Landscape Photography Budget Gear >>Part 1<<

Landscape Photography Budget Gear

Landscape Photography Budget Gear

Whitby Abbey - Flamborough Head Lighthouse 

In this series of videos I aim to prove that you can use entry level Photographic equipment to take stunning pictures.

My equipment cost £150 all-in

I bought an entry level Nikon Camera (D5000) and a cheap but sturdy Tripod (Jessops) from Ebay, just to prove that you don't need extortionately priced camera gear to take great pictures.

This is part 1. I'm not entirely sure at the moment just how many I'll do, I suppose that'll just depend on how well they're received. I've scheduled 2 months for the project though!


>SEE ALL EPISODES<<<


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Landscape Photography Budget gear

£150 for cheap gear and still take brilliant pictures, how can this be true?
As we all know camera technology has come on a long way in the past 10 years or so. File sizes are getting bigger, noise levels have been dramatically reduced and most cameras have the ability to record in RAW. More and more camera users are beginning to understand their cameras settings. I even see more photographers using their cameras "manual" settings too, brilliant!

But the most important thing... and the sole reason for me starting the "It's not about the gear" series is this... POST PRODUCTION! As Photoshop is now priced sensibly, there are more photographers working their pictures to the bone! I'm not complaining by the way - I'm all for it. With the advent of NIK Software now being offered for FREE as well, this is also helping photographers to achieve unbelievable results from even the dullest of pictures.

We're now able to manipulate pictures better than ever, add fancy effects easier than ever, convert to black and white in a heart beat and on top of all of that print bigger and cheaper too.

Landscape Photography It's not about the gear

During my teachings, I see students every week with all sorts of camera makes and models. but after each student has taken the same picture and post processed their images, its pretty hard to distinguish the difference between a picture taken with a Canon MK IV and a Nikon D5000 for instance.  I'm talking about every day landscape pictures of course, I'm not talking about images taken in extreme conditions for example 4000-plus ISO under poor lighting etc.

If you see what I see week-on-week I can guarantee you'd be amazed too.

So in conclusion, it's my belief that by the time you've taken a decent picture with an entry level camera, post processed it and maybe added an effect or two, the images are just as likely to look as good as the same picture taken on a high end camera "and I'm here to prove it!"


I'm taking this challenge seriously - over the next 6 weeks I have already targeted another 8 locations to put my theory to the test. These locations include more UK destinations as well as a trip to Spain and even another trip to my favorite place on earth, the Isle of Skye.


Landscape Photography Budget Gear

All photographs shown were shot using...

Nikon D5000 (entry level DSLR)
I bought this second hand on Ebay
Tripod by Jessops (Entry level but very sturdy)
again, I bought this second hand on Ebay
Combined they cost me £150
AND THAT'S ALL I USED!
I will at some point add a cheap set of ND filters too.

More about me: www.shootsmart.co.uk
More about: Photography Training
More about: Photography Training Isle of Skye
Credits:
Music: Rock Angel - Joakim Karud
Tiler in the T5: Lee Call
Drone Filming: Lee Call Photography & Film

A huge thanks to Lee Call my great mate for a great day out and for lending a helping hand with your drone - He might be an arse but his drone footage is ace - I'm guessing I'll just have to put up with him just for that!

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Landscape Photography Budget gear

3 Responses

  1. Simon Aspinall
    Gary Cheers for doing this mate, I've thought it invaluable. I love all things outdoors (but especially backpacking, hiking and mountain biking) and have recently gotten in to photography, ostensibly as another way to get outside. I borrowed my girlfriends D5000 and I myself have a Sony A6000 and this video is just the inspirational kick in the arse I need! Thank you so much
  2. Hi I've recently subscribed to your videos, I've been taking photos for 40 years + and need to get back into it. Can you tell me what you use to denoise and also to sharpen. Think the videos are great really informative and not over done like some. Hope you are able to reply. Cheers Eddie
    • gary_gough
      Hi Eddie, Firstly thank you for following and for your nice comments. Sorry for the late reply. I use a program called Noiseware Professional to denoise my images. It's a Photoshop plugin https://imagenomic.com/Products/Noiseware I don't sharpen my images. I never feel they need it by the time I've finished editing. Hope this helps Gary

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