What Lens Should I Choose For Nature and Landscape Photography?

What lens should I choose for nature and landscape photography?

Quite often when you buy your first SLR (single lens reflex) camera, it will come bundled with a lens. Some stores are flexible and will let you choose a different lens (with varying cost) to take with your camera body.

The lens is just as important as the body you choose, and will determine the quality of your images.

The aperture of the lens is important, but in terms of choosing a lens, the lower the number, represents how wide the lens can open, and how fast it can work. This is because the wider a lens can open, the more light can be let in and the faster an image can be taken. The aperture is represented by 'f.' and the lower the number, the wider it gets. So, a lens that is 50mm with an f/2.8 is pretty fast. Why would you want this? It means you can take pictures quickly even when you are handholding the camera.

There are generally three types of lenses you can choose; Standard, Telephoto and Wide Angle. Lenses can also be 'fixed' or 'zoom'.

What does this mean?

Zoom and fixed lens

Well, a zoom lens will have two numbers, say 80 - 200mm. This means that it can take images from 80mm to 200mm (from a standard view to fairly close up). A fixed focal lens or 'prime' lens will not zoom in and out, but just provide one viewpoint. These lenses are often more expensive because although they do not have the flexibility of the zoom lenses, they are of higher quality and can normally take pin sharp images. However, the zoom lenses mean that you can carry one instead of three separate lenses and offers more possibilities to the average photographer.

Standard lens

In film format, a standard or normal lens is around 40mm to 55mm, although 50mm is the closest to how the human eye works. This makes the lens very user friendly and suitable for many situations.

Telephoto lens

The telephoto lens is a widely used choice in wildlife photography. With a telephoto, you can stay a fair distance back from the object you are photographing and close in on it. If you are photographing animals, quite often you do not want to disturb them, or else they will run away. Additionally, if you are on safari, you cannot get to close to dangerous animals - if you are in a zoo, you often have to see animals from afar. Telephotos can be from 85mm up to 1200mm. The recommended lenses for wildlife is 300mm - 400mm for land animals and 600mm for birds (since they are often far away).

With a telephoto lens, especially for wildlife, it can be worth spending more on a fast lens (with a low aperture number) but this can be costly. It is worth looking for a camera with the IS or VR function - 'Image Stabilized' or 'Vibration Reducing' depending on the manufacturer. This means there is less shake when taking a picture hand held (but it is better to use a tripod if you are using a long telephoto).

Wide-angle lens

Then there are wide-angle lenses, perfect for landscape. Because they can fit a lot into the picture, you can capture much of the landscape; foreground, a feature and perhaps the sky. As they tend to have a greater depth of field, it is easier to have sharp pictures. They are also wonderful for building and architecture shots, as you can use the wide angle to give a great sense of space. They can vary from 10mm up to 35mm (but bear in mind the multiplication factor with a digital camera.)

Macro lens

If you want to take close up images, it is a good idea to buy a macro lens. Macro lenses of 90mm to105mm with an aperture of 2.8 are often a good choice. These can be great for pictures of insects or of small wildlife and plants.

Lens accessories

There are different accessories you can purchase in order to get other effects.

There are lens hoods, which attach to the rim of your lens, and provide a shade from the sun. This prevents flare; the yellow dots or beams that sometimes occur when you take a photograph with bright sun.

Filters are an inexpensive and excellent way of adding color or special effects to your images. They also protect your lens from scratches and a lot of photographers will have a clear filter ready (regardless of whether they use digital or film) to put on a lens before they dream of taking it out.

Filters can come with an adaptor, in which you can slot square shaped filters into it, or in a circular form, that you can screw on top of the lens. With digital photography, the use of filters for color and enhancement is less popular because effects can be added later with digital editing software.

With film cameras, the number and types of filters are numerous; polarising for bringing out the sky and clouds, graduated for adding color to the sky, star filters for making stars and lights shine. Companies like Cokin, Hoya and Kood make a wide selection depending on your needs.

Night Photography: Photographing The Moon In The Landscape

Image : http://www.flickr.com

Photographers have been trying to utilize the light of the moon in their landscape photography ever since the photographic process was invented. It was not until World War II, however, that technology had improved enough to make night photography possible.

Today, despite technological advances, knowing the phase of the moon during a nighttime photography shoot is important as it will affect everything from the type of equipment that you'll need to the actual composition of your photos.

When embarking on a night photography trip, there are standard types of equipment that you will need to take with you.


A 35mm camera that will allow you to manually set very long exposure times is a must


A good, sturdy tripod is mandatory


A cable release


A good carrying case or a vest with a lot of pockets for your equipment


Extra batteries for your camera


Many rolls of slow or medium film (60 or 100 ISA--NEVER use 400 ISA even if it's what happens to be in your camera. Your photos will turn out much too grainy to be useful).


Lenses with which you are already comfortable


A stopwatch rather than a wristwatch to record exposure lengths is preferable. Stopwatches are more accurate and will give you more reliable information for future moon photography shoots.


A notebook and several pens for recording exposure times and other important information


A flashlight so that you can easily record your information




Remember that if this is your first attempt at night photography by moonlight, you will largely spend your time experimenting. The resulting photographs and your records will help you plan your next venture more effectively.

The best times for landscape photography without additional light sources, or looking at it in a different manner, away from city lights, is either when the moon is full, the two days before the full moon and the two days after the full moon. Any clouds in the sky will also affect the amount of light available for your night photography, just as they would if you were shooting during the day.

You will have to experiment with your exposure times as so many elements will affect the outcome. The degree of available moonlight; any other light sources; clouds; rain; light reflective surfaces; each of them can make a huge difference to the amount of exposure time needed.

In general, during night photography, one can say that on a night of full moon, with optimum conditions, 8 seconds at f/8 using ISO 100 film will be about right. If there's a crescent moon and conditions are also optimal, you'll need as much as 10 hours on one shot! So you see, experimentation while photographing the moon is really the only way to go.

Repeat your shots with different exposure lengths so that you can get a feel for what your camera will do for you.

A very nice composition for a moonscape might include the moon with beams bouncing off of a river, stream or creek.

As the moon moves through its different phases, you can still enjoy landscape photography at night although you may have to bring some "extras" and move locations.

Different moonscape compositions to experiment with during your moonlight photography shoot include:


A waxing crescent, or a small portion of the moon, hanging in the sky over sparkling city lights.


Bring a flash or a flash unit to your moon photography shoot in order to illuminate an abandoned house, use colored gels to get different color effects and have a muted last quarter moon lurking in the background.


As the moon goes from full to new, you can play with light effects from the stars or allow car lights to streak through your composition.




When photographing the moon, be sure to record not only the length of time that you exposed your film, but also general weather conditions and what phase the moon was in. This will help you to produce better photos in the future.

Night photography becomes easier when you're able to plan properly so knowing how much natural light is likely to be available will help you pick the right time to go out and what kind of equipment to take.

Nighttime landscape photography is a creative, rewarding challenge that every keen photographer should try.