- Look for the Unexpected
- Chapter 8 Assignments
Shooting Beautiful Black-and-White Landscapes
There is nothing as timeless as a beautiful black-and-white landscape photo. For many, it is the purest form of photography, conjuring images of Ansel Adams capturing stunning monoliths in Yosemite Valley with his 8x10 view camera. Just because you’re shooting with a digital camera doesn’t mean you can’t create your own stunning photos using the power of the Black & White creative style. (See the “Classic Black-and-White Portraits” section of Chapter 6 for instructions on setting up this feature.)
Options in the Black & White creative style enable you to adjust the sharpness and contrast. I like to have Sharpness set to +1 and Contrast set to +1 for my landscape images. This gives an overall look to the image that is reminiscent of the classic black-and-white films (Figure 8.10). Experiment with the various settings to find the combination that is most pleasing to you.
Figure 8.10 Just as in color photography, strong light, good composition, and compelling subject matter make for a nice image.
ISO 200 • 1/200 sec. • f/11 • 35mm lens