Mujahid ur Rehman - Landscape Photography for Beginners: Essentials of Success

If we were broadly to categorise modern digital cameras, they come in two flavours:

1. Point and Shoot (also known as compact digital cameras)
2. DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex)

As a beginner, I started with a point and shoot camera, which served its own purpose of simplicity and ease of capturing a memory. I soon realised that I wanted to take my hobby to the next level, and I purchased a DSLR camera for more serious results. DSLR cameras, although more expensive than point and shoot cameras, have become more affordable in recent times, as the disparity in price has narrowed. Here are some of the advantages of DSLR cameras:

Better Image Quality : They have much bigger image sensors compared to point and shoot cameras. This enables them to record light in a far better way, especially in low light conditions. Other advantages are the sensors dynamic range that make DSLRs fun to work with, and the results are better images with less noise.

Shoot What You See : When you look through the viewfinder of a DSLR, what you see is what you are going to shoot. The light entering through the lens falls on a prism that lies in the body of the camera, and gets reflected up towards the viewfinder; it is unadulterated light. In point and shoot cameras, the image seen at the back of the camera or the viewfinder is digitized; it is not real light.

Have More Control: DSLRs, as opposed to point and shoot cameras, are designed to give much more control to photographers. You can choose to select and adjust various settings on your camera including, but not limited to, aperture, shutter, ISO, white balance, bracketing, exposure compensation and focal points. Instead of the camera making decisions, you make the decisions as per the requirements of scene in front of you. Technically difficult images to capture with point and shoots become possible with a DSLR, with just some knowledge.

Ability to Change Lenses: You can change the lens of a DSLR as per the occasion, and a wide variety of lens options is available. Wide-angle lenses are built for landscape photography, telephoto lenses are for wild-life and sports, portrait lenses for people, macro lenses for magnifying small objects, and the list goes on.

There are two main types of DSLR cameras, and the distinction is made on the sensor size.

1. Full-frame
2. Cropped

A full-frame DSLR has a sensor thats the same size as a frame of traditional film, measuring 36x24mm. Cameras with cropped sensors are anything smaller than the traditional film cameras. For example, Nikons cropped sensor models (DX), are 1.5 times smaller than their full-frame sensor versions (FX).

For landscape photography, full-frame cameras are ideal because the size helps capturing more field of view as shown in the illustration below.

Illustration 1 Full-Frame vs. Cropped Sensor

Advantages of a full-frame camera: For landscape photography, if you are shooting with natural light and low light conditions, full-frame cameras are the way to go. Full-frame cameras perform better than cropped cameras in terms of image quality, noise reduction and dynamic range. Think of a full-frame camera as a big jar. You can not only fill it with more candies as opposed to a smaller jar, but you can also fill it with more colourful candies.

Disadvantages of a full-frame camera: The downside of these cameras is that they come at a premium price. The lenses that you purchase must also support full-frame sensors. If a lens is specially manufactured for a cropped sensor camera, mounting it on a full-frame camera body will not give you a wider view as shown in Illustration 1 above. DSLRs cameras are also heavy, but that is perhaps less of a problem in landscape work than in other fields, because one so often uses a tripod.

Image 1 Full-frame vs Cropped Sensor

A full-frame camera enabled me to take this shot. With a cropped sensor camera, I would have only taken the scene as marked by the 1.5 times smaller frame. With a cropped sensor camera, you could move a few steps back to get more into your photo, but this is not always possible.

Full-frame camera motivators:

- I am serious about my interest in this field and I have the budget to buy a full-frame body and a lens.