outdoor photography

Lazy Flowers at Brookside Gardens In my last post, we looked at the equipment needed for closeup photos of flowers.  Now I want to consider some strategies for composition.  There are two significant challenges to composition when it comes to flower photography.  The first challenge is largely aesthetic and the second largely technical. Top-Down View of Flower Aesthetic Challenge Flowers are pretty, so there are lots  of flower photos to see out there.  Even good flower photos can appear to be "just another flower photo" when seen in the context of all there is to see.  But interestingly, most flower photos are shot largely the same way.  They show the whole flower, and they are often look at the flower from the top down.  Please understand, there's nothing wrong with this, and I wouldn't discourage you from doing this if that's what you enjoy.  But consider also that not only do these images share many similarities with each...

Great Egret Birds are often very uncooperative subjects.  They don't often sit still, they tend to fly away from you instead of toward you, and they rarely come close to you, so you always want a longer lens than the one you have.  Lighting is always a challenge--you want fast shutter speeds, but shooting with the sun high in the sky causes problems.  I've found that when shooting birds, I keep a much smaller percentage of my shots than with just about any other subject.  But there are some tips you can use to increase your likelihood of coming home with more keepers. Use The Longest Lens You Have.   Birds are usually wary of coming near you, and they tend to fly off when you approach them.  So get the longest, fastest lens you have and be ready to crop your photos.  I use a 400mm f/5.6 lens, which great for hand-holding.  You can get birds in flight easier this way.  Others opt for longer, faster lenses (and MUCH more expensive). ...

For me, the essence of composition can be summarized in three words: S implify, E mphasize and E xclude.  Simplify your compositions by emphasizing what's important to you and excluding what isn't.  Composition is all about SEEing.  The most significant problem that photographs have is a cluttered composition.    When we look through the viewfinder, we care most about the subject--we want to make sure that we get that part right.  We don't as readily think about all that surrounds the subject.  It takes time and practice to learn to pay attention to the background and the edges of the frame to see what's going on there as well. As you are getting ready to take your picture, ask yourself some questions.  What's most interesting to you about what you're shooting?  Is it the colors? Is it the texture of the subject or the way it's lit?  Is it a pattern or design that strikes you?  Is there a message you want to convey or a s...

So the fourth of July is tomorrow, and I thought it would be a good idea to give a few pointers on getting good fireworks photographs.  Those brilliant photographs seem like they may be impossible to get, but you'd be surprised what you could get out of your camera.  Here's some tips on getting a good shot. Tripod. A tripod is a necessity.  You will have exposure times around 2 sec, so you won't be able to hold your camera still for hat long. Cable Release.  While not absolutely essential, it is preferable to have a remote way of tripping the shutter.  The motion of pressing the shutter can move the camera slightly.  If you don't have one, that's okay.  Just be careful to gently trip the shutter. Manual Mode.  I'd recommend shooting in manual mode .  Set your camera's ISO to 100 (or 200 if that's lowest on your camera) and your aperture somewhere between f/8 and f/16.  Proper exposure will depend on lots of factors, so mak...

Needham's Skimmer One of the most disappointing feelings in photography is when you come home, load your pictures onto your computer, and realize that the photographs you thought were going to be so good are actually blurry. There are four basic causes for blurry photos, and there are ways you can correct for these causes in the future. Camera Movement --No one can hold a camera perfectly still, so camera movement can cause motion blur in an image.  To solve this, you can use a tripod , a lens with image stabilization (IS), or adjust your aperture/ISO  to get a fast shutter speed.  The faster the shutter speed, sharper you image will be.  The best solution for most photographic situations is a tripod.  I admit, though, that sometimes tripods aren't practical, so lenses with good IS can be a big advantage. Beware, though, raising your ISO may give you noisier images. And even with IS lenses, you can have blurry photographs if your shutter speed i...

People come to a blog like this for many reasons.  But among beginning photographers, I suspect two are more common than all the rest together.  On the one hand, perhaps you're taking lots of pictures with your camera. You take pictures of your kids, the places that you go on vacation, and the great events in your lives.  But perhaps you would like to do more--you would like for photography to become a means of artistic expression.  On the other hand, perhaps you bought your digital SLR because you want to make photography a serious hobby and learn the craft.  You want to use the manual settings on the camera, and not just rely on the automatic shooting modes that do much of the thinking for you. Of course, these two reasons are not unrelated.  They are intimately connected to each other.  Photography is a nexus of craft and art.  We must engage the right side of our brains to create artistic images, and we must use the left side of our brains...

Unless you've trained your eyes to do so, you may not notice the differences in the color of light in differing situations.  But different light sources actually have different "color temperatues."  Indoor lighting varies in color temperature--tungsten lights are redder than fluorescent.  The above photograph was lit entirely by my daughter's night light--look how red the tungsten light looks on her face. Outdoors, the color of sunlight will change based on the amount of cloud cover and even the time of day.  Most of us go through life blissfully unaware of this unless we're impacted by the beauty of a sunrise or sunset and notice that the colors we see then aren't the same as what we see during the day. A pure white object will have a different color cast when lit by different kinds of light (like my daughter's pacifier in the above photo lit by a tungsten night light).  "White balance" allows you to correct for light of different color temp...

That's a good question, and it's one without an easy answer.  You can find very good photographers that have strong beliefs on either side of the issue.  But we should begin by answering a more basic question--what the heck is a RAW file anyway? Somewhere in the menu system of your dSLR, you'll find an option to shoot RAW files instead of JPEG files (or to shoot both).  Technically speaking, RAW files are not image files--they are simply files that contain the data recorded by your camera's sensor when you took your picture.  Because of this, you can't just open the file in any application like you can a JPEG file (which is a true image file).  The file must be interpreted by software to generate an image from the file.  And RAW formats are specific for each camera model, so you have to have software that has been updated after your camera was released or you may not be able to edit your files.  Without any work done to them, RAW files often look les...

One of the great advantages of digital cameras is that you can look at the image right after taking the picture.  You can zoom in on your photograph to see if your subject is sharp where you want it to be sharp.  If parts of your image are overexposed so that they do not have detail in your preview screen , those parts of your image will blink black & white (I admit it: I call this the "blinkies").  You can know ahead of time if you have exposure problems with your image.   If you are shooting in RAW , you still might have detail in those parts of the photograph, but don't count on it--take the picture again if you can. But in terms of exposure , the most useful part of the preview screen is what's called the histogram.  A histogram is a graph of the exposure values in your image.  On your preview screen, it will look something like this: The left side of the histogram represents the darker parts of your image, and the right side represents the light...

Northern Mockingbird Silhouette Just saying the word "manual mode" can be scary for new photographers.  The thought of being in complete control of your camera's exposure  often causes beginners to shy away from using it all together.  The sad part about this is that manual mode is actually the easiest way to get proper exposure in certain situations.  There is no shooting mode that is inherently better than any other.  I believe you should use the shooting mode that allows you to most quickly and reliably get the exposure you want.  In at least three situations, this mode is very likely to be the manual mode: Whenever you are using your spot meter.  Zoom in to the area you want to spot meter , set your exposure manually, and you have it set until lighting conditions change. For Exposure Compensation more than 2 Stops . In many camera models,  aperture priority  and  shutter priority  modes limit your  exposur...

Your camera is equipped with a light meter that can read exposure values all over the scene you're shooting, and for the most part,your camera uses these readings to give you very reliable exposure settings so you can get the exposure you want.  There are four main types of metering modes that you can choose from: Matrix/Evaluative Metering.  The default metering mode for any camera is usually called matrix or evaluative metering.  This mode takes exposure readings from throughout the frame and averages them together to give you an exposure reading that gives roughly equal value to every part of the frame. Spot Metering.  Spot metering takes all of exposure values from the center of the frame.  The center "spot" usually covers about 2 or 3 percent of the frame. Partial Metering.  Partial metering is very similar to spot metering, but the "spot" is larger, covering around 10% of the frame.  Some cameras may have partial metering with no spot met...

One of the challenges of outdoor photography is that you have very little control over your lighting.  Perhaps you've taken pictures on bright, sunny days only to find that on  your computer they simply don't look right.  The bright parts of your image have lost all detail, even though you could see detail when you were there.  Perhaps the colors just don't look as brilliant and saturated as they should look.  The scene looked beautiful when you were there, but your photograph simply does not do justice to your experience outdoors. This frustration is common among beginning photographers.  The problem comes from the fact that your camera simply cannot see as much light as you can see. You can see about twelve stops of light. Your camera only sees about five to nine stops. This means that your camera cannot record many scenes like you can see them. High contrast scenes, like scenes with direct sunlight and shade, will simply have more contrast tha...

Shutter Priority MOde Gives you the most control over your shutter speed Shutter Priority Mode (Tv or S) works just like Aperture Priority Mode except the dial operations are reversed.   The main dial (by the shutter release) controls the shutter speed.  You set the  shutter speed  you want and the camera will choose the  aperture  that it believes will give you the right exposure.  You dial in your exposure compensation, either by turning the second dial or by holding down a button and turning the same dial by the shutter release. This shooting mode has some very useful purposes.  Whenever you care more about the shutter speed of your camera than the f/stop, consider using this mode.  Here are some possible applications: Panning shots.  Perhaps you've seen photographs where a fast moving subject (car, bike) is in focus but the background shows a lot of motion blur.  This is achieved by choosing a relatively slow shutter ...

Aperture Priority Mode gives you the most control over your depth of field Now that we have the basic concepts concerning  exposure , balancing exposure and exposure compensation in our heads, we need to look a little more closely at how these concept translate into the mechanics of taking a picture.  We need to consider the "shooting modes" or "exposure modes" on your camera that you can use get the image you want.  On your digital SLR, you'll notice a dial near the top, and among other things, you'll see a series of letters.  On a Canon, those letters will be P  Tv  Av  M On a Nikon or Sony, they will be: P  S  A  M These are all shooting or exposure modes that you can use.  In the grand scheme of things, it makes no difference which one you choose.  As long as you get the  shutter speed ,  aperture , and  ISO  you want, the shooting mode has accomplished its purpose. But some modes are mor...

So far, we've focused mainly on accepting your camera's light meter reading and balancing your camera's automatic exposure calculations .  This approach works well most of the time.  Current cameras take light meter readings from all over the frame and calculate what it believes will give you proper exposure.  But as good as these calculations are, they cannot give you the results you want all the time.  There are generally three kinds of situations that can can require you to adjust your camera's calculations to suit your purposes. Light or Dark Scenes: When your scene has average tonal values that are either very dark or very light, your camera will try to make them average the tonal value of 18% grey.  This means that in very dark scenes, your camera will be likely to overexpose your image.  In very light scenes, your camera will be likely to underexpose your image.  You will have to adjust your camera's reading to get the results you want. Hig...

Trees at Sunrise As we discussed in a previous post on exposure, you have proper exposure for your photograph when you have set your three   exposure  factors ( shutter speed , aperture , and ISO ) to give you the results you want--that is, you've let in just the right amount of light to give you the image you were hoping to capture.  But that's just the beginning of the creative process in photography.  You can change the balance of these factors to allow you to take control of the look of your photographs.  Let's review a little of what I mean by this: You can use a slow shutter speed to create a pleasing motion blur--such as the silky effect on a waterfall .   You can use a fast shutter speed to freeze motion, like a kayaker on rapids .   You can use a large aperture (small f/stop) to create photographs with a shallow depth of field , like a butterfly with a blurry background. You can use a small aperture (large f/stop) to to cre...

You've probably seen photographs of waterfalls and cascades that have that nice, silky effect in the water, and perhaps you've wondered how this is done.  Well, it's not as hard you might think.  There are some simple things you can keep in mind that will allow you to achieve the same effect in your photographs. You get the silky effect in the water by having a long shutters speed .  When there's no wind, everything in your picture will be still but the water.  So if you use a long shutter speed and a small enough aperture, the whole photograph will be sharp except the water.  Since water flows consistently in its channel, the motion blur in the water will give it that flowing, silky effect.  Here are some things to keep in mind: 1.   Go early in the morning before the sun hits the scene.   Direct sunlight will cause too much contrast in your scene, and your picture won't be as attractive.  You will also have a difficult t...