What are the best accessories for landscape photography?
Getting Started In Landscape Photography
There’s no one thing that will be perfect for everybody but here are some of my favourite accessories for landscape photography. There are a lot of snake oil products in photography but some will genuinely help you.
I’ve linked all of the products, using the links won’t cost you more but it will help support the blog. The links are for products I have used/use, you need to make sure they’re compatible with your equipment before ordering.
Bubble level
If you struggle to keep your horizon level these are a quick and easy method to fix it. They are a spirit level that fit’s onto the hot shoe of your camera.
Pros : Relatively cheap
Cons : Easy to lose as they’re small
Graduated ND Filters
These are used to balance out the difference between light and dark e.g. A bright sky against the darker foreground. As one half is dark and the other is clear
If you’re taking photos and they come out as a silhouette this is one solution to capture photos like your eyes are seeing
Pros : Get photos like your eyes are seeing
Cons : Expensive and easy to break/scratch
Often used for seascapes as you can smooth out the waves to create soft patterns. They are similar to the ND Grads but they are 1 solid colour rather than split in the middle
Pros : Capture movement in waves/clouds
Cons : Expensive and easily broken
I had an experiment with them in this video
Circular polarising filters
Used to remove glare from surfaces of water/rocks and it also makes blues more blue which can make landscape pop out more.
Removing glare isn’t something you can do in photoshop so this is the only answer to that problem.
They are only effective when you are at a 90 degree angle to the sun so that’s something to bear in mind, they do also sometimes create an uneven looking sky because of this. It may look dark on one side and bright on the other which isn’t realistic so they aren’t always the right answer
Pros : Removes glare, adds saturation
Cons : Can give uneven results on the sky
I had an experiment with them in this video
Tripod
I think this is one of the most important parts of landscape photography. It opens up a lot more options and gives you more time to think about the photograph.
You can fine-tune the composition and use a lower ISO which will give you a better quality image at the end
Pros : Gives you more options so you get a higher quality image
Cons : Expensive and you have to carry it
Shutter Release
If you’re using a tripod and you’re doing a long exposure you want some way of taking the photo without shaking the camera. Using a trigger release is one way of fixing the problem. You can also put a 2 second timer on the camera, which does a similar job and it’s free
Pros : Better for long exposures
Cons : You can do a similar thing for free with a timer
Air Blower
Conditions aren’t always ideal and there will be sand, dust and dirt everywhere in some locations. Wiping the lens whilst it’s got sand on will just be like rubbing the front element of your lens with sand paper. If you use the air blower first you can get rid of the big chunks first
Pros : Prevents damage
Cons : I pretty much always forgot to bring one
Spare Batteries
In my experience, camera batteries don’t like the cold and the battery life goes down a lot faster. Have one or 2 spares and keep them in your pocket so they stay warmer, they seem to last longer this way – I don’t know why but it works for me
Pros : Don’t run out of power
Cons : Extra thing to carry
What are your favourite camera accessories?
Comment below with any questions you have and I will try and answer them either in this blog or in a YouTube video
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