How to Use Old Lenses with New Digital Cameras

By: Adam Welch 

They say time flies when you’re having fun. I’ve been having so much fun that I realize it has been over six years since I first talked to you about how to use old lenses with new digital cameras. 
A lot has changed when it comes to going about using vintage camera lenses with our modern digital camera bodies. Well, things haven’t exactly changed but have rather “progressed” from where they were just a few years ago.
Let me show you now, how you can easily use classic glass with virtually any interchangeable lens digital camera…with a few exceptions.

Understanding old lenses

Vintage lenses are a fantastic gateway into the world of photography. Many are usually cheap (relatively) and comparatively well constructed. Additionally, the majority of old lenses are surprisingly sharp with fast apertures, even by today’s standards.
Speaking of current standards, seeing as the majority of these types of lenses were manufactured for use with 35mm film, they are essentially ready-made to match with the growing number of high resolution full-frame digital cameras available to us today.

Some of these lenses also add a unique character to your images, which might or might not be desirable depending on your own expectations. Lenses such as the legendary Helios have become prized lenses for portrait photographers and videographers due to its distinctive “swirly” bokeh.

This photo was made with the Helios 44-2 at its maximum F/2 aperture. Note the distinctive swirl 

of the background.

Check out this cool tutorial on how to simulate this effect in Photoshop
In short, vintage lenses bring a lot to the table in terms of sharpness, build quality and cost-effectiveness. This is all well and good, but how do you get these old lenses to fit your camera?
To find out, keep reading.
This is the cool part.

Adapting vintage lenses

When it comes to using old lenses with new digital cameras, there are two things to consider: lens mount compatibility and a little thing called “flange-focal distance.”
We’ll talk more about flange-focal distance in the next section, but for now, let’s focus (haha) simply on how to get a lens from manufacturer A to fit on a camera from manufacturer B.
It’s all really quite easy – mostly.

You’ll need an adapter to use your old lenses with new digital cameras. However, this isn’t limited to vintage glass, as today, there are quite a few ways to use even modern lenses across a wide range of camera platforms. For our purposes, though, we’ll stick to showing you how to use older lenses.
The first problem an adapter solves is the conversion of your lens mount to the mount your camera uses.
Think of the adapter as a “connector” with one side matching the lens and one side matching the camera. This allows us to physically attach the lens to the camera even though they sport different mounts.

Here we see some examples of various vintage lens mounts.

There are all sorts of adapters available on the market today. They range from the alarmingly cheap to the shockingly expensive and everything in between.
Some are complex with electronic components intended to aid in metering/focusing with autofocus lenses, and some are as simple as small rings of metal.

A few adapters used for fitting various vintage lenses to new digital camera bodies.

Now, you may be thinking that all you need is an adapter that will convert a lens to a certain mount, but there’s a bit more to it than that.
Let’s talk about what might be the most important factor when it comes to using old lenses with new digital cameras – flange-focal distance.

Flange focal distance

No matter the lens, you will have to overcome something called “flange-focal distance” if you choose to adapt older lenses for your digital camera.
This is where you have to be careful because there are some lens adapters out there that do not take this very important aspect into account.
Without the correct flange-focal distance, your adapted lens will not be able to focus correctly. In some cases, it will not focus at all.

Although crucial, flange-focal distance is extremely simple to understand. Flange-focal distance is the distance (in millimeters) from the rear mount of the lens to the focal plane of the camera, which can be either film or a digital sensor.
Your focal plane is designated by that little symbol that looks like a ‘0’ with a line.

Different cameras all have different flange-focal distances and vary widely between manufacturers. Compensating for this differing flange-focal distance is a key factor when it comes to determining whether or not your adapted lens will be able to obtain the correct focus.
So, in reality, your lens adapter needs to not only act as a mount converter but also be able to accurately correct for the specified focal-flange distance.

Flange-focal distance and the mirrorless advantage

Up to this point, we’ve only explained what flange-focal distance (FFD) is and why it’s important. Now, we’re going to discuss the practical aspects of FFD when it comes to actually adapt your old lenses to new digital cameras.
More specifically, we’ll touch on why mirrorless cameras are so versatile when it comes to adapting various camera lenses.

Hypothetically, you can adapt virtually any lens to fit any digital camera. However, this is not always practical. In some cases, it would require massive modifications to your camera.
The reason for this all goes back to the importance of FFD. With a camera manufactured with a relatively large FFD, like a Canon DSLR (44mm FFD), it becomes quite easy to adapt the lenses for that camera to one with a smaller FFD.
Seeing as the majority of older lenses were made for cameras with mirror mechanisms, most of them will have a FFD larger than today’s modern mirrorless digital cameras.
An example of this is using Canon EF mount lenses with Sony mirrorless cameras like the A7R.
Since there is no mirror reflex mechanism, the A7R has a relatively tiny FFD of 18mm. So in our case, all that is required to achieve the correct FFD of the Canon lens (44mm FFD), and thus facilitate proper focusing, is for the adapter to provide 26mm of spacing in order to reach the correct 44mm FFD of the Canon EF lens.



There are quite a few adapters on the market that are essentially only “mount adapters,” that just convert one lens mount to another while not enabling the lens to actually achieve focus. Not only that, you run the risk of damaging your precious camera should the lens intrude too far inside the body – more on this and other complications in the next section.

Common complications

Using old lenses with your modern mirrorless or DSLR cameras has a lot of benefits. Many of these older lenses are sharp, fast and brilliantly constructed. Unfortunately, with age comes a few problems. I’ve listed a few things to watch out for below. Some are obvious and some you might not expect.

• Dust and fungus – Older lenses can have dust and lint inside the lens as well as fungus growing on the lens elements. There can even be a separation of the optical coatings should the lens elements feature this. So when considering purchasing a vintage lens to use with your digital camera, make sure it comes from a reputable place. Also, examine the lens closely for any flaws.
• The infinity focus problem – We’ve already talked about how important FFD is for focusing, and if you are primarily a landscape or astrophotography shooter, you’ll want to pay special attention to infinity focus. Should your adapter be only slightly too large, meaning it goes past the FFD for the particular lens you’re using, the lens will not focus to infinity. In most cases, the adapter will physically be minutely shorter so that the adapted lens will focus past infinity for this very reason.
• FFD incompatibility – Perhaps one of the most important things to keep in mind when using old lenses with new digital cameras is that many lenses aren’t backward-compatible. This means, instead of requiring an adapter to compensate for larger FFD, the lens needs to be mounted closer to the focal plane. So, lens intended for mirrorless cameras (with short FFD) can’t be adapted to DSLR bodies (relatively large FFD). Refer to the video for a bit more info on this.
• Potential camera damage – Always remember that it’s up to you to decide if you want to try adapting any lens to your camera. There is always a chance of damage, and this risk goes when electronic adapters are involved. Furthermore, some lenses can protrude inside of the camera body, which could possibly damage digital sensors and other internal mechanisms.

Some closing thoughts…

I sometimes wonder if the original makers of some of my vintage lenses ever thought about the manner in which they might get used thirty, forty, or even fifty years down the road.
Making use of old lenses with new digital cameras is not a new concept. However, with the recent rise in popularity of mirrorless digital cameras, their use is becoming more and more common.
With the correct adapter and a bit of basic photographic know-how, you can put many of these beautiful old lenses to work for you with minimal investment in both time and money.
So whether you’re looking for a budget-friendly way to make great photos or you’re simply a fan of the character of old glass, I believe you’ll find it worth your while to try out some vintage lenses for yourself.
Have you used some old lenses with your digital camera? We’re all camera geeks here, so we’d love to see your results! Feel free to post your images made with old camera lenses below.

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4 Tips to Choose the Right Lens for your Photography

By: Karthika Gupta  

A few years ago, I came across the term ‘gear lust.’ Suddenly all those feelings of wanting, dreaming, and lusting over the latest and greatest lens and cameras that I would see in glossy magazines and catalogs were categorized as a known condition. How could I choose the right lens to use and buy for my photography when there were so many options out there?
Did I really need to choose? Couldn’t I just buy everything and make myself a happy camper?
Pretty soon, I came crashing down to earth and realized that buying every single lens out there was not practical and near impossible given my finances and photography budget.
So, I learned fairly quickly how to understand my photographic needs and choose a lens that best fits that need – from a usability, functionality and budget perspective.

Here are some tips on how you can choose the right lens that works for you, based on your photography style, needs, and budget. Remember, these are all very individualistic, so make sure you are honest when answering these questions.

1. Understand your photography style

When we are starting out as photographers, there is a need to master everything. And rightfully so.
The early stages of learning any art form is one of exploration, and we should try everything out there.
When I first started, I was exploring different genres and editing styles. I explored moody to black and white, to light and airy, and everything in between.
I soon found myself gravitating towards a light bright airy style. This meant photographing wide open and using a lot of natural light in my photos. I realized that my lens needed to be fast to focus and let me photograph wide open at apertures of around f/1.2 through f/2.
These needs saw me gravitating towards prime lenses. I found that they worked well for me in post-processing for the style that I wanted to focus on too.
So I invested in the Canon 50mm f/1.2 L and a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L. Now, 9 years later, I still have both of these lenses and use them consistently.
Even though my genre and specialization have changed slightly, my photography style has remained fairly consistent. So these lenses have served me well.

Taken with my beloved 50mm f/1.2

So, take the time to understand what photography style works for you and then try out different lenses. Do you prefer working with zoom lens, or are primes more your style?
You will find that choosing the right lens for your style of photography becomes much easier when you take the time to understand what your photography style is rather than buying something and then adjusting your style to match the gear you have.

My 24-70mm f/2.8 lives on my camera 80% of the time. This is the lens I choose in a giffy because 

I know it gives me what I am looking for.

2. Understand your photography needs

When I first started photography, I considered myself a family and lifestyle photographer. Soon I added newborn and weddings into the mix.
I quickly realized that while I love kids, I just could not handle newborn photos. Newborn shoots take a lot of time and a lot of patience, waiting on babies to be cooperative.
However, I found my sweet spot with weddings and lifestyle photos.
As I tried out different lenses for this type of work, I quickly realized that speed and wide angles were important for family photos and weddings. With weddings, I often found myself in the back of the room, taking photos of the couple at the altar or interacting with family and loved ones. As I did not want to intrude on these special moments, I found that a lens with a good zoom was pertinent.
With this realization, I invested in the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 because this lens had everything I was looking for – the zoom and speed.

Taken with the 70-200mm f/2.8 shot – I will love this lens till the day I die!

Choosing the right lens sometimes is like choosing your favorite child! You cannot voice it publicly 

but you know which one is the favorite!

I also found myself renting the Canon 35mm f/1.4 for larger weddings to take wide-angle photos. My second shooter would use this lens to get a different angle as we photographed side-by-side.
So, take the time to understand your photography needs. Do you want to focus on close-up portraits or do you want wide-angle photos of architecture? Perhaps you want to experiment with street photography? Do you want to do more macro or wildlife photos?
Choosing the right lens will become a breeze when you really narrow down what your photography needs are.

3. Acknowledge your budget

If you have to pick only one lens because of your budget, understand that it is perfectly okay, and even the top photographers do that occasionally. The amount of gear you own does not equate to skill and proficiency.
For my very first photoshoot, I rented a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens and used that with my Canon 24-70mm f/2.8. I had no idea what I was doing other than the fact that I had read that the nifty-fifty was the best thing since sliced bread!
I hated that lens and couldn’t wait to return it. Fast forward a few years, and once I had the understanding and the budget, I invested in the L version of the 50mm. It is now my favorite lens for portraits of any kind. The bokeh from this lens is pure magic!

My 24-70mm f/2.8 is almost 9 years old. It has been readjusted multiple times by Canon Professional 

Services, but I will never get rid of it. It delivers day-in and day-out!

You can get creative with what you have.
Change up your angle. Change up the focal length by moving closer or backing out.
No matter what the limitations, for the most part, you can make it work.

4. Find the happy match between lens and photographer

This is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? With so many choices out there, what lens should you choose, and when? Investing in camera gear should always be a healthy balance between need, wants, and budget. The last thing you want is a closet full of gear that you never use.
Rent or borrow a lens that interests you so you can test it out for yourself first before outlaying a big amount of money on something that may not suit your needs.
An example of this is the Sigma 135mm f1.8 I was interested in buying. It is an incredible lens. I was so tempted to buy it having heard about its awesomeness from all my photographer friends. However, when I had a chance to test it out, I realized that I get a lot of the same results from my 70-200mm f2.8 for the way I was using it. So it would have been an unnecessary addition to my gear.

Selling off your unwanted gear is always an option, but it’s better to get it right to start with. Remember, needs and styles constantly change, and that is fairly common among photographers. That way, if you find yourself needing the same lens down the road, you can always keep using what you have or upgrade to a newer version.
As I slowly move away from weddings and more towards travel and culture, my needs have changed. I want to travel light and wanted the most bang for the gear I lug halfway around the world. Hence, I choose lenses that fit that need.
I’ve been lucky, because the lenses I chose for my initial needs, still suit my new needs. My go-to lenses are the 24-70mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.2 and 70-200mm f/2.8. I find that this combination works the best for travel portraits, wide-angle landscapes as well as the occasional wildlife photos.
Good gear is essential for a good photographer, but expensive gear does not make a good photographer.
If you only have a kit lens and cannot afford anything else, that’s perfectly okay. Master your craft with what you have, and when the time is right, choose the right lens based on what you need and what you can afford, not on what is the latest/coolest gadget on the market.
You may also like: 

Photography Gear You Will Need for Different Types of Photo Shoots

Do you have any other tips to choose the right lens for your photography? If so, please share in the comments section.

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The 10 Best Pieces of Creative Photography Equipment

By: Simon Bond 

Your dSLR is an incredibly creative tool, which when used correctly can give you dramatic results. A lot of techniques can be achieved with your camera body and a lens, such as panning, zoom bursts or bokeh. With some more equipment, you can really hit the ball out of the park. In this article, you’ll discover what that equipment is and some of the techniques that equipment will allow you to practice. So read on and discover the ten best pieces of creative photography equipment.

Digital blending is a powerful technique that can enhance sunset photos.

1. Tripod

This is almost always one of the first additional pieces of equipment a photographer will purchase, and with good reason.
A tripod allows for a lot of creativity, and you’ll want to get a good tripod. Avoid getting a cheap tripod that has unsteady legs, and instead, invest in a heavier sturdy tripod. If you’re traveling and need a lighter backpack you can compromise a little. You still want a strong tripod, and preferably a hook on the central tripod pole that allows you to add more weight to the tripod once it’s set up.
Now, let’s look at some of the techniques a tripod will allow you to try:

• Digital blending – Digital blending requires a set of bracketed images for best results. While it’s possible to do this handheld, your results will be improved a lot by using a tripod.
• Cloning – You can layer several photos together showing yourself or someone else.
• Light painting – Use your own light sources, or external light sources such as car light trails to light paint across your photo.
• Astrophotography – Even longer exposures will be needed for astrophotography, together with a lens that has a large aperture.
• Long exposure – Long exposure also does interesting things during the day. Experiment with moving water, or perhaps on a windy day moving clouds.

A strobe is required to take this type of photo with a water drop.

2. Strobe

Strobes are a great piece of creative photography equipment. They are a little intimidating to learn, with many people preferring natural light. The advantage of learning to use them is great, so push yourself out of your comfort zone. The first step for many will be placing a strobe onto your camera, and bouncing light off a ceiling to produce a well-balanced exposure. Strobism requires more commitment than that though. Look to invest in radio triggers and receivers so you can practice off-camera flash with multiple strobes. Experiment with modifiers like snoots, umbrellas, softboxes and color gels.
The following are a couple of techniques you’ll need your strobe for:

• Water droplets – Capture a water droplet mid-air by photographing it with a strobe. The idea is to bounce the light off a background behind the droplet, and the light will shine through the droplet.
• Low-key – Use snoots and a darkened background to create low-key photos. This will often be portrait photos. The bright flash will light your main subject, allowing you to underexpose the background to be black.
• Stroboscopic – Get repeated images in the same photo by using a high-speed pulse of multiple flashes. A tripod is also needed for this technique.

LED light sticks can be used to create light patterns, like the ones in this photo.

3. LED light stick

There are lots of ways you can create light paintings. The LED light stick is a game-changer for this genre. This is an immense piece of creative photography equipment. This is long exposure, so of course, a tripod will also be required. You can now use this gear to create more abstract light paintings, or use it for portrait work.
The great thing about these devices is they’re fully programmable. You can design the exact light you want to paint, how much color, stripes, pictures or patterns. At the moment the two main LED light sticks on the market are the pixelstick and the magilight.

Lensball photography is a lot of fun, this photo has used post processing to make the ball “float”.

4. Lensball

The lensball acts as an external lens optic, possibly one of the most creative lenses you’ll own. The price is right as well. How many lenses have you bought for less than $50? At first glance, this piece of creative photography equipment might not look that useful beyond a few landscape photos. How wrong you’d be, though. It’s like saying a 50mm lens can only ever be used for street photography. So look through your glass sphere, and try out a few of these photography styles with it.

• Floating ball – Capture the ball in mid-air, this requires some photoshop work, and you’ll need to learn how to set up the three photos you’ll need to create this type of image.
• Portrait – A little trickier to achieve. You’ll need to exploit techniques that avoid showing the background if you want to focus in on the ball, so the portrait appears within the ball. Alternatively, use the ball as more of a prop within a regular portrait photo.
• Landscape – Use the lensballs’ fisheye like properties to capture a unique lensball landscape, and give locations that have been photographed many times before a creative twist.

Infra-red photography can create interesting scenes on a sunny day.

5. Filters

Is there a need for filters when post-processing is so powerful? The answer to that is certainly “yes” since the aim is to get as much of the photo you wish to achieve in-camera. You can add filters to the front of your camera that modifies the light coming into your camera, usually by reducing it, but there are other effects as well. Filters can be used for the following forms of creative photography.

• Infra-red – Filter out all light except for infra-red. Doing so will likely mean you need to use a long exposure, and you’ll then need to post-process your results. The photo will appear red, so you’ll need to adjust the color channels so that the red areas of the photo become white.
• Long exposure – The use of a strong neutral density filter will allow you to take daytime long exposures, with some very interesting effects.
• Adding color – You can use filters to make your photo sepia or add more color to the sky during sunset. This is an area where post-processing offers an improved solution though.
• Starburst – These filters make points of light into a starburst. The same effect can also be achieved by using a smaller aperture.
• Softening – Portrait photos can be enhanced by using this type of filter, giving them a Hollywood glow. Alternatively, you could stretch a stocking over the front of your lens, and it will also soften the photo by diffusing the light.

Prisms will create double exposure-like images from a single photo.

6. Prism

Like the lensball, the prism alters the light coming into the camera through refraction. Other than holding this glass object in front of your camera lens that’s where the similarities end.
A prism is nevertheless an interesting object that can be used for creative results. You’ll be doing two things for your photographs with a prism. The first is redirecting the light to create interesting double exposure-like images with a single exposure. The second is projecting a rainbow spectrum of light onto a surface of some description, maybe even someone’s face.

Fractal filter

Fractal filters are to prism photography what LED light sticks are to light painting. They come as a set of three different filters, each offering slightly different results. So this is a handheld filter and one that works very well for portrait photos.

Wire wool is fun to use, but be careful with it.

7. Wire wool

Wire wool allows you to light paint with an urban industrial twist.
You’ll use the wool to create lots of flying metal sparks that light paint across your photo as they hurtle through the air. This is a really fun technique to try out, but the issue is safety. You’re creating 1000’s of red hot metal shards, and each of these has the potential to start a fire. You’ll need to exercise an abundance of caution when taking this type of photo. Avoid locations that could start a forest fire during the dry season.
The technique can also be used for portrait photography. Once again, ensure the safety of those involved in your photoshoot by making sure water is on hand just in case.
So how do you use wire wool to create these sparks? Check out this guide and learn how to do it.

8. Metal tube

Another piece of creative photography equipment you can hold in front of your camera lens is the metal tube! The diameter of the tube you’re holding will affect the result you get. The typical pipe to use is the copper pipe often used in household plumbing.
The idea is to photograph through this, and you’ll create a ring of fire within your photo. This ring of fire is in fact flare, and you’ll be able to use it to frame something or someone in your photo. The most obvious application of this photo is for portrait work.

This photo uses umbrellas to frame the subject.

9. Umbrella

This is a popular item for portrait photographers and can be used as a prop. There are several different ways you might use this with a model. If you’re photographing their whole body, the umbrella will take up a small part of the frame. Alternatively, you can use the umbrella as the entire background of your frame, with the model’s head and shoulders featuring in the photo. Not all umbrellas are designed the same.
The best options are the rainbow-colored umbrella, the traditional paper umbrellas, or the transparent umbrellas. The transparent umbrellas also offer the option of an object you can hold in front of the lens, with the spokes acting as a frame for your main subject.

Water droplets were added to the stem of this plant. The background was also added.

10. Water

Is water really creative photography equipment?
Taking water to the location you’re going to photograph makes it equipment. To do that, you’ll need to fill a bottle of water and take it with you to your location. Why might you decide to do this? The most obvious reason is to create reflections in your photo.
In order to do that, you’ll need to find somewhere that creates a natural puddle, and in a location that forms an interesting reflection. Not much water will be needed for this. A good wide-angle lens can make the most of a small reflection puddle.
Water has other uses as well, the following are some ideas you can try:

• Splash – Use water to add dynamism to your portrait work by throwing it at your model, with their permission of course!
• Droplets – In droplet form get your macro lens out, and see the little worlds within the droplet caused by refraction.
• Ice – Take photos of object frozen in ice, to give your still life photos a different feel.

Which creative photography equipment will you use?

There are many items you can use to boost your creativity. Perhaps you use a magnifying glass or a mirror to add something to your images, or even an empty picture frame. There are lots of ways you can curate your photo by adding creative photography equipment to the scene. Have you tried any of the items listed in this article? What’s your favorite item to use, and are there items you use that are missing from this list? Please share your ideas and photos in the comments section of this article, so everyone in the digital photography community can enhance their photography.

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6 Ideas for More Creative Landscape Photography

By: Simon Bond

In the following article, you will learn how to do creative landscape photography using a variety of different techniques.
The level of technical skill in photography these days is amazing. A quick Google search for any given location will show well-composed photos, taken during the correct lighting conditions, and edited to perfection. The number of people capable of taking these perfectly crafted photos is also increasing, and therein lies the problem. The number of people with similar photos diminishes all the others when placed together. What’s the solution to this? If you still want to take a photo of a particular landscape consider other creative approaches to photographing it.
So what’s the solution to this? If you still want to take a photo of a particular landscape consider using some other creative approaches to photographing it. Read on for six ideas to help you do better and more creative landscape photography.

This photo has used a long exposure to flatten the water. It’s also the same image used for the 

360-degree panoramic image below.

#1 – Infrared Photography

Infrared photography is great fun to experiment with and has been around along time. This particular form of photography uses, as the name suggests, infrared light to capture images. Now you can’t see the infrared spectrum with your eyes, but your camera sensor or special infrared film can.
When using a digital camera you will either need to adjust the White Balance in camera or use post-processing to bring out the signature infrared look (note you can also get an old camera body converted especially for capturing infrared images). What is the infrared look? These photos have dark black skies, bright white foliage and often they have still water caused by a long exposure. In order to take this type of photo with a digital camera you will need a filter or a reconditioned camera.

Infrared is a lot of fun if you’re prepared to put the time into learning this technique.

#2 – Aerial Photography

One of the best angles in photography is a high angle looking down, this can lead to some great creative landscapes. The advances in drone technology have seen many people take amazing photos from the sky, though the consumer-level drones still don’t produce the highest quality still images. There are a few options if you want to try out aerial photography yourself.

• Airplanes – Yes get the window seat of your plane, and take photos from the sky. Ensure you have a high shutter speed, remember you’re plane is moving fast so you need a fast shutter speed to get a sharper image.
• Drones – The consumer drone will get you great angles, and images with good enough quality for online sharing, but not for printing. The professionals use larger drones that allow their dSLR to be attached to them.
• Hot air balloons – It’s a great experience to take a hot air balloon ride, and the photos can be incredible. Even more extreme is attaching a camera to a weather balloon, and sending it up almost into space!

A great angle if you can get it is overhead for a creative landscape. This photo was taken from a 

hot air balloon, but a drone would also get an angle like this.

#3 – Refraction

The concept of refraction to use light bent through a glass object is essentially how your lens puts an image onto your camera sensor. You can create this effect with spherical glass objects, or even ones filled with water. The image inside the refracting object will be upside down, and a vast amount of the scene behind the ball will be captured.
This is an interesting way to capture a creative landscape because the image inside the ball the image has the characteristics of a fisheye lens. Using a lens with a long focal length will compress the scene.

This scene of St Paul’s Cathedral was captured inside a crystal ball, using the refraction technique.

#4 – Shoot a 360-Degree Panorama

This creative landscape idea utilizes post-processing to create a tiny planet effect. The effect is similar to the refraction idea, in that you are creating a globe, however, the look is very different.
To create this photo you will need a panoramic landscape image. If you’re a purest, then the panoramic landscape will be created by rotating the camera through 360 degrees. Once you have your panorama it needs to be reformatted into a square image, flipped upside down, and then the polar coordinates filter should be applied in Photoshop. To find this filter go to filter > distort > polar coordinates.

This photo was turned into a tiny planet. It has the feel of a 360-degree panoramic photo.

#5 – Long Exposure

The different types of images that are possible with long exposures will lead to a burst of creative landscape photography. All you need is a tripod, and a camera capable of taking long exposure photos. The effect of long exposure is to make things move. The main subjects are car light trails, water, and cloud movement. Now, of course, astrophotography is also long exposure, but you’ll learn about that next.

• Car light trails – These are produced by taking photos that are generally five seconds or longer. An overhead angle from a bridge or tall building is often best for shooting car trails, but photos from street level also look nice.
• Water – Anywhere there is moving water, a long exposure can look nice. When photographing waterfalls the white water becomes like silk, with exposures over two seconds. The sea and its waves can be flattened by using long exposures over 10 seconds.
• Cloud movement – Clouds moving across the sky make for a dreamy look in your photo, to achieve this you’ll need lots of clouds, with some clear sky. The faster the clouds move the easier it is to capture this movement. A sturdy tripod is important here, clouds move faster on windy days, so you need the camera to be still.

It’s a lot of fun to play creatively with traffic light trails in a photo. The photo of Big Ben in London 

is a popular one.

#6 – Astrophotography

One of the most popular forms of photography for those interested in landscapes is astrophotography. The latest cameras help you capture starry skies, with better noise performance at high ISO levels. Recent excursions to the deserts of Dubai and the coastline of southern England revealed a phalanx of photographers interested in this kind of photography. The most popular types of astrophotography are capturing the Milky Way, or showing the rotation of stars around the pole.

• The Milky Way – Positioning the Milky Way in your frame can create a dramatic and creative landscape photo. This is the subject of a whole different article. The basics are to shoot at the constellation of Sagittarius between March and October in the northern hemisphere. Use the largest aperture you have, with exposures generally being 25 seconds long, and an ISO of 6400 or greater.
• Star trails – The aim here is to point your camera at the north or south pole, and capture the earth’s rotation during a long exposure. The photo can be an ultra long 15-minute exposure or a series of shorter ones. The best method is to take multipl30-secondnd exposures, and then stack them together. StarStax is a good piece of software that will help you create this type of photo.

Shooting the Milky Way is hard to photograph, so the chance of your photo being more unique is 

higher if you can do it.

Which creative landscape will you make?

There are many creative landscape photography ideas, which one will you choose to try out? There are other ideas we’d love to hear about as well, how did you make a creative scene your own?
In this article, I stuck strictly to still photos, but experiments with video allow for time-lapse or cinemagraphs as well. Please share your examples of the above styles that you’ve done, and tell us why and how you create your shot.

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5 Tips to Take Your Landscape Photography from Good to Great

By: Barry J Brady 

The beauty of the scenery in Antarctica

Landscape photography is one of the most favoured genres of photography. It also happens to be the one genre that is not easy to master. The reason is simple, to become really good at landscape photography, you need to spend hours trying to master it. Most photographers are not able to dedicate that amount of time, so it becomes frustrating. Many photographers end up being disappointed with their images, but there are few things that you can do to make sure you get better results, in a short space of time.

1. Foreground interest

This is a common tip, but one that makes a lot of sense. Having a subject in the foreground, anchors the image. It tells the viewer where to look first and once they have looked at that, their eye will explore the rest of the image.
You can place your foreground subject anywhere in the lower third of your image, but it might be a good idea to put it more to the left side of the frame. This is not a rule (I really don’t believe there are any rules in photography), but rather a suggestion. We read text from left to right, so if your foreground interest is on the left hand side, it makes it feel easy for the viewer to interact with the image. The foreground interest could be anything, a piece of driftwood, a rock, a tree, anything that works for the scene.

Foreground interest anchors a scene

2. Color in your scene

Your image will have inherent color based on the time of day and subject you are shooting. If you are shooting a forest, your scene might be predominantly green, if you are doing a seascape, there may be lots of blue because of the colour of the water.
Be aware of the colour in your scene and work with the opposite colors on the visual colour wheel. As an example, there are three primary colors that your camera sees, they are: Red, Green and Blue. The additive colors (opposite colors) are Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. To be clear, Cyan is the opposite color to Red, Magenta is the opposite to Green and Yellow is the opposite to blue. These opposing colors can work well in a scene, particularly yellow and blue.
Look at the colors in your scene and decide what you want to emphasize. To make sure you have great colours to work with, you will want to shoot during the golden hours and emphasize the warm colors.

Rich colors will enhance the drama in your image

3. White Balance

When you are shooting landscapes, you will want to be shooting at golden hour, or the blue hour. These are the times of day when the light works really well for dramatic landscape shots. In the golden hours, the light will be warm tones of yellow, orange, or red. Check your white balance setting when you are shooting at this time. If your camera is set to Auto White Balance, it will cancel out much of the warm tones in your image as it tries to neutralize any color casts you may have in your scene.
If the golden hour light is really strong in your scene, Auto White Balance will make the scene look really bland and colorless. Try and shoot on Daylight White Balance instead. That way, the camera will be capturing the light as it truly is in the scene. You could even turn your white balance to cloudy or shade to enhance the warm tones even more. Use this settings as a creative tool, it can really make a good impact on your image.

Use white balance creatively, this image was shot using the Shade preset.

4. Movement

Some of the best landscape images have some form of movement in them. The movement can be caused by water, wind, or both. Subjects that work well with movement are rivers, waterfalls, seascapes and even stars. A long exposure image of the sea with water looking all silky and wispy is ethereal, and adds drama to the image. We don’t see this smooth silky water naturally with our eyes, it is only possible with the camera. The results are often very appealing, and it gives a serenity to the scene that is almost magical. You will need a tripod to get this right, you will also need to use a longer exposure of a few seconds. Timing is also important, particularly with seascapes. You may have to time the shot for when the water comes rushing over the rocks, or up the beach. That way, the image will be filled with silky streaks of water and it will look amazing.

5. Less is more

Landscape images become more dramatic if there is a very clear subject in them. If you are unsure about what should be included in your scene, ask yourself this question as you look around the scene, “Does that rock, tree, river, etc., add to the scene or not?” If you think it is not adding to your scene, remove it. Even if you are unsure, remove it and take a shot to see how the image looks. In many images, less is more. If you have less items in your scene, there is less to distract the eye, there is less that can make the scene confusing, so give it a try. Set up a shot, take a photo and then start minimizing the distracting elements.

Try these five tips and share your results in the comments below. Do you have any other tips to add?

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5 Framing Tricks to Help You Capture Better Landscape Photos

By: Kav Dadfar

Landscape photography is one of the most popular genres of photography and for good reason. A great landscape photo has the power to wow the viewer and captures the beauty of the incredible planet that we live on. But landscape photography is also difficult to master as not only are you often at the mercy of the elements, but you are also fighting against the limitations of digital cameras versus the human eye.
As advanced as digital cameras are, they are still no match for your eyes and that sometimes means you feel let down when you look at photos you’ve taken. A big part of this could be as simple as framing your shot correctly. So here are 5 framing tricks to help you capture better landscape photos.

1. Add a Sense of Scale

Think about that feeling you get when you first see an amazing landscape in front of you. It’s often the sense of feeling really small compared to those towering mountains or that deep valley. But capturing that feeling in a photo isn’t as straightforward as just taking a shot of the scene. To be able to convey that sense of scale you need to help the viewer by showing them a comparison with something they can relate to.
For example, photograph a large boulder and it will be difficult for someone looking at the photo to know how big it is in reality. But put a person next to the boulder and suddenly there is an instant sense of scale. This is a great way to really make your landscape photos jump off the page and captivate the viewer.

2. Point of Interest

A good landscape photo should lead the viewer’s eyes around the image. Sometimes to achieve this you need to add a point of interest to your image. This is especially true if you are photographing a scene where there is a vast empty area where nothing is happening.
Without a clear point of interest, the viewer’s eyes will get lost in the photo and it won’t work. For example, the photograph below would be pretty uninteresting without the people in it. But by including people not only does it add that point of interest but it also tells a much more intriguing story.
A point of interest could be anything. It can be a rock, person, animal, a tree, or a building. So next time you are evaluating a scene, think if it will benefit from having a point of interest. If so, try to frame your photo using the rule of thirds to capture this in the composition.

3. Zoom In

In landscape photography, it’s really easy to try and capture everything in front of you. After all, that amazing vista is what usually wows people. But sometimes a wide-angle shot of a scene just doesn’t work because there is too much for the viewer to process. On those occasions, you need to zoom into your scene and try to capture a small section rather than the whole thing.
Think about the small section in the same way as if it was a wide-angle shot and frame up your image with the same thought process. The key is to not be afraid to forego the “big wide-angle shot” for the smaller zoomed in section. Remember that you can always try a few different crops and then decide on the best one later in post-production.
But don’t make the mistake of just capturing wide-angle shots and relying on cropping in post-production as the more you crop an image, the more pixelated it will become if you want to print it at really large sizes. Try to actually capture some photos zoomed it with your camera instead.

4. Sky or Land?

One of the best ways to ensure that your landscape photos look dramatic and stunning is by focusing as much of the photo on the part that is going to give you impact. That means really considering where to put the horizon line. If you have a dramatic sky with lots of clouds, beautiful dramatic sunsets or even moody stormy weather, then place your horizon line in the lower third of the image, so you are showing more of the sky.
If on the other hand, your foreground is interesting with a good point of interest, then place your horizon in the top third of the image. Thus maximizing the area showing the foreground in the image. Just try to avoid placing your horizon line in the middle of the image where possible as it can make your photo seem uninteresting.
So always remember, sky or land? Whichever it most important to your image, show more of that part of the scene.

5. Extreme Angles

Most people see landscapes from one particular view only – eye level view. The great thing about photography is that it allows you to capture a photo at a completely different point of view to what most people see. You don’t need to dangle yourself off a cliff to capture unique views, sometimes just being slightly lower or more elevated can have incredibly dramatic results.
For example, set your camera really low (almost on the ground) and you will capture a unique angle from a worm’s eye viewpoint. Put your camera on a tall tripod and lift it up so that it’s higher than normal eye level and again you’ll capture a unique shot.
There’s also the option of using drones these days which can give you even more stunning photos of landscapes. But make sure you always check local laws regarding drone usage. As with any type of photography, the key is to experiment.

Capturing the perfect landscape takes time, effort and usually some luck a well.
You need so many factors to be working together to capture stunning photos and even then you still need to think about how to frame all of those elements into a photograph that will do the scene justice. But once you have a great location, an interesting subject, and the perfect light, follow these framing tricks and you may well capture some stunning landscape photos.

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