Episode 1 of the groundbreaking landscape photography tutorial, Photographing the World, Â is now available to watch for free.
The guys over at Fstoppers have been busy. They’ve teamed up with acclaimed travel photographer and educator Elia Locardi to produce an impressively ambitious video tutorial on all things landscape photography. The result, Photographing the World: Landscape Photography and Post Processing is 15 lessons in 12+ total hours of instruction, covering both technical and conceptual considerations on location, as well as Elia’s post-processing workflow.
The lesson, nearly an hour long, follows Elia as he shoots a magnificent mountain and its adjacent waterfalls in Iceland. Though the shoot itself doesn’t go quite according to plan, the team embraces the challenges of shooting in such a remote location, and is rewarded with stunning imagery for their persistence. Elia walks viewers through each step and careful-consideration that goes into capturing what he needs in-camera. Using his Nikon D810 and 14-24mm f/2.8, he explains the factors that go into his composition, as well as the reasoning behind the technical choices he makes while shooting. All of these instructions and explanations are presented in a very straightforward manner, and are easy to understand, regardless of one’s photographic experience.
After concluding the on-location portion of the lesson, the filmmakers take us inside the editing room to sit with Elia as he takes the photos he captured in Iceland from raw files to a display-ready, finalized image. Utilizing Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, and a combination of real-time screen capture and direct-to-camera instruction, he walks viewers, step-by-step, through the basic steps of his post-processing workflow.
As this is the very first episode of the tutorial, the process described is fairly simple and easy to follow, and he promises to build on this foundation and delve into much more complex techniques as the series progresses. As an added bonus, Fstoppers has included a link to download the same full resolution raw files Elia is working with, so that you can follow along, and try his methods for yourself. Again, this information is easy to follow and put into practice, whether you’re a seasoned vet or a first time user of Lightroom or Photoshop.
Also worth mentioning is the incredible videography and production value. Half of the tutorial is shot in Iceland, the other half in New Zealand, and the filmmakers use multiple camera angles, drone footage, stabilizers and sliders to showcase these breathtaking locations. The first lesson provides a taste of the cinematic artistry you can expect from the remainder of the series, and the brilliantly edited and informative trailer features even more amazing vistas, proving that this small but mighty crew truly made the most of these magnificent landscapes.
I’m sure we’ve all slogged through some dull, uninspired photography tutorials in the past, which makes the overall tone of this piece so refreshing. Elia Locardi’s personality and passion for his subject matter shine through and keep the lesson entertaining and interesting. In fact, he and the guys from Fstoppers had such a great time making the tutorial that they put together a full behind the scenes series to accompany it, giving viewers a peek into the shenanigans that go along with such an epic journey.
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Photographing the World: Landscape Photography and Post Production is now available, and you can get a copy here. Â And find out more about and from Elia here on his site.
About the author: Bing Putney, is a Boston-educated North Carolina native currently residing in California. He is a professional headshot photographer, with a background in the arts and acting.
