Landscape exposure - metering and ND grad filters

[ryanlikealion]

Hello all. I'd just like to discuss a couple of problems i'm having with landscape photography. I've not been doing it very long so i'm sure these problems are straight forward for some of you!

• When i am shooting in manual and i meter for the bright sky, ther metering bar is saying +2 and when i point my camera at the ground which is dark, it is saying -2. Shouldn't this be the other way around i.e if i was shooting just the sky i'd need to under expose whereas if i was shooting just the ground i'd need to over expose. I hope this makes sense!!
• Im trying to introduce the use of filters into my landscape photography - any general tips on using ND grd filters gratefully received.

[Doug Sundseth]

Note that the meter isn't telling you what to do, it's telling you what it sees. At the current manual setting, the meter thinks that the ground is two stops underexposed and the sky is two stops overexposed relative to its attempt to set everything to medium gray. This is exactly what I would expect.

[ryanlikealion]

Thanks Doug - this was confusing me this afternoon.

So in this situation - if I had total trust in the Metering system I would up the exposure 2 stops so that the ground was right and then use a 4 stop nd grad for the sky?

Or am I still missing it?

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by ryanlikealion

Thanks Doug - this was confusing me this afternoon.

So in this situation - if I had total trust in the Metering system I would up the exposure 2 stops so that the ground was right and then use a 4 stop nd grad for the sky?

Or am I still missing it?

Nope, you've got it now. You meter for your subject (likely the ground, or your model if you have one), and use the filter to compensate.

The opposite applies to using flash: you meter for the sky and use flash to illuminate your model/subject to the same levels.

[Doug Sundseth]

That would be a decent place to start, but to a large extent, you need to worry about the dynamic range of both ground and sky. If there's not much contrast in the ground, you might not need to go to a +2 exposure compensation. If there's quite a bit of contrast in the ground, +2 might not be enough.

FWIW, I'd probably want to start at +2 with a 3-stop ND grad and count on being able to get the sky fixed in post, since there's a bit more room at the over-exposed end of the scale in RAW.

[ryanlikealion]

Do any of you have any of your landscape work up on line or can you recommend any good landscape photographers?

[RichardTaylor]

If you are into seascapes, only, you may find this group interesting.

Flickr: Northern Beaches NSW - Seascapers Group


For a bit of everything, including 'scapes, have a look at this guys photostream.

Flickr: Billy Currie's Photostream


Or this one for 'scapes.

Flickr: Gary Randall's Photostream

[dakwegmo]

This is my favorite landscape photographer: Joseph Rossbach Photography, Photo Workshop & Tours, Instructional eBooks, Fine Art Prints and Posters (besides myself of course).

[Krusty79]

I use a Lee .6 (2 stop) graduated ND filter on most of my shots. You can click my links in my sig.

My goal is to get as good as these guys - Photo Cascadia

[Doug Sundseth]

Lots of regular posters have links to their online images in their signature lines at the bottom of their posts.