Manual or Aperture for landscape photos

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Cozzie

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Craig
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Hi,

I'm off to Scotland for 2 weeks and staying by the loch, as i'm new to all this i dont know weather to use manual or aperture for taking landscape photos. What would you encourage for beginners like myself to use.
 
I'd be inclined to use manual, as it allows you to "lock" the settings, but really it's up to you.

Where in Scotland are you coming to?
 
When not under pressure it's always good to use manual when you're learning. It'll help you get to grips with exposure. It also gives more consistent results from one shot to the next.
 
Maual is good but if you aint comfrotable with it use aperture (F8 - F12 for me usually) and then adjust the exposure compensation (+ or -) reviewing the LCD and histograms till you think you have nailed it.
 
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For landscape work there really is not much difference between using Manual or Aperture Priority. You will tend to choose your aperture to optimise depth of field. Then it's simply a case of adjusting either shutter speed or exposure comp. to tweak your exposure. Same procedure and end result which ever way you choose to do it.
 
Aperture priority, f/11 - f/16 or so (much smaller and you'll run into diffraction softness). Check histogram and dial in any compensation you feel is needed. OR bracket anyway - shoot a stop faster and slower so you've got a selection of exposures to choose from when you get home. In an ideal world, you'll have your laptop back at base so you can upload all your shots to it at the end of each day and then you won't be likely to run out of memory. Of course, you could also shoot raw and rely of software to rescue any shots that are a bit out as far as exposure goes.
 
I nearly always use aperture for landscape. Sometimes when it's hard to get correct exposure I change to manual mode. Manual mode is fine when you just have yourself to please but when you're out with a load of impatient walkers you just have to be quick.
 
One thing to consider is to set the WB so it isn't on auto so the photos are comparable across a set (yes I know you can adjust it in RAW but easier to do it the same for each pic.
 
I would recommend manual because the light is not going to change that much outdoors, once you have the exposure right.

If you want, set your mode according to the way the sun and clouds is behaving. If the sun disappears and appears behind clouds regularly then go aperture. Otherwise if it is a clear sky OR completely cloudy then go manual, preset the aperture to F/8 and ride the shutter speed, only when you need to.

F/8 to F/11 is the best range for the lens, don't need anything smaller for DOF and the image quality degrades due to lens diffraction.

Only time you will need to change shutter speed is when you go from a dark area (woods) to a light area, or vice-versa.
 
One thing Id add (even though Im very much a n00b) is; are you taking a tripod? If you are you could just leave it on aperture mode and forget about the shutter speed as you wont be getting camera shake factoring in as much.
If you are not taking a tripod you will need to keep an eye on the shutter speed as well as the aperture and make sure it doesnt go too slow.
What is too slow? If your lens is not stabilsed, its roughly 1/focal length of lens, e.g 1/50 slowest speed for a 50 mm. If you do have stabilisation you could go a "stop" or 2 slower than this. Probably.
Does that make sense? Probably not! :gag:
 
Hi. I'd think investing in an ND grad filter might help with sky exposure?
 
If you can get the result you want in either mode........who cares.

There is no right way, just the best way for you.
 
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