Leica M Best Options and Tips for Landscape Photography.

[GabrielIndalecio]

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Would like to get from the Leica Masters, their suggestions and recommendations on how to enjoy a take great landscape pictures. Next weekend I’ll be in a Palouse Photo Tour .. with plenty of beautiful landscapes, abandon houses, sunrises and sunsets .. after joining Leica club 2009 I’ve been primary shooting street photography but not really landscape. I’ll bring my M 240 and MP and few selection of lens ..Questions for the masters; what’s best Lens trio for Landscape, filters and setups ? If you don’t know the Palouse this link will show you few example on what I’m going to find. https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=palouse .

[cirke]

21SE

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[farnz]

Gabriel,

 

First of all, I'm not pretending to be a 'Leica Master' just a reasonably proficient camera-holder. Many of the shots at the link you supplied have been heavily photoshopped so I hope you won't be expecting what you find to look quite like those.

 

Secondly, light plays a very important part in successful landscapes and the ability to read light and anticipate it are key. For example I think the best times of the day for landscapes is the 'golden hour', which lasts for roughly an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset when rays that are roughly parallel with the ground take on a soft golden or red hue and produce long, raking shadows. Since you're on a photo tour I'd hope they'd cater for that and not have you out shooting at midday, which is the worst time for most landscapes because the sun will be high in the sky and will cast small, very dark, unflattering shadows.

 

Your choice of lens(es) will be somewhat secondary to the above and will depend on what's your favourite, what you have available and what you're trying to achieve with your landscape photography. You'll note from the photos at the link that many different focal lengths have been used from ultra wide angle to long telephoto (or zoom), which shows that landscapes can be shot with just about any focal length apart from macro and your imagination is the important bit.

 

It helps to keep in mind that you're trying to create a 3D image on a 2D surface so anything that helps to add the illusion of depth, such as lead-in lines, strong foreground object and deep depth of field are likely to help.

 

Pete.

[MarkP]

 

That's an understatement.

There is some serious overworking on those files.

 

 

Gabriel' date='

I am also no master whatsoever but will post some advice for what it's worth. However, I'm probably just stating the bleeding obvious .

 

1. I agree with Pete. What he says - [b']it's all about the light.[/b]

You may even have to head out on your own before the others are even awake in order to get the best light.

 

2. Also, take a bit of time time to check around each area before settling down to photograph. In the past I'd often just set up where I first saw something nice, taken a whole lot of photos, and then scouted around and found much better aspects. And think outside the square, for example sometimes shooting into the light, albeit challenging, can be quite rewarding. You may find that the rest of the group all set up in the one place. Walk off and look around elsewhere.

 

3. You will probably want to get the maximum out of the lenses and sensor for landscapes. Although I hand hold whenever possible for convenience and mobility, there are times where a tripod and cable release (or the camera's shutter release timer) are well worthwhile (especially if you want to do low light and a must for night photography). A lightweight carbon fibre tripod is fine if you want to travel light, some have a hook under the centre strut to hang your backpack off so the weight will further stabilise a light tripod. The other option would be a carbon fibre monopod - very small and portable, and light (typically less than a third of the weight of the corresponding tripod). If hand-held in limited light be prepared to compromise ISO for shutter speed if you have to - camera shake will stuff up a photo far more than pushing ISO one or two stops.

 

4. Try not to shoot wide open as there is usually some loss of contrast and IQ (unless using slightly slower lenses such as a 90 Macro-Elmar, or for that matter at minimum aperture as diffraction will more seriously compromise IQ.

 

5. The 'best lens trio' is what you use and how you see the world - no-one else can advise you of that. Look back through your own favourite landscapes and see what you use most. For my landscapes the 28 Summicron ASPH and 1.4/50 Summilux ASPH (FLE) lenses get the most use fairly equally, then the 21 SEM, 35 Summilux FLE, and 90 Macro-Elmar in order of decreasing use. However, most of the 'overworked' photos in that link you posted are shot at the extremes of focal lengths with WA's (extreme?) or compressed landscape details using longer telephotos. So lenses in the 18-21mm and 90-135 range may suit you to get that look. What lenses do you have and which ones do you like to use most?

 

6. If you are planning on daytime long-exposures with ND filters get a black scrunchie to put around the camera/lens mount to prevent light leaks (well documented elsewhere in the forum on the M9 & M240)

 

7. If the lens own hood seems to afford inadequate protection from flare (as unfortunately many Leica fitted hoods do), you can further shade the front lens element with your hand when the camera is on a tripod/monopod.

 

8. Although I'm not into HDR photography, you may well be or want to be looking at the photographs in that link you provided. There are times where there is an advantage to exposure bracketing where the range of light is beyond the dynamic range of the sensor. This is not necessarily to get that over-the-top"HDR-Effect" but just to maximise the amount of information (as compared with working from post-processed adjusted exposure layers) and options you have on your files for Photoshop (but still maintaining a realistic range of light in the final photograph - which is exactly where most HDR images fail by artificially allocating equal levels of light across the image). Exposure bracketing can even be done with a monopod or hand-held where the images can the be precisely overlapped in Photoshop if required.

 

Regards,

Mark

Edited June 1, 2014 by MarkP

[GabrielIndalecio]

The intention to share the flickr Link was to show the different types of landscape, not the heavy Post Editing as I'm planning to use and enjoy my Leica Lens. Most likely I'll be a trio 21mm Summilux, Noctilux and 35mm Summilux .. all with ND Filer (Nocti with ND Variable) and my FLM tripod to take long exposures. 2nd Trio option is 21mm Summilux, Noctilux for close shots and the tri-elmar 28-35-50mm.

 

As this is part of a Photo Tour we will start early in the morning to capture the light at sunrise and maximize the golden hour.

 

Thanks for commentaries, I'll be posting when back few examples (don't like either HDR or heavy Photoshop editing) .. in few case just B+W conversion.

[colonel]

I like those photos on the link.

 

To be honest, good landscape photography is about finding the best location and the best time of day then turning up with the equipment and being lucky to get what you want and avoid rain, etc.

Most pro or serious landscape photographers work very hard to good photos and are prepared to get up at ridiculous times in the morning and drive to remote locations.

 

The equipment doesn't really matter as long as it's good.

 

I would recommend getting a book or reading articles. There is a magazine in the UK called outdoorphotography and a US magazine called outdoorphotographer

 

I find the samples on photo.net the most consistently good BTW

 

Good luck

[250swb]

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Never having been there I get the impression the Palouse is a rolling open landscape and the typical photographs made of it are made with anything other than a wide angle lens. I don't think you have looked at the pictures, but have perhaps assumed the default landscape mistake of thinking 'wide' is the usual and preferred lens.

 

In the selection linked to, and those I have seen on other sites (check out Luminous Landscape) the lens chosen is used to isolate features of this landscape, not to see how much can be covered in one picture. So if I had to leave one lens at home and it was a choice between a 21mm and a 135mm I'd leave the 21mm without a second thought. You need a short telephoto lens, maybe two, not a bag full of wide lenses that are going to diminish the landscape.

 

Steve

[MarkP]

The intention to share the flickr Link was to show the different types of landscape, not the heavy Post Editing as I'm planning to use and enjoy my Leica Lens. Most likely I'll be a trio 21mm Summilux, Noctilux and 35mm Summilux .. all with ND Filer (Nocti with ND Variable) and my FLM tripod to take long exposures. 2nd Trio option is 21mm Summilux, Noctilux for close shots and the tri-elmar 28-35-50mm.

 

As this is part of a Photo Tour we will start early in the morning to capture the light at sunrise and maximize the golden hour.

 

Thanks for commentaries, I'll be posting when back few examples (don't like either HDR or heavy Photoshop editing) .. in few case just B+W conversion.

 

 

Sounds like a nice trip and glad to hear that you're not into HDR.

 

I agree with Steve, and as I also mentioned in my post, you will need a longer lens than you have selected to reproduce compressed landscape details such as those you demonstrated. Only those grand panoramic landscapes on that site use a WA.

 

I also have the 28-50 Tri-Elmar and, lovely lens that it is, it would not be my preferred choice for considered landscape photography over the more modern fixed FL lenses. What other lenses in the 28 to 90mm range do you have?

[Peter H]

My tip would be to think about why you want to take each photo before you take it.

 

All the other questions depend on the answer to that one.

[viramati]

WATE-50-135 or WATE-28-135. I have been working on a project for the last 6 moths covering a certain area of the Medway coastline for which I use the leica M with the WATE (or CV21/1.8 when the WATE was off being repaired) and 28 cron asph. I use the M with the EVF which I particularly like as I can put the finder in an upright position and use the camera in waist-level mode. I have to say that I am now continuing the project with just 3 lenses and 3 bodies and that is Leica M with WATE, Sony A7 with FE24-70 and another Sony A7 with 135/3.5 apo-telyt. I do a lot of walking and I can carry all 3 in a Billingham Hadley-pro bag and don't have to think about changing lenses. If I could have just one lens and camera it would be the 28 cron asph and the Leica M. A great combo for almost anything and great for landscape, stop it down a bit and is bitingly sharp across the frame with great micro-contrast and DOF. As to technique, slow down and take you time to look round the viewfinder to see and feel your composition. Walk around your subject and feel your way in to the scene

Edited June 1, 2014 by viramati

[ShawnK]

Gabriel,

 I do realize it has been sometime since you started this thread but I/m planning to head out to Palouse,... so any nuggets of advise & images? I should be heading @ after Labor Day '17.

 Regards

 ShawnK

[snooper]

I agree with the above... Landscape is just a matter of light, and sometimes the lack of it. Photoshop wont help, but you can keep good memories of meaningful places by simply telling what was YOUR vision of that landscape.

 

So basically one could tell a landscape is a bit of light (or a bit of missing light sometimes) and a bit of emotion.

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Edited January 17, 2017 by snooper

[jto555]

Forget worrying about your kit or which lens to bring. Use Google Earth to look at where you are going and use it to check-out the locations that you will be going too. Of course there are apps for that as well:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Enl_Ms0w8

 

Another app is Lighttrac, this will show you where the sun will be any time during the day.

 

Guide books are a great source of information (I know, I know,  I'm Caption Obvious in my spare time)

 

Even with a guided tour, having a good idea of the location before you get there will be of great help. But when you get to a location, walk around it for a while to pick the best angles.

 

John