Road to nowhere

jdm2lpm

I tried to tackle a landscape photo. I see so many amazing landscape photos on this site. The only equipment I have is a 40D and a 50mm 1.8 lens. I am trying to get away from Tv or Av mode and learn manual; what do you guys primarily use on landscape?

Please let me know what you think!


IMG_5899.jpg by Fort McKinney, on Flickr

chrisjohnson

Not sure what you are asking here, opinion on the photo or some techniques? Maybe both.

I am an amateur. I like shooting landscapes and usually take a tripod, low ISO, and a small aperture. This gives best DOF and colors, even if I have a long exposure (hence the tripod). On the 40d I use the centre-weighted metering to judge light on my focal area. I prefer AV priority as I want to force the aperture to stay small. I hardly ever need to use manual for landscapes; the light is always changing and I trust the camera to choose the shutter speed.

Your photo is ok. Perhaps a bit overexposed and busy for my taste. I probably would have shot in portrait and concentrated more on bringing out the shadows on the road. Not sure why you went monochrome.

Hope this helps. There are lot better opinions than mine.

schmoo

I quite like the simplicity of this shot and the curve of the road. I think that you'll find the 50mm lens is a very good one. While it may not be thought of as a typical landscape lens, we have a regular here on Dgrin who uses almost exclusively fast primes like that and he does a great job. I don't usually pimp like this but your gear just reminded me of that.

It's not what you use, it's how you use it! Hope to keep seeing more of your work soon.