What the hell is an F-Stop ? I'm glad you asked. Its a camera setting and it controls how much light gets through the lens to the sensor. A high F-Stop setting closes an iris in the lens and reduces the amount of light hitting the sensor.

Reducing the iris size also throws everything into sharp focus from right in front of the cam to the horizon. To put your cam into this mode, either select the auto scenery mode on your cam (the setting on your dial that looks like mountain peaks) or choose Aperture priority (depicted with a captial A) on your control dial and select F7.0 or higher from the screen on the back.

Using a high F-Stop value can pose some problems in low light. If you're shooting scenery on a dull day or at dawn / dusk then it pays to use a tripod to steady the cam. Don't have a tripod ? No problem. Most folk can hand hold a cam and get a steady shot down to 1/30th of a second shutter speed. Be sure to brace your arms wherever possible when hand holding the cam at low shutter speeds. With practice you should be able to hold it steady enough (as long as you brace your arms against something) right down to a 1/4 of a second in low light. Be sure to shoot many shots of the same thing if you do this because you will definitely lose quite a few shots to camera shake and blur but you'll also get that pic !

Break the rules. Forget about having the sun behind you and all those other boring photography rules people have told you over the years. Look for interesting ways to capture a unique shot.

Look for reflective surfaces and get them in the shot. The next pic features the roof of my old station wagon at dawn.

Look for an interesting viewpoint. Think outside the square, shoot from low to the ground, near an object, from somewhere high, even from a moving vehicle. The trick is to not just stand there and shoot, place the cam in several interesing positions and shoot the same subject many times. Somewhere among your many shots will be a cracker !

Modify the rule of 1/3rds. In the next shot I've placed the cross on the 1/3rd dividing line and not the horizon. I shot this photo about 20 times using different viewpoints and composition and this one was the standout.

* Remember * ... High F-Stop value, Rule of 1/3rds and Viewpoint.


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