Best Camera Settings for Landscape Photography

Table of Contents

It is vital to set your camera properly if you want to take quality landscape photos. Any adjustment you make to your camera setting should be done, taking into account what you are trying to achieve with your image. However, with the range of settings in today’s cameras, it isn’t easy to find the optimal setup. This article covers some tried and true settings that work well for landscape photography. They are handy if unsure where to begin with your own camera in the field.

But first, take a look at my recommended settings for landscape photography:

Shoot RAW
Set to 14-bit lossless compressed (if available)

Turn off Active D-Lighting (or Dynamic Range Optimizer – goes by other names)

Turn off high ISO noise reduction
Autofocus: Acceptable to use in good conditions

Autofocus using the AF-ON button (or assign a button to that task)
Select the autofocus point yourself
Use single-servo autofocus in live view for nonmoving scenes
Use continuous-servo autofocus for moving subjects (via the optical viewfinder if you have a DSLR)

Manual focus: Use if autofocus is not giving you a sharp result
Focus manually at 100% magnification in live view, with a tripod

White balance and tint: Use whatever gives you a good preview (often just Auto), or find your camera’s UniWB if, again, you are a histogram maniac
Turn off lens corrections
Turn on long exposure noise reduction, assuming that you are willing to wait twice as long for your camera to capture long exposure photos in exchange for fewer hot pixels
Picture Control: Set to its default style, or the lowest possible contrast if you are a histogram maniac (though beware of underexposing)

Enable blinkies and the histogram
Disable “rotate tall.”
Enable one-click zoom when you review a photo (if available)

Recommended exposure settings for landscape photography:

Use whatever metering mode you’re most comfortable with
Use manual or aperture-priority mode so that your camera doesn’t adjust the aperture automatically
Set your aperture to balance depth of field and diffraction – typically, at a full-frame equivalent of f/8 to f/16 (but a larger aperture for nighttime photography, when you have no other choice)

Set your shutter speed to give you a properly exposed photo
If your chosen shutter speed introduces too much motion blur, you’ll need to raise your ISO in order to use a faster shutter speed
Keep your ISO at its base value. In most cases, turn off auto ISO

Adjust exposure compensation if your meter is recommending exposures that are too bright or too dark

File type

RAW vs. JPEG

RAW offers more creative processing flexibility. Meaning, you can make more precise adjustments during post-processing. This is possible because RAW files are large and have the much-needed data for processing.

JPEG files are compressed, internally processed files – this processing cannot be undone. In fact, computers think JPEG is the final version. That itself limits your ability to decide how the image will look. In other words, when you shoot in JPEG, your camera throws away some valuable data in the interest of saving space, making it challenging to edit your image without some loss of quality.

Considering every image needs some edits, landscape, in particular, you are better off shooting in RAW.

File compression and bit depth

Photography files can be in 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, etc. To put it simply, files with a higher bit depth have more data and allows you more adjustments during post-processing.

JPEGs are 8-bit files. RAW files, on the other hand, give you a much higher bit depth with some cameras allowing you to adjust that.

When it comes to subtleties in color, you’re going to get better results, the higher the bit-rate your file is. So, purpose shooting with the highest bit-depth that your camera will allow. In post-processing, you’ll possibly work in 16-bit, before converting to 8-bit for display on the Internet.

Focusing

Manual or Autofocus?

With landscape images, I’m typically on a tripod, so I focus manually. I also use the live view quite often so that I can zoom in and really make sure it’s sharp.

When holding my camera, I use auto-focus. I usually use a multi-point focus area of 3-4 points and move that to an area somewhere within the first third of the image in order to get a particular part of the image in focus.

Pro tip! How you focus is up to you. However, if using a tripod, then consider focus manually.

Focus point selection

Many photographers don’t understand that you can move focal points around in an image when in auto-focus mode. Understanding how to move the focal points and the different amount of focal points that you can work with in your camera can help ensure that you take the sharpest images.

Single-Servo or Continuous-Servo?

For landscape photography, you’ll normally be dealing with still subjects. So, you perhaps don’t want your autofocus system to focus continually – adjusting itself moment-to-moment would be useful for something like sports photography. Instead, it usually is ideal locking onto your subject accurately the first time, then stay unmoved.

For that reason, use a single-servo focus for landscape photography by default. There is no advantage to a focusing system that might jitter unpredictably as you focus on something that’s staying still.

However, note that some cameras won’t let you take a photo in single-servo mode unless they think you’ve successfully nailed focus. The problem is that cameras are often wrong about whether or not you’ve nailed focus. Thus, unless you can disable this option (most cameras allow you to do that), you might end up shooting in continuous-servo mode.

It is worth noting that some cameras have an “auto” option that determines whether the scene is stationary or moving, and it picks between single-servo or continuous-servo accordingly. This feature tends to be pretty accurate, but considering landscapes are usually stationary, there isn’t much reason to set this rather than just single-servo.

Sunrises and Sunsets

Getting an ideal shot of a sunrise or sunset is probably one of the most complicated landscape photography tasks.

Not only do you have to consider how to capture the gorgeous colors of the moment, but you also have very challenging lighting conditions to consider. That is, the sky is very bright, and the landscape is very dark.

The first issue – getting all that great color to pop – is the simpler of the two tasks.

Mastering white balance

Your camera has several white balance settings, including auto white balance (AWB). When set to AWB, the camera basically makes its best guess about how the colors should look.

Often, this works out well. But when photographing a sunrise or sunset, AWB does a poor job of rendering the colors because its job is to remove color casts. That means that AWB actually minimizes the sunrise or sunset colors – that’s not what you want!

You can solve this by switching your camera to the daylight white balance preset, which has a very subtle warming effect. Since warmer tones usually dominate sunrises and sunsets, this will enhance those tones ever so slightly.

If your camera doesn’t have a daylight preset, you can use the cloudy or shade presets. Each has a weightier warming effect than the daylight setting and will accentuate the warm tones present in the sunrise or sunset.

White balance

White balance is how your camera adjusts the color based upon the amount of natural or artificial light.

Natural light is very cool, so you need warmer white balances to warm up the color (5500-7500K).

Artificial light is very warm, so you need cooler white balances to bring it to normal (about 3300-3800K).

If you shoot in RAW, then you can adjust your white balance in post-processing. However, if possible, adjust the white balance in-field to see how cooler or warmer color tones might accentuate the shot. I like shooting a sunset or sunrise on the “shade” mode of white balance.

Overcoming dynamic range

landscape photography of body of water overlooking mountain range

When shooting sunrise and sunset photos, the larger problem is that there is an incredible dynamic range – the range of light values in the image.

As mentioned earlier, the sky is quite bright at sunrise or sunset, but the landscape is very dark. Often the difference between these areas of brightness and shadow is too much for the camera to handle.

The result is usually an image that’s well-exposed for the sky, but with a dark landscape (as seen above), or an image that’s well-exposed for the landscape with a very overexposed sky.

There are various ways to handle this situation:

Use a reverse, neutral density filter to even out the dynamic range. These filters have very little filtering power on the bottom so that the landscape is brightened up. At the top is more filtering power to bring down the brightness of the sky. And in the middle is the strongest filtering power, because, at sunrise and sunset, the brightest area of the photo is at the horizon.

Get a meter reading off the brightest area of the foreground landscape and shoot in RAW. This results in a close enough photo to a sky and foreground that is well-exposed that you can recover any lost details when you process the image.
Take two shots of the exact same scene, one that is exposed for the sky and another that is exposed for the foreground. In post-processing, blend the exposures for a final image that is well-exposed throughout. This approach is more complicated but yields better results.

While all the above methods get you excellent results, I prefer blending exposures.

Dynamic Range Optimizer (D+ Settings)

Many new cameras are all about that buzz phrase, ‘dynamic range.’ Sony, Canon, and other brands are tirelessly working to making settings to help adjust for scenes with crazy dynamic ranges, such as sunsets and sunrises. These are only going to affect your images if you’re shooting in JPEG.

If shooting in RAW, then turn this setting off.

Long exposure noise reduction

Turn this setting off. Most of the time, the software you are going to use for post-processing has excellent noise reduction options. When you shoot with long exposure noise reduction turned on, each time you take an image, the camera will take another image of the exact same length of time purposively to try and reduce the noise.

It’s not that awfully bad when the exposures are 1 or 2 seconds in length, but when you start taking long exposures that are 30 seconds or longer, it can be a pain. Not to mention, you will be draining your battery a lot faster too.

Camera Exposure Settings

For landscape photography, it all starts with the basics; ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed. If you don’t feel comfortable using these interchangeably… I would recommend you get the hang of how each works and how they are related.

Considering, with landscape photography we are often dealing with some kind of trade-off. It is worth knowing what you’re losing or gaining before making a purchase.

Aperture

Aperture is the size of the hole in the lens that will allow the light to enter. The changes in the size of this hole are often referred to as ‘f-stops.’ The higher the f-stop (f/16, f/18, etc.), the smaller the hole and the larger the depth of field.

The smaller aperture size related to a larger number can confuse some folks. To put it simply, remember that the larger the f-stop, the larger the area of focus will be.

With a dynamic depth of field, I normally shoot at around f/11 to f/16. Nevertheless, each lens is different, and each lens has a “sweet spot” or aperture that everything looks sharper at. You’ll have to read reviews or test your lenses yourself on the same composition to see how well each aperture will work.

Even though a lot of lenses will go to an aperture of f/18 or higher, many of these lenses will lose sharpness at those higher apertures.

Sometimes, it’s ok to think about using those other apertures as well and being choosy about what we focus on. Smaller apertures such as f/4 or f/5.6 can really emphasize a specific part of the scene. The vital thing to remember is that if you are using higher apertures in low light, you’ll need to bring a tripod to avoid having to try and handhold your camera at a longer shutter speed bumping up your ISO to a noisy level.

If you cannot get all of the frame in focus with a single shot at a specific aperture, you may need to focus stack.

Shutter speed

This refers to how long the shutter stays open in order to allow light to enter the camera. More time or longer shutter speeds equal blurred motion, whereas less time at faster shutter speeds results in varying degrees of frozen action.

The key with shutter speed is to remember that you can’t handhold a camera without introducing some level of shake below 1/30th of a second with most wide-angle lenses, and much faster with zoom lenses. Longer shutter speeds typically need higher apertures and/or filters to achieve.

ISO

ISO refers to how hard the camera sensor is working on using the available light. The higher the ISO, the less light the sensor will need to make an image.

Nevertheless, shooting at a higher ISO can mean more noise or grain. This is because the sensor is certainly being pushed to use less than ideal amounts of light.

Suggested landscape photography camera settings

Every sunrise and sunset are different, so there will be a bit of trial and error when dialing in the settings that get you the best result. It will also take a lot of practice over the years to perfect your approach.

Nevertheless, by dialing in the settings below, you at least have a starting point from which to experiment each time you go out to shoot:

Exposure mode: Manual
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/11
Shutter speed: Varies
White balance: Daylight, shade, or cloudy
Drive mode: Single shot

green grass field near road during daytime

You will notice that the shutter speed varies.

You’ll need to set the shutter speed according to the lighting for each specific sunrise or sunset. As aforementioned, this will take some time, but with practice, you will learn where to start with the shutter speed so you can perfect it from there.

Pro tip!

If shooting handheld, ensure the shutter speed isn’t too slow. If it is, you could induce camera shake. Professional photographers recommend, if the shutter speed is slower than 1/30th seconds, boost the ISO or put the camera on a tripod so you can use faster shutter speed.

Indicating motion

There are moments in landscape photography when using long exposure to show motion enhances the shot’s impact.

Blurring the motion of a river or waterfall comes to mind, as does blurring clouds or stars’ movement, as seen in the image above.

The most crucial camera setting when capturing motion is shutter speed.

For that reason, the shutter speed should be the first exposure setting that you choose. Then select an aperture and ISO value to get a well-exposed shot.

Suggested landscape photography camera settings

long-exposure photo of lake with waterfall at daytime

Again, these settings are just a guide for where to begin. You’ll need to do some fine-tuning based on the specific shooting conditions.

Exposure mode: Manual
Drive mode: Single shot
Aperture: f/16
ISO: 50 or 100
Shutter speed: 1/4th seconds
White balance: Varies

There are a few caveats with these suggested settings.

First, if you have a camera remote, a single shot is the ideal drive mode. If you don’t have a remote, use your camera’s self-timer. Set a timer of about 2-3 seconds. That way, any vibrations you cause by pressing the shutter button will dissipate by the time the shutter fires.

Second, the shutter speed used will depend on the speed of the motion you wish to capture. For example, a fast-moving waterfall might only need a 1/4th seconds shutter speed to get a good blur. But a slow-moving creek might need one second or more to get a blurry effect.

Lastly, the white balance setting you use will depend on the lighting. If it’s near sunrise or sunset, try daylight, shade, or cloudy. If it is during the daytime, in broad daylight, AWB might do the trick. If it’s shady or cloudy, give the shady and cloudy presets a try.

Mastering depth of field

One of the essential components of landscape photography is getting the depth of field right.

If we’re to define the depth of field, it’s simply the area of an image that’s in focus.

Usually, landscapes benefit from a very deep depth of field. That way, everything in the scene from the foreground to the background is in sharp focus.

In the image above, notice how everything from the rocks to the flowers to the distant mountains is all in focus. That’s due to the deep depth of field.

The depth of field is impacted by a variety of factors. Click here to explore this topic in depth.

To put it simply, as long as you use a wide-angle lens, set a small aperture (i.e. f/11 or smaller), and set your focus point about one-third of the way into the image, your depth of field should be more than sufficient for the sharpness of focus from front to back. Watch this video to learn more about this technique.

Suggested landscape photography camera settings

The key to maximizing depth of field is to use aperture priority mode (A or AV on your camera’s dial).

Aperture priority mode prioritizes aperture so that when you set the aperture to the desired setting, the camera automatically chooses a shutter speed to get a good exposure. That’s valuable for a number of reasons, including you only have to worry about one exposure setting as opposed to all three when you shoot in manual mode.

Drive mode: Single shot
Exposure mode: Aperture Priority
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 100
White balance: Varies
Focus mode: Manual
Shutter speed: Determined by the camera

Pro tip! The trick here is to use manual focus and set your focal point at one-third up from the bottom of the frame, as shown in this video.

The reason this focusing technique works is because the depth of field extends further behind the point of focus than in front of it. By setting your focal point at the one-third point, you’ll get a good focus in front and extending behind that point for a sharp image from front to back.

Camera Modes

People constantly wonder which camera mode they should be in. I would highly discourage anyone from shooting in what I sometimes refer to as “Bigfoot” mode, or the green ‘full auto’ selection.

The reason I refer to this as Bigfoot mode is that if you DO see Bigfoot, most people will be so afraid, they’ll forget all their camera settings anyway. As such, you might as well just put it in full auto and spray and pray.

While I urge everyone to learn landscape photography in Manual mode, there are pros to using other modes. The main one of which is Aperture Priority (Av) in landscape photography.

Aperture priority vs. Manual

Aperture Priority is a mode that allows the photographer to select the aperture they want based on the depth of field that they’re trying to achieve. The camera will pick the shutter speed that corresponds to give a properly balanced exposure.

When I say properly balanced, I’m talking about the camera’s light meter being directly in the middle. The benefit of this shooting mode is that the photographer will always get good exposure. The camera is going to give you a balanced exposure.

The problem with Aperture Priority mode is that newbies often just see a “good” exposure on the back of the camera and assume that the photo is good. Nevertheless, when you let the camera select the shutter speed, you have to make sure it’s one that will work for your situation.

When handholding your camera, you may not be paying attention to the fact that the camera is picking a shutter speed that is too slow for the best sharpness. It’s picking 1/15th or 1/20th of a second, which isn’t extremely slow, but slow enough to create a little softness or blur that is not noticeable until the image is on a screen.

Another issue with this mode is that because the camera’s goal is to create a balanced exposure, sometimes the exposure will still be a stop over or underexposed from what the ideal exposure might be.

The final issue is that, when using a graduated Neutral Density Filter with Av mode, the camera will often compensate and significantly reduce the effect you’re trying to achieve with the filter.

Shooting in manual mode

With Manual mode, having a list of steps to follow can encourage you to do the same thing every time and hopefully, avoid panicking when the light gets good.

First, set your aperture to the desired depth of field.

Next, move the shutter speed to the point where the light metre reading is in the middle.

Once you have that, look at how fast the shutter speed is and determine if that is what you’ll need to get the shot that you’re after. If you’re handholding your camera, you’ll need a faster shutter speed. If you’re on a tripod, then is the shutter speed fast enough to stop any moving foliage? Or is it slow enough to create some motion in the water? If not, then you’ll need to adjust your ISO to get the shutter speed that you need.

Once set, take a test shot and check the histogram.

The best landscape photography lenses

Getting the best landscape photos goes beyond understanding the camera settings for landscapes. You also need a reliable lens to capture landscapes in the sharpest detail.

A rear focus mechanism for smooth and fast autofocus performance.
Fast f/1.8 aperture
Excellent colors and contrast with minimal chromatic aberration
2 extra-low dispersion elements for improved sharpness

Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

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This is one of the few choices suitable for longer reach with a Nikon full-frame or APS-C camera. Though it is big and heavy, its optical sharpness and performance are unmatched- can help you zero in on trivial details and make them outstanding.

Key features:

Beautiful bokeh with 9 rounded diaphragm blades
Large f/2.8 aperture
Minimal flare and ghosting
7 extra-low dispersion elements for vibrant, resolute images

Sony SEL 10-18mm f/4

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This 10-18mm f/4 lens is a sure bet for Sony shooters who want an ultra-angle view of landscapes. It is specifically designed for Sony’s E-mount cameras and comes with built-in gyroscopic sensors that give it an excellent image stabilization when shooting handheld. When paired with its high-precision glass, it produces highly detailed photos with outstanding sharpness.

Key features:

Extra-low dispersion glass for enhanced optical performance
Built-in Optical Steady Shot image stabilization
Almost perfectly circular aperture opening for pleasing bokeh

Sony 24-70 f/4 T FE OSS

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This is yet another excellent lens for Sony shooters with a full-frame camera. It offers an ideal focal range from wide-angle to nearly telephoto, meaning in many situations, it might be the only lens you need.

The Carl Zeiss optics are top-notch, delivering outstanding image quality no matter what type of landscape you’re photographing.

Key features:

Aspherical lens elements minimize spherical aberrations
Moisture and dust resistant
Works with APS-C and full frame Sony cameras

Sony SEL FE 24-240mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS

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This one is ideal for landscape photographers with a Sony mirrorless camera that wants a phenomenal focal range.

Commonly used with Sony’s 7 series cameras, this lens is moisture and dust resistant with built-in image stabilization and 10x magnification. Its extra-low dispersion elements prevent ghosting and flare, and its 7-blade aperture produces beautiful bokeh.

Key Features:

Internal focusing, which keeps the physical length of the lens the same at all times
Linear motor drive for fast focusing
5 spherical elements for corner-to-corner sharpness

Conclusion

Now that you know where to start, what to bring to the field, and possible areas to perfect, it is your turn now to hone your landscape photography skills. All the best!