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How to: Tamron Pro Tips For Dramatic Landscape Photos
Tip #1) USE THE WEATHER TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. Wait for dramatic light and weather to really bring out the drama of your mountain photos. Fog in the valleys below the mountains creates a nice contrast to the scenery, and storm clouds above the mountains can inject drama and mood into your images. Wait for colorful sunrise or sunset light to illuminate the scene and bring it all together. For this photo of the Teton Range, the photographer was lucky to have fog below the mountains and dramatic storm clouds above them. He zoomed in with a Tamron 150-500mm to create this tight portrait as the first light of sunrise bathed the peaks and clouds in golden color.
© Ian Plant
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Tip #2) REMOVE UNWANTED GLARE AND REFLECTIONS. When photographing waterfalls and cascades in autumn, choose a composition that showcases the best combination of falling water and fall color. Once you get your composition set, use a polarizer filter to remove unwanted glare and reflections from the water and wet surfaces. Creatively blur the water using a long exposure; depending on the flow of the water, this can be anywhere between 1/30 second and several seconds long. You want to introduce motion blur into the water, but still retain some texture so that you don't end up with a featureless white mass. For this photo of a small falls in the Porcupine Mountains of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, professional photographer Ian Plant used his Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 and chose a quarter-second exposure to get the perfect blend of blur and texture.
© Ian Plant
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Tip #3) LOOK FOR REFLECTION PHOTOS. You often must get low when making photos of reflections in water. Get low enough to pull the best reflections into the water. Shoot on calm days on still water to get a mirror-like reflection. If there is movement in the water (because of a current or wind stirring the water), try a long exposure of one second or more to smooth out the water, making the reflection look stronger. You might need a neutral density filter to lengthen your exposure time if the ambient light is relatively bright. For this photo of autumn color in a bald cypress swamp in the bayou of Texas, the photographer waited with his Tamron ultra-telephoto 150-500mm zoom lens for a perfectly still morning to make this reflection image.
© Ian Plant
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