2.9.13

Capture Great Cityscape Pictures

Stockholm, Sweden
Vancouver,  Canada



Beauty in the concrete jungle  Landscape photography has never been more popular than now as more and more people get caught by the photography bug. Not only that, but more of us are travelling widely and the great tendency is to capture visual images of the places we visited. Other than taking breathtaking pictures of mountains, rivers and beaches, another area where you can capture fascinating and captivating photos is in the cities.

City landscape photography can be a very rewarding venture. There's a gazillion of photographic possibilities for those with great imagination and creativity. Below is a contributing article introducing to beginners how, what and where to look for great city landscape shots that can make your picture worth more than a thousdand words! Read on...  

The Kremlin, Moscow, Russia


Landscapes of the City: An Introduction

Beautiful city landscapes grace the cover of glossy picture books, millions of postcards sold in tourist shops throughout town, and vivid, oversized posters that you place on your wall. Carefully planned-out, intricate landscapes are not just for nature and the countryside anymore; most cultures today find some sense of beauty in the bustling, concrete world of the city and in the diverse, busy people who live there.

For this reason, grand, expansive skylines and intimate portraits of a street corner are capturing the hearts of city and country lovers alike. City landscape photographs are not difficult to create, and are sure to be appreciated by everyone who sees them.

Why spend your time in a detailed photographic study of a city? One major reason people do this is that of tourism. Capturing a cityscape on film glorifies the city in question (at least, in most cases!) and makes people remember it. It may inspire tourists to travel there for the first time, or may remind potential return visitors of the charm of the town they visited. This is the reason for all the books, postcards, posters, coffee mugs, and countless other images that signify a city.

If you take a stroll around a tourist center of a town, it is hard NOT to notice all the city landscape photography around you.

The more these images travel around the country and the continents, the more they will inspire visitors to do their own traveling. Images often feature famous landmarks and signature architecture because these are the most commonly visited sites in a city.

If you are taking your photographs specifically for tourism purposes, make sure to take advantage of digital technology to filter and clean up the images so that they are flattering. Go ahead and make Broadway Street a little cleaner than it really is. Take out those slight shadows that distract from the church steeple. This type of cosmetic altering is important if you’re really trying to sell the city.


Taj Mahal, India


Capturing the spirit of a city...
Not all city landscape photographers make their art for business or tourist reasons. Some simply want to capture the spirit of a city they admire, perhaps their hometown. These photographs usually focus on the simple and characteristic beauty of a city.

City landscape photography is also commonly used for charity purposes. You could use your photography to draw attention to a specific problem found in one or several cities. For example, you could focus your scenes on areas of the town where problems like hunger, disease, or poverty are common.

The city landscape is still the main attraction; you are simply using this to draw attention to something that goes on here. In this sense you are not photographing just a city, but a society.

Your reasons for doing your art will likely determine what you choose to photograph, but there are many options. You could stick to the major monuments and tourist attractions of a city, like the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, or the Taj Mahal. These attractions are well-visited and admired both for their histories and for aesthetic reasons. However, you are definitely not the first to have this idea. The tourist attractions will produce beautiful photographs, but your pictures will likely look similar to thousands of pictures taken before yours.


Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur - Credit: Joga 

Other good subjects are locations or buildings that capture the spirit of a city. These are not always the same as the tourist attractions just discussed. Ask yourself where locals in the city like to go. This could be a beautiful marina, a quaint historical area, or just a funky bohemian street. Find the areas that are important to locals. These could be religious, historical, economic, or stylish.

As far as what you will need for city landscape photography, let’s start with the right equipment. Take into account the scope of your shots, how much you want to include, and the time of day.

Have a good idea of what kind of picture you want to take. Do you want an elevated viewpoint or do you want to be right down in the street? Make sure you get the information you need ahead of time. What will the weather be like at that time of day? Will there be many people around? What will the light be like?

Carefully considering these points will offer you the best chance to capture a signature landscape piece of your favorite city. Put it on a few postcards and posters, and you are on your way to sharing this sentiment with others who will soon get to know and appreciate the city you love.

Chia-Yi City Park,  Taiwan
Hiroshima Castle, Japan

   
Article supplied by Roy Barker. These tips will be handy for both the amateur photographer and someone starting a photography business . They are guides or tips for you to experiment with and enjoy the journey.


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22.8.13

Be A Digital Landscape Photographer


Photo credit:  wili_hybrid














If you have no experience but you're thinking of venturing into landscape photography and make it a career, even as a part-timer, there are a few steps you need to take to learn the ropes.

Basically, you need to read books, take a course and visit relevant websites.

There are many books in the market spotlighting digital landscape photography.

There are two books that I can recommend to open your eyes and broaden your views.

To get a good start, Digital Landscape Photography Step By Step, by Michelle Perkins, is a compact book but it is packed with great advice about composition, the technique behind photographing sunsets, night work, and creating black and white images.

The next book with a straightforward title, Step-By-Step Digital Landscape Photography, by renowned photographer Tim Gartside, provides detailed info about this subject.

Gartside's book includes topics such as software manipulation of images, but also guides the novice through composition and the basic techniques of digital landscape photography.

If you are serious about landscape photography, you should take a course.

It will be to your advantage to learn what film to use, how to work with sunlight or other natural light, how to achieve a sense of balance and scale, how to shoot running water and other landscape photography issues that you might face.

You can also find many groups and message boards on the Internet that are designed for landscape photographers to meet, share photos and tips and ideas.

Once you have gone through the beginner's stage, then it's time for you to practise your landscape picture-taking and build your portfolio.,

To see how much you have achieved, it will do you some good to send some of your best photos to photo contests or magazines. These are good ways of breaking into the world of professional photography when you have no experience.


Photo credit: Vince Alongi

Here are some tips on digital landscape photography that might help you to get started on the right footing:

1. Point your digital camera lens upwards, and capture more of the sky. This can signify openness, freedom, and wide expanses - the effect you are striving to achieve in digital landscape photography.

2. The best time to shoot landscape pictures is during the first 2 hours and last 2 hours of daylight.

3. For panoramas: Meter all scenes beforehand and use the one with the least exposure. Then take all scenes with that constant setting.

4. Shooting in below zero degrees? You should keep your batteries warm by alternating sets between the camera and your inner pocket. Below zero temperatures shorten battery life.

5. Setting White Balance: For nature photography set WB to daylight.

The wonderful thing about digital photography is that you can be anywhere to capture beautiful scenes whether in the country or in the city.

You can travel the world to take great pictures. Or you can find beautiful landscapes right where you live.

All you need is to have an eye for such scenes. As one photographer puts it: "If you can open your eyes to the beauty and see it, then other people can see it in your photography."

Digital photography is amazing, it's an art form, it's emotional, and it's great fun and joy to be able to capture memorable landscape scenes. It's an exciting,fullfilling career.


Photo Credit: Steve Webel

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