How nice to find a RU-vid presenter about photography that is not a narcissist, not full of themselves, does not think they are god's gift to photography, is not a fanboy of some brand or other and does not court attention with weird mannerisms or ways of speakings, but is pleasant relaxed, personable, NORMAL!
I do use filters, but I also bracket, use luminosity masks and other software methods and quite often where there is a massive dynamic range a combination of any or all of the fore mentioned. I only use my trigger trap remote when using ND filters of five stops or above, and that is the only time I use manual mode. However, because of the pain in the bottom reciprocity rule I use a release cable with any ND filters on my Bronica. Another myth is the 110mm filters being the best, they don't work correctly on a cropped sensor, most mirrorless cameras or the vast majority of older lenses used for film, you need the very much cheaper 85mm. Yet another, which is the biggest myth of all is that landscape shots should only be taken in the golden hours, if you have bad weather with heavy clouded sky you can shoot all day. If the sky is grey or flat find some water, waterfalls are even better and use a heavy (5 stop plus) ND filter and make sure there is no sky in the shot. The golden hour does give some amazing colour, and we all love a sunset or sunrise, but it isn't the only time to shoot. Finally, speedlights DO have a place in landscape photography, they can be a great tool for lighting the foreground, especially in darker places like woodland. Use them at 1/16th power or less and it's amazing the impact they can have, especially with gels and it looks much more natural than doing it in post. Brilliant video, you not only showed where the myths lay, but also when they are true which is equally important. Agree with those that say this is one of your best videos.
I really love this guy's typical British slang and presentership (if that's a word) but in all seriousness thank you so much I really enjoy watching your videos
Having used both, the Pentax K-1 and the Pentax K5, I can tell there's an IMMENSE difference in dynamic range - even though the chart says there's only a difference of 0.5. I never missed DR on the K5 - it's an awesome and very affordable camera nowadays, but the K-1 is just a whole other level and you notice it on the very first landscape pics you're shooting, without looking for it. Also, there's gotta be a reason why so many landscape photographers are loving the D810. Of course, you don't NEED it, but it's definitely worth being taken into consideration. About the non-manual-mode iPhone 4s: I'm not familiar with the image and how it was taken, but just because it was taken by an iPhone doesn't necessarily mean it was shot on auto. There are several apps that will let you set your own settings.
The top 5 myths of landscape photography are indeed: 1. you must only shoot at sunrise or sunset, 2. you must use long exposures (hence ND filters) to blur the flowing water and/or clouds, 3. you must close the aperture to f11-f16 and have the whole field perfectly sharp, 4. you must carry an expensive huge tripod with an expensive heavy ballhead, 5. you must only go for simple compositions with leading lines etc. I wonder why all these 'pro landscape photographers' keep monkeying one another and never make a single genuine shot? Moreover, if you dare to go out-of-the-box and shoot something not 'calendar' enough they will judge you based on these very rules/myths.
While I mostly agree with you, it is best to learn the rules before you break them. I tend to shoot between f8-f11 for landscapes, because that seems to work best for my camera so far. One of the best things you can do is learn to use the equipment that you have. Learn your cameras strengths and weaknesses. Learn to exploit your cameras unique qualities. Don't be afraid to mess up, because you may actually create a happy accident.
Well done video, I have a couple points that might have been stated. One important reason to use a remote shutter release instead of self timer is precision, like waiting for the perfect wave of the breeze to stop moving the grass in the the foreground., if your self time only fires at 10 second delay it could be pretty frustrating trying to get the shot you want. Second, one quick way to get the most DOF out of an scene that has a large area you want sharp, is to focus 1/3 into the scene and a slower way would be to focus stack. I can't think of any reason you would want to focus at infinity with a wide angle lens trying to get the foreground information in focus. Unless you are shooting the sky and your foreground isn't to close to the lens, well I guess I did think of one :)
I use Yongnuo RF603 triggers. I am tall, I usually have the tripod short, and I don't like bending over. Timing is easier too, if I want splashing sea, I can't take a chance with a time delay. And I may well want a burst as splash goes up and down, as a wave rolls. Your camera, the 5D IV, the 80D, the 6D II have built in bulb timers and intervalometers.
I shoot full manual all the time just because I didn't have much experience with priority modes, and I'm more comfortable with picking up my own settings.
Your camera excepted, 24 megapixel APS-C cameras out resolve 35mm cameras. If you use a 50mm lens on a 5D IV and on an 80D to photograph something from the same position, the 80D will print a smaller photograph, but the elements will be resolved more finely by the 80D. If you use different lenses so as to frame the subject identically, then the image from the 80D loses out, but that's because you're using different lenses.
Nice video, but I think DoF is divided into thirds (one-third towards the camera and two-thirds towards infinity) rather than two equal halves. If this is also a myth, I would be glad if you bust it too :)
Even when you say it's OK to focus on infinity, it's mostly not. If there's nothing closer that's important than hyperfocal distance, I focus on something further than the hyperfocal distance that's important. It might be a rock in a pool that's 115 metres away.
Cyan city? Thanks for the video. When I shoot the Milky Way, I focus on infinity. And items in the foreground are acceptably sharp. I'm shooting with a Canon 5D IV and Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens. 20 sec., f/1.4, ISO ~ 3200. Perhaps using a wide angle lens helps with that. No doubt it does. I'm not meaning to argue, not at all. I accept that you are the expert. But this my experience.
Why has it always been stated that DOF is one third in front and two thirds behind of the point of focus and not as you have stated that it is fifty fifty, of course with the exception of macro photography?
You're absolutely right, John, and we did try to work this in, but it was getting a little complicated so we had to simplify it a little for the sake of clarity!
