Going outdoors after 15 years in the studio.

My landscape experience was around 15 years ago shooting medium format film cameras. My digital experience has been 99% studio portraits. I just bought a Sony a7r mirror-less and have the outdoor bug again. My questions are more toward the transition from film to digital so here goes...

Why would a landscape photographer NOT use the "vivid" setting. In fact, why not use vivid for almost all types of photos?

Is there still a need for certain filters like a polarizer to enhance certain colors and reduce glare and unwanted reflections? What about yellow or red filters for B&W photos?

Why shoot in B&W when you can convert from color in Photoshop?

I'm sure I'll have more questions later.

Shoot raw, that way all settings such as vivid do not apply and you create your own problems. 

As for polarizers, that and ND filters are the only two filters that are still very important to use. 

As for your B&W question, always shoot colour and process in black and white, that way you have much more control over the look of the final image. 


Cheers

Takennnn wrote: Shoot raw, that way all settings such as vivid do not apply and you create your own problems. 

As for polarizers, that and ND filters are the only two filters that are still very important to use. 

As for your B&W question, always shoot colour and process in black and white, that way you have much more control over the look of the final image. 


Cheers

Yup....

effron wrote:

Takennnn wrote: Shoot raw, that way all settings such as vivid do not apply and you create your own problems. 

As for polarizers, that and ND filters are the only two filters that are still very important to use. 

As for your B&W question, always shoot colour and process in black and white, that way you have much more control over the look of the final image. 


Cheers

Yup....

For the most part. Where I differ with many is in the just shoot RAW end of it. I shoot in RAW+ Jpeg Fine. The reason being that if my Jpeg comes out really close to what I want then I am good. Also say I want to save a copy of the image in a larger file format then with my editing software I can apply the Jpegs settings to the RAW file, and then do my minor tweaks to the image, and then convert to the larger file. I also love playing with the cameras settings to see what I can get from it. I like to try and get the image as close to right in the camera.
Now as why not shoot in vivid all the time, I do many times, but I have my custom vivid settings as well as the cameras standard, and the same in the normal as well. There are times when I do not want overly saturated images, so I tweak the settings for effect. You can do a whole lot in the camera really once you learn how the settings affect the images. I look at it as picking certain films, for a subject. Also it makes me feel more in control as well.
Welcome to the digital world. Once you get it down, you will not miss film.
Also the yellow filter is also good for flat light days when it is heavily overcast, as it still does have the effect of enhancing detail. If you want a true White Balance though, you need to do a measurement to cancel it out color wise.

I'll add that it's all preference too.  Shoot and process to your liking vs what others like or dislike.  

Joan Barnes wrote: I'll add that it's all preference too.  Shoot and process to your liking vs what others like or dislike.  

+ 1

"Vivid" depends on the camera brand.  With my Olympus M4/3 it really overcooks the saturation.  In any event, this setting becomes moot with RAW.

I do carry a polarizing filter around, but have not found a scene yet where it makes much difference.  Now 95% of my photography is in a big city.  Grungy air may nullify the polarizing effect.

Setting the camera to B&W lets you see the LCD review in B&W.  But the RAW image will still have full color.  (Somebody will now be along to 'splain that there is no such thing as a RAW image   )

Kelly

KCook wrote:

Joan Barnes wrote: I'll add that it's all preference too.  Shoot and process to your liking vs what others like or dislike.  

+ 1

"Vivid" depends on the camera brand.  With my Olympus M4/3 it really overcooks the saturation.  In any event, this setting becomes moot with RAW.

I do carry a polarizing filter around, but have not found a scene yet where it makes much difference.  Now 95% of my photography is in a big city.  Grungy air may nullify the polarizing effect.

Setting the camera to B&W lets you see the LCD review in B&W.  But the RAW image will still have full color.  (Somebody will now be along to 'splain that there is no such thing as a RAW image   )

Kelly

Yeah you live in the valley. I could always taste the air when I was dropping into Black Canyon City. So yeah the polarizer will not clean the air.
I have shot RAW images before at a nudist colony.

Joves wrote: I have shot RAW images before at a nudist colony.

Ba-da-bump... psssshhhhh!

What they said.

There are two things you can't really fake exactly in photoshop: A polarizer and using an ND filter to slow down the shutter. A polarizing filter (CPL) can help you get deeper sky color and reduce glare / reflections. So, yes. And you already know what an ND will do.

Learn to shoot RAW and process your images. Don't let the camera make the decisions for you.