When photographing landscapes, people often think that you walk to a location, set your camera up and take the photograph … but there's a lot more to landscape photography than that.

To get a good exposure in your landscapes, make sure your histogram is not touching one side or the other. Set your camera to Aperture priority and then use exposure compensation to dial in your settings. This will ensure that you have all of the details you need in your photograph to end up with an amazing landscape photograph!

The Remarkables, New Zealand, photographed by Mike Smith — The Remarkables near Queenstown, NZ

If you leave your camera in the auto mode, this is when you can end up with a bad photo that will almost be impossible to recover and get a great photograph … and this is the most frustrating thing about landscape photography.

You see an amazing scene in front of you, but then when you photograph it, it looks bland, or just a bit Meh … and this is where getting the settings right is so important.

Cheat, and Copy Your Auto Settings

If you have no idea about your settings, you can just shoot in auto mode, but to take this to another level, copy your settings across from auto to manual mode.

You can then have a play with each of your settings to see what each one does to your photo when you change it … this is a great thing to do if you are new to landscape photography and you want to understand your camera. Just sit down and try out different things … and if it all goes a little bit wrong, just switch it back to auto mode … this can be your safety net!

If you do this, just focus on aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

I’ll talk a bit about these three principle settings a little later on in this post.

And if you want to know about getting out of auto mode, click here.

Use The Histogram

The histogram is a tool that has been in cameras for years. If you use a mirrorless camera it will be in one of your display options.

It is also a function of DSLRs. If you take a photo and review it, you can scroll through your displays and find it there. And also in live display … and in most modern cameras, you should be able to find it there.

This is just a graphical representation of all of the different pixels in your camera, from the darkest ones to the brightest ones.

If the histogram is squashed to one side or the other, this might mean that you are losing data in the highlights (When squashed to the right), or in the shadows (when squished to the left).

Now there is a lot more to the histogram than just this, but to start with, just try to keep

To start with, just try to keep it away from each of the sides so you don't lose any detail in your highlights or shadows.

Use The Zebras

Sony A7iii Zebras - Mike Smith Photography — The Zebras can help with your exposure settings

Zebras are a function that show you what is potentially over exposed, or that is at a certain brightness/luminance level.

This is a function that has come across from he videography and cinematography world but can be really useful to get a good exposure in your photographs.

When you push the brighter parts of our photo over the limit set, they will show diagonal lines across them, hence the name zebras.

So you can set the level you want to have these zebras appear, and then you know that if you see the zebras, those parts of your photograph have brightness levels at whatever level you set them to or higher.

I'll talk about how I set up my Sony a7iv zebras a little bit later.

So very quickly you can see if any parts of your photograph are over exposed.

Bracket your photographs if you are Unsure of the Exposure

Exposure Bracketing can save you from getting a bad exposure — Exposure Bracketing can save you if you are unsure of what the exposure should be

Now this is a bit of a cheat to get a great exposure, but if you are unsure of exactly the right settings to use in your camera, find the bracketing function and turn it on.

Set it to 5 exposures of 1 exposure value apart.

This will take a photograph at 2 stops under, 1 stop under, 1 at the settings you have got in your camera, and then 1 stop over and then 2 stops over.

Then when you are editing your photographs, just pick the best one with the most amount of detail.

This is a lazy way to do landscape photography, but sometimes it is hard to work out what might be best, so this technique covers a few different exposure options.

Just make sure you look at how close you were to getting it right with the settings you chose.

It can be easy to get addicted to shooting this way and then just picking the correct one in post … so use this as a way to figure out how to do it properly instead of just overshooting and picking the best one afterwards.

Using Zebras with the Sony Alpha Cameras

In the Sony a7ii, iii and IV, as well as all of the Sony R series of Alpha cameras and also the s series, I set the zebras to 100+.

This is a great way to get a good exposure when shooting in RAW.

When you set your camera to record the photos as raw files, if you make sure your highlights are only just touching the zebras, you will get a good exposure.

Other settings to Change BEFORE you go out

As well as all of that, there are settings I change as soon as I get a camera. They pretty much can be changed and left there if you shoot mostly landscapes.

Choosing these settings will help you get the best out of your camera when you are out shooting landscapes.

If you are going out and photographing the kids or a friends birthday party, which we all inevitably get asked to do, you might have to change these around a bit, but for landscapes, most of these are a “set it and leave them alone” kind of change to your camera:

Shoot in RAW
Turn off DRO or Auto HDR (In Nikon, Canon cameras this might be different - something like Active D-lighting)
Picture Style - Turn this on to Natural (This will only affect your jpeg preview, but it is good to keep it flat to see the dynamic range at it’s best on the back of your camera)
Set your camera up for back button focussing
Set autofocus to flexible spot
Set to single focus (AF-S)
Set the mode to Aperture priority
Set ISO manually

Choose the Right Time of the Day

Different lighting conditions through the day — Choosing the right time of the day is critical to being able to control the exposure of your photograph

As well as getting your camera set up right for a good exposure, you need to make sure you go out at the right time of the day.

This will help you to get good quality light in your landscape photographs.

I will either go out for sunrise or sunset and if you are serious about landscape photography, you should go out at these times as well.

This will give you that golden quality to the light, and if you are lucky, it might even light up the sky in those really vibrant colours.

If you go out in the middle of the day, this is when the light can be quite boring, and this will take away form your photograph. So plan for a sunrise or sunset.

If you are a morning person like I am, go for a sunrise, and make sure you go early.

If you are not so good in the morning, head out for a sunset.

Keep an Eye on the Weather

If the weather is bad, you might have no chance of getting a good photo, so you do need to become a bit of a weather forecaster.

Not quite on the level of Michael Fish, but good enough to understand weather fronts and what they do to the weather where you are.

Keep an eye on the weather and look for changeable weather conditions. The more changeable it is, the more unpredictable it can be, but also, the more dramatic it can become.

I have been out on sunny days and even though it was a beautiful blue sky day, the photos I got weren’t that great, whereas when I went on a stormy day, I got photos that looked so much better and so much more moody.

Now this comes down to your own personal preference, but in keeping an eye on the weather, after a while, you will start to see patterns and certain conditions that will work in your favour.

Also if you do go out when the weather is bad, make sure you are fully prepared for it!

Aperture

The aperture is basically the size of the hole in your lens that you let the light through. The bigger the hole, the more light will get in to your sensor. So wider apertures (Lower F numbers) will brighten your photograph.

Smaller apertures higher f numbers) will darken your shot.

However there is a secondary function of aperture.

If you take a photograph with a very wide aperture, where the f number is low … basically anything below f8, you’ll find that the foregrounds in your photographs might be a little bit out of focus.

This is because of the depth of focus.

With wider apertures, the depth of focus in your photographs will become more shallow, so less will be in focus from front to back. And a slightly blurry foreground can be quite off-putting, unless it is intentional.

This is why I say to shoot in aperture priority mode.

With aperture priority, you can set the aperture to what you want and then let the camera set the shutter speed.

I try to shoot with an aperture of f11 to f16 and you will find more of your photograph is in focus.

I don't always do this, especially if I am tired for that sunrise shoot … and I always regret it afterwards.

The exception to this rule is when everything in your frame is the same distance away from you.

This could be a mountain peak far in the distance. Then you can shoot with quite wide apertures and still get everything in focus.

This probably sounds really confusing but it doesn’t have to be. I Actually have an article on this very subject of choosing the right aperture, so click here to read more about the perfect aperture for your landscapes.

Shutter speed

Shutter speed is the amount of time you expose the sensor or the film to the light in your scene.

The longer you leave it open, the brighter your shot becomes.

Shutter speed also has a secondary function.

If you leave it open for a long time, any movement in your frame will start to blur, this can work really well in landscape photography if you have your camera on a tripod and blur water moving through your photograph, or clouds. However, if you are shooting handheld, slow shutter speeds can also blur the whole shot from the motion of your hands. So choose your shutter speed wisely.

If you are using a fast shutter speed but are still getting soft or slightly blurry images, click here to find out why.

ISO

ISO used to refer to the sensitivity of the film with older film cameras.

Nowadays, it refers to the amplification of the signal from the sensor … now if I have just lost you … don’t worry about this. Just look at ISO as a way of brightening up your photograph.

For landscape photography, I try to keep it below ISO 1000 with my Sony A7iv, but with my RX10iii, I keep it below ISO 400.

When you raise the ISO past a certain level, which differs from camera to camera, you will start to get a softer photograph from the noise in your image … a bit like with an old tv when the signal gets weaker and it goes all fuzzy.

Bringing Together your Principle Settings

To get a good exposure you need to balance all of these three principle settings out.

I will set my aperture in aperture priority and then see what shutter speed the camera is giving me.
I’ll then adjust the ISO to suit.
If I am shooting handheld and the iso is way too high, like ISO 10,000 or more, I will break out my tripod, lower my ISO and this in turn will lengthen the shutter speed when shooting in aperture priority mode.
If I am shooting from a tripod, I will set the ISO to 100, take a shot and see how it looks.
If it is too dark, I will bump the exposure compensation into the + figures.
If it is too bright, I will push the exposure compensation into the - figures.
If it is really windy and you are getting movement in your tripod, you might have to raise your ISO to lower your shutter speed. (Remember it’s all about juggling your settings to get a good photograph.)

Exposure Compensation

Exposure compensation needs a setting that the camera controls to be able to move the exposure around. This can be ISO in auto, it can be aperture priority or shutter priority. Any one of these will let you push the exposure around with your exposure compensation dial.

Conclusion

There is a lot more to getting a good exposure than just setting your camera up right.

You do need to understand how light works, what and how dynamic range works from the dynamic range of your camera to the dynamic range of the scene … and how to get the best out of the scene in front of you by manipulating your principle settings.

As you start to build on your experience, this will all start to make sense and you will start to understand what works and what doesn’t.

It is all about going through the process of trying things out, seeing what works and what doesn’t and then changing your settings to suit.

If you are wondering about the kit you need for landscape photography, click here to find out what that is, and what I take with me. It is frustrating when you are out and don’t have everything you need, so it is well worth knowing.

Thanks

Mike