Want a high-quality lesson on travel and landscape photography without having to spend any money? Popular Canadian photographer Taylor Jackson has released this amazing 3-hour video tutorial that’s completely free (it’s supported by YouTube ads).
Quite a bit of time and energy went into this video — Jackson spent a full week in Iceland, a full week in Tokyo, and then 5 full days editing it together.
“It started as a few regular tutorials, and [I] realized pretty quickly that there was no reason to draw out what could be summarized in a 3-minute video into a 15- to 20-minute video,” Jackson tells PetaPixel. “So we just made the content all as tight as possible, and put it in one easy place with a table of contents.”
Here’s the table of contents in case you’d like to skip to a particular section or subject:
0:00:36: Overdramatic Intro
0:01:40: Learning to See Light and Composition
0:02:39: Important Foundational Element
0:03:22: One Tip from Manny Ortiz
0:04:23: Lenses, Cameras and Character Types
0:16:30: Gear – Other Important Items
0:26:12: Camera Modes (Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority)
0:27:23: Camera Settings
0:30:18: Light – The Most Important Aspect of Photography
0:33:00: App for Golden Hour and Blue Hour
0:33:37: Shooting into a Sunset
0:36:56: Rule of 3rds, and My Take On It
0:37:55: Let Me Tell You About My Boat
0:40:59: Why I’m Shooting Less Through The Viewfinder
0:42:14: Auto Focus Modes
0:43:16: White Balance
0:44:17: Viewfinder Vs. LiveView/Monitor
0:44:36: Getting More Depth and Sharpness
0:45:28: Why Use Long Lenses in Landscapes
0:46:13: Blue Hour vs. Golden Hour
0:46:39: General Handheld Shutter Speed Rule
0:47:19: Waiting for Northern Lights in Iceland
0:47:50: When Locations Just Don’t Work
0:49:59: Showing Movement in The City / Slow Shutter Handheld
0:50:51: Frames // Interlinked
0:51:38: Natural Frames
0:55:46: Polarizing Filters
0:57:31: Mid Day Harsh Sun Photos
1:00:00: Waterfall Long Exposures in Iceland
1:00:13: LOL Whoops
1:00:29: It’s Probably a Great Transitional Scene. You’ll Never Know.
1:02:26: Very Important Japanese Toilet Content
1:03:32: Long Exposures in the City at Blue Hour
1:06:10: Times to Use a Super Wide Angle Lens
1:07:22: Long Exposures WITHOUT a Tripod
1:08:56: Shibuya Crossing, and Including People with a Super Wide
1:10:19: Ice Caves, and Complimentary Images
1:11:20: Panning and Capturing Movement
1:13:20: Rooftop City Scapes
1:15:04: Symmetry Reflections and Panoramas
1:17:20: The Element of Random – City Photography from a Moving Car
1:18:52: Photographing The Stars
1:18:24: Northern Lights Photography
1:21:38: Blue Hour City Scapes and Natural Contrast
1:23:39: Blue Hour City Long Exposures
1:26:16: Post Processing
1:26:48: Get a Tablet
1:28:49: Adobe Lightroom
1:31:03: Photo Mechanic
1:32:45: Adobe Lightroom Library View – The One Thing I Use It For
1:34:44: Adobe Lightroom Overview – All The Tools and Sliders I Use
1:41:45: Editing RAW Files From Video In Lightroom
2:20:51: Making a Long Exposure From Multiple Frames
2:29:12: Building and Editing Panoramas
2:55:12: Adobe Photoshop – The Only Thing I Use It For
3:04:49: Final Thoughts
If you want to download the RAW files used in this tutorial, you can find them on Jackson’s website.
“I wanted to release [this tutorial] for free because I felt it was something that was lacking from YouTube,” Jackson says. “I wanted to teach the things that I do to come back from a trip with good photos, but also not let photography dominate the entire trip. Simple ways to take better photos, and travel light. Some tricks and hacks to do things like ~10 second long exposures handheld.
“My goal with travel and landscape photography is to keep it as simple as possible. You can do a lot with a little nowadays.”
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