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Wide Angle Versus Telephoto Lenses for Beautiful Landscape Photography

28 Sep

The post Wide Angle Versus Telephoto Lenses for Beautiful Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Will Crites-Krumm.

WILLCK 1 SNEFFELS

An easy assumption to make, when shooting landscapes, is to use a wide-angle lens. After all, most landscape photographers favor wide-angle lenses for a reason: They naturally give you the widest view and allow you to get the full landscape into the frame, from the foreground to the horizon.

Wide-angle lenses also have the widest depth of field, so you get the whole landscape in focus. And their distortion enlarges objects in the foreground, letting you show off close-up details. The same distortion also emphasizes leading lines, enhancing your compositions and giving your image a more dynamic feel. But when you default to wide-angle glass, you miss many hidden opportunities offered by telephoto lenses.

Field of view: The whole and its parts

This is the most basic difference between the two lens types:

Wide lenses give you a wide view; telephoto lenses give you a narrow view.

And while landscapes look great in their entirety, it’s a good habit to take a moment and look for details. These details are beautiful elements of the landscape that might get shrunken or ignored in the expanse of a wide-angle image. This is where your telephoto lens comes in. Its narrow field of view is perfect for trimming the extra elements and for focusing on small, beautiful scenes like the curve of a mountain, a reflection in a far-off pond, or the silhouette of a tree.

WILLCK 2 YOSEMITE

In the two images above, you can see this in action. They were both taken from Olmstead point in Yosemite National Park, one with a wide-angle lens and the other with a telephoto.

In the first image, the wide-angle lens shows off the total landscape. It includes both sides of the valley, the up-close textures of the rocks, and the far-off peak of Half Dome. In the second image, the telephoto lens brings the eye right up to the mountains, showing off their shapes and the details of the geology.

Another pair of images (below) shows this effect even more dramatically. The first image is not just a wide-angle image, but an aerial shot as well, taken from a small airplane over the Okavango Delta in Botswana. From this vantage point, all of the individual elements of the landscape become incredibly small and your eyes pay more attention to their arrangement than their individual shapes. In the second image, also from the Okavango area but this time on the ground, a telephoto lens is used to draw attention to the beautiful curves of a single Acacia tree.

WILLCK 3 OKAVANGO wide

WILLCK 4 OKAVANGO tele

Depth of field: Focusing the eye

The second major difference between wide-angle and telephoto lenses is the innate size of their depth of field.

Put succinctly, the higher the focal length, the narrower the area of focus. In practice, this means that when shooting wide, it’s much easier for you to get everything in focus, from the grass at your feet to the ridge on the horizon. This is especially true when you’re trying to use your lens’s sharpest apertures (the so-called sweet spot).

However, a narrower depth of field is much better for isolating your subject from the background, and this is where your telephoto lens comes into play. Try shooting a close-up detail at a wide aperture, using the landscape as a nice, creamy bokeh backdrop.

WILLCK 5 FLATTOPS

WILLCK 6 DENVER

The two images above are perfect examples of this effect. In the first image, the wide-angle lens brings the whole landscape into focus, from the close-up sunflowers to the far-off mountains.

In the second image, shooting with a telephoto blurs out the flowers and mountains in the background, turning them into a nice soft background for the main sunflower.

Depth compression: Playing with size

It’s no secret that wide-angle lenses expand the sense of depth in an image by enlarging elements in the foreground and shrinking those in the back. This is great for creating images that make you feel like you could step right into the frame.

On the flip side, you run the risk of making towering, awesome mountains in the distance look like puny hills. Telephoto lenses, on the other hand, compress depth, causing objects near and far to appear more similar in size. A compressed sense of depth is great for abstracting a scene and bringing out its graphical qualities. Colorful forest canopies, layered mountain ridges, and curving sand dunes are all great subjects for this kind of shooting.

WILLCK 7 MICA

In the left image above, notice how the wide-angle lens exaggerates the size of the flowers in the foreground at the expense of the mountains in the background. The mountains are so tall that they’re shrouded in clouds, but the lens keeps them from looking quite as grand.

Pull out a telephoto lens, and you can zoom straight in on the mountain, showing off the contrast between the rugged outline of the peak and the soft wispy form of the cloud (right).

WILLCK 8 BIGBEND wide

WILLCK 9 BIGBEND tele

Here are two more images, both taken at the same location in Big Bend National Park, that show off this effect. In the first image, you can see that the wide-angle lens increases the size of the plants and rocks in the foreground while shrinking the large desert mountains in the background. In the second image, a telephoto lens flattens out the depth of the many desert ridges, calling attention to their graphic patterns and outlines.

Summary: Space versus object

Have a hard time remembering all these details? Here’s an easy way to summarize it with a simple idea:

Wide-angle lenses show off space, telephotos show off objects.

The wide-angle lens’s big field of view, ease of uniform focus, and depth-distorting abilities are great at showing off big, expansive landscapes. However, they take focus away from individual elements within the landscape in favor of showing the whole. Telephoto lenses are naturally the opposite: they’re great at showing off the size, shape, and intricacy, of detail of individual elements within the landscape. But their narrow field of view, small depth of field, and depth-compressing qualities make it hard to capture the landscape as a whole.

WILLCK 10 WILLOW wide

You can analyze this pair of images to see exactly how all of these techniques work together. Starting with the photo above, you can see how the wide-angle lens fits the whole landscape into the frame, from close-up rocks to far off peaks and sky. Because of the lens’s large depth of field, the whole landscape is in acceptable focus as well. The lens’s depth distortion is readily apparent, as well: the foreground rocks look very large, creating a pleasing sense of depth, and emphasizing the leading lines that draw the eye from the edges of the frame to the center. Overall, you get a very good sense of the space and the expansiveness of the valley.

WILLCK 11 WILLOW tele

This image was taken in the same place, but the use of a telephoto lens captures it in a very different way. The photo brings out a single element of the landscape; look closely and you can see this peak in the previous image on the top right. It allows the viewer to appreciate its subtle details.

Because of the telephoto lens’s narrow depth of field, the sky is slightly out-of-focus while leaving the details of the peak itself perfectly sharp. And most of all, the compressed sense of depth flattens the image, showing off the rocky mass of the mountain, and calling attention to the beautiful curve of the ridgeline. Overall, you get a great sense of the mountain as a solid object, rather than a bounded space.

When to shoot what?

The best way to know which lens to use is to get out there, look, and think. What part of the landscape are you most drawn to? Does the landscape’s expansiveness give it its character? Are there stunning details surrounded by less photogenic elements? Are you shooting spaces or objects?

WILLCK 12 ZODIAC

That said, my personal strategy is to just shoot both, because almost any landscape has enough beauty that just one type of lens isn’t enough to get to all of it.

The post Wide Angle Versus Telephoto Lenses for Beautiful Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Will Crites-Krumm.

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Weekly Photography Challenge – Kitchen objects

26 Sep

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Kitchen objects appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

This week it’s simple! We’d love to see you take some regular, everyday object that’s in your kitchen and photograph it! The challenge is to photograph it in a way that adds interest. That might be through perspective (shooting along a bench as I have done with my orange, below) or using a lamp, torch, led light, flash to add some extra atmosphere to your morning coffee.

Use the #dPSKitchenThings hashtag wherever you post!

Here’s that orange! (It wasn’t actually that tasty, it was off the small orange tree, potted, out the back of my house)

Weekly Photography Challenge – Kitchen objects — Sony a7 Mk3 with a 55mm f/1.8 lens at 1.8 for 1/60th ISO 100

Trying to use a knife to add a leading line of sorts, to bring your viewer’s eye into your subject.

Here’s a neat article on food portraits if your object is food! clickety click

Photographing the espresso below, I used the Sony app to trigger my camera remotely and had a little Aputure MW LED light just out of frame to light up the subject but keep the rest of the scene a little darker.

Great! Where do I upload my photos?

Simply upload your shot into the comments 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 favourite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.

Weekly Photography Challenge – Looking Up

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSKitchenThings to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

Follow us on Instagram?

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Kitchen objects appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

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10 Incredible Bird Photography Tips for Beginners

22 Sep

The post 10 Incredible Bird Photography Tips for Beginners appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Prathap DK.

What is the most important factor in getting your bird photographs noticed by a large audience? Is it the camera or the lens or the bird?

Bald Eagle Flying Away With A Catch

Imagine you have a Canon 1D X Mark III or a Nikon D5 and an 800mm lens. You have been to a place to photograph the magnificent bald eagles. Everything seems perfect! Isn’t it?

But what if you do not know what makes a good bird photograph? Do you think, just by shooting a burst of photographs, you’ll get the best results?

Definitely not. You may get snapshots, but not photos.

“There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.” – Ansel Adams

Today you will learn some of the core principles of bird photography. These will give you an understanding of what makes a good bird photo.

1. You don’t need expensive lenses for great bird photography

A great bird photograph does involve several factors, such as:

Quality and direction of the light
Composition
Knowledge about the bird and its activities
Background
Knowledge about the gear you are using
Proper settings
Proper exposure
Your position
3 + 1 Ps (Patience, Perseverance, Practice + Passion)

You see, it takes a lot to become a good bird photographer. A decent APS-C or DX-format camera body with a telephoto lens of up to 300mm is more than sufficient to really get great bird photographs.

It is important to realize that bird photography is much more than just the camera or the lens. There is no denying the fact that the longer the lens, the easier it is to photograph birds that are skittish. But the lens itself cannot make a great bird photograph.

Also, if you do not have a longer telephoto lens, nothing stops you from taking a great photograph of birds like mallard ducks, geese, gulls, and herons that are easily approachable. If you cannot take a close-up of a bald eagle, nothing stops you from taking a unique photograph of a bald eagle in its habitat.

Everything boils down to how you view the situation. “Is the glass half empty or half full?”

2. Light and composition

Green Heron Standing Tall Photography is all about light. Light has a few characteristics that will make a photograph wonderful.

Early morning and late afternoon light is usually the best time for bird photography. The light during these times is soft. As a bonus, the birds are very active.

Soft light has some wonderful characteristics, such as:

It does not cast harsh shadows on the bird
It brings out a glow in the bird’s plumage
It creates a catchlight in the bird’s eye

Composing a bird photograph helps you convey your message in the best possible way. Bird photography composition is generally very simple. Following a few basic composition principles will help you make a difference:

Use the rule of thirds compositional technique to place the bird off-center
Use color contrast by aiming for a complementary background
Fill the frame with the bird
Use a clean background

3. Transport the viewer into the bird’s world

We see our world at five to six feet high, but birds see the world in few inches to few feet. To get a feeling of the bird’s world, get down on their level!

Go low and go slow.

Always try to photograph the birds on their eye level, except for birds in flight, of course. Getting down low has greater benefits that will overshadow any of your complaints, such as not wanting to bend down, lie down, etc. Some of the obvious benefits are:

You get more intimate photographs of birds since you will get eye contact
You will get pleasing blur both in the foreground and background
You make the bird less scared since you can hardly move
You will transport the viewer into the bird’s world

Goslings Crossing the Road

4. It’s all in the eye

Take a look at any photograph of a bird. What is the first thing you want to see?

It’s the eye, right?

We tend to make an eye connection with any living being. It is no different than with birds. The eyes are the windows to the soul. If there is no light in the eyes, then they look dull or lifeless. Birds look lively when there is light in their eye.

This light in the eye is called a catchlight.

Sparrow perching on a tree branch

By following a few guidelines you can easily get better bird photographs:

Always keep the bird’s eye in sharp focus
Check for a catchlight in the bird’s eye (this is easy to get if the bird is front-lit)
Make sure to photograph from the bird’s eye level

5. Fill the frame

In bird photography, we generally photograph an individual bird. When photographing individual birds, it is always a good idea to fill the frame.

Advantages of filling the frame with the bird are:

It is easy for the viewer to focus on the bird
It is easy to achieve a pleasing blur or bokeh effect in the background
It is easy to properly expose for the bird
It is easy to compose in the field

6. Tell a story

Storytelling in bird photography should not be confused with stories in books and newspapers. Storytelling is a way to express the time of the day, mood, place, or activity of the bird in a single photograph. Viewers should be able to picture themselves in the scene.

Simply put, a photograph of a bird plus its surroundings will give a better sense of story than just the bird filling the frame. Though the story may not always be true.

Great Egret in Misty Morning

Here are few tips you can follow while you photograph a bird in its habitat:

Make the bird an integral part of the photograph by including its natural habitat
Show the interaction of birds if there is more than one bird in the photograph
Indicate the weather conditions by including snow, rain, or mist
Take photographs during sunrise and sunset
Show season by including flowers in bloom, autumn colors, or snow

7. Capture their action and behavior

Birds are always in action. They hardly sit still. Capturing birds in action involves more effort and patience compared to photographing perched birds.

Here are a few tips for capturing birds in action:

Photograph early in the morning or late in the afternoon when birds are very active
Use burst mode to take several photographs during the action
Track the bird until focus is locked before pressing the shutter
Learn to anticipate the action either by observing or reading about birds

Juvenile Blue Heron with a Fish

Birds tend to ignore you when they are very hungry. It is very easy to photograph them in action during these times. But care should be taken not to disturb them and to maintain considerable distance.

Capturing a bird’s behavior is much tougher than any other aspect of bird photography. This is generally because birds become alert the moment they see you.

The alert bird is always trying to fly away, so you’ll rarely see its behavior. You can observe the actual behaviors of a bird when it is truly comfortable.

There are few ways to make a bird comfortable:

Use a natural place to hide, like a bush or tree or something that obscures you
Wait patiently until the bird ignores you
Visit the location several days in a row until the bird becomes comfortable with your presence or you get the right opportunity

Juvenile Great Egret Behavior

Remember to research and learn everything about the bird you are photographing. This will definitely make you a better bird photographer; also, you will enjoy knowing about the bird.

8. Capture their magnificent flight

The most interesting part of bird photography is capturing their magnificent flight. This is very tricky for beginners and pros alike. It is not easy to take flight photographs that will wow viewers.

Your success photographing birds in flight largely depends on the bird, as well as the technique that you employ. Smaller birds are generally very erratic in their flight and also a bit difficult to track, since they are generally small in the frame. But larger birds are slightly less swift and are not as difficult to track.

If you want to be successful with flight photography, start with larger, slower-moving birds. Learn all the field techniques to capture the perfect photographs of these birds.

Belted Kingfisher in Flight

Here are some simple tips that will help you capture those magnificent flight photographs:

Learn about the bird’s flight patterns
Know the bird’s landing and take-off patterns
If there is more than one bird, it is almost always the case that, if one flies, the rest will follow suit
Track the bird for a while and let the camera achieve focus before pressing the shutter
Use Aperture Priority so you do not have to worry much about the changing light conditions

9. The background makes the picture

This is one of my favorite questions: Is it the background or the bird that makes the picture?

Go through all your favorite bird photographs and see it for yourself.

Except for extreme close-up portraits of birds, every other type of bird photograph will look great when the background is clean and complements the bird.

Seagull the Eagle

It is very important to keep an eye on the background while taking bird photographs. Just follow these simple tips:

Avoid taking bird photographs when the background is too distracting
Avoid taking bird photographs when the background is plain and boring
Wait for the bird to assume a good position or change your position to get an interesting background
Choose maximum aperture values to throw the background slightly, or completely, out of focus

10. Practice with common birds

I urge you to practice photographing common birds. You might have understood by now that these techniques are not dependent on your camera, your lens, or the bird. I was using an 18-200mm lens for the first four years of my bird photography. I learned and practiced most of my birding techniques with common birds like seagulls, mallards, geese, and herons.

I spend most of my time photographing these common birds, and I challenged myself to make some unique photographs of them; this challenge has fueled my passion for a long time.

I put more importance on learning and practicing photography than on whatever gear I possess. I am very happy to say that I learned most of the photography basics here at Digital Photography School.

I hope my story so far is an inspiration to you to embrace the beauty of these common birds.

Wrap up

Barn Swallow Taking Off Focus your time and energy on learning all the core principles outlined above. Prove to yourself that you have the passion to go out and photograph birds every day, or as often as you can.

Remember that proper techniques will always outsmart equipment. Make every attempt to create amazing photographs of the common birds. Enjoy photographing birds. That is the secret to success.

The post 10 Incredible Bird Photography Tips for Beginners appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Prathap DK.

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Why It’s Important to Pay Attention to Your Backgrounds in Photography

21 Sep

The post Why It’s Important to Pay Attention to Your Backgrounds in Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.

In today’s article, you’re going to learn about the importance of backgrounds in photography. Knowing how to best use the background will have a big impact on the success of your photo.

You’re going to discover the different approaches to dealing with the background, and how that background will then work as a counterweight to your main subject.

So turn your eye away from the main subject, and see what a good background will do for your final image.

backgrounds in photography — The strong pattern in the background leads the eye to the model, who is the main subject in this portrait photo.

Background or main subject?

The answer to this question is, of course, both.

As a photographer, you need to pay equal attention to the main subject and the background. It’s easy to lose track of the background while you focus on your main subject. Take a little longer composing your photo and look to the background. You’re looking to avoid clutter in the background while lining up leading lines with your main subject.

Composing with the background

The background is an important aspect of portrait and still life photography. And the background often takes up the entire photograph when shooting landscapes, so you pay particular attention to it by default.

So what are you looking for in the background, when the main focus of the image is your main subject? The answer is design elements, such as:

Lines: Are there leading lines in the background? Then make sure they lead the eye to the main subject. Equally, make sure the background is compositionally sound. This will often mean positioning the subject in the left or right third of the frame.
Patterns: Is there a textured background such as a brick wall behind your subject? Make sure that this fills the background.
Minimalism: Avoid background clutter for a more minimalist photo. Step to the side if this removes an unwanted element from your photo such as a lamp post or a person.
Frames: Like leading lines, if there is a natural frame you can use in the background then line this up with your main subject.

Work with the background or remove it?

You have a choice as a photographer whether you want to use the background in your frame, or whether you want to eliminate it.

The choice is an artistic one, and for certain types of photography (such as street photography), you’ll certainly want to include the background.

So let’s look at these two approaches.

The story is in the background

The background is vital in that it gives your photo context. How your main subject interacts with the background gives your photo more narrative, and hence it becomes a stronger photo. That’s not an excuse to include clutter, though; you should still look to see what elements can be removed from the background.

The ideal photo then shows your main subject, and just enough of the background to provide that story. So how will you achieve this?

Focal length: A change in focal length can have a big impact, especially on the background. Longer focal lengths will allow you to compress the background behind your main subject, but at the (likely) cost of losing narrative content that would have enhanced the photo.
Bokeh: Bokeh refers to the out-of-focus portion of your photo. This effect can be controlled, and you don’t need to completely blur out the background. A soft-focus background can give your photo a story without forcing the eye away from your main subject.
Framing: If you happen to find a natural frame in front of your subject, you can use this. Use it to frame the main subject and the area of the background that’s important. Then the frame can naturally remove unwanted elements in your photo by blocking them from view.

Minimal backgrounds in photography

The other way to deal with the background is to remove it, blur it out, or ensure it’s one particular texture.

Taking this approach will give your photo a much more minimal feel, and this can be just as effective when producing an interesting image. This option is well worth considering when you have a very interesting main subject or, even better, a main subject that provides its own story by doing something interesting.

So how will you go about producing minimal backgrounds in photography?

Low-Key: A low-key effect involves perfectly exposing the main subject while underexposing the background. The resultant photo will then have a black background. To achieve this, light your subject with a narrow beam of sunlight or use a strobe with a snoot attached.
Bokeh: Now the aim is to completely blur out the background. The best lenses to do this are prime lenses, and you’ll want to use the largest available aperture. The greatest effect will be achieved when there is a large distance between the main subject and the background.
Texture: Backgrounds like brick walls, metal shop shutters, or concrete blocks can work well here. The aim is to fill the background with a particular pattern and nothing else.
Color block: Again, a wall can work here, but it should be a single color. Alternatively, how about aiming at the sky on a clear day, so you have just blue for your background?

Maximize backgrounds in photography!

Now that you know how important it is to pay attention to the background, how will that change your photography? Are there techniques you use that haven’t been mentioned in this article?

As always, we’d love to see your photos and for you to share your opinions. If you have photos where the background is key to the success of the photo, then please share those in the comments section. And explain why you think the background is so important!

The post Why It’s Important to Pay Attention to Your Backgrounds in Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.

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The Ultimate Guide To Low Light Photography: Tips, Settings, Cameras, Lenses

19 Sep

Low light photography is one of those types of photography that when done well can produce amazing photos but when not done well can leave you feeling a bit disappointed. It’s a type of photography that at first can seem quite complicated as if you need a PhD to master. Yet all you actually need is a few simple pieces Continue Reading

The post The Ultimate Guide To Low Light Photography: Tips, Settings, Cameras, Lenses appeared first on Photodoto.

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Weekly Photography Challenge – Details

19 Sep

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Details appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

This week we want you to focus on ‘details’

Last week we went with self-portraits and there were many of you that submitted really great images, thanks! This week, we want to see ‘detail’ and that could be a detail of yourself if you wanted to continue the theme “here’s my eyeball” seems to be a thing

I’ve decided to photograph the end of a fallen tree at the local park, the cracks, the rings and the ants! #dPSDetail

fallen tree, wood rings, ants, detail, dps

There’s detail in everything, while not necessarily being a macro photograph, though you can if you want, the detail is a selection of the larger image. An example might be that the photograph above is a detail shot of the scene below. Detail photographs are used in a story to help tell that story. Tag your photos #dPSDetail and we look forward to seeing what you come up with!

From last week’s photographs, this was a stand-out from Belgium based photographer, Katrien Stuyck, thanks and congratulations, Katrien!

Great! Where do I upload my photos?

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSDetail to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

Follow us on Instagram?

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Details appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

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5 Tips for Setting the Focus in Your Landscape Photography

13 Sep

The post 5 Tips for Setting the Focus in Your Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jim Hamel.

For many types of photography, the question of where you should set your focus is pretty simple. For example, in portrait photography, there is one simple rule: focus on the eyes. When the eyes aren’t on the same plane of focus, focus on the near eye. End of story.

It is pretty simple with other types of photography, as well. In wildlife photography, you focus on the animal. In fact, in any type of photography where there is a clear subject, you always focus on that subject. That’s not to say it is always easy, but at least it isn’t difficult to figure out.

Foreground sharpness is paramount in many landscape photos.

But what about landscape photography, where you are generally capturing more of a scene than a solitary subject? Where do you focus to ensure that everything in the scene is as sharp as possible? The answer isn’t always so clear.

Therefore, in this article, we’ll cover some tips for helping you know where to set the focus.

Tip 1: Don’t just set the focus at infinity

Again, oftentimes in landscape photography, you are trying to capture a scene rather than a solitary thing. Many times, the scene you are trying to capture is far away from you.

Most lenses have a range of focus values, and once you get beyond a certain distance (often 20-30 feet, or 8-10 meters) the focus is set at infinity. Everything beyond that point will just be infinity. Therefore, if you are taking a picture where most things in the frame are far away, it might seem that you should just set the focus at infinity. If you are using autofocus (and most of us are), you might be inclined to set the focus using something that is very far away from you.

If everything in the frame is truly at infinity, then setting the focus at its maximum distance is not a horrible idea. If there is nothing close to you, then there is just no need to do anything else; you don’t need to overly complicate things. But more commonly there are aspects of the scene that are closer to you than infinity. Where do you set the focus then?

Derryclare

You can get into hyperfocal distance (we’ll talk more about that in a minute) and make this as technical as you want. But often your time is precious when you’re out shooting. The light is changing and things are moving. You can get a pretty good sense of things without resorting to calculations.

As a result, consider this rule of thumb: Set the focus at infinity and then just turn it back a little bit. But there’s an obvious question: How do you define a little bit?

I’m afraid I don’t have a good answer for you. It will vary from lens to lens, but will usually be about a 5-10° turn or just to the highest distance number printed on the lens (if your lens has these numbers).

focus-ring-distance-600px

Why would you want to do that?

Because of the depth of field that will be in your picture (more on depth of field below). Since you are taking an outdoor photo, you will probably not be shooting wide open, or even with a large aperture. So there will likely be some depth depth of field involved. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a large depth of field, but the point is that it gives you some leeway. By pulling the focus forward, that leeway will still get everything out to infinity in focus. It will also get things a little closer in focus, as well.

Tip 2: Try focusing a third of the way into the picture

Many pictures are ruined because the foreground is not sharp. It happens all the time. Therefore, if you have something in your scene that is close to the camera, focus on it. If the ground is prominent in your picture, set your focus close to you. Make sure that foreground is in focus. Often you will set the focus only a few feet in front of you.

But wait a second, you might ask, what about my background? Won’t it be out of focus or blurry?

Probably not. If you’re using your wide-angle lens (and if you are taking an outdoor photo that has a discrete foreground, then you probably are) you will have a wide depth of field, even at moderate to large apertures.

A sharp foregound focus furthers the viewer’s sense that they can walk into the picture.

Tip 3: Focus on the subject matter

Let’s not lose sight of the obvious, though. When you have a definite subject or center of interest in your photo, just focus on that. It is the most important part of your picture, and you absolutely need it in focus.

Don’t worry about your foreground, and don’t worry about your background. Just make sure the subject is in focus. Frankly, if there is a little fall-off in sharpness from your subject, that will probably not be such a bad thing.

Sometimes you just want a definite subject in focus, and having the background start to blur out is just fine, as in this image of a sheep.

Tip 4: Watch the aperture

There are no free lunches in photography. You probably already know that by using a smaller aperture to get a larger depth of field, it will cost you light. The smaller aperture lets in less light, so you will have to use a longer shutter speed (risking blur if you aren’t using a tripod) or raise the ISO (risking digital noise in your picture).

But the smaller aperture will also lead to something called diffraction, particularly in cameras with smaller digital sensors. Therefore, just using the smallest aperture possible isn’t always the answer. You cannot just set your focus anywhere and rely on a super-wide depth of field to save you.

There are two ways around this issue though, which we’ll talk about next.

With everything in the shot at a distance of infinity (30 feet or more), I did not need a wide depth of field to keep everything in focus.

Tip 5: Know Your hyperfocal distance

Hyperfocal distance is just a fancy name for determining how close you can set your focus and still keep your background acceptably sharp. There are apps and calculators that will tell you this distance depending on your aperture, sensor size, and focal length.

For a full explanation of hyperfocal distance along with some charts and links to apps that will calculate it for you, check out this article: How to Find and Use Hyperfocal Distance for Sharp Backgrounds .

An example will illustrate the point made above about backgrounds tending to remain sharp when you are using wide-angle lenses. If you’re using a 16mm lens on a full frame camera and shooting at f/11, your hyperfocal distance is only 2.5 feet. That means you can set the focus on a point just in front of you, and keep everything behind that point sharp.

Knowing the hyperfocal distance will often liberate you to set the focus point quite close, in order to maintain sharp foregrounds in your picture. It also means you often don’t need to use the smallest aperture your lens offers, so you can avoid the effects of diffraction.

Ballintoy-Arch

Tip 6: Consider focus stacking

When the methods above won’t work for you, or you just need to make sure absolutely everything in the photo from front to back is tack-sharp, you may want to consider focus stacking. Here you take multiple pictures of the same scene using different focus points.

Start by setting the aperture of your lens where it is sharpest (also called the sweet spot; if you don’t know, that is usually in the range of f/5.6 – f/8). Take a shot with the focus set close to you, then repeat the process, gradually setting the focus point farther and farther away with each shot. Later you blend your pictures in Photoshop (for more about how to do that check out this article: Maximizing Depth of Field Without Diffraction).

This method is not a cure-all. It obviously won’t work with moving subject matter. In addition, it can be tedious, and you risk slightly moving the camera since you have to twist the focus ring between shots. Still it can be a powerful tool for maintaining focus and sharpness throughout your entire picture.

Setting the focus in landscape photography: Summary

No rule is going to cover every situation when it comes to focus. As with many aspects of photography, you’ll just have to use your own judgment in the field. Hopefully, as you do so, these tips will help you nail the focus and keep the picture tack sharp where it matters.

This week we are doing a series of articles to help you do better nature photography. See previous articles here:

3 Habits Every Outdoor Photographer Should Develop to Avoid Missing Shots
5 Tips for Better Nature Photography
27 Serene Images of the Natural World
Weekly Photography Challenge – Nature
10 Ideas for Photographing Nature in your Backyard
6 Tips for Capturing Character and Personality in Wildlife Photography

The post 5 Tips for Setting the Focus in Your Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jim Hamel.

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Slideshow: Finalists for the 2020 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

12 Sep

Finalists for the 2020 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards recently announced its 44 top images for 2020. Finalists include a smiley fish, a fox in negotiations with a mouse, and a photobombing giraffe. Founded by photographers and conservationists Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam, the global competition is free to enter and aims to showcase the funniest takes on animals in the wild.

The top prize includes a week-long safari in Kenya. There is also a People’s Choice Award that anyone can vote for by clicking on their favorite image. Category and Overall Winners, chosen by a panel of judges including the competition founders, along with the Telegraph’s online travel editor, Oliver Smith, will be announced October 22nd.

Finalist: ‘Smiley’ by Arthur Telle Thiemenn

Animal: Sparisoma cretense

Location of Shot: El Hierro, Canary Islands

Finalist: ‘Tough Negotiations’ by Ayala Fishaimer

Animal: Fox

Location of Shot: Israel

Finalist: ‘Spreading the Wildlife Gossip’ by Bernhard Esterer

Animal: Lions

Location of Shot: Kalahari Desert

Finalist: ‘Crashing into the Picture’ by Brigitte Alcalay Marcon

Animal: Giraffe

Location of Shot: Etosha National Park, Nambia

Finalist: ‘I Could Puke’ by Christina Holfelder

Animal: Gentoo penguin

Location of Shot: Falkland Islands

Finalist: ‘The Inside Joke’ by Femke van Willigen

Animal: Eurasian red squirrel

Location of Shot: Espelo, the Netherlands

Finalist: ‘Lamentation!’ by Jacques Poulard

Animal: Polar bear

Location of Shot: Spitzberg, Germany

Finalist: ‘Like Mother, Like Daughter’ by Jagdeep Rajput

Animal: Asian elephant

Location of Shot: Corbett National Park, India

Finalist: ‘Just Chillin” by Jill Neff

Animal: Racoon

Location of Shot: Jackson, Ohio, USA

Finalist: ‘I Think this Tyre’s Gonna be Flat’ by Kay Kotzian

Animal: Grizzly bears

Location of Shot: Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA

Finalist: ‘Having a Laugh’ by Ken Crossan

Animal: Common seal

Location of Shot: Caithness, Scotland

Finalist: ‘Wait up Mommy, Look What I Got for You!’ by Kunal Gupta

Animal: Elephant

Location of Shot: Kaziranga, India

Finalist: ‘Terry the Turtle Flipping the Bird’ by Mark Fitzpatrick

Animal: Turtle

Location of Shot: Lady Elliot Island, Queensland Australia

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Weekly Photography Challenge – Self Portrait

12 Sep

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Self Portrait appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

It’s been a long time since we pushed a ‘Self Portrait’ challenge in your general direction! These can be very confronting for many reasons, how we see ourselves, confidence, or something as simple as the lack of a tripod (You can put your tripod on a bench, or the floor, or in a tree!) but it’d be great to get as many of us to try this out as possible – it’s not about anything other than learning to photograph people, and who is your most readily available subject? YOU.

One of our resources on self portraiture

I’m one of those crazy (or not?) people that have participated in a 365, got the t-shirt, made a small book, it was fun! But it really goes a long way to showing you a lot about portrait photography, lighting (I used a desk lamp for the longest time!) and how your gear works… But we don’t want to see 365 of these, just one.

A self-portrait doesn’t need to JUST be of you, you can disguise yourself behind a coffee machine, or across a workbench. But set your scene and think about your lighting, and see what you come up with! Here are a couple of helpful resources on portraits for you to have a look at, grab a cup of tea and your camera and get started!
Self Portrait Tips & Examples and A Mirror Self-Portrait challenge from a few years back!

A little shout out to ‘Moncat‘ who submitted this photograph to last week’s ‘Spring’ challenge!

Weekly Photography Challenge – Self Portrait

Great! Where do I upload my photos?

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSSelfPortrait to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

Follow us on Instagram?

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Self Portrait appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

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Shooting Stock Photography: Getting the Most Out of a Single Subject

10 Sep

The post Shooting Stock Photography: Getting the Most Out of a Single Subject appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.

Most photographers who experiment with shooting stock photography quickly become disillusioned. They struggle to see a return on their time and financial investment. Even worse, they turn to fellow photographers for advice and are often told that the stock photography market is dead.

But that isn’t the case. There is still a market for stock photography.

However, to create a revenue stream from shooting stock photography, you need to work smarter. That way, you’ll have a more significant library of images with less investment, and you’ll be able to build a revenue stream from your images much quicker.

What is stock photography?

Stock photography is where a photographer takes images that they’ve already shot and makes them available to businesses for licensing.

In return for a fee, the client can use the pictures in their book or on their website. It usually works out cheaper for the client to use a stock photograph than to commission a photographer to go out and shoot a similar image.

The images are usually managed by an agency, who handles all of the marketing and administration.

Is stock photography dead?

This is the first question that photographers often ask me when they find out I’ve been shooting stock photography for over a decade. I am a relative beginner in the world of stock photography, but I can tell you that, in my experience, it is very worth exploring the stock photography market.

Anyone thinking about shooting stock photography needs to understand that it is a long game to play. You shouldn’t expect instantaneous results. It may take a couple of years to start seeing regular sales that you can predict in your business plan.

But don’t let that put you off. Time spent on photographing and submitting images to stock libraries is an investment in your future income.

Where do stock images come from?

There have always been photographers dedicated to shooting stock photographs. However, many photographers have made a good side income by submitting images that came from other shoots or jobs.

In doing this, photographers have made their images work harder for them by pulling double-duty. The photographer has been paid for their time to shoot the initial photographs. But then they may also get paid for the images again when they are licensed from the photographer’s stock agency.

If you are shooting images specifically for your stock library, then you need to make sure you optimize the way you shoot. Getting a wide variety of photographs from a single subject is the key to quickly seeing regular payments with minimal investment.

Getting more from a single subject

If you have purchased a prop to photograph for your stock photography library, then it makes sense to get maximum return on your investment.

This advice will also work for hiring models or visiting particular locations; just take the general principles and apply them to your subject.

I often shoot stock photography images alongside fine art images. By using the same subject with different props and compositions, you can shoot a wide variety of pictures in a short space of time.

Understand what each stock photography agency that you submit to is looking for. If you shoot a variety of images in different styles, you can then send them to various agencies.

In a food photography shoot, it is quite possible to shoot for a wide range of stock photography agencies during the same session. You could shoot a shot for a cafe to market themselves with on social media. You could also shoot an image for a food magazine or recipe book. You could perhaps shoot a fiction book cover, an educational textbook image, and some creative images for bloggers to use.

Above are some of the images from a shoot I did with a single subject. I made sure to shoot with both light and dark backgrounds, as well as both modern and more rustic backgrounds. Image buyers want to purchase photographs that will fit with the feel of their brand. The more options that you can give them, the better.

Think about where your images could be used

Don’t forget to shoot in both landscape and portrait format for your stock images. You never know where your image will end up. While a fiction book cover will almost always need a vertical image, a magazine or a blog could use either vertical or horizontal images depending on the page layout.

Another tip is to shoot images that have space for text to be added later. Think about a magazine front cover. It has room at the top to put the name of the magazine. But it also has plain or out-of-focus areas on the side to write the headlines. Browse through magazines and books to understand more about the kinds of images that get purchased and published.

Where to start with shooting stock photography for profit?

As I often say: Just start somewhere.

Research the kinds of images that different stock photography libraries are interested in. Agencies will usually have blog posts on their sites listing the pictures that they’re looking for. And then get shooting.

If you’re shooting stock images of small objects, then try creating some different backgrounds so that you can easily change them out while shooting.

That way, you can create multiple styles of photographs in the same session. If you’re shooting models, then scout out locations that have a number of different backdrop styles within a few minutes of each other.

But what you really need to do is shoot images and get them placed with stock photography agencies. If your images aren’t out there and in front of the eyes of potential clients, then you won’t sell any at all! You can refine your workflow later.

Have you had much success with shooting stock photography? Let us know how you’ve got on in the comments!

The post Shooting Stock Photography: Getting the Most Out of a Single Subject appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.

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