Landscape Photography Help?!

[bpsl888]

Hey I'm currently a student at an art school in Los Angeles and I was wondering if anyone has any idea what lenses are good for Landscape photography. 

[hsbn]

Any lens can be used for landscapes photography and it depends on your preferences. But when talking about landscapes, most people think of wide angle lens. Do you like wide-view landscapes or do you like more intimate landscapes? What kind of camera do you have? And what is your budget because there are a lot of option (Canon and third party).

In general, Canon 10-20 (for crop body), 17-40, 16-35 are pretty good wide angle lens.

[TCampbell]

The thinking is that if you need to "look around" to take in a view, then probably your camera would benefit from a wide angle lens so it can also take in the view.

The one nuance of wide angle lenses is that in addition to a wider angle of view, they also "stretch" the depth of the scene.  Distant objects will seem much more distant.   You can learn to use this to your advantage.  

[RobertTheFat]

For an APS-C (crop-frame) camera the 17-55mm f/2.8 is a good landscape lens (although you'll rarely need f/2.8 outdoors). For a full-frame camera (5D, 6D, 1DX) I recommend the 24-105mm f/4L. It's commendably sharp, and distortion and aberration are well controlled for a lens with such a long zoom range.

A couple of people have recommended a wide-angle lens. A WA is certainly nice to have, but I find that I use mine mainly for photographing buildings in the city, where I can't get very far back. Get a WA if you can afford it, but make sure you have a really good mid-range walking around lens first. If you do get a WA, and you have a FF camera, you might consider Canon's new 16-35mm f/4L. I haven't used it, but so far it looks like a winner.

[Skirball]

+1 with Robert's suggestions.  Stick to standard focal length lenses, at least for the first good lens. Once you get the basics covered, then perhaps look at a wide angle.

Wide angle is nice, but it's frequently used to 'get it all in' for landscapes and all you get is a whole lot of forground with a bunch of buildings or landscape on the horizon.  Makes for some very boring photos.  WA is great for getting up close to a subject when you want the surroundings in the picture, or for tight spaces/big buildings.  Even then, it can take some thought and processing to either minimize distortion, or make the distortion work for the photo.

[cale_kat]

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@bpsl888 wrote:

Hey I'm currently a student at an art school in Los Angeles and I was wondering if anyone has any idea what lenses are good for Landscape photography. 

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So...basically they're not teaching you much in LA.

[Skirball]

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@cale_kat wrote:

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@bpsl888 wrote:

Hey I'm currently a student at an art school in Los Angeles and I was wondering if anyone has any idea what lenses are good for Landscape photography. 

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So...basically they're not teaching you much in LA.

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Lol!

[Vetteran]

Standard lens of the best quality that you can afford.

You'll need good depth-of-field.

Take overlapping shots with the camera held vertically

and stitch them together. Not too many and about 30 degrees overlap.

Best done on a tripod and ideally a mount to allow rotation

about the nodal point. 

Try Googling "Landscape Photography."

[ebiggs1]

"I recommend the 24-105mm f/4L."     Right on!    And it is an "L".

Best bang for the buck in the entire Canon line.  You can find them brand new for around $700 bucks.

[cale_kat]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

"I recommend the 24-105mm f/4L."     Right on!    And it is an "L".

Best bang for the buck in the entire Canon line.  You can find them brand new for around $700 bucks.

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Not a great format on crop cameras. We don't know the first thing about the OP. Pushing a L lens, like it's the only choice duh, is comical. Thanks for the amusement.