Originally posted by mr_white my other consideration is that ive never shot with an ultrawide angle before and not sure if ill know what to do with it once ive got it.
You can use either a wide angle or long lens to take landscapes.
With a wide angle, you usually want to look for 3 things, when feasible:
-a foreground [very important]
-a middle ground
-a background.
Typically once you see a scene in the background that catches your eye you want to walk around looking for an interesting foreground before you take the picture. Of course, you wont always get these elements and you dont always need them. But the wider the lens the more likely you need them...FOr instance, if you are shooting a castle, and you walk around and see an interesting boulder or a flowery shrub, you get really CLOSE to this foreground object and focus on it and include the castle as the background. The wider the angle of the lens, the closer you can get. Shoot at small apertures: often you will need f16 or more so that everything is sharp from front to back. To pull off these kind of shots you will need a tripod or something to steady it.
See article below for some tips:
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Include The Foreground For Dramatic Landscapes
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The Importance of Foreground
You can also use longer lenses for landscapes. In fact, it is better to have both options.See article below for a different way to shoot landscapes:
Article: Telephoto Landscapes by Andy Mumford | NEUTRAL DENSITY MAGAZINE - Fine Art Photography, Interviews with Photographers, Black & White, Long Exposure