Landscape lighting is best in the soft light of morning or evening. Light at those times has a warmer glow to it (technically it is a cooler temperature light but I’ll save that for a future post) and lights objects from the side, exposing textures and increasing meaningful contrast. As I have worked to improve my photography I have become somewhat of a lighting bigot and don’t even think it worth shooting if I can’t get good lighting and dramatic skies in my photos. Of course, that means I take fewer photos but I’m okay with that. Waiting for the right lighting is more than worth it.

A great example of a photographer who utilizes dramatic lighting in his photos is David Noton. The lighting makes the photo.

Here’s what I now do:

1. Zoom to appropriate distance
2. Position center focus point on area of subject I want to be sharp
3. Press the AF-On button with my thumb to lock AF
4. Recompose shot to desired framing
5. Press shutter button for exposure and to trip shutter

As a result of my new process, I can now lock the AF and freely recompose shots without having to move my camera around every time I trip the shutter. I’ve also configured one of my camera’s custom settings as my own “portrait mode” with the appropriate AF-On custom function enabled (and configured another custom setting identical to this one but with AI Servo enabled). Canon has a great description of the settings in their Digital Learning Center. Here is a quote from the site regarding the back-button auto focus options:

0: Metering + AF start (note: there’s no slash here)

Factory-default setting. You activate camera’s meter and AF by pressing shutter button half-way down. Rear AF-ON button also does same if it’s pressed, so you don’t get the benefits of removing AF activation from the shutter button when this option is set.

1: Metering + AF start / AF stop

AF is still at shutter button. Pressing the rear button will actually LOCK the focus; potentially useful if you shoot a lot of moving subjects in AI Servo AF and prefer to activate AF with a conventional half-press of shutter button. Focus is unlocked by removing thumb from back-button.

2: Metering start / Meter + AF start

Back-button AF activation. Shutter button no longer activates AF, but of course fires the shutter. Metering is continuously updated — if you shoot a sequence of pictures, the camera takes a fresh meter reading for each one. There’s no locking of exposure, unless you separately press the AE Lock button (this last item is not possible on some EOS models).

3: AE Lock / Metering + AF start

Back-button AF activation. Difference between this setting and option 2 directly above is that when you press the shutter button half-way, your exposure is locked and won’t change until you pull your finger off the button entirely. Thus, if you shoot a sequence of pictures in any auto exposure mode, the exposure setting used for the first shot is used for each subsequent shot. Can be useful if you were using back-button AF to easily lock focus and shoot a series of portraits, where you wouldn’t expect lighting to change.

4: Metering + AF start / Disable

Similar to setting “0” above, but now, the camera’s rear AF-ON button is disabled. AF activation is at the shutter button. Convenient if you’re worried about accidentally pressing the back-button and don’t want to use back-button AF.

I use option #2 but I highly recommend visiting the Canon website for a more detailed description of the functionality.

1. Good composition
2. Excellent lighting
3. Vibrant colors
4. Strong contrast

My family and I recently took a trip down to the Provo River area to play in the river and scout some photo locations. I’ll use a couple of photographs I took while down there (pretty scenery but not good photos) to illustrate the difference between a pretty scene and a good photograph. Here are the photos.

Mountains at Sundance Ski Resort - Utah

This first photograph of the mountains near the Sundance Ski Resort has some elements of a successful composition but is missing some key elements that would make it a good photograph. It has nice lines running from right to left in the contours of the grass and has a dramatic sky, something that is often times difficult to capture, but, due to the angle at which I took this photo, as well as the wide angle lens used, the mountains are far less imposing than they are in real life. In real life, they are rugged and imposing but this photo doesn’t do them justice. Another composition problem is that there isn’t any sort of foreground subject to add depth to the shot, again diminishing the imposing nature of the mountains, which actually tower over the foreground grass and trees.

The lighting is probably the weakest element of the photo. The shot was taken in the early afternoon when the sun is high in the sky, creating a harsh and flat light. As a result, there is little depth or texture in the photo. Lighting, more than anything, will make or break a photo.

Lastly, the photo has some vibrant colors but, due to the flat lighting, is sorely lacking contrast.

Provo River, Utah

This photo of the Provo River was fun to take because it was pretty but, like the other, fails to be a good photograph. The composition fails on a couple of levels. The shot does a good job of including some foreground, though it isn’t very interesting. The line of the river bank leads the eyes into the photo, which is nice, and the rule of thirds was followed, but the sky lacks drama. The river water is too polarized and thus blends into the surroundings too much (not enough reflection), and the flowers are too small. Perhaps being lower to the ground would have helped make the flowers more interesting? I’m not sure because of how flat the foreground is.

Again, like on the previous photo, the lighting is flat and harsh, diminishing the depth I tried to achieve with the foreground. Also as a result of the harsh lighting, the contrast and color vibrance are seriously lacking, making for a boring photo.

As you can see, these were both beautiful locations, providing fantastic scenery, but due to various limitations – mostly lighting – the photos taken don’t make compelling photographs.