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Useful Photography Tip

Useful Photography Tip #198: The Missing Secret to a Sharper Landscape

Chris Gampat
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02/03/2020
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat the Phoblographer Abstract Landscape4001-320s4EF24-105mm f-4L IS II USM

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The secret of a sharper landscape photo is something very few of us think about. Honestly, we can’t be blamed. I mean, how many people really shoot a landscape with a flash or artificial light? No one does, and we’re not saying you should, but we’re saying the idea comes from there. This idea is that of specular highlights. Specular highlights are little details that come out when light is shined on a subject. To get that light naturally, there needs to be, well, light! And so the golden hour and other times where there is sufficient light on a subject is when you’ll get the best balance of both details and aesthetics.

If you’re still not understanding the idea, ask yourself a simple question: is it better and easier to see when there is light or when there is no light? And more specifically, does one see more details in a subject with direct lighting or diffused lighting? The answer will always be direct lighting. So, with landscape photography, not only are you stopping your lens down, but you also need to ensure there is enough direct light hitting your subject. When the light is directly above your scene though, you lose the aesthetics. For this reason, the light should be both directly hitting your subject and also aesthetically pleasing. The best time for this is the golden hour.

The images above showcase landscapes where the scene is much sharper and more detailed because of the light hitting them. This is done naturally in-camera. That results in the post-production potential of even sharper photos.

In contrast, this image at night is sharp. But, it could have been even sharper if there was flashlight lighting put onto it. Many more details would have come out with ease.

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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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