DSLR Landscape Photography Tips and Tricks

Mirror lock-up in your DSLR

A great feature of modern DSLR is the mirror lock. This ensures when the mirror flips out of the way as you take your shot, it will lock into place and not cause any vibration. Usually this vibration at low shutter speeds such as those used in landscape photography 1/30 to 1 sec can cause some minor distortion or wobble to your image. Not ideal when your looking for total clarity to help encapsulate your wonderful landscape.

Shooting RAW format pictures

Taking pictures in RAW format means they have no loss of details caused by ordinary compression. They also have many more tones of color than standard TIFF or JPEG files. RAW files are typically in the 12 to 14 bit area whiles JPEG stays at 8. The 8 bit JPEG has 256 color shade, the 12 bit RAW 4096 while the 14 bit RAW has a staggering 16,384 tones making these formats ideal for Photoshop editing at a later stage.

Ensuring your camera has top range features helps you to generate outstanding landscape pictures. Getting the most from your DSLR camera requires that the essential features are the best available. Always consider the whole range of features instead if singling out a single aspect. Ask yourself what’s important to you when capturing great landscapes and build this answer into the features you prefer.

Essential DSLR Camera Settings for Landscapes

It’s important to take into account the combination of features and settings available on your DSLR camera. Never judge a camera through one specification only. Instead gauge the overall camera to give you the most essential elements as a priority. Landscape photography remains an extremely rewarding genre of photography. With the correct DSLR photography settings and features your images will become legendary.

High megapixel still counts

Megapixel count still remains important in photography yet it’s not the most overriding factor. The larger size equals a bigger print with greater clarity, however there’s no need to sacrifice other essential features of your camera over a high megapixel count.

Live view LCD display

Being able to refine your landscape composition with a live LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) allows for greater creative freedom with full photographic control. DSLR’s with rotating LCD displays allows you as the photography to break away from the traditional parallel view finder display to provide low POV or angled compositions with full photographic adjustment control.

HDR (High Dynamic Range)

This allows bracketing shots for your landscape photographs. However it’s only suitable for JPEG formats rather than the much preferred RAW format at present. Being able to use HDR in RAW’s something to consider for future DSLRs.

Pre-designed picture styles

Acts as a preset for landscape photography as defined by the manufacturer of your DSLR. It’s worth nothing that the choice of contrast, hue, saturation, and sharpness remain fully adjustable.

ISO sensor speed

Traditionally this referred to the sensitivity of film to light, with the lower setting being less sensitive to light. ISO in terms of digital photography refers to the sensitivity of the cameras sensor. Surprisingly having a high range of ISO on your DSLR allows for moments of creativity when shooting landscapes. No tripod, less blurring effects, as well as creating a noisy grainy effect as and when required. This works well particularly for black and white photography. Noise indicates the amount of pixel grain within the image.