Nikon D3500 Landscape Settings
Nikon D3500 is a great option when it comes to landscape photography. This camera is built for landscape photography with its range of advanced settings and items available at your disposal.
Landscape photography is not easy but if you know how to benefit from all relevant configurations and available settings on your camera you can capture world-class quality scenes.
Make sure you use a 52MM wide-angle landscape lens for Nikon D3500 (check the price on Amazon).
So let’s dig in!
How to Adjust Nikon D3500 Landscape Photography Settings?
Step 1. Composing the Landscape with Nikon
Start with the right gear for the job. There are some super-advanced lenses for landscape photography.
It’s best to use Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 because it captures a vast field (Hey! It’s on amazon). Using a wide-angle lens will help you to make full use of the foreground.
For those with the kit lens, zoom in to 18mm to get the best view. Take a look at this abroad list of the best Nikon lens for landscape
Step 2. Setting the Shooting Mode with Nikon
Nikon d3500 landscape – AF area and Focus mode
The shooting mode should be fixed at Aperture Priority, which is A on the dial mode. Then, set the Aperture f-number to f/8. To set the Aperture f-number, all you have to do is rotate the command dial on your camera.
For a landscape mode, it is best to set the f-number to f/8, and then based on the lights available, you can Increase it to f/11 or even f/16 so that the details in the background are still in focus.
Step 3. Setting other features for Nikon landscape photography
Nikon d3500 landscape – ISO settings
After this, there are only a few more steps to go before you can finally click your picture. It is best to set up the ISO at 100 to end up with a lesser amount of image noise, which is the problem at a higher ISO.
Next, you have to make sure that the metering is set to the matrix so that the entire scene is metered to perfection.
Depending on what you are shooting, a shutter speed of 30 seconds is considered optimum for landscape photography.
In Aperture Priority mode, while you can select the purchase that you want to shoot in, the camera chooses the shutter speed for you.
Especially for nighttime photography, it is best to keep the shutter speed at 30 seconds or even less to lessen image noise as well as avoid hot pixels.
Step 4. Setting the Focus
Nikon d3500 landscape – setting focus.
What the camera focuses on while you take a photograph is what can break or make your picture.
For landscape photography, it has been considered best for the AF Area Mode to be Auto-Area AF while the focus mode is set to AF-S.
The best part about Auto-Area AF is that it chooses a segment from your frame as a focus, which is based on the amount of contrast it provides to the picture.
On the other hand, if you want to manually select an area to be focused on you could have chosen Single-point AF, which gives you the liberty of selecting an area of contrast to be focused on.
With this, you will be able to click the picture with the half-press on the shutter.
Step 5. Setting up the Release Mode
Nikon d3500 landscape – release mode
Once all the preliminary settings are done with and you have mounted your camera on a tripod, it is time to set the release mode to self-timer.
The self-timer is the best way to click a picture because the jerky hand movements will then not come in the way of taking a good picture.
Step 6. Tripod for Nikon D3500 Landscape Photography
The more stable you are, the better your camera will perform. Using an advanced tripod will also help you to take macro photos with an upside-down center column.
Another advantage of these tripods is that they enable you to capture 360-degree landscapes without experiencing blurry or discontinuous photos (swivel ball head).
You can own this 52MM HD wide-angle lens. It is compatible with all Nikon D series, including Nikon D3500
While landscape photography is quite challenging with even a camera as beautiful as Nikon D3500, the above-mentioned steps can help you take a good picture.
See Also
Nikon D3300 Landscape Settings
