Landscape

Photography Week cover February 2020

Photography Week cover 13 February 2020

One of my drone landscape images was used on the cover of the 13 February issue of Photography Week magazine. The cover illustrates an article inside I created covering essential information and techniques for photographers considering adding drones to their photography. The image was taken in the Lake District in early autumn as the foliage on trees began to turn which created an interesting patchwork of colour when shot from above. See below for the original image and a larger version of the cover.

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Enhance detail and atmosphere with the Orton effect

Cwm Idwal waterfall, in Snowdonia North Wales, at sunset in winter edited with the Orton effect

Discover an advanced method of applying the Orton effect that keeps file sizes small and image quality at its best. I developed this refined technique myself in response to upgrading to a higher resolution camera, which meant the original technique created huge file sizes when saving layered images as TIFFs. And also, to deal with the problem of crushed shadows. This version solves both of these issues for the best results possible, and the tutorial works for Both Photoshop and Affinity Photo.

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PhotoPlus magazine cover December 2019

PhotoPlus magazine cover December 2019

It’s always a pleasure to see one of your images gracing the cover of a magazine, and I’m delighted to say that my winter sunrise shot of Southwold Pier was used on the cover of the December 2019 issue of PhotoPlus magazine. The full image is actually landscape format, and can be seen in full below, but it works well in the portrait crop used for the cover.

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Rydal Water shot on a DJI Mavic 2 Pro

The lone tree at Rydal Water in the Lake District on a misty autumn morning

A flyover of the largest island on Rydal Water in the Lake District shot on a DJI Mavic 2 Pro on a misty autumn morning. The video, which is a single 30 second shot is longer than most footage of its type but it works because the result almost looks like a moving still image where more interest is revealed the longer you watch it. Scroll down to view the video.

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Discover Cymru Calendar 2020

Misty sunrise in Dee Valley above Llangollen

I’m delighted to announce that my image of mist rolling into Dee Valley, near Llangollen in North Wales at sunrise has been selected to be featured in the Discover Cymru Calendar 2020. This image was taken during my second visit to the location where weather conditions were looking promising for mist, and they certainly didn’t disappoint.

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Peak District dawn to dusk landscape photography workshop 24th Jan 2020

James Abbot Photography shooting at Stanage Edge in the Peak District. One-to-one workshops and small group landscape photography workshops.

Improve your landscape photography skills with a small group workshop in the Peak District with professional landscape photographer James Abbott on Friday 24th January 2020. The workshop will be limited to just five people so everyone can take advantage of lots of one-to-one and group tuition throughout the day. The workshop costs just £150 per person.

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Creative ways to shoot water in landscapes

Long exposure at Old Hunstanton Beach during blue hour

Capturing movement in the landscape is a simple and highly effective way of adding a sense of dynamism to your landscape photography. And while the mechanical nature of photography can, if left unchecked, render scenes looking like little more than a snapshot, with the right compositional approach and shutter speed you can transform scenes in creative ways that transcend the capabilities of human vision.

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Shoot sharper landscape images

Crummock Water Long Exposure Stack

Capturing pin-sharpness throughout a scene – from the foreground to the distant background – is often the photographer’s aim when shooting landscapes. For wider scenes where the foreground interested is a few metres away from the camera you can usually get away with shooting a single image at f/11 – f/16 on a full-frame camera, or f/8 – f/11 on APS-C. With these settings and correct focusing front to back sharpness is possible in a single shot, but what about when the foreground interest is closer to the camera and you need both this and the background in sharp focus? The simple answer is to use focus stacking to achieve sharper landscape images.

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Reverse ND grads explained

A colourful sunrise and long exposyre at Southwold Pier in Suffolk, UK

You’ve probably heard this before and chances are, you’ll hear it many times in the future; one of the best times of day to shoot landscapes is the period of time just after sunrise and just before sunset. These times are known as ‘golden hour’ and despite the name, this period of time isn’t actually an hour in duration. At this time of the day the sun is close to the horizon, which means the area of sky close to the horizon is brighter than the sky at the top of the frame.

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Landscape photography – timing is everything

Behind the scenes Sony Alpa A7RIII and Vanguard Alta Pro 2+ 263 CT

Timing is everything when it comes to landscape photography, so to capture landscapes in the best light possible you ideally need to be on location and ready to shoot before, during and after golden hour. Bur while sunrise and sunset are considered the best times to shoot landscapes, they’re far from the only options. Throw the weather into the mix and you may even find that conditions are actually better well after sunrise has taken place. And on a moody and cloudy day, you may even be able to get great results throughout the day.

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