Tips and tricks to help you master your telephoto lens for landscape photography

 

 

If you shoot a lot of landscape images, it can be easy to be drawn in by the idea that certain lenses are landscape lenses and other lenses, particularly telephoto lenses, should only be used for other types of photography. However, there are many occasions when a telephoto lens is the ideal choice for a landscape image. After getting back from a workshop he held in the Lake District in the United Kingdom, photographer and educator Nigel Danson was going through his images and he realized many of his images were shot with his telephoto lens. This made him think about the value of a telephoto lens and inspired him to make the video below.

Danson shot primarily with his new Nikon Z7 camera and an adapted Nikon 70-200mm lens. What are some steps you can take to ensure that you get the most from your telephoto lens when shooting landscape photography? Danson’s first tip is to simplify the scene. When shooting with a wide lens, sometimes you end up capturing just too much of a scene and it all feels cluttered or unfocused. By zooming in with a longer lens, you can more easily pick out powerful subjects within the frame. Sometimes the best photo is one which was hidden in your original composition.

Another advantage of a telephoto lens is that it allows you to compress a perspective. More accurately, a longer focal length allows you to give the impression of a compressed perspective. You can turn what would have been a mid ground in a wide-angle shot into the foreground of a telephoto shot, which can allow you to create a better sense of depth in certain situations. To see more tips for using telephoto lenses for landscape photography, watch Danson’s full video below. For more of his videos, visit his YouTube channel.

(Via Nigel Danson)