Capture or Editing - Which Has the Biggest Influence on Landscape Photography?

Virtual Collaborations

Collaborations can be a great way to discover more about your photography. They can also be a lot of fun. That being said I don’t do them that often. I tend to only do them with photographers I know and trust, and when the idea is unique or interesting. They require a fair bit of planning and coordination, but they can be rewarding if they benefit everyone involved in the collaboration.

Time is perhaps the biggest enemy of collaborations, but in recent months it’s been a very different issue. I don’t need to go into too much detail here. I’ll just mention the word “lockdown” and you’ll know exactly what I mean.

With travel not possible I found myself a bit stuck for collaboration ideas when I was chatting to my mate and fellow photographer Chris Sale the other day. We were both looking for something we could do together that didn’t involve travel. I’ve worked with Chris a few times on various projects, such as the documentary I made about him recently, but whatever we’ve done, we’ve normally done it in person.

How Important is Post-Processing?

As I chatted with Chris, I came up with the idea of editing each other’s raw files. This would be something we could do without meeting up, but it would still hopefully prove to be interesting. Neither of us would normally let someone else edit one of our raw files, but we’ve been friends for a while now so we both felt we could trust each other with our precious digital negatives.

The question we were aiming to answer in our collaboration was how much influence does post-processing have on the final image? If you give one raw file to two different photographers, how different will the results be?  Is the output of the image fixed at the time of capture, or does the photographer's post-processing style have a significant impact on the output?  You get the idea!

In the videos below you’ll find Chris editing one of my raw files, and me editing one of Chris’ raw files. At the end of each video, we’ll present our results back to each other, and compare them to the photographer's original edit. How different will the photographs look? Find out below.

Did the results surprise you? Would you ever let someone edit one of our raw files? Let me know in the comments below

A Day in the Life of Chris Sale, Professional Landscape Photographer - Documentary and Interview

What’s It Really Like to Be a Pro Photographer?

Chris Sale and I used to lead similar lives. We both had senior jobs in corporate IT and our spare time was dominated by our passion for photography. In fact, it was that love for landscape photography and for producing YouTube videos that we became good friends. Over the years since we’ve been friends, we’ve met up for numerous shoots and even produced a few videos together.

Twelve months ago, Chris made to decision to leave his job in IT to become a full time, professional landscape photographer. Without a doubt, this was a major decision by Chris and a risky one at that. However, as risky as it was, Chris didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to turn pro (as you’ll find out in the film). I thought it was an incredibly exciting decision and I was keen to try and support Chris where I could.

Chris’ transition to professional photographer follows a path that might be quite different from a lot of other photographers, particularly those who have a more established presence in the industry. It’s those key differences in both Chris’ journey and the way he runs his business that gave me the idea of producing this documentary.

As I try to be as supportive of Chris, so he is supportive of me. When I proposed the idea of creating this documentary, he was more than willing to support me and most importantly offer me his trust. The trust element was particularly important as he was going to let me film him for a day, and then edit that down to a short film.

We were hoping to make the film earlier this year, but a certain pandemic put an end to that plan. We still thought it was a great idea, so as soon as it was safe to travel and meet up again, we put a new date in our plan.

I am now absolutely delighted to share the film we have made. I hope that by viewing it you not only get a good idea of what it is like to be a professional landscape photographer, but you also learn about Chris’ interesting journey. Most of all I hope you enjoy it!

Do you have an interesting or compelling photography story that could make for a good film? Let me know in the comments below.

Bite-Size Blog Post #8 - Friends, Dartmoor and Breakfast

Friends

It’s not often that I get to catch up in person with my good friend and fellow photographer Chris Sale. I live in Devon and he lives in the Lake District, so we aren’t exactly on each other’s doorsteps. When Chris mentioned he was making a trip to Cornwall he suggested we meet up. I was expecting Chris to select a nice coastal location in Cornwall but when he asked if I would take him somewhere on Dartmoor, I knew exactly where to go.

Dartmoor

Of all the locations I’ve photographed on Dartmoor, I think Belstone Common must be one of my favourites. I’ve taken a ton of photos here, published many blog articles and filmed a few videos from this location. Unless the weather is truly awful there is normally something to shoot. The 360-degree views provide lots of opportunity for shooting anything from wide-angle landscapes to telephoto landscapes.

That doesn’t mean its necessarily an easy place to shoot but it can be rewarding. Chris must have had luck on his side when we went up though. The weather forecast was looking a bit stormy but these are exactly the conditions that can work well up on Belstone.

We were treated to some excellent conditions. We had to work hard though as the light came and went very quickly, but it’s mornings like this that I live for as a landscape photographer.

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Belstone Cloudy Sunrise #1, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f4 at 14mm, f/11, 1.3 seconds at ISO 64.

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Belstone Cloudy Sunrise #2, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f4 at 14mm, f/11, 1 second at ISO 64.

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Belstone Cloudy Sunrise #3, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f4 at 14mm, f/11, 1/4th seconds at ISO 64.

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Belstone Cloudy Sunrise #4, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f4 at 14mm, f/11, 1/4th seconds at ISO 64.

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Belstone Cloudy Sunrise #5, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f4 at 18mm, f/11, 1/6th seconds at ISO 64.

Breakfast

It was a fantastic morning. Great photographs and great company. The other thing that makes Belstone one of my favourite locations to go to is a visit to the Whitehouse Restaurant on the way back. They do a great breakfast and both Chris and I felt it was well deserved treat!

On My Watch List - A New Show with Chris Sale

Collaborations Take Time

One of the great benefits of sharing your photography life on YouTube is the number of people that you get to meet. I often say the photography content creation community is a bit like a virtual camera club. While this does mean your virtual camera club has members from all over the country (even the world) it also means it is challenging to find the time to meet people in person.

I would love to have more time to spend travelling the country, meeting up with fellow photographers and collaborating on content ideas. For me, allocating time for landscape photography is often a careful balance of family and work commitments. As a result, I only collaborate a few times a year and only if the idea is going to provide a tangible benefit to all the parties involved.

My good friend and fellow landscape photographer, Chris Sale, is a person I have collaborated with several times. For some time now we have been talking about collaborating on the creation of a new photography related show or podcast. We didn’t just want to create just another photography chat show. Instead, we wanted to create something with purpose and definition. Something that has a USP!

Lockdown Ideas

Like many photographers at the moment, Chris and I have a bit more time on our hands. While our landscape photography activities have very much been restricted, that hasn’t stopped us being creative. This period of lockdown has given us the time to work on our idea to produce a new show. Over the last few weeks, we discussed several ideas but the one that stuck was Chris’ idea of doing a show around photography related videos on YouTube.

We decided to go with that idea as we produce and watch a lot of photography related YouTube content. We feel this makes us well placed to discuss the topic, and we also believe that no one else is doing this type of show (with landscape photography content). By talking about the videos that we watch we hope to inspire your watch later list and to also inspire your photography.

After man-hours of discussion and planning, we agreed to film a pilot. The biggest challenge for filming the pilot was the fact that we live in different ends of the country. Even without lockdown, it would be unlikely that we would be able to film anything in person. So, the main challenges to filming were mostly technical and how post-production would work with different video sources such as Skype..

With a plan for the show laid out and (hopefully) the technical issues all sorted we filmed the pilot which we are incredibly happy to share with you all.

You’ll find the video below. It will premiere on YouTube at 7:30 pm tonight (14th July 2020) and if you can join us live, we will be there in the Live Chat to discuss the show and hear your feedback. If you can’t join us live don’t worry as after the premier has finished it will remain on YouTube just like any other video.

We really hope you enjoyed the pilot show and we want to hear your feedback (good or bad). It will help us decide if we will do more shows and help us shape the content and format. We look forward to seeing your comments!

OnePlus 6 Landscape Photography: A Mobile Phone Photography Challenge with Chris Sale

Landscape Photography Challenges

I like to challenge my landscape photography skills.  This could be by doing something new, trying a different bit of kit, or even trying an old bit of kit (see my video Shoot, Print, Surprise).  So when my friend and fellow photographer Chris Sale contacted me and suggested a new challenge for us both I immediately asked him to tell me more!

Our previous photography challenge had been a great success.  Last time Chris challenged me to ditch my wide angle lens and head out with my 70-200 mm.  You can see how I got on here.  For this challenge though, Chris asked me to leave my DSLR at home and head out with a mobile phone!  This perhaps sounded like a step too far, but I was up for the challenge.  Obviously, I sent the challenge back and told Chris he had to do the same.

OnePlus 6

The challenge came at an interesting time as I was actually in the market for a new phone.  My heavily used and loved Google Nexus 6p was on its last legs and it couldn't seem to survive much longer than a couple of hours without needing a charge.

I'm not going to bore you with all the reasons why I bought the OnePlus 6, but it was the phone that suited my needs to best.  Funnily enough though, camera specs weren't top of my list of things I was looking for in a new phone.  I have my Sony RX100M4 as my portable camera so I only ever expected to use the OnePlus 6 to capture the odd photo here and there.

So without knowing too much about the camera capabilities of the OnePlus 6, I head out to Dartmoor National Park to start my challenge.  You can see how I got on in the video below:

As I mentioned earlier in the blog, Chris also undertook the same challenge.  To see how he got on, check out his video:

Mobile Phone Photography

So can you capture good landscape images with a mobile phone?  Sure you can!  You can capture landscape images with just about any camera.  I'm not saying the camera is irrelevant, but without good light and composition it doesn’t matter what camera you have with you, you might still end up with a dull photo.

So would will I be giving up my Nikon D850 anytime soon?  Of course not.  While it is perfectly possible to capture good landscape images with a mobile phone, the controls, versatility and image quality of a larger camera will (likely) always be better.  As you'll have seen in the video, the dynamic range of the OnePlus 6, is not match for my Nikon D850.  But given the price difference, that is hardly surprising is it!

So do you ever take landscape images with your mobile phone?  What mobile phone do you have?  Did you buy it for its capabilities as a camera?  Let me know in the comments below.

The Photograph

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Mr Bowerman please meet OnePlus 6 - Bowerman's Nose, Dartmoor, Devon:  OnePlus 6, ISO 100, 1/125th sec, f/1.7, DNG processed in Lightroom CC Classic.

PS - The product links used in this article are Amazon affiliate links. By buying through the links I may receive a commission for the sale. This has no effect on the price for you.

Long Lens Landscape Photography

The Wide View

If I take a look at my Lightroom catalogue the most commonly used lens I have is without a doubt the Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4 VR.  This is hardly surprising given that it was the first full frame lens I bought and that I love shooting my landscapes wide.

About 18 months ago I bought a used Nikkor 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR.  I purchased it after renting one a few times to help with my live music photography when I was shooting at bigger events.  I soon discovered though that I could use it for my landscape work as well.

Since then, I have shot landscape images with the 70-200 mm but I probably don't use it as much as I should have.  So when fellow landscape photographer and YouTuber Chris Sale set me the challenge of shooting 3 images with my 70-200 mm I really had to get my creative brain into gear.

As we are both YouTubers I also set Chris the challenge of creating some wide angle landscape images.  You can see how we both got on in the video below:

Well, I hoped you enjoyed watching that video.  For me, it was a really good experience.  It actually got me to think a little differently!  It's opened my eyes a little more to creating landscape images with a longer lens, and I'm sure the 70-200 mm will be making a more regular appearance in my camera back.

Do you have a favourite lens?  Do you prefer to shoot wide or tight?  Or do you mix it up depending on the scene?  Let me know in the comments below.

The Long Lens Images

In case you want to have a closer look at the images featured in the video here they are:

Nikon D850, Nikkor 70-200 mm f/2.8 at 112 mm, 0.6 seconds at ISO 64, f/11.

Nikon D850, Nikkor 70-200 mm f/2.8 at 100 mm, 0.6 seconds at ISO 64, f/11.  This didn't actually make it to the video, but I do really like it!

Nikon D850, Nikkor 70-200 mm f/2.8 at 70 mm, 1/6th second at ISO 64, f/11.

Nikon D850, Nikkor 70-200 mm f/2.8 at 135 mm, 75 seconds at ISO 64, f/2.8, Lee Filters Big Stopper and 3 stop ND.