The Art, Science, and Craft of Great Landscape Photography

I consider myself to be a serious amateur photographer who reads a lot and does quite a bit of experimentation. That said, this is the best book I've ever read on landscape photography. It's a very comprehensive book written for digital photographers. It covers the technical issues of camera set up and composition, but is also covers a lot of issues that I haven't seen elsewhere in one place. These are all consistent with the way that Glenn takes photographs and so everything fits together nicely. There are sections on how light interacts with the atmosphere. (Yes, it really is relevant if you really want to consistently take good landscape photographs) He discusses the various software programs available to predict sunrise & sunset times, as well as the compass headings so that you can plan your shots way ahead of time (eg months, if necessary). There is a chapter on getting perfect exposures and on photographing high contrast scenes. Since digital photography is as much about composition and camera work as it post-processing, he discusses how the various programs like Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photomatix can be used to solve various problems. I found that all of the post-processing techniques described in the book are current with Lightroom 7 and Photomatix Pro 5.1. (I don't use Photoshop) There is an excellent section on high-contrast scenes that covers camera techniques and post-processing HDR techniques. He does a great job of describing the details and I was able to easily reprocess some difficult high-contrast landscape photos that I struggled with using his HDR post-processing techniques. I was amazed at how well this worked based on how good my photos looked afterwards. There's an entire chapter dedicated to shooting panoramas and once again, Glenn goes into great detail about camera setup and some special gear that can be used to shoot perfect panoramas. And in this section too, he discusses the various software packages available and techniques that can be used to stitch together perfect panoramas. I recently started photographing the Milky Way at night and his camera and post-processing techniques provided a lot of guidance to get the best photos. I can't say enough good things about this book. It took me several months to get through it because I'd read a chapter or two and then spend a couple of weeks applying the new techniques that I learned. One of the greatest revelations that I got from the book is that there is A LOT of planning to get excellent photos and thinking about how you'll be post-processing the images while shooting is also an important piece in the puzzle. It seems like most photographers don't really want to tell you everything you really need to know about landscape photography when you read their book. Perhaps its because they don't want to divulge their secrets. Not with this book. All of the techniques are well documented to the point that it was straightforward for me to implement. For that, I've very appreciative that Glenn wrote this book. I will be using it as a landscape photography handbook for many years to come. I also like the book because I live in Colorado and within a day's drive of most of locations of the photos in the book.

As a Taiwanese, after taking shots of Taiwan landscape focusing on HDR panorama for the past 6 years, I am looking for ways to improve my alpine photography. This book from an author with 22 years full-time landscape photographer, has shared experiences, provided knowledge, given information & insights, and evoked inspiration (wonderment!) that goes far beyond my original expectation. On HDR. My goal in capturing HDR landscape image has always been natural-looking rather than surreal. Before this book, never have I seen landscape images by use of HDR technique that looks so natural! Glenn’s use of Lightroom to tone-map 32-bit TIFF and the rest is an eye-opening approach to me. Although Glenn does not specify which HDR software he uses to create 32-bit HDR image file which according to Christian Bloch of HDRI Handbook 2.0 is critical. Nevertheless, Glenn’s approach has resulted in a high-contrast image that looks both beautiful and believable. On panorama. My works on panoramic landscape image has gone to the stage that advices on multi-row panorama is what I need. Glenn addresses multi-row panorama formally that I do not find in other landscape photography books. His full cross-page work “The Milky Way Over Huron Peak” on p.178 - 179, a 4 by 10 (4 rows, 10 frames per row. Each frame takes 10’s of second for exposure) or total 40-frame multi-row panorama at night is an once-in-a-lifetime shot that any landscape photographer can possibly encounter or accomplish. I echo with Glenn that taking a walk on the wide side (panorama), and you you’ll never again be content to see the world in just one way. By complete reading this book from cover to cover, some chapters more than once, in a month, I will no longer see the world of alpine landscape photography in the same way.

Some very good ideas that often could some time to really digest. I am enjoying this book but a second reading is probably best. If you really like to dig down into the weeds for details about the how and why, this book is for you. I am not a dig-into-the-weeds sort of guy but I still am enjoying Randall's book.

When Glenn Randall says the "art, science, & craft" of great landscape photography, he means it. This book is rich with technical details on the making of wonderful images. There are so many topics covered I'd literally never even thought of that it blew my mind. Since I'm a sucker for Colorado landscapes, I was instantly drawn in and had trouble putting it down. While it is very, very technical, he manages to make it a fairly easy read. And it's hard to deny that he knows what he's talking about once you view the photos featured in this book. I couldn't find one that wasn't stunning. I've only been learning photography for a little over a year, and this book is without a doubt my most in depth read to date(and I've read a ton). But I've truly enjoyed it and feel like the details in this book are what I need to take my photography to the next level. I can't wait for an upcoming trip to Colorado to test out some new ideas I've gotten from this book. I won't lie, I'm likely going to need to go back and re-read the whole thing again. But with all the wonderful imagery in it, that doesn't feel like much of a task. Overall, I can highly recommend this book for the serious amateur shooters or professionals. It might be a little too dense for a first book for the budding photographer, but you'll at least enjoy the photos in it.

This book is fantastic. The author packs a lot of information in this book. It's not about the basics of exposure. You need to understand all of that before reading this book. It's about understanding how to capture great landscape photographs, key techniques to process them, and the basic science behind vision and things like rainbows to give you a better understanding of how to capture them. The chapters on processing multiple exposures to achieve the equivalent of using filters (but better - think irregular shapes on the horizon) are well worth the price of the book alone. To be clear on what I mean by processing, it's blending and minor adjustments. He does talk about HDR, but only for producing natural images to more closely simulate what the eye sees vs. the dynamic range of the camera. This is not a book about plugins, replacing skies, or any trickery. If that's what you are after, you'll want to look elsewhere. I can't recommend the book highly enough.

I was look for advanced techniques and theories on taking my landscape photography to the next level. There were some interesting thoughts provoked by the book which I am attempting to experiment with, but this book tries to tackle so much at almost a surface level. Additionally, many things that could have been stated in one or two paragraphs were labored on for pages. All in all, a condensed form of this book or a more focused book on subsections would be better than the attempt to address everything.

This is a great book!! I first bought the Kindle edition and read it, but have since purchased a hard copy. If you are just getting into landscape photography this book might be more detail then you want. Also, if you are looking for camera settings and equipment for landscape photography this is not your book. But if your ready to move on to the next level, it is great. This book has detailed information on several topics related to natural light, color, the physiology and psychology of what a person sees when looking at a photograph and more. I did not understand all of it on first pass so I am reading it a second time and find I am learning things I missed. I highly recommend this book.

Overall I learned quite a bit from this book but, compared to other landscape photography books, I found it lacking in composition guidelines. The author does cover the "rule of thirds" and gives a few more hints but not much more. The strength of this book is the science of photography. He gives repeated examples of the necessity of planning your shot (e.g. ensuring the moon is in just the right spot for your arch shot) and does an excellent job coving lighting, photographing rainbows and night skies. Great info but I didn't feel it was complete.