Since my childhood, I’ve been dreaming about inventing two things. The first is a teleporter. Yes, you read it right, but please imagine teleporting from the ‘Star Trek’ movie not from the horror movie ‘The Fly’! With teleport, people could forget about long queues, tedious trips and expensive taxis. The second thing I have been dreaming about is a Continue Reading
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In this article, we’ll discuss the whys and hows of photographing plants. Don’t worry if you’re not a nature nerd, if your fingers are distinctly non-green or if you find plants generally dull. Plants can offer great photographic opportunities to any photographer. Give plants a chance!
If you start thinking about plants and the role they play in our history and our lives, you might find it hard to stop. After all, they produce most of the oxygen we breathe, they provide us with nutrition, we make clothing and build shelter out of them, just to mention a few things; we even print our photos on them!
More relevant to this article, though, they also inspire us with their alien beauty and comforting stillness to create art.
First of all, plants are really convenient subjects. They’re found more or less everywhere, and they don’t run or fly off when you approach them. That makes things so much easier!
But being common doesn’t make them boring – there are so many different varieties to choose from, they change their appearance with the seasons, and the longer you look, the more detail you will find. It would be hard to find a more patient (living) subject!
Plants have inspired artists for thousands of years: they’re in the art of the ancient Egyptians, and the Chinese. Plants are also a central part of a wide variety of more modern art, such as arabesque, still life paintings, Mapplethorpe’s photography – the list goes on and on.
Some of the most aesthetically pleasing shapes and forms in the world are found in plants.
Photographing plants is a rewarding activity for any photographer. If you’re a beginner, you can use plants to learn more about photography: check out some tips for beginners and use these really friendly subjects for your early experiments.
And if you’re a professional wedding photographer, you can always practice your bouquet and decoration photography!
Plant photography is perhaps the easiest kind of photography. All you need is a camera and a plant, and you can start your exploration. Yes, it really is that easy!
But sure, there are some tips that can make your experience more fun and your photographs more unique. The most important thing is for you to open your mind, explore the things you find interesting, and have fun.
Flowers may seem like the obvious thing to photograph when it comes to plants, but these living beings offer so much more than just their reproductive structures. They sure are fine-looking, though!
To get the most out of plants, you should also remember to check out the other visible parts such as the leaves, fruit, and bark. Taking group photos also works with plants.
Play with light, focus, and composition – use all of the tricks in your photographic toolbox.
For me, the best plant photos arise when I move beyond just looking at specific parts, and start focusing instead on shapes, textures, and symmetries. Look for interesting patterns in light or texture, experiment with black and white, zoom in and zoom out, find the abstract.
And, as always, try to evoke a feeling and create a story.
Do you enjoy photographing plants? What are your best tips? Do you have any favorite photos to share? I’d love to hear your thoughts and see your art in the comments below.
The post Tips for Creative Plant Photography by Hannele Luhtasela-el Showk appeared first on Digital Photography School.
In this article, learn about the Exposure Compensation feature on your camera to get the best exposures.
Whether you’re shooting sports, animals, portraits, toys, snowflakes, rocks, fish, weddings, or pretty much anything else you almost always have one goal in mind. You want your pictures to be properly exposed. Of course, you can fix an image in Photoshop if it’s too light or too dark, and shooting RAW definitely helps with that. But over the years I’ve found that the best solution is to just get your exposure right in camera.
This means finding the right combination of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to get your image to look the way you want. But there’s another option you have at your disposal as well – your camera’s Exposure Compensation feature. Understanding what this does and how it works can help you get your pictures looking pixel-perfect in camera without having to adjust anything afterward.
Buried deep in the computational brain of your camera is something called a light meter whose job it is to measure the amount of light entering the lens. This lets your camera adjust some of the exposure settings automatically or gives you enough information for you to make adjustments yourself.
Depending on how you have your metering mode set up it might look at all the light coming in through lens, just the part in the center, or sometimes only the light where you have your focus point set.
As your camera takes measurements of the incoming light and adjusts exposure settings it tries as hard as it can to get a picture that is properly exposed. It might make the aperture larger or smaller, adjust the shutter speed, change the ISO or use a combination of all three of those techniques just to make sure the photo comes out right.
The trouble is, your camera doesn’t always have a good sense of how you want your picture to look.
My camera tried to make this image much darker because of all the light behind this young man, so I used exposure compensation to make the background slightly overexposed which meant my subject was properly exposed.
Sometimes you might want your picture to be slightly over (lighter) or underexposed (darker), and this is where the exposure compensation feature really starts to shine. If you notice that your images aren’t coming out quite as light or as dark as you want them, you can either change the aperture, shutter, or ISO yourself.
Or just tell your camera “Hey, brighten things up a bit will you?” and with a quick twist of the Exposure Compensation dial, voilà, your problems are solved.
Most people find Exposure Compensation to be particularly useful when shooting in a semi-manual mode such as Aperture or Shutter Priority, but you can use it in other modes as well like program auto or even full manual.
In order to dispel some of the mystery surrounding the exposure compensation feature, let’s take a look at what your camera is actually doing to the settings when you use it in any of those modes.
NOTE: Please make note that when you dial in any Exposure Compensation it does not get reset to zero automatically for your next shot. You need to change it yourself manually once you’re done using it.
PROBLEM: One of the biggest problems beginners have is not realizing their Exposure Compensation is active. If you have erratic exposures, or all your images are either too dark or too light – check to see if the Exposure Compensation dial has been moved and correct it to zero if necessary.
“How does exposure compensation work? Please, tell us more!”
Most photographers I know shoot primarily in Aperture Priority mode because of the way aperture affects depth of field and other critical elements of the composition. I use this mode almost exclusively, usually combined with auto-ISO to make sure my shutter speed never gets too slow, and it works like a charm.
I like adjusting my aperture and letting my camera take care of everything else because nine times out of ten it’s just easier for the way I prefer to shoot. If I notice my pictures are too bright or too dark I just adjust the Exposure Compensation to take care of it.
When shooting in Aperture Priority, adjusting the Exposure Compensation doesn’t ever change your aperture–doing so would defeat the whole purpose of using this mode! Instead, it changes the shutter speed by either speeding it up or slowing it down in order to make your picture brighter or darker.
In the image below, shot in Aperture Priority, you can see that the subject is way too dark while the background is properly exposed. This is partially a result of my camera’s metering mode but also because the scene itself contains a high degree of dynamic range and is therefore tricky to get just right.
Aperture Priority, 200mm, 1/750th, f/4.0, ISO 100, no Exposure Compensation.
To fix the problem I could have changed my camera’s metering mode but instead, I chose to dial in an exposure compensation value of +2EV. The result left the background totally blown out while giving me a properly-exposed subject.
Aperture Priority, 200mm, 1/180th, f/4.0, ISO 100, +2EV Exposure Compensation.
The key takeaway is that while the focal length, aperture, and ISO values did not change the shutter speed most certainly did. My camera dropped it all the way down to 1/180 second which let in much more light and therefore resulted in a two-stop overexposure from the original.
When using exposure compensation in Aperture Priority your camera will adjust the shutter speed to be faster or slower, which can make a big difference if you are shooting a moving subject. You might want a fast shutter speed but if you’re dialing in a few stops of exposure compensation you might end up with one that is too slow to capture the image you are going for.
It’s not a problem per se, but it is something to note and it could dramatically affect your images if you aren’t aware of what is happening. If you need a faster shutter speed you can increase the ISO a bit also.
In a similar vein, using Exposure Compensation when shooting in Shutter Priority will not change your shutter speed but will instead alter the aperture in order to make your image lighter or darker.
When I shot the image below of a duck on a frozen pond I wanted a fast shutter speed in case my avian friend started moving quickly. So I used Shutter Priority with a speed of 1/250th of a second.
Shutter Priority, 200mm, 1/250th, f/8.0, ISO 100, no Exposure Compensation.
You can probably tell that something isn’t right with the photo. The duck is too dark! I had to lighten the composition quickly before it flew away, so I dialed in a value of +1.5EV on my Exposure Compensation.
Shutter Priority, 200mm, 1/250, f/4.8, ISO 100, +1.5EV Exposure Compensation.
This image is a bit different from the static wood carving in the aperture priority example because you can clearly see the effect that exposure compensation has had on the composition. My camera kept the shutter speed unchanged but used a much wider aperture which gave me an image with far less depth of field. Notice how both the foreground and the background are much blurrier – a direct result of shooting with a wider aperture.
You might have noticed that a third exposure parameter has thus far remained unchanged, that of the ISO. While it’s standard for most cameras to alter the aperture and shutter speed when using Exposure Compensation, ISO is usually the last parameter to get changed unless you are using Auto ISO.
In that case, your camera will most definitely change the ISO if it needs to, especially if shooting in Aperture Priority and your minimum shutter speed (as set up in your settings) has been reached.
I had to use a fast shutter speed on this image and didn’t care too much about aperture, so I shot in Shutter Priority and used Exposure Compensation to get the image to look how I wanted. I did not use Auto-ISO because I wanted a nice clean picture, so my camera adjusted only the aperture when I dialed in the Exposure Compensation.
NOTE: This only applies to Nikon shooters! If you use Canon, Fuji or another brand Exposure Compensation does not have any effect in Manual Mode.
Exposure Compensation in Manual Mode works a bit differently because nothing changes at all when you dial in a value. Instead, it’s your camera’s light meter itself that changes so you can adjust the aperture, shutter, and ISO values manually in order to get your picture to look how you want.
It’s an interesting twist on things that might seem a little strange at first if you are used to having things automatically change when you adjust exposure compensation, but once you start using this method you may not ever want to go back.
It essentially gives you the best of all worlds by letting you adjust exposure settings to get the value you are looking for, you can then choose precisely the parameters you want to change.
In Manual Mode, adjusting Exposure Compensation only changes how your light meter displays exposure. Notice how the vertical line indicating the point of proper exposure has shifted to the left when dialing in an Exposure Compensation value of +2EV.
I know the subject of mirrorless cameras versus DSLRs can be a bit of a thorny one for some photographers, but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention it here in an article about exposure compensation.
While the same logic applies regarding Aperture and Shutter Priority modes, the big difference is how you can actually see your exposure settings change in real-time as you look at your camera.
This rear screen of this mirrorless Fuji X100F shows me that the photo will be properly exposed.
This is one of the main strengths of shooting mirrorless, though it should be noted that DSLRs can also this in Live View–albeit usually with some tradeoffs such as slower autofocus that usually happens when utilizing Live View.
I can see the result of a -1EV Exposure Compensation on the digital readouts (i.e. light meter, histogram, etc.) but most notably the image itself has decreased in brightness as well. This helps me get a very good idea of what effect this Exposure Compensation will have on the final image.
I used to be somewhat scared of using Exposure Compensation because I didn’t really understand what was happening when I changed its value. With a much better idea of what my camera is changing, and why, I am now much more comfortable using it on a daily basis to get my shots to look how I want.
In fact, I often won’t even change my metering modes anymore and instead just rely on Exposure Compensation because I know what it’s doing to my photos and I’m not scared of using it. If you have never used it much either, you might want to go ahead and give a try. You just might like it.
The post How to Understand Your Camera’s Exposure Compensation Feature by Simon Ringsmuth appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Packing for any trip abroad can be a chore. Then add in the task of making sure you have all of the photography bits and pieces you need, and it’s enough to send your head spinning. Thankfully there is a cure for this craziness: The Travel Photography Packing List.
The Packing List is my go-to resource for ensuring I have all the gear I need in order to bring back the best photos. No one wants to deal with dead batteries or a lack of memory cards while they are exploring the world at large. That’s why I use the list below to sooth my packing-frazzled mind and to get on with creating amazing photos.
I know it seems obvious but the camera is the first thing on my packing list. Why? Because I take time to check it and give it a good cleaning, inside and out, before packing it away. I often carry a spare camera these days, which doesn’t get a lot of action until it is desperately needed.
Packing time is a good opportunity to make sure all cameras are in working order. You might also want to adjust the clock (set it to the time zone you’ll be traveling to) on your camera(s) so you can hit the ground running.
Lens choice is a dilemma for most of us. Bring them all and suffer the back strain of having to lug them around, or bring just a few and worry about missing the shot? As individual as this choice can be, I suggest thinking about what you will shoot the most if you want to limit the number of lenses you take along. Also, ask other photographers who have traveled where you are going or your tour operator for suggestions.
On my own tours, where our focus is on people, nature, and wildlife photography, I suggest a 24-105mm lens for walking around and city photos. These lenses are great for a variety of situations from close to medium distance.
Then for the landscape shots, a wide-angle or wide zoom, like a 16-35mm lens or 10-22mm on a crop sensor camera, can work wonders.
My go-to lens for travel is the venerable Canon 28-300mm L-series Lens. It covers a huge range and with some panorama stitching, I can get mildly wide-angle shots without switching lenses. It’s a heavy lens indeed, but I’ve grown used to it. I will then bring a 10-22mm wide-angle for the monumental landscape shots I love to capture.
Optionally, a long lens may be needed in certain situations, but they can be cumbersome. For instance, I would not have gone to Panama and Costa Rica, lands rich in birds and wildlife, without a Sigma 150-600mm Sport lens. Yet, that same lens will not follow me to the Himalayas, where weight is certainly a factor and the chance for birds is lessened.
For all my travels in the past decade, I have rarely found myself wanting to have a strobe along for the ride, especially due to the added weight involved. Yet I still tend to bring just one flash and I have been happy every time I did.
What I have found valuable when bringing a strobe is to make sure it is one that I can use off-camera. A flash that can be remotely triggered either with a tether or a smaller unit on the camera (either the built-in flash or a unit that attaches to the hotshoe). This has allowed me the greatest flexibility to add well-directed light to my travel photos.
A good travel tripod is a thing of beauty. These units, built for packability and lightweight, have been following me on more and more trips abroad.
My main issue with packing a full-size tripod, even if it is carbon fiber, is the need to take larger luggage. The legs of a super sturdy tripod are often longer, even when broken down, than the luggage I wish to take.
It’s a balancing act and it matters what you intend to shoot. If you have space, bring the monster tripod, especially if you are accustomed to hauling it around with you near home. If you have limited space, but still want stability in your landscape or astrophotography shots, consider something along the lines of the MeFOTO Globetrotter. It packs small, can double as a monopod and has a fully functional ball head.
Power strips are great for travel and there are a variety of options. I prefer a brand where the cord is easy to store and the strip comes with two USB ports. The two outlets in the power strip are meant for a variety of international plugs so it’s easy to share when you find the outlet at the airport overloaded. I’ve done this more than once and was able to get a charge when I couldn’t have without a power strip.
WARNING: See the next section about converters because it’s important to make sure the power strip is set up for universal power. I once had a strip with USB ports go, “Pop!” and puff smoke arose when I didn’t realize it was only set for US power and I was using it in India. Know before you go!
Almost any charger from a major manufacturer these days will work on what’s known as “Universal Power”. They have an input range that straddles 110V-240V and 50Mhz-60Mhz. This fits almost any AC power around the world. If your charger is not set up for Universal Power (check the charger itself for those phrases above printed somewhere on its label), then you need a converter.
A converter will change the power coming out of the wall in your hotel to the power your charger needs. This stops things from literally catching fire.
Different than a converter is an adapter. All it does is makes the plug on your charger fit the wall socket in your hotel. There is a handy guide on the Internet that lists the types of plugs in use around the world, by country, so you can see if your plug will fit.
If not, I’d suggest picking up either a small adapter specific to your host country or a universal adapter that will serve you for almost any country around the world for decades to come.
How many memory cards should you bring? Oh boy, that’s the big question. I’m sure if we ran a poll we’d have a huge range of answers. To help in planning, I take a per diem method and figure out what my average has been on previous trips, per day. I then multiply that by the number of days I’ll be gone to get a total number of photos I estimate that I’ll take over the duration of the trip.
Next, take the total (let’s say 4000 photos) and multiply it by the average size of a photo from your camera. Mine is about 24MB, so for 4000 images, I’d need 96,000MB or roughly 96GB. I then throw in an extra card, just in case. In this example, I will bring four 36GB cards and call it good. Especially if I am going to a country where I know it will be easy to buy more.
If you shoot a lot of videos, you should do the same calculations for video and add the two together.
You can’t get a clear shot with a dirty lens and a proper cleaning is vital. We cover the basics of a simple and portable kit in our article, How Should I Clean My DSLR’s Lens?, and I’d also include a sensor brush if you are comfortable with in-field sensor cleaning.
Most of us own and carry a circular polarizing filter and they certainly have earned a solid reputation. So throw one in your bag if you are familiar with them.
Next, include a graduated neutral density (GND) filter unless you are proficient at bracketing your shots and merging them artfully in your computer later. A GND helps in situations where there is a large difference between the lighting in a scene. They will slightly darken a sky so it won’t blow out when compared to a darker foreground.
Lastly, I’d suggest a quality neutral density filter, maybe a three or 6-stop.
We’ve released shots lists on DPS before and they can be helpful to keep you on track when every single thing you see is new and photo-worthy. A shot list is by no means a dogmatic requirement, but I have found it helpful to bring back a nice variety of shots.
Otherwise, we all tend to slide back into what we like (landscape, food, astrophotography, etc.) and miss out on all the other subjects that make our trip so memorable.
For me, a notebook is invaluable for remembering the little things that go with those photos. Maybe you have a mind like a steel trap, in which case you’re blessed, but for the rest of us, by the time day-three rolls around, we can’t really remember little things that happened on day one.
Sure, your photos will help you remember, but they don’t always capture the emotions and conversations you might have had. They are also great for sharing information with strangers, such as writing down the name of a restaurant or attraction you shouldn’t miss.
I fill a couple of pages before my trip with ideas of what I want to see or shoot. It’s then an easy reference later when I’m feeling rudderless and need some direction.
I hope this gives you a good start the next time you make a packing list for a trip. It’s not meant to be exhaustive so I would love to hear what else you have on your list. Leave a comment below so others can benefit from your experience with travel photography.
The post Tips for Making Your Travel Photography Packing List for International Trips by Peter West Carey appeared first on Digital Photography School.
As photographers, we often spend most of our time behind the camera rather than in front of it. I certainly was no exception! However, this past year, I made a conscious effort to put myself in front of my own camera more often including doing a self-portrait project. I was surprised by the ways in which those experiences have shaped the way that I now interact with my clients as a photographer.
Here are three of the lessons that I learned through my self-portrait project, as well as the ways that they’ve helped me become a better photographer.
As I began my self-portrait project, one of the first things I noticed was how absolutely awkward it was to be in front of the camera. I initially started out tethering my camera but decided that I really wanted to emulate the way that my clients feel in front of the camera as much as possible, so I ended up simply using a remote.
The remote method was much more challenging and much stranger! I knew what types of posing would be most flattering in theory, but I discovered that when I was in front of the camera, sometimes the posing instructions that I’d typically use left me with a lot of questions.
When I gently rest my hand on my neck, should my fingers be open or closed? Where exactly should my hand be on my neck so that I don’t look like I’m strangling myself? When I’m looking to the side of the camera, exactly how far to the side should I look?
As photographers, we’re around cameras and photography equipment regularly – it’s just a part of our lives. It can be easy to forget that this is often not the case for our clients. Often times, clients have portraits done annually (if even that often) and may arrive for a session feeling just about as comfortable as they might at the dentist.
They know they want to end up with images that are both flattering and capture their personalities, but they aren’t quite sure how to make that happen.
Since I’ve been experimenting with self-portraits and experiencing that awkwardness first hand, I’ve started nearly every session with a brief conversation where I essentially say, “Hey, I know that having your photo taken can feel really awkward. I might ask you to stand or move your body in ways that feel strange and unnatural to you, but try to trust me – I’m on your team, and want to deliver photos that you will absolutely love!”
It’s so simple, but even just acknowledging that sometimes portrait sessions might feel a little strange and uncomfortable can go a long way towards making them much less strange and uncomfortable.
My personal photography style typically tends more towards lifestyle/documentary than styled sessions. As such, I don’t often give a ton of complicated posing directions or wardrobe instructions for my sessions.
To model that, I tried taking self-portraits in a whole variety of clothing options. I captured myself wearing everything from a hoodie sweatshirt to a dressy sweater and scarf. I tried taking portraits with my hair up as well as down, and I experimented with heavy makeup as well as no makeup. Also, I tried posing in the ways that I usually sit or stand, followed by some of my “go-to” gentle posing techniques for women.
I knew that both posing and wardrobe/styling were important, but I’m not sure that I realized just how important they were until I was able to see some side-by-side images of myself in different poses and the same pose with different clothing choices.
The long sleeves here are important to put more emphasis on my face, as opposed to the arms like the image on the left.
I now find myself being a bit more specific when clients ask for clothing suggestions. For example, prior to my self-portrait project, I probably would have told clients, “The most important factor is to wear something you feel comfortable in. As a general rule, most people look great in jewel tones.”
Now, I’d be more likely to say something like, “The most important factor is wearing something that you feel comfortable and confident in! When it comes to portraits, I recommend that you wear a jewel-toned jacket or cardigan with a solid black, grey, or white tank top or t-shirt underneath, which allows us so much versatility in your images.”
Similarly, I’ve found myself giving more detailed instructions when it comes to posing, often even using my own body to demonstrate exactly what I mean. Most clients were excited to receive more specific instructions to follow – it leaves less open to interpretation, which in turn makes them feel more confident that they’ll love the end result of our session.
Since I wasn’t working with my camera tethered to my laptop, I had absolutely no idea how things were looking as I was shooting, so hearing comments from people as they walked by was huge! When one of my daughters walked by and said,”Oops! I can’t see your head!”, I knew I had to stop and make adjustments right away.
Any sort of feedback like that was helpful, but when someone positively affirmed how the images were looking, it held a lot more importance than I would have thought!
For example, one afternoon a neighbor friend drove by and hollered something positive out her window as I was working on a self-portrait in the front yard. That simple comment gave me a huge confidence boost, and the next images in the set were significantly better than any of the ones I’d taken previously.
I’m an introvert by nature, and can sometimes have a tendency to go inside my head while I’m working. My brain is sometimes going a mile a minute, and I can forget to communicate what I’m thinking or seeing to those in front of my lens.
Since practicing self-portraits, I have really focused on positively affirming my family, friends, and clients as they’re in front of my lens. Telling them what an amazing job they’re doing with super awkward posing makes a difference. Commenting on how much you love the images so far is huge as well. Commenting on real attributes that make the person in front of your camera feel incredible makes a huge difference.
Give your friends, family, and clients the necessary feedback and positive affirmations that will allow their confidence in front of the camera to grow, and it will be a game changer for your sessions!
Have you ever done a self-portrait project? If so, what did you learn? Please share your experience and self-portraits in the comments section below.
The post 3 Lessons I Learned by Doing a Self-Portrait Project by Meredith Clark appeared first on Digital Photography School.
For myself and many other photographers, probably you included, one of the more difficult parts of the hobby is figuring out where to shoot things like nature photography.
If you have a big trip or a vacation planned, whether it be an exotic location or somewhere not so far away, then that question is answered for you. But for evening shoots after work, spontaneous sessions or weekend outings, a bit of planning is necessary. Enter the wonders of your local parks!
A park can take many forms and can exist in any location, and almost any country. It is generally defined as a “large public green area, used for recreation”. They come in all sizes, and each features their own unique variety of plants, animals, and landscapes.
Parks can be as small as a local city or county park, a larger state park, all the way up to a massive national park. Their common thread is that they have been well-defined and set aside for public use, and are perfect areas to practice nature photography.
Parks are unique and useful to us photographers because they can be a testing ground for new equipment, a safe practice area for new techniques, or a fully-realized background for your real work.
Parks are attractive because they are a (usually) safe, well-defined area, a miniature representation of the local environment. They give you a small, diverse biosphere of flora and fauna, all wrapped up in one package.
Parks are also numerous, and you have a lot to choose from, regardless of size or classification. Even national parks, with the fewest number of all the types, are plentiful. Over 100 countries worldwide have lands designated as national parks, including 59 in the United States alone. This doesn’t even count other sites in the national registry, such as forests, seashores, and historic sites.
The bottom line is you’ll never have a lack of subject matter when visiting one of these areas.
Preparing for a photo shoot in a park isn’t really any different than most other outdoor environments. You’ll want to pack and check all of your normal gear, including:
Since you’re shooting outside, you also need to be prepared for events and conditions outside your control, such as the weather. Depending on the size of the park, there may be hiking and long walking involved. So, you’ll also need to plan ahead and consider items such as:
As with any outdoor excursions, you’ll need to plan ahead a little, both physically and mentally, when venturing out into a park, especially a state or national park or forest.
First, just make sure you know what you’re getting into. If you’re going to a large, sprawling national park and have never been to the area before, then it’s pretty tough to physically scout the location before your shoot. The best you can do in that situation is to do as much research as you can online, or talk to friends or co-workers that have been to the area before.
For a smaller park, or one that’s close by, the best idea is to scout the location first. What hazards are present? Native animals? Plants?
Here in Florida, we have a tree (uncommon, but it exists in the wild) called a Manchineel. Everything about it from the leaves to the wood itself is extremely toxic. Even brushing up against it can end badly. These are the kinds of things you want to research well before you explore a park, especially the larger ones that may take you into more remote areas.
On the fauna side of possible dangers, you have the local wildlife. Here in Florida, it’s primarily alligators and snakes, although some areas of our state are habitats for small populations of bears and panthers. First aid and snakebite kits are a smart idea for almost any wilderness area around the world. Other areas of the United States and around the world have larger animals that can pose a serious threat to explorers and photographers, such as bears.
Black bears alone exist in approximately 40 of the 50 states in the U.S., and they, along with the other species, need to be respected and avoided. Many photographers and tourists have been making headlines in recent years by getting too close to bears, without thinking of the possible outcomes to themselves or the bear.
While unprovoked attacks aren’t very common, it is very easy to surprise or startle a bear, and it’s always recommended to carry bear spray in the wild when in bear territory.
The possibilities of subjects in an outdoor park are almost endless. Some of us will go just to shoot a sunrise or sunset, while others want to take home photos of local wildlife.
Landscape photographers can focus on grabbing a shot of that sunset, or other features of the environment, such as lakes, mountains, and rivers. Open, panoramic scenes captured with wide-angle lenses are a favorite, as are forests, trees and the changes in the color of leaves. Flowing water such as waterfalls or fast moving rivers are good candidates for a long exposure photo, and even plains and prairies can be framed into beautiful minimalist compositions.
There is a never-ending variety of flora and fauna that can be photographed, such as flowers, trees, plants, and animals such as small mammals, reptiles, and an endless variety of birds. Many parks have some species that are concentrated in that area and offer opportunities for us photographers that we can’t get anywhere else.
Here on the west Florida coast, my nearest state park is home to the Florida Scrub Jay, endemic to this area, and concentrated higher in this one park than anywhere else. It’s almost a rite of passage to photograph one. Many parks around the world are home to their own species as well.
Finally, we need to address an overall importance when discussing capturing images of our beautiful environment; we as photographers need to be nature’s greatest champions.
I would suspect that most of us who love to be outdoors, already have a desire to be careful when enjoying our parks. But as we’ve seen recently in the news, not all of us take that into consideration. The commonly heard phrase, “leave nothing but footprints” may sound cliche, but it really is a best-case scenario of what we should strive for as we enjoy the great outdoors.
The plants and animals that make their home in these areas were likely there long before we visited. It is our responsibility to leave the areas as we found them, without adding or taking away anything from the environment. This will ensure that future generations of photographers and explorers will be able to enjoy those areas too.
What was your best experience visiting and photographing a park for nature photography? Where do you want to go that you haven’t been yet? And what tips would you give others who are ready to visit and document the great outdoors? Please comment and let’s discuss below.
The post Tips for Doing Nature Photography at Your Local Parks by Tim Gilbreath appeared first on Digital Photography School.
I love photographs of foggy scenes. It can be a view of a busy street, a sprawling city skyline or a secluded mountain valley. Mist and fog are transformative and can give a well-known location a completely different feeling, filled with mystery and depth.
There are so many things you can do with your foggy images to give them the kind of mood and feel you want.
In this article, I’m going to choose an image that features fog and edit it a few different ways. I’ll show you a few simple factors that you can put to use to help you learn to completely control the mood of your misty and foggy images.
This is the photograph that was kind enough to lend itself to be a guinea pig for our little experiments.
It’s an image I made early one morning in the mountains of Virginia and of course, it is a RAW file…for now. Below we’re going to look at how some easy changes can literally transform this photo.
We all know about contrast to some extent. At its core, contrast is simply the difference between light and dark in an image. When there’s a big difference and the lights are bright and the shadows are dark the photo is said to be high contrast. The opposite is true with low contrast photos where there is a very little gradient between the lights and darks.
The reason I’m refreshing you with a little Photography 101 is that fog inherently makes most images low contrast. You can choose to further reduce the contrast or bump things up as I’ve done in our first example.
Here’s our test photo with a large amount of increased contrast (using the Contrast and Blacks sliders) applied.
A relatively large amount of contrast in a misty scene instantly changes the tone of the photo by adding a sense of brooding. The light areas become brighter and the shadows deepen. High contrast images, in general, have more impact but that’s more of a preference than a rule.
Alternatively, you can choose to embrace the softness of foggy images and decrease the contrast even more. Now I’ve lessened the contrast using the Tone Curve to fade out the tree.
Low contrast can make your image extremely delicate which imparts an artsy, nearly abstract vibe. Oddly enough, low contrast foggy photos can be surprisingly workable in black and white as well.
Believe it or not, color temperature has one of the most perceivable impacts on photos of fog and mist. Perhaps even more so than anything the feel of the photograph and how it conveys mood is determined by the temperature of the color tones.
Now I’m going to take that high contrast version of the photo from the last example and change nothing but the color temperature. The version is nice and soothing cooled down. I adjusted the White Balance from 6150K to 4350K.
Next, let’s warm the color temperature back up considerably from the base 6150K to 7350K
See what a difference that makes? Misty and foggy images with a cooler color temperature are more ethereal and give the viewer a more ominous, darker experience. On the flip side of the temperature coin, warmer toned images are generally viewed as more upbeat and comforting.
It’s funny how changing the color temperature can have such a drastic effect on identical scenes.
The overall all brightness of a photo is very subjective but when it comes to foggy photos there’s a very particular change you can make to your photo to take it from mundane to wow. “Wowdane” maybe? You know what I mean.
You accomplish this by making use of your old friend in Lightroom, the Graduated Filter. I’m going to use the cool toned image from the last example but the only change I’ll make is to add some increased exposure in the top portion of the photo.
By brightening up the fog in the tree top the entire photo becomes more impactful and punchy. The fog seems to “glow” and becomes more like something out of the pages of a storybook.
Experiment with your photo by moving the Graduated Filter around to add directional lighting or even opting for the Radial Filter to localize the effect even more. I use a Graduated or Radial Filters (or both) in virtually all of my landscape and nature photos and it becomes especially useful in those which feature fog or mist.
Some final thoughts on working with images of mist and fog include using the suggestions above, but I also encourage you to revisit the same image more than once while editing. Look for ways to change the mood and tone of the photo by changing the color temperatures. Don’t be afraid to go to extremes with contrast.
The great thing about working with these types of scenes is that they offer incredible creative opportunities for both you and the viewer.
The post Tips for How to Enhance the Mood in Your Foggy Photos by Adam Welch appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Last week your challenge was antiques or old things. So let’s change it up and do the opposite this week.
I photographed my new Fuji X00F when I first got it.
Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.
Image by dPS writer Meredith Clarke.
You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.
The post Weekly Photography Challenge – New Things by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Sony recently released their newest full frame camera, available in April 2018 (at the time of this writing), the Sony a7 III. There’s been a lot of talk about it – let’s take a look at a few hands-on field tests to see what all the fuss is about.
Check out some of the specs and features of the new Sony a7 III in this official product feature from Sony.
Some of the specs for the Sony a7 III at a glance include:
Things missing:
Dave Altizer from Kinotika goes over some of the specs of the Sony a7 III and why you might be excited about this entry-level full frame camera. Coming in at $ 2000, it has many features of its big siblings the a7R III and a9, without the big hit to your pocketbook.
In this video from PhotoRec TV, hear why this photographer’s headline for the Sony a7 III is,
“With this camera, there isn’t much to complain about!”
He talks about some of the differences between the Sony a7 III and the a7R III, as well as the high-end a9. Also, learn about some of the things he’s excited about in regards to this new camera including the longer lasting battery, dual slots, the joystick, USB-C, and touchscreen interface.
Finally, in this video go more in-depth with a hands-on review from Sony artisan photographer, Jason Lanier. He puts the camera through its paces testing the autofocus, burst shooting rate, buffer time, and more. This is a really helpful, real-world review that may help you decide if this camera is for you.
If you found that one valuable he’s got another video where he tests Canon lenses on the Sony a7 III with amazing results. And he doesn’t even own a Canon camera body!
What are your thoughts? I don’t know about you, but just watching these videos I was really impressed with its fast focus abilities. This could be a game-changer for sports or wildlife shooters, or even those doing video. Are you ready to give the Sony a7 III a try?
The post Introducing the new Sony a7 III – Let’s see what all the fuss is about by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
There’s no feeling quite like the dread that sets in when you are reviewing your photos from the day and you notice that some of those stellar images you snapped are soft and out of focus. For photographers who like to shoot with a wide aperture, sometimes hitting your focus is like walking on a tightrope – and missing by just a tiny little bit can seriously ruin your day.
The watch is the focal point of this shot, and some careful technique helped ensure that it stayed tack sharp.
Editing can do a lot to save a picture; you can make areas of it brighter or darker, you can modify colors and add your own distinctive style – but there’s no way to completely fix a shot where the focus simply missed.
Fortunately, when shooting in controlled situations, there’s a useful trick for making sure each and every shot is in razor-sharp focus.
In a perfect world, cameras would adjust correctly to the lighting and dynamics of every shot and deliver focus with pinpoint precision. Unfortunately, reality gets in the way.
There are a few reasons why your shots sometimes come out a bit soft, meaning that the camera has decided to focus a bit too far in front or behind the target you were actually aiming for.
Cameras determine focus based on contrast. When you try to focus on an object that doesn’t have much contrast, say a smooth white wall, for example, there isn’t contrast for the camera to lock onto. Sometimes the camera will hunt for a focus point, shifting back and forth for a few seconds, and then give up. Sometimes the camera focus will latch onto a different part of the picture, putting your true subject out of focus.
This shot was supposed to be focused on the red ornament, but finer details in the background and the flicker of lights grabbed the attention of the camera’s autofocus instead.
After flipping over to manual focus and choosing the focus point more deliberately, the final shot looks a whole lot better!
This can also be a problem in low light conditions. Once again, the camera doesn’t have any strong contrasts to grab onto and can miss its target.
As much as we hate to admit it, user error can cause some missed focus problems too. If you lock your focus on a target, then either move the camera or wait too long and allow the target to move significantly from where it once was, the resulting shot isn’t going to be razor-sharp.
Another common problem for shooters using autofocus is when the focus locks on an unintended part of the image, leaving the main subject blurry. One good way to counter this is to choose a more specific focus mode, such as single point focus.
The focus of this shot is tight on the King, emphasizing the piece’s importance in the game.
Here the autofocus grabbed a different part of the frame, leaving this picture without a clear subject or purpose.
Some blur that looks like missed focus could also be the result of using a shutter speed that is too slow. The resulting movement in the camera from pressing down the shutter button can blur out the fine details in your shot.
If your shot isn’t turning out right, take time to consider whether it might be because of one of these common problems before you throw your camera at the wall in frustration.
Live View is a mode where you can see through your lens using the LCD screen on the back of your camera. It can be used to pinpoint your focus in situations when your subject isn’t moving and your camera is on a tripod.
The advantage of using the camera’s LCD screen is that you get a 100% accurate look at how the picture is going to turn out once you press the shutter button.
The camera is set up in Live View mode, ready for precision focusing.
In Live View mode, you can focus up to 5 times magnification.
Some cameras can even zoom to 10 times magnification, helping guarantee that the focus is precise, even at f/1.8.
This technique is mostly useful at wider apertures when your camera’s autofocus may miss its target, even with using single point focus. When shooting at a wide aperture of f/4 or lower, the margin for error is very slim. With an extremely narrow depth of field, missing your focus by even a couple of centimeters could make those crucial details in your shot looks soft.
If you are taking a landscape photograph and are using a narrow aperture (such as f/16) to keep as much detail in focus, there is a lot more room for error.
For precision focusing, the single point focus mode goes a long way.
This is a mode where you can choose just one point for the camera to automatically focus with, rather than allowing the camera to consider the entire scene.
Single point mode was a good choice here in order to make sure the focus was accurate on the orange insect.
When you need to nail a tough shot on a moving subject, single point focus is definitely the way to go. For stationary subjects, however, shooting in manual focus mode and using Live View to ensure your focus is tack sharp removes any potential for trouble. Even single point focus can have issues with accuracy in dark or low contrast situations.
Read more here: 6 Ways to Use Live View to Get Sharper Image and here 4 Tips for Using for Live View to Get Sharper and More Creative Images.
Discovering what subjects you like to photograph and chasing unique moments with a camera is a thrill. And practicing your focusing technique and using tricks like Live View focusing can help you make sure you come home with more and more keepers after every shoot!
The post Focus Challenges and How Live View Can Help You Get Razor-Sharp Images by Frank Myrland appeared first on Digital Photography School.
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