Lens Choices For Landscape Photography

Updated March 2012.

You can use any lens you like for landscape photography as with many things in life, it is not what you have got, it is how you use it.

Your choice of focal length entirely depends on how you want to interpret a scene. It is true that if you put two photographers in front of a stunning scene, one will fit a wide-angle and move in closer and the other will fix a telephoto and take a few steps back. Basically, there is no right or wrong when it comes to lens choice so long as it has produced the image you imagined in the first instance.

Standard Zoom

Your standard zoom will find plenty of uses for landscape shooting, and you probably know that already. Its focal length coverage from moderate wide-angle through to short telephoto makes it a perfect partner for general photography.

Using a standard zoom is straightforward enough and the two sections on wide-angle and telephoto lenses cover the key techniques you need to know at the two lens extremes.

Wide-Angle Lenses

Wide-angle lenses have a wide angle of view so get more into the frame. That is pretty straightforward and that is how such lenses are used, ie to get more in. But wides are also great at letting you to get in much closer to the subject, giving greater intimacy.

There is a knack to getting the most from wide-angles. The most important technique is to fill the frame, especially the areas directly in front and directly above the subject. A common mistake of inexperienced wide-anglers is to include too much blank foreground or too much bland sky. To stop this, just look around the whole viewfinder before you take the pictures, and if you think there is too much emptiness use the zoom to alter the crop. Or simply move your feet. It is too easy to be rooted to the ground when taking a stride or two closer to the subject or finding some foreground to fill the frame will improve the picture markedly.

Telephoto Lenses

While wide-angles include more, telephotos let you be much more selective in what you include in your frame. For landscape shooting, a telephoto lets you isolate details and it will also make it easier to crop out a blank sky and compressed perspective.

For landscape work, being able to isolate detail and to compress perspective is a very powerful tool in your armoury. Picking out strong lines, textures and features like trees, barns and so on is incredibly useful. As the saying goes 'less is more'. On days when the sky is not very interesting, a telephoto also makes it much easier to crop it out.

Macro Lenses

You might think that a macro lens is not much use for landscape, but you'd be wrong. A typical macro lens is a short telephoto so it has plenty of general uses, but being able to focus really closely can be a real bonus in certain circumstances such as when the light isn't great and you have a very bland sky.

If you have a day like this, turn your attentions to micro landscapes where you can use the close-focusing ability of a macro lens to get you right into a scene. With a macro lens you can explore clumps of moss and lichen or patterns in leaves or flowers.

When working with macro lenses you do have a very limited amount of depth-of-field available even at very small apertures. With this in mind, focus very carefully and use the camera's depth-of-field preview to check what is going to come out sharp at different apertures. If you use the preview, allow your eye to get used to the darker viewfinder image before making an assessment.

Once you are this close, the camera's auto focus can struggle and it will end up searching back and forth for sharp focus. If this happens, just switch to manual focus. Have a tripod handy too as it will help avoid camera shake and allow you to make very precise and repeatable compositions. A light-weight model such as those available in Vanguard's Nivelo range won't add too much weight to your backpack which you'll be thankful for once you've started walking to your chosen landscape photo spot.

Camera Shake

Avoiding camera shake is the main issue – as it is with any lens and even though using a tripod is recommended, here is a rough guide to which shutter speed you should be using for hand-holding different focal lengths if you choose to work with out one. Remember, this is only a guide and everyone and every situation is different. For example, if it is a windy day and you had a few beers the night before, you might find you need considerably faster shutter speeds.

Focal length shutter speed:

• 15mm 1/15sec
• 28mm 1/30sec
• 50mm 1/60sec
• 100mm 1/125sec
• 200mm 1/250sec
• 300mm 1/500sec
• 500mm 1/1000sec

Depth of field

Assessing how much depth-of-field can be done with the depth-of-field preview facility. This stops the lens down to its set aperture and lets you assess how much of the scene is sharp. Let your eye get used to the dimmer image before making an assessment.

If you want extensive depth-of-field in the landscape set f/16 or f/22. If you even more, focus roughly one-third into the scene. It is not obvious through the lens but depth-of-field actually extends beyond as well as in front of where the lens is focused.

By focusing one-third of the way in and not on the actual subject, the depth-of-field behind the point of focus is not wasted and you gain more sharpness in front of the subject without losing sharpness at infinity.

Optimising depth-of-field is called hyperfocal focusing. While on zooms it is tricky to use it accurately, adjusting focus so that you are focused a little in front of the subject will help you achieve a greater depth-of-field.

Focus

Accurate focusing is important regardless of which lens you use and it always pays to double-check that the image is sharp before taking the shot. However, it is true that there is a little more latitude in practice with wide-angles compared with telephotos. This is because telephotos give (apparently) more shallow depth-of-field. So make sure that you have the subject in sharp focus and if the camera is not focusing accurately, either switch to manual or use the camera's focus lock, ie partial depression of the shutter release, focus on something at a similar distance of your subject, hold the button partially down and then recompose the image.

Framing

When it comes to composition the way you use various components of the scene within the picture frame is crucial for creating well-composed images. Changing camera position, trying upright or horizontal framing and following guidelines like the rule of thirds all help produce pictures with more impact.

Find out more about Vanguard's products by clicking these links: Visit Vanguard's Website Take a look at Vanguard's Nivelo Tripod range  Learn more about the Nivelo 245 BK tripod Take a look at Vanguard's BBH Heads Learn more about the GH-200 Grip View Vanguard's Xcenior bag collection