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| That Big Countryside Shoot |
By Lester V. Ledesma |
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Wide-open fields, orchards teeming with trees, streams and rivers gurgling with crystalline water - it all seems easy to capture on film. In fact, it probably seems too easy, with all that breathtaking scenery laid out before you.
But as any serious photographer will attest, taking good pictures is never that simple. Photographing the big country, he’ll tell you, entails a lot of preparations – meaning, you have to do extensive research, scout around for good viewpoints, study your sunrise/sunset locator charts, and camp out for days on end. Right?
Wrong. Just follow these five simple tips:
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1.
Wake Up Early |
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And stay out late! Sunlight, you see, is at its best during early morning and late afternoon when the low angle of the sun results in warm and soft illumination. This light is also dramatic, casting long shadows onto the ground and bringing out texture in pretty much everything. Shoot with the sun behind you for strong and bold lighting, or beside you for a more natural, flattering effect. Place your subject between you and the sun and you’ll get a sharply-defined silhouette. Simply put, its hard to go wrong with this kind of light. |
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2.
Perspective Counts |
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Get eye-popping perspective by moving close to your subject with a wide-angle lens – this pulls it from the background and makes it the most important part of the frame. Moving back and composing your shot with a telephoto lens does exactly the opposite, blending the subject into the background and making it an integral part of the scene. |
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| Click
on the image to view
a larger picture. |
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Being in the big country doesn’t have to mean shooting just landscapes. Look for that old countryside character in the towns and villages around as well. |
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Elements that scream “countryside!” – in this case, a farmer’s dog – can make for good subjects for photography as well. For this shot, I moved in close behind the mutt and added some of the hillsides in the background.
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Waking up early in the morning ensures that you have plenty of good light to work with. I shot these dead trees just before the sun rose in the horizon, giving me this moody blue hue. |
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Fog often appears in the mountains during cold mornings. How do you capture fog? Wake up early and be there when it shows up! |
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Using a strong foreground element can add interest to a photo, simply because it gives the viewer something to focus on in the picture. |
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Stepping back and using a telephoto lens “compresses” the image, making the subject (in this case, the person) part of the overall scene. |
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Get friendly with the locals and you just might get a good taste of life in the countryside. This cogon grass collector gamely posed for me after I took the time to chat with her about her work. |
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I saw this pair on a pony trudging up the hillside, and I waited for them to get closer so they would form a stronger foreground element to my scene. A quick zoom out to wideangle and I had my shot. |
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Try a high vantage point to produce a bird’s eye view of any landscape. I shot this scene from the plane window before I even reached my destination! |
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Zeroing in on details can be just as effective in conveying the beauty of nature. This massive tree stump stood in contrast to the thinner trees around it, so I decided to include them in the picture as well. |
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| Click
on the thumbnails
below to view. |
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