Landscape Lighting Question

dreamless

I have been having issues with lighting in some landscape shots and was hoping I could get some help/advice. My main issue is wanting to capture a scene that is darker in the foreground and brighter in the background with out a under exposed foreground or an over exposed background.

Here are two examples:



and



What am I missing or doing wrong? I think my biggest issue is capturing the foreground but having a pretty over exposed background and this happens more during sun set hours.

Thanks,

Sean

hawkeye978

This is a pretty typical problem whenever trying to take landscape pictures. Generally the sky is brighter and you have to choose between a properly exposed sky and dark foreground or vice versa.

There are a variety of ways to approach the problem. One way is to use a tripod and take a series of bracketed exposures that would provide properly exposed sky and a separate properly exposed foreground. These would then need to be blended in post processing. Another way would be to use a Graduated Neutral Density filter. These filters are dark at the top (to some level of density) and then gradually decrease until they are completely clear. These can be a hard edged transition or soft edge transition. You would position the filter in front of the lens to balance the exposure as best as possible. In this way you can expose the sky and foreground properly and have less post processing.

Tango

+1 Tom!

anwmn1

Tom is exactly right.

Do it in post process or pick up the tools i.e. filters to do it in the field and in camera.

Even with filters though it can be a real pain in backside and sometimes impossible to get it in camera.

schmoo

One of the most difficult aspects of landscape photography is that it takes patience. It seems so easy to just lift the camera and take a photo of the things around you but the mindset is quite different. To get shots that stand out from the rest, you do need to slow down and take it all in, then make sure you're "building" your photos right.

I dislike carrying tripods myself, so carrying one makes me slow down, which is usually a good thing.

And while you're doing this, you have to make sure you do it all within the time frame of the light/weather.