Pro Secrets: how to use a telephoto lens for awesome landscapes

jmeyer | Landscape | Photography Tips | 27/08/2012 11:30am

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Lighting your telephoto landscapes

As with all landscapes, lighting is key to a successful image. However, you can shoot in almost any conditions provided you have the right subject.

Most wide views that work well tend to be taken in the golden hours of dawn and dusk, but this isn’t the case when you use a telephoto lens to shoot landscapes, and even very flat light can produce exceptional pictures by lowering unwanted contrast and revealing detail.

Also, when you zoom in much tighter, the sky is usually excluded from the shot, which is great if it’s pale and uninteresting.
The aperture setting you choose to use will determine how much or how little of the scene is in focus.

Using a telephoto lens reduces the depth of field, so to maximise the band of focus you may need to use f/16 or f/22. On the plus side, though, depth of field increases with distance from the subject, so the two factors will often cancel each other out.

Alternatively, you may wish to isolate an element within the picture using selective focusing (learn more about how to affect depth of field with our handy cheat sheet).

When you’re shooting with the lens at maximum aperture, the foreground and background will be thrown out of focus. This makes the main focal point stand out from its surroundings.

PAGE 1: Why you should use a telephoto lens to shoot landscapes
PAGE 2: Lighting your telephoto landscapes
PAGE 3: How to find and compose the perfect telephoto landscape
PAGE 4: 6 tips for using a telephoto lens to shoot landscapes

Posted on Monday, August 27th, 2012 at 11:30 am under Landscape, Photography Tips.