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Steve
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Hi Everyone,

firstly hello to all, this is my first post on here, hopefully the first of many.

I am at the outset ot taking photography up as a hobby and would really like to get my teeth into some landscape photography. To this end I would really appreciate you sharing your expertise on the following:

Which lens would be most suited to the task for my D80? I currently only have a stock 18-135mm. I also have a decent manfrotto tripod, anything else you recommend I should get?

also

Can anyone give me some advice on getting started? recommend courses? books? an approach?

I look forward to receiving some good advice :)

cheers
Steve.
 
Hi, and welcome to the forums Steve :) Well, you've taken the first step by posting on here, so hopefully you should get some helpful pointers along the way. Have a look around all the different sections of the forum for some inspiration too. There are some fab landscape togs on here who will hopefully help you out too.

Generally a wide angle lens is quite helpful when shooting landscapes as it helps you get more in the shot, but the lens you have should be ok as it covers a good range. A tripod isn't always necessary unless you are working in low light conditions or wanting to do long exposures (I find them cumbersome). Filters are generally useful (ie Neutral Density, polarising). It may be worth visiting your local library and having a look at landscape photography books, or just Google the subject.
Hope this helps a little

Cheryl :)
 
A good book is "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson.
 
Welcome to the forum.

If I were to look back one year in the things I have learned from when I started out dabbling in landscape, they would be:
1) The light is always best first thing or last thing, any other time I now only spend to practice composition.
2) Shooting at this time of day, you will always need a tripod.
3) A Graduated Neutral Density Filter (I just use reasonably priced cokin ones) has proved invaluable.

Your lens is fine, you will just have longer exposures at low light which should not be a problem if you are using the tripod.

The rest is really understanding what kind of compositions you like. Plenty of books and most magazines will feature what works most times.

Here's a link I came across only yesterday
http://northscape.photium.com/page1307.html

There's no substitute for getting out and practicing and putting up your pics for review, learning from the critique you are given.
Good luck
 
Welcome aboard and everything else seams to be covered as above
 
A hot shoe spirit level (around £5)
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_1&products_id=99125

I'm pleased you have yourself a good tripod, it's not only necessary for serious landscape photography, but importantly, slows you down, so rather than snapping away, it forces you to consider a scene.


Agree entirely about ND grads, get yourself a set of three-cokins are cheap and cheerful, but do the job.

Check out other togs work, I get a lot of insight/inspiration this way, and don't be afraid to ask questions, most togs here are usually more than willing to help.

Don't become blinkered, i.e. try different approaches, be flexible, after all you are just burning pixels, not wasting rolls of film.

And please don't get sidetracked by faddish trends in photography, to be a good landscape photographer you need to be able to understand/interpret light, all the bells and buzzers of photoshop and similar will never be a substitute for this skill/knowledge
 
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