When it comes to taking breathtaking landscape photos like the one above, there are many different factors involved.
The lighting is key, the perspective from which you shoot is important, and the camera settings you use can greatly impact the final result.
The landscape photography gear you use also has much influence over the quality of your photos.
There's a lot of gear you can use for landscapes - different cameras and lenses, tripods, and remotes.
But perhaps the most important camera accessory you can use for landscapes is a good set of filters.
Landscape Photography Gear: Essential Filters
Not only are there many different types of filters that you can use in your landscape photography setup, but these filters provide many different benefits.
Some, like a polarizing filter, help cut down on glare from non-metallic surfaces, like water. Polarizers also cut down on atmospheric haze, giving you a cleaner, crisper view of distant landscape features.
Polarizers also enhance the contrast of the sky, making the blue areas more saturated and the white of the clouds more robust.
Another must-have landscape photography accessory is a graduated neutral density (ND) filter.
Graduated ND filters are dark on the top and light on the bottom. Why?
Well, think about it - the sky is always brighter than the landscape. And as a result, when you photograph a landscape, you're forced to expose for the sky, leaving the landscape too dark, or expose for the landscape, leaving the sky to bright.
Of course, you can get around this by shooting in HDR or stacking exposures in Photoshop or Lightroom.
But an easier task is to simply shoot with a graduated ND filter.
By placing a graduated ND in front of your lens, it darkens the sky and evens out the exposure.
That means a better-exposed image right there in-camera, and less time you have to spend trying to correct the exposure in post-processing.
Learn More:
Landscape Photography Essentials for Advanced Imaging
There's another filter that can do your landscape photography a lot of good - a solid neutral density filter.
These filters have varying degrees of light-stopping power, measured in stops.
A 4-stop ND filter, for example, blocks out far less light than a 10-stop ND filter and generates delicate, blurry movement, as shown above.
A 10-stop filter, on the other hand, creates otherworldly results, as shown in the clouds in the photo above.
But what these filters have in common is a consistent level of filter power throughout the filter.
That means that you can block out light during the daytime and use a long shutter speed, and get gorgeous, ethereal effects like what you see in the image above.
Whether you blur the movement of clouds or water or something in between, an ND filter opens up many opportunities for showing landscapes in a totally different light.
The Ultimate in Landscape Photography Filters
What's important to understand about lens filters is that you get what you pay for.
Snag a cheap filter from Amazon and you'll find that the filter likely produces aberrations, ghosting, flare, and has poor color fidelity or contrast.
But if you invest in high-quality filters, like the ones in the Firecrest Ultra Elia Locardi Signature Edition Travel Kit by Formatt-Hitech, then you'll be well on your way to creating jaw-dropping landscape photos.
Firecrest Ultra filters are professional-grade filters that are bonded to protect the filter coating.
That means that these things offer incredible durability, which you need when you're out shooting in the elements.
What's more, these filters are created using a lap and polish process, which results in hyper-neutral filters that have enhanced clarity and sharpness.
Better still, in the Elia Locardi Kit, you get all the filters you need:
- Firecrest Ultra 4-Stop ND
- Firecrest Ultra 10-Stop ND
- Firecrest Ultra Soft Edge Graduated ND
- Firecrest Ultraslim Polarizer
The kit also comes with a 100mm filter holder, adaptor rings and step rings to fit the filters to your lens, a soft-touch outer case, filter pouches, and a booklet from Elia Locardi.
In other words, when it comes to landscape photography equipment, you simply cannot go wrong with Formatt-Hitech's Elia Locardi Kit.
This thing is loaded for bear and will help you improve the quality of your landscape photography, hands-down!
Learn More:
- Get the Specs and Pricing on the Formatt-Hitech Elia Locardi Filter Kit
- Top Tips to Help You Take Better Landscape Photos