Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques (Paperback)

Landscape photography inspires millions of photographers. If you're one of them, you'll find new insight into landscape photography in this book by professional photographer Harold Davis, as well as tips, tricks, and technical advice to help you improve the quality of your photos. You'll learn to use lighting and composition creatively, choose and use appropriate equipment, look at your subject matter in a new way, and even when to break the rules in order to capture the best image of all. Illustrated with the author's own spectacular landscape photos.

• Landscape photography intrigues and inspires photographers, but there is more to getting great landscape photos than many photographers expect
• Professional photographer Harold Davis teaches tricks and techniques that will enhance your skills
• Explains how to approach the subject creatively, choose and use appropriate equipment, and refine photographic technique to create spectacular landscape shots
• Looks at how lighting, texture, and composition affect landscape imagery
• Lavishly illustrated with the author's own photos

Landscapes have long been a popular photographic subject; this book helps you advance your skills as a landscape photographer.

An Amazon.com Exclusive Introduction from Author Harold Davis

Dear Amazon Reader,

I’m passionate about landscape photography. I love getting out, traveling, finding new vistas, and photographing them. But, there’s a surprising paradox with landscape photography. On the one hand, this kind of photography might seem easy: It isn’t hard to find spectacular landscapes, no specialized gear is needed, and on its face, landscape photography doesn’t seem technically difficult.

On the other hand, as Ansel Adams put it, “Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer, and often the supreme disappointment.” Great landscape photography is, in fact, far harder than it looks.

Part of the trick is being in the right place at the right time. But even if the scene you are witnessing is sublime, there’s no guarantee that you’ll bring back compelling digital landscape imagery without the right creative ideas, techniques, and tips—which is where Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques comes in.

I’ve always loved landscape photography, and in the course of my career I have had the opportunity to photograph a wide variety of landscapes from many perspectives. I’ve pursued my love of the landscape by hiking solo across the Brooks Range—the northernmost Mountain range in Alaska—crossing ranging torrents with my camera perched precariously on my back and the rest of my gear on handmade rafts. I’ve gone hungry in my pursuit of the wilderness landscape. I’ve dangled from small planes and helicopters, lashed in with a harness, to photograph urban and wild landscapes from above. And I’ve sought the dark spaces of the night, to photograph landscapes and show them in ways they haven’t been seen before.

Digital has changed almost everything about the tools of the landscape photography trade, and how captures are processing in the digital darkroom.

My goal in Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques is to be your companion and guide in landscape photography. I work with you to find the right locations for your kind of landscape photography, and help you figure out the right time to be there. I share my best creative ideas about landscape photography with you, and explain the equipment, tools, and techniques you need to master. Finally, I show you how I process my landscape work in the digital darkroom.

Each of the photos in this book can be used as idea generation for your own work—how you might approach a specific kind of landscape to make spectacular photos of your own. I’ve included the story behind each photo in the book, as well as full technical data about the captures. Like other books in my Creative series, Creative Landscapes is intended to be useful as an idea book.

Creative Landscapes is divided into four parts. As you’ll see, there’s a great deal of material that covers a lot of ground:

Part I: The Tao of Landscape—Tao is a philosophy with ancient roots that refers to the primordial essence of things, the natural order of existence, and the fundamental aspects of the universe. My approach to landscape photography involves embracing the Tao of the world, and this section begins a conversation about integrating one’s work holistically with the world around us and the demands of modern life.

Part II: Tools & Techniques—Explains in detail the camera settings you need to know to make the most of your landscape photography opportunities.

Part III: One World, Many Landscapes—Photographing a mountain landscape is different from photographing a desert—and both are different from capturing a seascape, or the city as landscape. This section explores different considerations to keep in mind depending upon the kind of landscape you are photographing.

Part IV: Landscapes and Post-Processing—With digital photography, taking the photo is only the beginning of creative image making. In this section, you’ll learn to use RAW processing, Photoshop, and HDR techniques to improve the creative impact of your landscape photos.

I hope you enjoy Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques. I hope it encourages you to try new techniques. Be adventurous, and seek out awe-inspiring vistas. Explore the world around you, as you capture your own creative landscapes.

Best wishes in photography!

Harold Davis

Landscape Photos from the Author

Bridge and Stars at Night (Click to see larger image and the story behind the photo)

Yosemite Morning (Click to see larger image and the story behind the photo)

Yosemite in Snow (Click to see larger image and the story behind the photo)

以專業建議捕捉周圍世界的美麗

風景攝影激發了數百萬攝影師的靈感。如果你是其中之一，你將在這本由專業攝影師哈羅德·戴維斯（Harold Davis）撰寫的書中找到關於風景攝影的新見解，以及有助於提升照片質量的技巧、訣竅和技術建議。你將學會如何創造性地使用照明和構圖，選擇和使用適當的設備，以新的方式觀察你的主題，甚至在捕捉最佳影像時違反規則。書中還附有作者自己壯觀的風景照片。

風景攝影引發攝影師的興趣和靈感，但要獲得出色的風景照片，需要比許多攝影師預期的更多。專業攝影師哈羅德·戴維斯教授的技巧和技巧將提升你的技能。他解釋了如何以創造性的方式處理主題，選擇和使用適當的設備，並完善攝影技巧以創造壯觀的風景照片。書中還探討了照明、紋理和構圖如何影響風景影像。書中豐富地以作者自己的照片作為插圖。

長久以來，風景一直是受歡迎的攝影主題；這本書將幫助你提升作為風景攝影師的技能。

作者哈羅德·戴維斯在亞馬遜獨家介紹中寫道：

親愛的亞馬遜讀者，

我對風景攝影充滿熱情。我喜歡外出旅行，尋找新的風景，並將它們拍攝下來。但是，風景攝影有一個令人驚訝的矛盾之處。一方面，這種攝影可能看起來很容易：找到壯觀的風景並不難，不需要專業的設備，表面上看，風景攝影似乎並不技術困難。

另一方面，正如安塞爾·亞當斯所說，“風景攝影是攝影師的最高考驗，也常常是最大的失望。”事實上，出色的風景攝影比看起來要困難得多。

其中一個訣竅是在適當的時間和地點。但即使你所見的場景令人讚嘆，也不能保證你能帶回引人注目的數碼風景影像，除非你擁有正確的創意思路、技巧和訣竅，而這正是《創意風景攝影：數碼攝影技巧與技術》的用途所在。

我一直熱愛風景攝影，在我的職業生涯中，我有機會從多個角度拍攝各種風景。我通過徒步穿越阿拉斯加最北部的布魯克斯山脈，攜帶相機背負在背上，其餘的裝備放在手工製作的筏上，穿越蜿蜒的急流。我在追求荒野風景時曾經挨餓。我曾經懸掛在小型飛機和直升機上，用安全帶綁住，從上方拍攝城市和野外風景。我尋找黑暗的夜晚空間，以前所未見的方式拍攝風景。

數碼攝影幾乎改變了風景攝影工具和數碼暗房中的處理方式。

我在《創意風景攝影：數碼攝影技巧與技術》中的目標是成為你在風景攝影中的伴侶和指南。我與你合作，找到適合你風景攝影的地點，並幫助你找到合適的時間。我與你分享我對風景攝影的最佳創意思路，並解釋你需要掌握的設備、工具和技術。最後，我將向你展示我如何在數碼暗房中處理我的風景作品。

這本書中的每張照片都可以用作你自己作品的靈感來源，以及你可能如何處理特定類型的風景照片的思路。