Welcome to my Campfire Q&A series, where I answer your burning landscape photography questions.

Frank writes:

Hi Chrissy,
Looking for your recommendations on landscape lenses. I have a Nikon D850 and a Sigma 150-600 zoom. I have really enjoyed this setup for bird photography. Now after a few years, I would like to expand my skills to landscape, and love your work \! Can you recommend a tripod and lens(es) for my next step?
-Frank

Thanks for your question, Frank! That 150-600mm zoom is fantastic for birding – that extra reach really does make all the difference. While I love bird photography, I equally love landscape photography and hope you will too. Your questions prompted a lot of thoughts, so I’m going to do my best to cover all the important things I wish someone told me when making my first big gear purchase for landscape photography.

The Answer: Lenses for Landscape Photography

Now, for lenses and tripods, everyone’s choices are unique to their style and preferences. That said, there are some basic guidelines that I think most pro photographers would agree on when it comes to recommendations on gear for landscape photography.

For lenses, there’s something known as the “trinity” of landscape lenses: a wide-angle, a mid-range, and a zoom. Traditionally, you’d see recommendations like 12-24mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm. While that’s still a great setup, I think it’s becoming a bit dated.

The Modern Landscape Photography Lens Trinity

My current full frame recommendation is closer to 14-35mm, 24-105mm, and 100-500mm. With my Canon setup, these cover all the focal lengths I need, they’re lighter, and most conveniently, they all use 77mm sized filters, so I can easily swap filters between lenses. This means I only need to carry a few filters in my pack, not the multitude I carried previously with my “trinity” of lenses of different thread sizes.

Sure, there are times I miss that extra-wide 12mm, but I prefer to adapt my shooting to the scene in exchange for simpler gear. For your Nikon setup, you might want to grab a wide-angle and a mid-range lens, keeping your 150-600mm as your zoom. That’s what I would do if I were in your shoes.

The Two Lens Backcountry Hiking Setup

If you plan to do a lot of distance hiking or backcountry hiking where you need to lighten your load, then I recommend switching to a 2 lens kit: a wide-angle like a 14-35mm or 15-30mm and longer zoom range 24- 240mm. Keep in mind that these will have different filter thread sizes but this is a case where you have to make tradeoffs to get down to 2 lenses that will be great for giving you maximum latitude while in the backcountry. Additionally, it may be helpful to pick up a camera capture clip to mount your camera near the shoulder of your backpack strap.

APS-C Sensor Considerations

For those of you reading, if you have an APS-C or crop sensor camera, you’ll want to look for a similar setup but with APS-C lenses. For example, a 10-20mm or 11-16mm wide-angle lens on APS-C will give you a similar field of view as a 14-35mm on full-frame. This is because APS-C sensors are smaller, effectively cropping the image and making a lens appear more zoomed in. To compensate, APS-C lenses are designed with shorter focal lengths to maintain that wider perspective.

Essential Filters for Landscape Photography

Additionally, you’ll need two critical pieces of gear for landscape photography: a Circular Polarizing Filter and a Neutral Density filter.

Filter Types and Systems

Filters come in both circular (screw-on) and square/rectangular formats. While square filters were once the standard, modern magnetic circular filters offer similar quality with better ease of use. Square systems remain viable, especially for graduated filters, but magnetic circular filters are increasingly becoming the go-to choice.

Magnetic filters use an adapter that screws onto your lens front. You’ll need an adapter for each lens but can share filters between them by simply popping them on and off magnetically – both cost-effective and efficient.

Circular Polarizer Filter Effects for Nature Photography

A circular polarizer is essential for nature photography in several key ways:

• Water: Removes glare and reflections from water surfaces, letting you see through to rocks and details below. Also enhances the rich blue color of water.
• Foliage: Cuts through leaf shine, revealing deeper greens and more detail in vegetation. Particularly useful for wet leaves after rain.
• Skies: Darkens blue skies and makes white clouds pop, adding drama to your landscape shots.
• Rocks: Reduces glare on wet or shiny rock surfaces, bringing out texture and color, especially useful for waterfalls and coastline shots.

The effect is strongest when the sun is at a right angle to your camera and can be adjusted by rotating the filter.

Neutral Density Filters Effects

A Neutral Density (ND) filter acts like sunglasses for your lens, reducing the amount of light entering your camera. For nature photography, this means silky-smooth waterfalls, streaking clouds, and dreamy ocean waves.

A 6-stop ND is ideal for beginners – it’s strong enough to create these effects but still allows flexibility with your camera settings to achieve your desired look by adjusting ISO and aperture. If you go shopping, a 6-stop ND can also be written as ND64 (reduces light by 64x) or ND 1.8 (optical density).

Currently, I use Kase and Maven filters – both are great. NiSi is another brand I’ve used in the past as well. They are good as well, but were late to start a magnetic product line, which is the only reason I don’t use them as much.

Tripod Considerations for Landscape Photography

As for tripods, wow, that’s almost an entire course on its own, but here’s the quick version: 

Tripod Legs

When choosing a tripod, ensure its maximum height (with legs fully extended but without raising the center column) reaches at least eye level. This improves ergonomics and stability, preventing strain from constantly bending over. Raising the center column should be a last resort, as it significantly reduces stability, especially in windy conditions.

I prefer carbon fiber tripods with twist-lock legs for their balance of durability and weight savings. My go-to brands are FLM and ProMediaGear, both of which offer excellent stability. Really Right Stuff is another top-tier brand, though their tripods come at a premium price.

Also, consider how small you need it to pack down – more leg segments mean a smaller packed size, but slightly less stability. I have a smaller, more portable tripod with 4 segments for travel and hiking, and a “big girl” tripod with 3 segments that’s heavier but rock-solid in any conditions. It’s my go-to for car travel, short hikes, or shooting from the car. It stands up to wild winds, crashing waves, rushing water, you name it – but I wouldn’t want to lug it on a long hike.

Tripod Head

Equally important is the tripod head—the piece that connects your camera to the tripod. I personally use a ball head for its versatility, but some professional peers prefer a three-way pan-tilt head for precise adjustments.

When choosing a ball head, make sure it supports the weight of your heaviest camera + lens combination. You’ll find this information in the specs; simply add the weight of your camera body and longest lens to ensure compatibility.

I use the ProMediaGear BH1 Sputnik Arca-Type Ball Head as well as Really Right Stuff’s B-40 and B-55 ball heads on my FLM and ProMediaGear tripod legs, and they’ve been rock-solid in every condition.

Conclusion

Hope this helps you choose the best gear for your landscape photography needs! Feel free to ask if you need any more info. And hopefully, we’ll run into each other out on the trail one day!