Lighting a Landscape

[briancmo]

Does anyone ever use flash when shooting landscapes? Sunrise or sunset to bring up elements in the frame? Any examples you could post would be great. I'm vey intrigued by the look of flash outdoors and am trying to get some ideas before a big landscape trip to Arisona, Utah and Colorado in the summer

[eddarr]

Sure. There are several techniques that can be used but it depends on what you want. Sometimes you can bring up the exposure in the foreground of daylight images but remember that it will only light a small area. You can also highlight something that is shaded. I think the most common lighting technique for landscapes is night shots. The light is used to "paint" an object of interest in the foreground during a long exposure. The most common example of this is the arches in Utah and the Saguaro cactus in Arizona.

[JhnRX7]

This may not be exactly what you are looking for, but the principle still applies. This is a shoot I did last week. In this shot I used 3 speedlites to light the car. You need to expose for the background, then dial in the power on the lights so that the car (or any other foreground object) is exposed correctly.

Setup shot showing lights.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3415/3520009773_107dd9132f.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnrenna/3520009773/)

Final Shot.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3330/3521192094_cd04811826.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnrenna/3521192094/)

[Fidelio]

I know you weren't looking for feedback there, but I really dig that first picture. Having the lights as part of the landscape there gives it a nice print-ad quality.