Category: Techniques
The Tools for Creating Sharp Images
Everyone wants a create tack sharp pictures. We spend a lot of money in the pursuit of sharp photos. We also spend a lot of time and effort in the field to make them sharp. We fuss over stabilization, exposure, and focus. If you aren’t familiar with the things you might do to make your… Continue reading The Tools for Creating Sharp Images
Goal Setting in Photography
As I write this, we are in the final few days of 2016. As with the end of every year, we are all being bombarded with calls to set new goals for the coming year. Everybody talks about New Year’s resolutions, for example. If you follow any productivity or self-help resources, this is the time… Continue reading Goal Setting in Photography
Banding: How to Avoid It, How to Get Rid of It.
When you have ugly bands of color in your picture, it is referred to as “banding.” It occurs where you have large portions of a single color in your picture, usually a dark color. For the outdoor photographer, that almost always means it occurs in the skies. Since we frequently have skies in our pictures,… Continue reading Banding: How to Avoid It, How to Get Rid of It.
Do I Need to Learn Exposure?
You already know I’m going to say “yes”; but I think there is a little more to it than you might expect. I approach questions like this with a degree of caution. The reason is that I’ve seen answers from experts in other contexts go horribly wrong. For example, I’ve always been interested in sailing.… Continue reading Do I Need to Learn Exposure?
Simple – But Powerful – Tips for Color Enhancement
An Introduction to Color Enhancement in Lightroom or Photoshop Working with color may seem like something for interior designers, who can discuss differences between different hues that you don’t even see. But it is actually pretty easy to make dramatic improvements to your photos – even if you have no eye for color. In this… Continue reading Simple – But Powerful – Tips for Color Enhancement
Nailing the Focus in Outdoor Photography
A guide to focusing properly – and boiling it all down to 3 simple rules to help you while you are shooting. Many photographers have it really easy when it comes to focus. Consider the portrait photographer. Do you know what the rule is for where to set your focus in portrait photography? On the… Continue reading Nailing the Focus in Outdoor Photography
Getting Started With Long Exposure Photography
Once you are in command of the cameras shutter, new worlds are opened up to you as a photographer. Things that are simply not possible for the average snap shooter become possible for you. You control the action. You control what is blurred and what is sharp. You control the exposure. Shooting with a fast… Continue reading Getting Started With Long Exposure Photography
Editing the Giant’s Causeway Photo using Lightroom
In this video, I will walk through an edit of a recent photo. The point is to show you a few things: A quick edit without a lot of explanation (ok, there is some explanation – the video runs about 8 minutes, but the edit could be done in under a minute). A fairly typical scene where… Continue reading Editing the Giant’s Causeway Photo using Lightroom
How to Photograph the Night Sky
So how do you take pictures that capture all the stars in the sky? Is there are particular spot you have to go? Or is there some magic exposure value you have to use? Or perhaps some post processing trick you need to master? Actually, the answer to all those questions is “yes.” Or, at… Continue reading How to Photograph the Night Sky
When It Comes to Subjects, Use What You’ve Got
If there is one type of photography I would most like to do, it is coastal photography. I could take nothing but seascapes the rest of my life and be happy. However, I live in a suburb of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. I am 300 miles from the nearest ocean, which is not particularly attractive… Continue reading When It Comes to Subjects, Use What You’ve Got
Composition: What Do You Do When There is No Subject?
Landscape photographers face a problem that other photographers usually don’t have: deciding on a subject. For example, when a portrait photographer prepares to take a picture, there is no question what’s the subject will be: the person. Similarly, a wildlife photographer always knows what the subject of their photo will be as well: the… Continue reading Composition: What Do You Do When There is No Subject?
Getting Started with Underwater Photography
I live over 300 miles from the nearest ocean. I do not scuba dive. I am only on or near ocean water on vacations. As such, I am unwilling to spend thousands of dollars getting set up to do underwater photography. That said, I am interested in it. I would like to have a camera capable of… Continue reading Getting Started with Underwater Photography
Composing Back to Front: The Best Approach to Composition
All pictures really boil down to 3 parts. Those parts are the subject, the background, and the foreground. All are important, and if any one are is not right, the picture will not turn out well. But these 3 parts are not of equal importance. Further, there is a particular order in which you should… Continue reading Composing Back to Front: The Best Approach to Composition
Simplify Your Camera
If you haven’t yet taken the plunge into mastering your camera, you might be surprised at how the process actually simplifies things for you. Doing so, actually makes certain controls irrelevant so you can completely disregard them. Others you will set once and forget about them. In addition, once you understand your camera a little… Continue reading Simplify Your Camera
Adding Texture To Your Photos with Curves Adjustment Layers
I find that many times when people look at a photo and think that they want to take a sharp, detailed picture like the one they are looking at, what they are really seeing is a picture that has been enhanced by adding texture and clarity in post-processing. Often they do not know how to do… Continue reading Adding Texture To Your Photos with Curves Adjustment Layers