Philip Wheeler Photography: Landscape Photography Part 1

I enjoy photographing landscapes. A wide-angle lens works well but I most often use a zoom lens that is capable of a fairly short focal length since it is more convenient for walkabout photography. The question is, what is the best aperture, or f number, to use? Here is my rule of thumb: use the smallest aperture at which you can still get a correct exposure.

To help convey the illusion of depth, you want all objects in the scene to be in reasonably good focus from near to far. Those of you who have read my article on depth of field may recall that a smaller f number gives you a shallow depth of field, which is not what you want for landscape photography.

I read a photo "secret" written by a photography instructor, who said that landscape photography is best done with an aperture setting of from f/7.1 to f/9.0. Nonsense! To maximize depth of field, try f/22. Use a lens that can be set to a short focal length such as 18mm and focus on an object about 5 feet away from your camera. You should use a tripod to steady your camera and thus allow the longer exposure time that will be necessary with the small aperture. Go ahead and increase your ISO up to 800 if necessary, especially if there is some movement in the scene. A higher ISO sensitivity will allow you to increase your shutter speed and thus reduce movement blur.

Oh, you do use manual exposure, don't you?

Philip Wheeler Photography