📖 GOOD READS

The Final Touch: Elevating Your Landscape Photo Edits

In this rundown, I'll walk you through the last seven steps I take to polish my landscape photographs. In essence, these are the finishing touches I apply to transform a dull and lifeless RAW image into a captivating photograph with soul. From softening details to adding a subtle white border, each move plays a crucial role in shaping the final outcome.

Step 1: Soften Larger Details: Art of Subtlety

I’m often asked why I choose to soften my photographs since I shoot with such a high-resolution camera, FujiFilm GFX100s. The short answer, I find that digital cameras today create overly sharp and detailed photographs that often results in a crunchy or sterile look. By delicately reducing clarity, which softens large sized detail, my aim is to achieve a more rich and painterly effect while enhancing the overall appeal of the image. For me, this is a great way to get away from the overly sharp and digital feeling many modern cameras create.

Step 2: Balance Softness & Definition

Now, onto enhancing the smaller details. While it may seem counterintuitive after softening the larger detail, it's all about striking the perfect balance. By delicately increasing texture, we bring out those intricate details without sacrificing the softness achieved earlier. It's a delicate dance between clarity and texture, each contributing to the final aesthetic. This meticulous approach ensures that every element of the landscape is accentuated, from majestic mountains to delicate foliage. Read More​

📖 GOOD READS

Beyond the Wide Angle

Have you ever found yourself trapped in the allure of a wide-angle lens, hoping for those breathtaking, expansive landscape photos? I certainly have. It's a journey, a struggle even, that many of us have faced in our pursuit of capturing better landscape photographs. For years, I believed that grand vistas were the pinnacle of landscape photography. But, how wrong I actually was.

When I first started out, I'd trek to stunning locations, armed with my trusty wide-angle lens, ready to capture the world in all its glory. However, more often than not, I'd return with a series of lackluster images—repetitive compositions with uninspiring skies. What was I missing?

Truth be told, to pull off a great wide angle landscape photo, you need optimal conditions. Since your field of view is so large, things like a cloudless sky can create a major obstacle.

So when ideal conditions aren’t available, what do you do?

Photographing the Light:

It wasn't until I shifted my perspective that I began to see the light—quite literally. Instead of solely focusing on the grand scene before me, I started to pay attention to the nuances of light. Those fleeting moments of contrast and illumination became my new muse.

Imagine standing at the edge of a rugged coastline, the morning sun casting golden rays upon the cliffs, or wandering through a dense forest as sunlight filters through the canopy, painting the forest floor with dappled patterns of light and shadow. These are the moments that breathe life into our photographs, infusing them with depth and emotion.

Whether it's the gentle glow of dawn kissing the landscape or the play of shadows dancing across the terrain, interesting light has the power to transform an ordinary scene into something extraordinary. By stepping back, taking a breath, and observing the world around me, I discovered beauty in unexpected places, and began photographing the light. Read More​

🤓 PHOTO NERDS

• 🎥 The Carl Zeiss Apo Sonnar T* 1700 mm f/4 is the world’s heaviest lens for civilian use weighing in at a whopping 564 pounds.
• 💀 In the 1800s, one of the most popular photography subjects were dead bodies, called post mortem photography.
• 🍎 Apple released its very first digital camera in 1994, the Apple Quicktake designed by Kodak.

✨ INSPO

"When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice" - Robert Frank

"Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like." - David Alan Harvey

🌳 FINAL WORD

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