Meryem Ersoz
Well-known member
No one has mentioned this yet, but - I think the Motion Mount is your friend, when it comes to shooting landscape cinematography, because the 1/10th increments of ND let you perfect your histogram super fast, without fussing with filters. You can always add more ND, if you're shooting time-lapse and the four useable stops available through the Motion Mount aren't enough, as is sometimes the case.
Exposing to the right isn't the best rule for landscape because it tends to flatten your histogram. You want your histogram to look fat, not flat and/or sloping. You want your histogram to have peaks and mountains first - then adjust to taste from there, if you want to make specific adjustments for highlights, mids, or blacks. Fat histogram trumps exposing to the right. If your histogram flattens out as you exposure to the right, you want to dial back your exposure until you maximize your peaks.
Making your histogram as fat and "peaky" looking as possible is a fail-safe starting point.
I usually shoot around an F11. Definitely between an F8-F16. Any lower than an F8, and it will look too soft. F8 if I'm trying to accentuate, subtly, a foreground element. But F11 is more the norm. Higher than F16, and it just looks bad. I don't really know the science behind this, but the images just don't come out as clean, to my eye.
Exposing to the right isn't the best rule for landscape because it tends to flatten your histogram. You want your histogram to look fat, not flat and/or sloping. You want your histogram to have peaks and mountains first - then adjust to taste from there, if you want to make specific adjustments for highlights, mids, or blacks. Fat histogram trumps exposing to the right. If your histogram flattens out as you exposure to the right, you want to dial back your exposure until you maximize your peaks.
Making your histogram as fat and "peaky" looking as possible is a fail-safe starting point.
I usually shoot around an F11. Definitely between an F8-F16. Any lower than an F8, and it will look too soft. F8 if I'm trying to accentuate, subtly, a foreground element. But F11 is more the norm. Higher than F16, and it just looks bad. I don't really know the science behind this, but the images just don't come out as clean, to my eye.
