Landscape Photography Essential Gear
In the course of my learning about photography, I have made lots of mistakes, especially when it comes to acquiring gear.
At first, I wanted all kinds of lenses, tripods, drones, lenses, backpacks, etc. There are a few problems with it, such as pricing, weight, and way too many options for everything.
I want to share what I have learned and what I find necessary for landscape photography in this blog post.
Lenses
This one is tricky! Many places say you should have the "holy trinity" of lenses: 16-35mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm. Not that it's a bad idea, but when it comes to landscape photography carrying around all these three lenses starts to get a little heavy.
There are many options on prime lenses vs. zoom lenses for landscape photography. Some people say you should get a prime lens, which will make you explore your location. Some others will say having a zoom lens brings more versatility. Both are right, but I go with the second in this particular case.
If I go for long hikes, I want to go as light as possible, and in that case, my to-go lens is the Tamron 28-200mm, and sometimes I bring together my Sony 16-35mm. Of course, it has downsides, and we can talk about it in a different post.
The essential lenses you should have are defined by the photography style you like the most.
Tripod
It took me a long while to accept this one, but you need a tripod if you're serious about landscape photography. That's the only way to take pin-sharp photos and do long exposures, among other techniques.
My advice here is to invest right away in a good tripod. Of course, there are all kinds of tripods and price tags.
I use the Peak Design Travel Tripod. It's lightweight, compact, and most important, it's stable.
Good tripods are expensive, but it's cheaper to invest in a good one straight away.
Backpack
Backpacks are another thing you should invest in a good one straight away. It's important to get one weather sealed with reinforced padding.
I use the Peak Design Travel Backpack.
L Bracket
Using an L Bracket will save you a lot of time if you change between landscape and portrait mode to take your photos, as you don't have to touch your tripod. Just change the camera orientation, and you're good to go.
Here again, I don't recommend going cheap as the cheap ones tend not to hold the camera weight and start to tilt down.
I have been using one from SmallRig for many years.
Remote Trigger or Shutter Release
A remote trigger or shutter release will help you to get sharper photos because you don't need to touch your camera while taking your shots.
Of course, you can set a timer to the shutter, but in my experience, it's easier to have an external trigger as you can take the shot precisely at the moment you want. Let's say you are photographing waves at a slow shutter speed. If you set a timer, you never know what they will look like when the shutter goes off.
I have been using a Bluetooth one from JJC.
Filters
Filters are a topic for a blog post on themselves, but I'll try to be short here.
I didn't think filters were necessary until I gained more experience and dealt with situations where the in-camera settings wouldn't fix my problems.
Please don't go cheap on filters. Cheap filters mean cheap glass in front of your expensive lenses, creating distortion and color cast.
Circular Polarizer
A polarizer filter helps to reduce the harsh reflections you can get from surfaces like glass, water, sky, and any bright surface in general.
Neutral Density
A neutral density filter (a.k.a ND filter) works like sunglasses for your lenses. It blocks the light on the camera sensor allowing you to take longer exposure photos.
It's also possible to stack the filters. Make sure to get a filter set that allows it.
Graduated Neutral Density
GND filters are similar to ND filters. The difference is only the upper part of the glass is darkened. It's great to take photos where the sky is way brighter than the rest of the scene.
Extra Batteries
This one is probably self-explanatory. You don't want to be on location and not able to take your shots because your battery is drained. Make sure to have at least one extra battery with you.
Internet and Planning
This is an essential one. I barely ever go to a location without researching and planning my shots.
As landscape photographers, we cannot predict everything, and we must be prepared for things we cannot control. However, we can plan.
Here are the apps/websites I use:
That's it!
Now you know what is, in my opinion, the essential gear for landscape photography. So buy everything you're missing and go outside and take some stunning photos!
See you in the next post!
