Product Description

A master photographer's guide to capturing the natural landscape -- written for hobbyists and pros.

Step-by-step instructions, pictograms, and before-and-after comparisons provide a complete course in capturing a landscape's natural beauty. Renowned photographer Tim Fitzharris reveals foolproof techniques he has used through decades of fieldwork in a wide variety of settings. His own outstanding examples are accompanied by detailed information on the equipment, exposure, film, shutter speed and filters used.

The book is designed for use with the latest digital as well as traditional cameras. Fitzharris encourages photographers to rise above technology and remain sensitive to a landscape's changing moods. Everything needed to achieve professional results is covered, including:

• The best equipment and how to use it
• Digital camera considerations
• Detailed field techniques for a wide variety of natural settings
• Using filters
• Fine art composition, simplified and diagrammed
• A step-by-step guide to recognizing and finding great scenic shooting sites
• Getting a correct exposure every time
• Recording mirror-like reflections in lakes and shooting postcard-perfect sunrises and sunsets
• Creating high-quality panorama images
• Post-production basics, including image selection and color correction.

Filled with tips and strategies, this outstanding guide includes all that's required for taking professional-caliber photographs of great landscapes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8100 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781554071951
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
This new offering ... packs a mighty bang for your buck. [It's] almost a landscape photography workshop in book form. (Joy McDonell Canadian Camera 200707)

[Fitzharris's] advice ... is invaluable. This highly accomplished and useful guide is an inspiring improvement over more basic volumes.... Recommended. (Daniel Lombardo Library Journal 20071115)

[The books is] crammed with insightful tips on creating landscape pictures [and] written in a straightforward style with minimal jargon. (Popular Photography )

A valuable reference... stunning photographs.... Beginners to pros can benefit from this opportunity to look through [Fitzharris's] lens. (Grand Magazine (Kitchener, ON) )

[Fitzharris's] advice on such topics as field techniques, fine-art composition, and the best equipment to use is invaluable.... Recommended. (Daniel Lombardo, formerly with Jones Lib., Amherst, MA Library Journal and LibraryJournal.com )

A glowing tribute to the beauty of North America. (Joy McDonnell, Editor-in-Chief Canadian Camera )

About the Author

Tim Fitzharris is a critically acclaimed photographer known by his colleagues for his regular column in Popular Photography and Imaging magazine. He is the author of 25 books, including National Audubon Society Guide to Nature Photography, Close-Up Photography in Nature, Rocky Mountains: Wilderness Reflections and Big Sky: Wild West Panorama. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction: The Earth, our planet, our home.

In its natural state it's difficult to imagine anything more beautiful. This book is intended to help photographers capture this beauty for the enjoyment of both themselves and others. The landscape is arguably the most difficult, challenging and fascinating of nature's subjects. It is an elusive target -- terrain shimmering in ultraviolet or buffeted by wind one day and twinkling with frost or glinting bronze under a sunset sky the next.

Not only does the landscape change, endlessly offering to the lens new contours, textures and colors depending on weather, light and season, it posts no signs to guide the photographer's approach. It does not encourage you to capture spreading antlers or eyes sparkling with highlights. Its appeal is broad, and as subject it is open to wide avenues of interpretation. It is more concept than thing, more mood or feeling than identity. You cannot take a picture of a mountain and say, "There, I've got it." You can only say that you know a bit of it, that you've spent some time near its energy.

If you have an artistic temperament, this will appeal to you. No matter how many times a famous landform has been photographed, your encounter with it will be unique and will remain so with every subsequent shooting session. Pulsing with light, mother of life, for the artist a subject both sublime and mindless, the land abides in us and for us. You appreciate this while looking through the lens, trekking to a shooting site or standing on a precipice waiting for sunrise. If you're reading this book, you're already attuned to this. You want to know more about direct engagement, about embracing this wonder of Earth through your eyes and insights, your photography and your art.

This book will help you understand how camera and film (or sensor) depict the land so that you can make images the way you see and feel. The technical components of professional-level landscape photography are all covered here. The emphasis of the book, however, is on the photographer's actual interaction with the subject. I've described here the numerous ways in which I photograph the landscape, the particulars of how I proceed to capture a dune field, ocean sunrise, autumn forest or alpine reflection. Each setting calls for the application of a different set of technical and artistic considerations. I've outlined the general procedures I use when working in the field, the focus being to enjoy the process while maximizing the quality of imagery.

To this end, you will find that keeping things simple -- technically, logistically, artistically -- brings you closest to the Earth, your subject, allowing the clearest expression of your artistic goals. The working models presented here are the ones that I use and know, but they needn't be the ones that you favor. There are many ways to approach landscape photography, and your art will benefit by considering how others photograph. As you gain experience you will discard some procedures, embrace others and develop new ones of your own.

It's impossible to photograph the landscape and not be aware of the accelerating deterioration of the planet's natural areas. Governments generally see progress in terms of economic growth manifested through industrial, residential, agricultural or commercial expansion, nearly always to the detriment of natural systems. As nature photographers we can use our influence to turn capitalism's focus on development to one that favors preservation. It's seems to be a losing proposition at this point, but you'll feel better and grow more appreciative of the subjects you photograph just for making the effort. Earthlings, unite!

Customer Reviews

Amazing Introductory Book to Landscape Photography
To start out, I am writing this review as a beginning/ameteur photographer with aspirations of becoming a professional landscape photographer. That said, I was hard-pressed to find a book that explains landscape photography that was either written at a level that I could understand or had sufficient examples and photographs to supplement the explanations provided. Then I stumbled upon this beauty.

First off, this book is well written. I found it easy to follow with thorough explanations and examples. Don't get me wrong, it is not "dummed down" for beginners, as I still do not understand all of the concepts/explanations Fitzharris provides, but I am sure that someone with more experience and knowledge would understand readily. The book is split up into chapters that make sense and flow seamlessly from one to the next, making it easy to read cover to cover but also easy to come back and find something specific if need be. Topics include everything from exposure and composition to proper equipment and digital retouching. The book does cover a broad range of information which makes it perfect for someone looking into landscape photography or wishing to build upon their landscape photography skills, but in covering such ground topics are touched on albeit for only a page or two. The concepts/explanations are by far sufficient for the purpose, but not very in-depth if one is looking for something specific on a particular subject/chapter within the book.

The second thing that impressed me about this book was the photographs. I have searched through a lot of books about photography and found it difficult to find one with photographs that not only exemplify the concept being explained, but also inspire the reader. The photos in this book are absolutely amazing. I would even recommend this book if you just like to look at pretty pictures. However, to the reader the photos are beautiful yet not intimidating since Fitzharris provides photos that exemplify the concept on the page and includes the camera used and all settings in a footnote near the photos, the photos serve to inspire the reader in a "yes, you can do this too" sense.

The thing I liked best about this book was that it was written FOR the reader. Fitzharris never says things like "for this photo I did this" in a self aggrandizing way, but phrases things towars the reader in more of a "to acchieve this effect you would need to" sense. I found this refreshing, as many photography books I have found are more about the author and his photos than helping out the reader. The book is not written dryly with explanations only, but the way Fitzharris writes inspires and encourages the reader while offering examples and explanations. I found this book very enjoyable.

The bottom line for me is that I have not been able to find a better book on landscape photography. I am still looking, but nothing speaks to me the way this book does. I would recommend this book to anyone from the beginning to professional photographer, or anyone that just wants to take better pictures in general. This book was beautifully illustrated, reader friendly, and truly inspiring.

Best of the best
I've read many books on landscape photography and this is easily the best. Here, an excellent photographer tells you exactly what he does - how he thinks about lighting and composition, what equipment he thinks is important, how he manages equipment, etc. It is specific, interesting, intelligently written and illustrated with beautiful photos.

I consider myself to be an intermediate landscape photograher. This book fleshed out a lot of concepts I have been slowly becoming aware of. Now instead of sort of knowing what I'm trying to accomplish, I'm more certain.

I would not recommend this book for beginners. For example, if you don't know how to quickly relate aperature, shutter speed, depth of field and ISO and evaluate their inherent tradeoffs, there are a lot of good introductory books out there that explain these types of things in great detail. But if you have been shooting landscapes for a while and are looking for insights, this is the book for you.

Includes the details you've been searching for!
The excellent National Audubon Society Guide to Landscape Photography, includes camera and exposure info, plus which filters are used and even how the filters are oriented in their holder! Filling a book with pretty pictures (as National Geographic's guide does) teaches me nothing. Telling me how to orient and expose using a Graduated Neutral Density filter (a la Audubon Guide) will allow me to duplicate their results!

It's also VERY "digital friendly", comparing each technique for both film and digital cameras.

Highly recommended!