How to take pictures of distant mountain ranges

[JonZenor]

This weekend I'm going to be driving to an area that I hear is great for taking pictures. It is a valley that is surrounded on all sides by mountain ranges, which will be pretty far off in the distance.

What advice can you give for how to take some nice pictures of the landscape? (what lens to use, time of day to be there by, etc)

My equipment

• Canon Rebel T1i
• -
• Canon 18-55mm IS f/4-5.6
• Canon 55-250mm IS f/4-5.6
• Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6

[fletch]

Pictures of distant mountains can be very dissapointing compared to how spectacular the view is in person. As with everything the classic landscape rules apply:

1. Its all about the light. Try to take you shots in the golden hour with the sun at your back for lovely deep blue skys and mountains bathed in golden light. I would forget trying to photograph distant mountains at mid day.

2. Rule of thirds. Don't stick the thin line of mountains in the middle of the frame unless you have a specific compositional reason for doing it.

3. Foreground interest. Distant mountains will be dull in all but perfect scenarios. Try getting something close to the camera to provide interest to the shot.

4. Don't forget it is all about the light.

Use the lens the gets you the composition you need based on the rules and the scenario, anything from 18 to 300 may be the right lens. Maybe also try some stiched panoramic shots. If all the shot is distant it is very easy to do and can be done handheld with no need for expensive tripod gubbins.

Some of the photos of this flickr member may give you some inspiration.
American Dreams on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[JonZenor]

Thanks for the tips, I will make sure to use them all. I never thought of doing a foreground interest picture. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

[wendy.fox]

This would be a great time to play with graduated neutral density filters, I have them on my wish list, but the ones I want are kinda pricey so, I've been doing some exposure blending and other things.
Here's a couple of tutorials here to give you an idea. The first one involves a 2 shot method and the second is just using a single exposure. Or sometimes I will save the raw file as a Tiff, then do a couple of exposure adjustments, save those as Tiffs and then blend them together. I'm sure there are lots of other ways and tutorials out there, also.
Digital Graduated Neutral Density Filter
PSHERO | Photoshop Tutorials | Basic Graduated Neutral Density Filter

[JonZenor]

Thanks for the tip. I might stop by a photography store tomorrow and check out some filters and stuff that might help. Thanks for all of the wonderful tips everyone, I'm going to print these out and bring them with me on Saturday when I go.

Anything else I should know?

[RichardTaylor]

Consider purchasing a polariser. Can come in real handy especially if you have blue skies etc.

[JonZenor]

I do have a circular polarised filter. (2 actually, just not for my 300mm lens).