Hi, my name is Marcin Lewandowski and you're watching AdoramaTV.
In this episode I will talk about photographing landscapes in black and
white and share some thoughts on preparations and some general ideas on
how to approach photographing scenery. You might ask you why I chose black and white
landscapes in particular.
Well when I was initially thinking about this episode I was looking through a lot
of great black and white landscape photography, Salgado, Adams, Depardon, Burri, Koudelka.
They all represent sort of adventure photography and often blurred the line
between landscape and street photography.
another thing with black and white landscapes is the fact that there are less distractions which
in return allows photographers to concentrate on the conversation between light and shadow, as
well as composition and moment. In a time when most of us shoot digital,
experimenting is the key to get what we want and black and white is an amazing
field to try to fiddling in post-production. Everything in front of us is a landscape
and as photographers, we have the opportunity to shape it to our liking by
choosing the point of view,
framing and moment. This is when certain tools can make our process more
intuitive. A little digression, but I always thought it's funny that many photographers
think about faraway mountains or rivers when talking landscapes, forgetting about
treasures that wait undiscovered on our doorstep. Now from ground component.
Firstly, a tripod. Sturdy is the name of the game. Sometimes you will prefer light and
small, sometimes large and heavy but sturdiness that can withstand gusts of
wind or hitting waves is a key when planning longer exposures. Saying this,
on some excursions, it is better to have no tripod at all. It might just create a
distraction and will feel like a burden. If you, however, must have one around then
I suggest investing in a geared head. It has completely changed my thinking about
working with a tripod.
Secondly, good, comfortable clothes with an emphasis on shoes.
Trust me, walking all day in completely wet clothes when it's raining and the
wind is trying to blow your head off, it's not exactly fun and if you add to
this, soaked, uncomfortable shoes...In one sentence, dress for the environment and plan
for the worst. And now that we're in the planning stages, there are many tools
that can help us. As photographing landscapes equals relying on weather and
light, there are two checks I always do. For the first, I use wind guru and it's
the best tool I found so far. What's unique about it is that it shows not
only temperature, wind and precipitation, but also a forecast of high, medium and low
cloud cover, giving a very good idea of light conditions.
Light direction is a whole other game and for this, The Photographer's Ephemeris is simply unparalleled.
It not only shows times of dusk and dawn for any place and date, but it also
presents this graphically on a terrain map together with angles etc
Definitely check it out if you're serious about planning any photographic
adventure.
The best thing with planning is that the more we know, the more we can let our
imagination run free, as the mind won't be occupied with worrying about things we
can control. Get off the beaten track, trust your imagination and have a
photographic adventure even in the garden behind your house.
If you would like me to expand any thoughts then please comment below.
The links to the services I mentioned are in the video's description.
If you want to up your photography game, check out the Adorama Learning Center for a handful
of interesting tips and it's definitely worth subscribing to Adorama channel for more.
This was Marcin Lewandowski for AdoramaTV. See you next time.