Full Frame Is a MUST for Landscapes?

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My name is Matti Sulanto, I'm a photographer based in Helsinki Finland.

[jamesmlodynia]

Many people today never lived with a B&W TV or have spent time with news papers that were primarily printed in B&W and i remember viewing family photos on my parents slide projector, good video Matti.

[gruntaxeman]

In my opinion in best lanscape photography most of the work is done in preplanning and postprocess step. It is not the camera, it is by finding location, investgating what time and date sun (or moon!) is right position, what kind of clouds, what is the speed of moving clouds, optimizing bracketing, planning FOV, shooting it to panorama if need to avoid perspective, or opposite by shooting wide angle to make intentional perspective distortion. Kind of planning composition lighting before moving in location in correct time. Also need configuring everything ready before shoot while time window for perfect shot may be very short. Like having 30-60 second window to shoot once a year if weater doesn't ruin that.

Shooting that is just fraction of all preparation and processing.

[photographyvideography]

I love black and white photography ... it's a great exercise in contrast and composition. Thanks for a great video!

[wickie]

Like these photos of you.
I by myself like doing s/w - most at big contrast situations of sunlight and dark pieces. It`s often a very special own mood.

[keithspillett]

Over the last 50 years or so, I've shot landscapes on a wide variety of formats, from M43 digital up to medium format film. On the wall in my living room, I have a picture of the Jungfrau in Switzerland. The print is 1m across, and the camera was a Lumix GX80 - all 16MP of it!

[wilfredshum]

Recently I had some nice B&W pictures on portrait taken in front of statues and sculptures that were whitewashed. There are times b&w is more interesting than color.

[jamesmlodynia]

For me i typically use my Fujifilm or Pentax cameras to photograph landscapes even though I have full frame cameras, as for lens selection, no matter what kind of photography i am involved in, i let the scene or subject dictate the focal length that I use, in my collection of cameras and glass, i have zoom and prime lenses that cover 15mm to 400mm and no matter what subject or types of scenes i want to photograph i can take a wide establishing photo and that choose a lens that I can photograph the more detailed images, it is how I approach landscape, wildlife and event photography.

[juhavuorinen]

Maybe some people think that landscape photo has to be panorama and therefore one needs lot of pixels and wide angle lens to be able to print reasonable size like 100cm*60cm. My landscapes are often panoramas, . I shoot those vertically 25mm prime on m43 " L-bracket" attached to tripod head with a rotating degree scale 3 to 9 exposures about 30% to 50% overlap, i also exposure bracket because lack of dynamic range in my camera and focus bracket. This results to about 10 to 100 individual 12mpx raw images for post processing to one final image, . Yes this takes time but i have it being a pensioner, also it may not be totally necessary to do it this way, but for me it works like this :)

[entrigueall]

Detail is my primary reason to prefer full frame to crop sensor. Of course the megapixel count helps also. I started shooting landscape on a Canon T5 back in the 80’s. When mirrorless came out I used the G85 and G9. Shooting the same scene in high res mode compared to standard allows for greater clarity thus mor information to appreciate when viewing the image. Now I use a FF sensor and there is an absolute difference. Use the best tool for you. Or, the best one you can afford for the job and have a bunch of fun.

[trevorbrooks]

A very enjoyable topic Matti. I think you approach the landscape the same way you do for street photos, in this instance your street is the park. Approach the scene any way you want to with whichever camera you feel like at the time. Thanks again.

[bamsemh]

Only if you are printing humongous posters 😊 or need to work out on your back, neck and arms while walking 😊

I went from aps-c, to fullframe, to bridge (p900), to mirrorless fullframe and now to mft. Wish I started with mft 💪

The fullframe camera houses might be as light and small as the mft, but the lenses can't change the fact that they are huge and heavy 😬

Btw, I tried your method today while walking and waiting for oil change on my car 😊 mf to 3m. F11. Auto iso and shutter 😊 works quite well, in bright daylight 😁

[marcomarcon]

Yep, rule, rules, rules! I my opinion in mountainous or hilly landscapes, a telephoto is often a better option than a wide-angle, simply because you have so much in front of you to choose from and a telephoto gives you more creative framing options (but I would still take a wide-angle with me)

[johnyutzey]

Another great video, and thanks. I think what I appreciate most about your videos is that they are about photography rather than gear. I just refuse to get sucked in to discussions (arguments?) about formats, megapixels, and the like. At the end of the day, the question to me is whether I am satisfied with the images I get regardless of the gear used. So thank you for this perspective, and keep it up.

[christopherbonis]

What kind of trees are those? They’re extraordinary!

[devroombagchus]

Thanks Matti! It is so appealing to have rigid rules about what is needed to get proper results. Especially if it involves expensive gear. Success guaranteed. If your 60 M wide angle shot is cluttered by too many people in the foreground, it’s the fault of the people for being there at the wrong time.

[greeceinfocus]

I always ask myself if the colors are necessary for the picture. This is the basic question. Many color pictures don`t work in b/w but they are great for single subjects and fine art

[TristanColgate]

I've recently got a red and orange filter for my old OM mount lenses. No question, looking through a viewfinder and seeing an orange world is quite a test!

[danncorbit]

Steve O'Nions does great landscapes with pinhole and Holga cameras. Grainy, with plenty of vignette, they are nonetheless breathtaking. The bottom line is that great pictures come from the eye of the photographer. The equipment is secondary. Now, high megapixels and wide angles can be useful for some landscape images. Of course, the application of tools to do a job is a decision for the craftsman and not the tools. You had a video that made me rethink how to take portraits. You used a very wide angle lens, and the images were great. I have often experimented with telephoto lenses for portraits but I won't rule out any lens as too narrow until I have experimented with it a few times.
As for odd colors... I like Lomo purple film. Since it comes right out of the camera is that unnatural color manipulation ? What about infrared film? It can give a sort of anime look. Personally, I think we are free to try anything and do what we like. Some people do infrared conversion to digital cameras. I like those images, but like a fisheye, we can overdo it if we do it too much.

[Bakin]

What camera and lens you would select if you visited the Grand Canyon? The selection of camera and lens for taking landscape pictures in a city environment where there aren't wide venues might be very different if you were making photos of some truly large landscape locations. B&W has its place for sure.

[mindseyeproductions]

Thanks, i'm interested in the intro image; where do get them? or how do you create them? I enjoy seeing the new ones you use.
I also enjoy the perspective from someone that has come from the 35mm film environment to current iteration. so many people creating videos on photography that has never used 35mm film.