DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS FROM ePHOTOzine

 

Taken during an early morning visit to Hartlepool Headland, Rolling In by DaveRyder shows the sea pushing towards the shore. The headland sets the location, while the main focus is the movement of the water.

A longer exposure smooths the waves into flowing lines across the scene. Dark clouds sit above softer light in the sky, adding contrast, while wind turbines on the horizon give the image a modern touch. Together, these elements create a strong coastal photograph that reflects the conditions well.

Every Photo of the Week (POTW) winner will be rewarded with a Samsung 128GB PRO Plus microSDXC memory card with SD adapter, providing top-tier storage for all your creative needs across multiple devices. But that's not all! In January 2026, we’ll crown our 2025 Photo of the Year winner, who will take home the ultimate prize of a Samsung Portable 1TB SSD T7 Shield, courtesy of Samsung. It’s time to shoot, submit, and showcase your best work for a chance to win these incredible rewards!

 

What planning do you do before going on a landscape shoot?

Always check the weather forecast, and if walking is involved, make sure I know the route. Proper clothing, make sure people know what time I should return, etc.

Although weather plays a great part in landscape photography, I firmly believe there is no such thing as bad weather – simply different types of lighting. Rain, snow, wind etc can all create interesting landscape pictures. In fact, living in the lakes, a clear blue, cloud-free sky is probably my least preferred lighting conditions. Once you get to know an area well, you know what direction light comes from, but I try to go on every shoot with a totally open mind, I hate pre-planning shots, because when you reach the location, if the light is different from you planned, you feel that you're not getting the shot. I would far sooner react to the light that is there, and work with what is available to create the style and type of shot that works on that day.

That's not to say some lighting conditions suit certain locations better than others – I have my favourite spots for rainy days, and I have some shots I am still waiting for the 'right' light after many years.
 

What are your top 6 tips for landscape photography?

 

Tip 1

Learn the rules of composition - golden mean, rules of thirds, lead lines and so on, then compose your pictures as you see fit. I believe in balance of the picture, which may break all of the rules, but for good reason.

 

Tip 2

Don't limit yourself to the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset – you waste far too much of the day. Great pictures can be taken at any hour – there are a few barns in the Lakes which make great features in a landscape, where the light hits them perfectly between 12 noon and 1pm.

 

Tip 3

When you see a picture, take it – get the shot – even handheld if necessary. I see too many photographers spend an age setting up the tripod, selecting the right lens, deciding which graduated filter to use, fitting the grad, taking the meter reading, then missing the shot because the light has changed. Get a shot in the bank, then take more care to get another, if the light has held on – you might have a winner, if the light's gone, at least you have a shot!

 

Tip 4

Never refer to weather as dull – if you think "dull" you will take "dull" pictures – because you'll go out with the wrong attitude. All weather conditions can give fabulous landscape shots – never pre-plan a shot on the basis of weather and lighting, because if it is different from what you planned, you may overlook even better opportunities for outstanding images.

 

Tip 5

Try to get as much right in camera – I tidy up foregrounds, use the appropriate colour balance (often preset), and I hear all the time - “I can sort that out in PhotoShop” If you start out lazy in your approach, things will just get sloppy. Also, it means I need to spend less time sitting in front of a computer sorting out pictures and can spend more time out taking photos.

 

Tip 6

Taking a digital picture costs nothing, if you're unsure about depth of field, take a range of shots at varying apertures, it's easier to select the best looking shot on a huge computer screen than on the back of your camera, and many a good shot has been lost because of too little (or too much) depth of field.

  Article by John Gravett of Lakeland Photographic Holidays - www.lakelandphotohols.com

Shooting successful landscapes in black and white is not quite as easy as it might seem. I have to admit that when I first started photographing landscapes with black and white film, I was so disappointed with the results that I gave up for several years. What I didn’t realise is that I was breaking one simple rule that if I had understood it, would have made life much simpler. Basically, my images lacked separation.

 

 

The Fundamental Rule Of Black And White

To achieve a good black and white image you need to have separation between the elements in the frame. If you can’t distinguish or find it difficult to distinguish between the elements the image will lack impact and the viewer will struggle to understand it. The problem I had and one that many people trying to shoot black and white landscapes have is that whilst in colour the different elements are easy to see. Once converted to black and white, many of the tones of the landscape blend together.

 

What’s needed are ways to separate the elements for the viewer. Here are some ideas to help you.

  1. Conversion

The tools we now have available in the digital darkroom make life much easier. Ideally, you need a conversion technique that allows you to target different colours so they appear as different tones in the final image. For example, you might darken a blue sky whilst lightening grass and foliage. If you were using black and white film you would use a Green or Yellow filter to achieve this effect but tools such as Photoshop and Lightroom make this easy to achieve.

A further tip you might like to try is selectively changing the colour for some areas of your image. This will make them respond differently during the conversion to Black and White and help provide separation.

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2. Composition

Strong composition can also help in separating the elements of the image even where they might have similar tones. One good way to ensure a good composition for black and white is to include a strong foreground interest. Seek out strong shapes in the landscape such as walls and trees that might provide a leading line into the landscape. Strong distinctive shapes are easier for the eye to pick out and understand even when the tones are similar.

In this example, I have used the strong shape of the rocks to provide bold foreground interest. I have also used other techniques discussed below to enhance the separation of objects in the scene.
 

3. Contrast

This can be a problem with many black and white landscape images. I find the elements within the frame will become much more distinct when the contrast-enhanced. In the film world, we would use a coloured filter such as a Yellow, Orange or Red placed in front of the lens to help boost contrast. We might also use exposure techniques and higher contrast papers when printing in the darkroom.

In the digital age, the easiest way to add contrast is by applying an S-Curve in your editing package. Also, don’t overlook Midtone contrast as this can really add to the monochrome landscape image. The easiest way to add Midtone contrast is in RAW conversion software that has a Clarity slider, which is essentially the same thing. In the following image of the Polish Tetras, I have significantly boosted the Midtone contrast to help provide some separation between the trees which would otherwise blend into a solid grey tone.
 

4. Dodge & Burn

The technique of dodging and burning an image has been around from the early days of photography and was used extensively by masters such as Ansel Adams. In this image, I have created a conversion that deliberately darkened the ground to create a contrast with the waterfall. I then used the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop to emphasise this as well as lightening selected areas of grass. When you dodge and burn an image it helps to create the feeling of interest in the scene for the viewer.
 

So remember the rule; if you want to capture strong black and white landscapes you need to separate the elements in the frame.

Words and images by Robin Whalley   

Snow can be quite tricky to capture and can leave many beginner photographers asking questions. To help them out, here we will answer some of the most frequently asked questions about snow photography.

 

Photo by David Pritchard

Why can snow appear grey?
This is because your camera's metering system is fooled by the highly reflective tones of the white snow.

As Pete said in a previous article: "All cameras have built in metering systems that are designed to deliver a perfect picture assuming the contrast range is normal. They do this by scrambling the tones and then adjust so the scrambled colour brightness is mid-grey or average. This is fine when the subject has a wide tonal range with everything from black to white being present, but when the subject is predominantly white, such as snow, the camera underexposes so that the white becomes grey."

If you are using a compact camera it most likely has a snow scene mode and by switching to this, your once grey snow should appear white.

For those using more advanced cameras you can get around this by adjusting the exposure compensation setting to either  plus 1 or two stops depending on the amount of snow in the picture.

if your camera has the exposure lock feature, which is usually set by half-pressing the shutter button, point it at a mid-tone in your scene, lock the exposure then recompose your shot.

Why can snow appear blue?
As mentioned above, the camera sees the snow as a mid-tone and underexposes the shot as a result. When your camera does this on a day when you're shooting under a blue sky, you'll end up with blue snow as the scene's being lit by sun reflecting off the sky. You can do as we mentioned above and use exposure compensation or you can try switching from auto white balance to shade. Alternatively, if you shoot in RAW you can make changes to the colour balance quite easily once you're back in front of your computer.

 

Why does my snow shoot look boring?
As mentioned above, stopping the exposure down a little to give a little more depth and atmosphere to the shot should stop your scene appearing as a bland, boring scene of white that doesn't have much difference in tone.

Another reason that your shot may look a little boring is that there's nothing to break the blank white scene up.  Walls, trees, rocks or even people can be used to add a bit of contrast to the scene.

 

Why has my lens steamed up?
Moving from indoors to the cold outdoors can result in fogged-up lenses. As a result you need to let your camera acclimatise before taking photos. Try to avoid wiping the condensation off with a cloth as this can lead to smudges which can be visible in your shots.

 

How can I stop the sky looking boring and grey?
This is a common problem when trying to take snowy photos, as most of the time when it's snowing, the sky will be very overcast and cloudy. To get around this, why not wait until it stops snowing and the sky clears a little. A blue sky will improve your snowy scene, just remember what we said about checking your white balance.

If you do want to shoot while the snow is falling, make sure you turn your flash off because the flash will reflect off the nearby flakes making the picture full of large blurry blobs that distract, plus your image will be dark. A better way to capture snow falling is to put your camera on a tripod and use slower shutter speeds. Take a look at these examples that show a snow shot taken with flash and one without:

 

 

 

What equipment might I need to improve my shots?

Tripod – As mentioned above, this will be great for if you want to capture slow shutter speed shots to really capture the snowflakes falling and create a sense of heavy snow. You may need your camera's inbuilt spirit level if it has one, to make sure your tripod is straight in the snow.

Filters – Graduated grey filters are ideal for darkening light skies to create moody shots.

Rain Sleeve – If you're planning to stay out in falling snow for a long time with your camera out, then you should consider keeping it dry, as after a while snow will start to melt on your camera. The rain sleeve will keep your camera safe while still allowing you to access all your camera settings. If you have a smaller camera and want extra protection against the elements, then you could improvise and use a freezer bag with a hole cut out for the lens. Although this isn't as waterproof!