Archive for the ‘Landscape’ Category
Friday, August 19th, 2011
< Monument Valley, UT
 If you were to talk to many of my workshop attendees and they will tell you there are a few things I really espouse throughout the workshop, hopefully not to the point that its information overload. One of these techniques is DEPTH of FIELD. Some of of my attendees did not know what depth of field is, let alone how to achieve it. Some didn’t understand it and others thought it too complicated and therefore have never mastered the techniques. Well, it’s not complicated at all, once you understand it, and perhaps this essay will help explain it to you in as easy terms possible. I will state that Depth of Field is essential in every form of photography and must be understood and applied.
So, what exactly is depth of field? Simply, it is the amount of detail, within the image that is in focus. You, the photographer must decide on how much depth of field (DOF) is desired. Do you want the entire image in focus? Do you want the background out of focus ( often referred to as blown out—-I don’t really like that term as “blown out” might refer to overexposed, not out of focus).
Once you make the decision on how much of the image you want in focus, you must understand the technique that must be used to achieve your goals.
Decisions on setting to attain Depth of field are:
- The F-Stop (see below) chosen to make the image
- The focal length of the lens
- Subject size (the depth of field decreases as you decrease the lens/subject distance
- How far away is the subject?
LENS OPTIONS
Choosing a lens will have a dramatic effect on your depth of field. Lenses below the 60mm range are capable of attaining a large depth of field. (wide angle lenses) The DOF affect attained with lenses above 60mm will be less and when combining a 160mm+ lens on a DSLR, perfect Depth of field is virtually impossible. This is a principle of physics.
This old barn was photographed at F16 using a 80-200mm lens at 140mm. Notice the inability to make the background perfectly sharp
After reading this article, when in the field, try attaining a sharp image front to back with a 200mm lens on a DSLR. You will quickly see that it is impossible, due to the way the plane of the lens lies on the camera. It’s nothing you did wrong as long as the majority of the image is in focus. I’ll discuss options to attain DOF when using long lenses later.
CHOOSING APERTURE
I’ll try making this as simple as possible, but you need to understand exactly what aperture is, in order to be successful attaining proper Depth of field.
The aperture setting refers to the hole that the light passes through when the shutter opens, similar to the iris in our eyes. You can change this setting in camera. These settings are referred to as F stops. F-stop is the focal length divided by the diameter of the lens. F stops are typically written as F/4 etc.. meaning focal-length over 4 or focal-length divided by four.
 Each F stop one lets in 1/2 as much light as the previous one. The progression of F-stops, 1 – 1.4 – 2 – 2.8 – 4 – 5.6 – 8 – 11 – 16 – 22 – 32, are powers of the square root of 2.
In the field, you decide on how you want your image to appear. Do you want the image to be sharp front to back or do you want a sharp subject and less sharp background. If you make the decision to make the background less sharp, to accentuate the subject, what level of “unsharpened” do you want the background to be? (This is why we need to think when we photograph… slow down and calculate what you are trying to attain in each image).
Think about this…Not all great landscape images are shot at F22 !
Aperture setting dictates what shutter speed you have. F8 at a 125th sec is exactly the same exposure as… F at 11/ 60th … or … F5.6 at 250th sec… however the aperture (F stop settings) determine the depth of field.
Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Oregon Coast aperture=F16
|
Same as on Left aperture= F 5.6
|
 F 16 |
F 5.6 |
Which do you like?.. It’s really up to you!
Considerations:
1) On a windy day, shooting at F16 or F22 can you attain a shutter speed high enough to freeze the blowing grasses?
2) If a scene is too dark and you need a large Depth of field (F22) meter open enough to focus, then adjust the shutter speed for the aperture you want.
The rule of thumb is, the larger the F stop (F16), the smaller the aperture, and the more Depth of field you have. Conversely, the smaller the F stop (F4), the larger the aperture, and the less depth of field. Yes, there are counterintuitive to our thinking but you’ll get used to how these setting work pretty quickly.
SETTING THE DEPTH OF FIELD
USE YOUR DOF BUTTON !!
I strongly recommend that nature photographers use only two modes to make photographs on their camera. These are the manual mode or aperture priority mode
I strongly recommend that if you do not have a camera with a depth of field preview button, look to upgrade to one that does. This button is invaluable… What it does is that it stops the lens down to the shooting aperture and shows you, through the viewfinder how the depth of field will appear in the photograph. Without this button , when looking through your lens you’re looking at the widest aperture the lens will provide, not the depth of field that the aperture setting you’ve chosen will represent.
Note:—if your camera is set in the AUTO FOCUS mode——your camera will negate all your hard work setting the DOF manually. A while ago, I was conducting a workshop and a participant asked why when he focus correctly, and uses his Depth of Field Button (DOF) to check his DOF and his images still turn out blurry. Well he had his camera set to auto focus, and when he pressed down on the shutter release the lens went into auto focus mode, thus canceling out all the work he did manually to create the image he wanted.
Here is an easy technique to make images sharp from front to back, (remember this is a discussion when using lenses under 60mm!)
“OK, AT F16 my viewfinder is so dark when the DOF button is pressed that I can’ t see the image, let alone the adjust of the depth of field”
 At small apertures like F11, F16 the viewfinder does becomes too dark while depressing the DOF preview button.
Here how to make it work!
- Set your aperture to F8 or to a setting you can see the image through the viewfinder while depressing the DOF Preview button.
- Focus just above the 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the frame on a subject closest to you, and then fine tune the focus, looking into the image itself, checking the background for depth of field.
If this area is in focus, you have a great chance of the entire image being in focus when resetting the aperture to F16, or even F22
Having done that accurately, I the reset my aperture to F16 or higher and make the photograph
Some cameras have a zoom capability in playback. Zoom in, using the LCD on the back of the camera on the background to check for sharpness.
To make a photograph using a subject that is sharp with an unsharp background you must
300mm lens at F8
1) Use your depth of field preview button to focus on the subject
2) Set your aperture where you want it to attain the desired background, probably less than n F8
To me this technique is a bit easier than having the entire image in sharp focus. I love photographing wildflowers with a long lens (300mm) to really make the flower the subject stand out, and make the background unfocused.( the longer the focal length lens, the more you can really make the background blurred out.).
OTHER HELP FULL HINTS to ATTAIN PROPER DOF
this image was made up of 7 images combined using Helicon Focus
1) There is a program available called Helicon Focus. Helicon Focus is a program that creates one completely focused image from several partially focused images by combining the images (you can use an unlimited amount of images) into one focused image. The program is designed for macro photography, micro photography and hyper focal landscape photography to cope with the shallow depth-of-field problem. Helicon Focus also aligns images as objects often change their size and position from shot to shot. This function is especially important for macro photography but works quite well in certain conditions in landscape photography as well. I am very impressed on how easy the software is to use. The software can be downloaded right off the web site www.heliconsoft.com.
It’s been my experience that you really need to know in advance, in the field if you will be shooting using the HF program. Not all images will lend themselves for Helicon Focus. Any movement at all will ruin the otherwise great results. This is a good tool to use when using longer focal length lenses, however all lenses qualify if the criteria of: 1) light not changing and 2) the subject matter is not moving is met.
 2) Not too long ago, lens manufacturers used to include depth of field guide marks on their lenses… but not any more. If you would like a handy little replacement for these marks, something that will let you can download Depth of Field calculators and determine the settings and effects of different focal lengths and aperture settings via the web and smart phone’s. I do not use these.(I’ll explain later)
3) I’ve seen folks with a depth of field calculator. I don‘t know who makes it but it’s a wheel that after you put in your aperture & shutter speeds, it will tell you how many feet out you need to focus. Again unnecessary.
Why do I think # 2 & 3 are unnecessary? Probably sometimes when the light is constant and you do have the time to figure these applications out they might be useful. Consider these 2 factors; 1) are you capable of gauging exactly how far, say 23 feet is from your camera? I don’t think I can. I may be at 24 or 22 feet or even further away from the target. 2) More importantly, during sunrise, sunset, the light is changing, you don’t have time to be there holding your smart phone, changing the aperture with the light, seeing out a reading that you probably can’t be accurate on anyway. You’ll miss the shot, or get it wrong. Try the method of focusing 1/3rd up from the bottom, it will work very accurately, once you get used to it.
4) Look into shooting large format cameras. These cameras, because of how their lenses work in relationship to the camera, and some other factors, will attain a large amount of depth of field using longer focal lengths.
Understanding and using these techniques are primary in your ability to make images the way you desire. Like anything else it takes practice and understanding of the concepts.
 - F22
 - F 5.6
Read more about Jack on his website here, and learn about his workshops here.
Tags: Depth-of-Field, learning, photography, techniques
Posted in Articles, Landscape, Tips and Tricks | 4 Comments »
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
Light Mind, Rockefeller Preserve
Canon 1DS Mk III, 1/3 @f11, ISO 200, 24mm (EF24-105 f/4 L)
I’m always drawn to textures and colors, especially when the light helps accentuate them in an image. Back lighting is probably my favorite light to work with, though it is also the most difficult in my opinion. But there is no better way to bring out dimension and depth that really helps a viewer “step into” the scene photographed, both visually and emotionally.
I used an 2 stop graduated filter in the field to darken the sky, and then used Lightroom to dodge some areas around the trees that became too dark. I haven’t printed this image yet, but for sure the rich detail deserves at least a 24 x 36 print. I’ll share the specifics of how I print it, what paper I use, and how it turns out – thanks for reading!
Check out Robert's website for images, workshops, webinars and more! LINK
Tags: lightroom, Photo of the day
Posted in Commentary, Landscape, Vision | No Comments »
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Creating Mood, Motion and Emotion with Water | © Jack Graham / Jack Graham Photography
Oregon Coast
While driving down from a workshop at Olympic National Park last week, I was thinking about some of the locations we visited. Though there are hundreds of miles of rainforest in the park, much of the park contains some diverse locations that feature water. There are some of the most picturesque rivers, waterfalls, shorelines and small spring fed streams, within the park, all with different dynamics that make for some great photos ops. So I made some notes to include within this essay.
Water is very important to me and my photography. Whether taking an image of a grand landscape, or a macro image I love including water as either a subject or as an accompaniment to the subject itself. In other words, water is often included in many of my favorite images. An ocean scene as well as dew drops on a leaf, both containing a water feature can convey a special feeling, that is unique different from scenes without water.
Water adds mood, reflects light, and depending on the light can be many different hues. Water is an unpredictable feature and therefore can be used to create photographs that transmit varied feelings.
Unlike mountains, canyons, forests, etc, one must be prudent in observing how water interacts within a scene. We need to take the textures, colors, tones, and form into account when including water in our images. Depending on the time of day, the light and shape of the water can change drastically. Knowing an area and the potential can really help when considering an image including water.
Like other aspects of nature photography, we must take the overall visual design into effect when photographing all types of water. Is one area detracting from others? Is the light working for you or against you? Do you need to relocate your position?
Mono Lake, California
Water movement will change the mood of the image as well. Calm water, in great light before sunrise transmits a totally different feeling than moving water in similar locations. Time your trips, pay attention to the weather and do some scouting and return if necessary at the right time if needed. Experiment with different lenses. I love wide-angle lenses on mirrors lakes with great skies.
Often we choose not to shoot when a breeze creates ripples on the water. I would suggest that you experiment with different shutter speeds. You can create impressionistic effects on the water by varying your shutter speed. Today we have access to variable ND filters like those from Singh-Ray and Genus that can stop down to 8 stops.
Still Creek, Oregon
Select a telephoto lens to move in and capture specific areas like reflections, rocks, plants or even a reflection of the land or even a building. Different times of the year yield more color and different effects as well. I love photographing the reflection of the fall color in water. The lower the camera is to the ground, the more color you’ll pick up. Include some leaves on rocks to add more interest to your photograph.
If you read many of the books written on general photography, we are told to use a polarizer when photography water to take the glare off the ware. Be careful, sometimes you shouldn’t use one. I rarely use a polarizer when photographing water at sunrise. The polarizer will remove a lot of the reflected light, color and subject matter from the water. I also like to photograph small intimate areas of streams with colored rocks, moss-covered rocks that are under the water. I never use a polarizer when doing this. (TIP: when trying this look for smooth water, not white-water, and look for dips created by rocks to evoke the motion in the water).
no polarizer, 200mm lens--look for the dips & colored rocks below the water
When photographing waterfalls, take into account your shutter speeds. I suggest reading my article on waterfall photography.
Varying your shutter speed also creates different and at times surreal looks on moving water. Choose whether you want to freeze the water, or let it go to that silky effect to create the mood you want in your image. Use shutter speeds longer than ¼ second to create the silky effect. Conversely, I love to photographing crashing waves at high shutter speeds to capture the spray, frozen in the image that tells the viewer where I was and the dramatic sense of power in the wave itself. However, the ocean can convey a wonderful feeling using low shutter speeds, especially at low tide. The bottom line is to experiment!
Using a tide pool as the foreground
I really love photographing at the ocean taking all the previously mentioned things into consideration. I especially love the tide pools found here on the Pacific Coast. Use these as foregrounds if at all possible. Watch the tide, it can come in quick. Recently I just made it back on shore and only had to wade knee-deep as the tide came in quicker than I thought. Always be aware of your surroundings and never turn your back on the ocean!
Experiment with different ISOs. This will adjust your shutter speeds, while leaving your aperture of choice in place. (And of course remember your tripod and quality head). If you have leaves moving in a pool of water try a 5-10 second, or longer exposure and capture them moving for some interesting abstract images.
Be aware of the light. Blue skies can cast a blue effect on water on clear days. While post processing carefully adjust the temperature to compensate for this effect if you wish. Use weather conditions along with water to create moody effects in your images. For instance, fog can create a special dreamy effect. Fog often appears on water when the temperature of the air falls below that of the water. Prior to sunrise the fog can have a bluish cast oto it, but after sunrise, the same fog can become a warm gold, offering a wonderful addition to any image.. Scouting out areas to photograph when the light is too harsh to shoot, then going back in great light, as well as being prepared with weather information is mandatory to capture striking images. I use the Photographers Ephemeris to predict the sunrise time and direction in the location I am photographing in.
Consider where you have water in your location and how you can use it to create some special photographs. Go back to the same location at different times and use the water along with the subject matter to make some interesting images. Water adds never-ending possibilities to photography.
Sunset, Cannon Beach, Oregon
Read more about Jack on his website here, and learn about his workshops here.
Tags: Landscape, water, waterfalls
Posted in Articles, Landscape, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »
Friday, June 3rd, 2011
Editor's note: Welcome Jack Graham to the blog! Jack comes to us via regular contributors Mike Moats and Guy Tal. Now living in Portland, Jack conducts workshops all over the country, concentrating on landscapes. Jack has been published in numerous magazines including Audubon and Outdoor Photographer, and is a chairperson for NANPA. Reinforcing the the theory that It really is a small world after all, Jack and Chris found out that they went to the same university, lived in the same dorm, and even played the same instrument in the band! Read more about Jack on his website here, and learn about his workshops here. A big welcome to Jack, and we look forward to more from him soon!
--Chris Klapheke
I live in the Pacific Northwest. What else says Pacific Northwest more than a waterfall. Spring here in the Pacific Northwest is a glorious time to take advantage of the hundreds of waterfalls within a short drive. The waterfall against a backdrop of lush greenery is one o my favorite subjects. Let’s discuss some of the challenges and suggestions that might help you in your waterfall photography. These are in order of how I think about them in the field. They are all equally important in making quality waterfall images.
 
WATER EFFECTS: Silky or Natural?
This should be an easy decision. Slow shutter speeds for the silky effect and faster for less silky, or more action packed water. This is determined by the amount of water coming over the falls or over the rocks in a stream. If you are undecided, experiment and shoot both ways. Sometimes this is the best way to attack the situation and make your final decisions after the fact in front of your monitor. If you want to convey the overall power, force & majesty of a big waterfall, I usually try to use a fast shutter speed. The converse is true for smaller falls and streams.
Adjusting shutter speeds is your call. If you want the silky effect (my preference) use slower shutter speeds. If you want moving water to look like it really does, then use a fast speed. Here is a chart that I refer to for the effect that I desire.
| |
Natural |
Blurred |
Silky |
| LARGE WATERFALLS /CASCADING WATER: |
1/500sec |
1/125sec |
1-1/2 sec |
| MEDIUM WATERFALLS /CASCADING WATER: |
1/250sec |
1/60 sec |
1/2 sec |
| SMALL WATERFALLS /CASCADING WATER: |
1/125sec |
1/15 sec |
1 sec |
| MOVING STREAMS: |
1/60sec |
1/8-1/4sec |
2-4 sec |
COMPOSITION:
As in all other facets of nature photography, composition is a primary concern when making a pleasing image. When photographing waterfalls & streams, I always ask myself:
1) How do I want to portray this waterfall or stream?
2) How can I use the surrounding environment to support the stream or waterfall?
 As in landscape photography, a strong foreground serves to anchor the image and make the waterfall stand out. Rocks with perhaps a stream running over and around them may serve to anchor the image and make the waterfall stand out. There might be some wildflowers as well or if you really get lucky rainbow created by the waterfall if the light is right. The surroundings of the waterfall often give the viewer an idea on where the waterfall is located. In most cases the surroundings offer lush green vegetation. Don’t discount the surroundings and get overwhelmed by the waterfall. Using all the good composition techniques that we all strive for in our photography is primary in waterfall photography as well
Decide weather you want to shoot the waterfall as a vertical or horizontal image. Like other landscape photography, I recommend making the shot both ways and deciding which one you like when you get home in front of your monitor. (TIP: Horizontal & vertical images are used for different applications… its good to have each in your files.)
A horizontal view of Proxy Falls!!
Don’t discount the surroundings and get overwhelmed by the waterfall! Using all the good composition techniques that we all strive for in normal photography is primary in waterfall photography as well.
LIGHTING & EXPOSURE:
An important facet of waterfall or stream photography is lighting and exposure. Typically, ideal conditions are cloudy, misty days when the contrast is at a minimum. Many waterfalls are located in gorges and are in good light during sunny days, but not always. Depending on the available light conditions, matrix, evaluative (or automatic) metering is perfectly good way to photograph streams and waterfalls.
However often times, light conditions and the volume of water coming over the falls or on the stream can confuse even the best meters in today’s DSLR’s. Look at your histogram. Do you see blown out areas of the waterfall? Are the surrounding areas of the image too dark? If so, you may need to manually meter the scene. Spot meter a medium tone and adjust your compensation + or – depending on the scene.
When shooting, I advise you to shoot in the RAW format. You can sometimes save images when shot RAW vs. JPEG in the post processing. It is sometimes possible to deal with some over blown highlights in the RAW format, usually never in JPEG.
Wet rocks also work a lot better than dry rocks–get there in the rain!
TIP: Try a Graduated ND Filter
Other important considerations:
1) Do I need to mention tripods? I hope not. Photographing at slow shutter speeds just does not work without tripods… period !
2) Just as in other applications use the slowest ISO as possible. The slower the ISO, the less grain.
3) To attain a less silky effect on the water but want to retain your aperture of choice, you can increase the ISO to increase shutter speed. Experiment. Different shutter speeds will create different effects on the water.
4) Use people or objects to add a sense of scale, especially with waterfalls.
5) The polarizing filter is a MUST in order to reduce the glare on reflective surfaces. This filter will remove the glare also bring out the colors of the surrounding area making for stronger images. I use a polarizer almost all of the time when shooting waterfalls. When photographing intimate images in streams, such as water flowing swiftly over rocks, I rarely use a polarizer. Here I want the colors and textures created by the light and what is under the water to come through and not be diminished in any way… but that’s a discussion for another time. ( TIP: Not all polarizer’s are created equal. Why would you put a bad polarizer on a great expensive lens?
6) Depending on the light and elevation UV filters cal play a role in helping bring out colorations. These are also useful in keeping your expensive lenses fry, especially if the lenses are not sealed, (TIP: Never stack filters. This can produce lens flare. )
 7) Carry protective gear for your camera. More often than not, waterfalls are going to get you and your gear wet in order to get the best image.
8) I use a chamois to remove water from my lens, not a microfiber cloth. My experience with microfiber cloths is that they just move water around. A chamois will pull the water into away from the lens.
9) Get out there in bad weather.Look for the image less photographed like this one of Multnomah Falls incased in ice.
10) Be careful, not all cameras and lenses are sealed to avoid moisture. Moisture can quickly render some DSLRs DOA!
Get out and have fun!
Tags: Jack Graham, techique, waterfalls
Posted in Articles, Creativity, Landscape, Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
Our friend and contributor Guy Tal has been rather busy of late. In addition to publishing a new ebook, Guy is running a ten week creative photo contest, with new themes and prizes every week. Here's the lowdown on Guy's new projects:
First, Guy's new ebook. Having previously brought us Creative Landscape Photography, Guy has now turned his attention to image processing, and has published Creative Processing Techniques for Nature Photography. Both of Guy's books are great reads, and are rather unique in the ebook field. Guy not only brings us technical tips and know-how on his subject matter, but also discusses the mental side of things–the vision and the thought processes behind creative images. My favorite feature of Guy's books is that he includes thought-provoking exercises for the reader to perform, creating ebooks that are not only informative, but interactive.
In Creative Processing Techniques for Nature Photography, Guy covers subjects such as: Comfort Zones, Dynamic Visualization, Workflow & Analysis, RAW Processing, Global & Local Adjustments, Output and more.
Check out both of Guy's books in the OPG Store here.
Second, Guy has also been busy putting on a Creative Photography Contest, and OPG is a proud sponsor.
This contest will run 10 weeks, with a new theme and a new batch of prizes every week. At the end of the contest, there will be a Grand Prize Winner for lots of gear goodies.
The first week has just ended, and Guy says he received lots of entries, and some incredible images. He'll be posting the winners and entries on his site as the contest goes along.
Read about the contest and jump in with an entry here. Fun stuff!
Tags: contest, creative landscape, creative processing, Ebooks, guy tal
Posted in Contests, Creativity, Ebooks, Landscape | No Comments »
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Pick up most any coffee table book featuring landscape photography and you’ll likely be confronted with image after image of sweeping vistas and vast panoramas. Most of the images are probably photographed using a wide angle to moderate focal length lens. What you won’t see are a bunch of photos created with a telephoto lens.
Long lens landscape photography isn’t as easy nor is it as natural as using a wide angle lens to compose a landscape photograph. Our eyes don’t see at 200, 300 or even 400mm. Normal human vision is similar to the field of view of a 50mm lens. The most challenging aspect of using a telephoto lens to photograph landscapes is learning to see like a telephoto lens. Your goal is to extract small, interesting sections from a much larger landscape. As if that isn’t difficult enough to do with the naked eye, a telephoto lens will also dramatically compress the distance between foreground and background elements. Factor in the technical challenges of working with a long lens and you might be tempted to just throw in the towel. Don’t do it! Here’s why.
My most rewarding images are those I’ve made with my venerable 100-400mm lens. It isn’t the sharpest lens in the stable but it’s certainly one of my favorites, especially in autumn when intimate landscapes abound. Colorful aspens, cottonwoods and oaks…oh my! It’s worth noting that some of my most popular fine art prints are images I created using a long lens.
Another benefit of photographing the landscape through a telephoto lens is that the probability of creating a truly unique image skyrockets. Imagine this: you’re standing along the shore of Maroon Lake on an autumn weekend at sunrise along with 50 other photographers. What are the odds that all 50 of you are going to hone in on the exact same section of aspen covered hillside with your 300mm lens? I say, not at all likely.
So, now that you know why long lens landscape photography is so enticing let’s discuss a few things to help you tackle this fun and rewarding style of photography. Let’s begin with an obvious one – the lens. As mentioned, I use the Canon 100-400mm zoom lens often and with great zeal. It’s a truly amazing focal length range that allows you to reach way out there and bring home a killer image. Perhaps a more popular option is the 70-200mm lens offered by most camera manufacturers. Canon’s new 70-300mm lens has received high marks for image quality and will soon replace my aging 100-400mm lens. Bottom line: whatever you’ve got that extends beyond 100mm will work. (Update: I’ve since sold the 100-400mm lens and replaced it with the new 70-300mm. Results thus far are impressive. Watch for a full review of this lens in a few months after I’ve had plenty of time to get to know it’s good and bad sides.)
Composing a dynamic image through a telephoto lens isn’t about adding more and more elements to the photo. To the contrary, it’s about eliminating everything extraneous until you’ve distilled the composition to its simplest form. When you use a telephoto lens to compose an image you’re essentially creating an intimate landscape, albeit from a greater distance than you may be accustomed to working. The key point here – simplify!
Most of my long lens landscapes have one of two common themes: patterns and/or colors. I seek out contrasts, such as the image you see here of a lone evergreen tree nestled amongst colorful gambel oaks and aspens. The evergreen not only contrasts with the surrounding foliage, it anchors the entire scene.
In the next photo, rows of young autumnal gambel oaks reclaiming an area charred by wildfire create a semi-abstract image through the use of bold color and natural patterns. Patterns abound in nature. Some are easy to find, like those formed by the stark white trunks of arrow straight aspen trunks. Yet other patterns aren’t as easily identified but are equally thrilling to discover and photograph. And, the more you work at finding patterns in nature the easier it becomes.
The image below, of strange cloud formations over the Cottonwood Mountains in Death Valley NP, could not have been created without a long lens. I was working roadside using my Canon 70-300mm lens to photograph the Mesquite Dunes from a distance. The light wasn’t cooperating as it was everywhere else but on the dunes so I began to look for other opportunities. I watched this cloud form and then stretch for miles over the mountains and decided to train my lens in that direction. When a section of the mountains lit up with storm light I knew I’d hit the jackpot. The lesson: long lenses allow you to simplify in ways a wide angle or moderate focal length simply can’t and they open up opportunities that wouldn’t exist with any other lens.
Often it helps to identify an area of interest with the naked eye, then mount your camera and long lens on a tripod so you can slowly and methodically scan for a composition. There may be interesting elements that are only visible when magnified through your telephoto lens. Using a tripod while doing this allows you to slowly pan through the scene and, upon finding something that catches your eye, it is easier to fine tune a composition than when hand-holding your rig.
Use of a tripod is an absolute must, even with an image stabilized lens. Longer focal lengths require smaller apertures for maximum depth of field, which means your shutter speeds will likely be too long for acceptably sharp, hand-held images. And, it is much easier to fine tune a composition when operating from a tripod as you’ve minimized movement introduced by hand-holding a long lens.
Unless you make a creative decision to use a large aperture and shallow depth of field, you’ll find that it isn’t uncommon to use apertures in the f/22 to f/32 range. As this will vary greatly based upon your composition, the best way to learn is to experiment while in the field. Start at a large aperture, say f/8, and work your way through to a small aperture in one stop increments. View the images on your computer at home to understand how each chosen aperture affected the depth of field within the image.
When photographing foliage with a long lens I always use a polarizing filter to remove unwanted glare from leaves and saturate the colors. When you use a polarizing filter on a wide angle lens it is easy to see the effect – just look for the blue sky that gets bluer as you twist the filter! On a long lens, the effect is much more subtle. I find that it helps to hone in on one leaf or a small cluster of leaves that exhibit glare and slowly turn the polarizer until the glare begins to disappear.
Overcast light or open shade are ideal lighting conditions for long lens photography. You can make successful images in any light and with any lens, but the soft, diffuse light of an overcast day makes it much easier to identify workable scenes. This soft light also eliminates harsh shadows that can ruin an otherwise fantastic image.
I’ve given you a lot to ponder and I hope I’ve inspired you to put away the wide angle lens on your next photo outing. Reach into your camera bag, pull out the big guns and have some fun with long lens landscape photography!
Learn more about Bret, view his images, scout his workshops and read his blog here.
Tags: Bret Edge, landscapes, long lens, photography, techniques, telephoto landscape photography
Posted in Articles, Creativity, Landscape, Vision | No Comments »
Friday, March 11th, 2011
 Final Edited Image--Varanasi, India
Have you ever had a photo that’s almost there, but just missing a little something? I know I do all the time. I’ve been mining old images lately for my up coming black and white book and I came across this shot from Varanasi, India. I like a lot of things about this shot, but the dull sky ruined it for me. I didn’t want to forsake the image entirely, so I thought this would be a good time to explain how you can enhance an image with a few quick strokes in Lightroom and bring it back to life.
 Orginal Raw Image First things first, let’s get this image into an acceptable state.
1. Start by increasing the exposure by 1.43 (ouch, I must not have had my morning coffee).
2. Next, let’s add a little Vibrance to the image (in this case +15 seem to work fine for me). I try to stay away from using saturation because it’s like using a hammer on a thumbtack…it’s too much!
3. I’m still not happy with how flat this image looks, so we’re going to move down to the Tone Curve and add little in the Lights region (+22 seems to do the job).
Now that we have our image in a passable state it’s time to have a little fun and add some color to the sky.
1. Let’s head over to the Graduated Filter; click on it and move your cursor back over to the image. You’ll notice your cursor now looks like a plus sign. Align that plus sign with the top/center of the image frame and slowly draw down while holding the mouse clicker down. You should see a black dot that indicates an active Graduated Filter field. Place that dot in the middle top 1/3 of the frame as shown above and draw down with your cursor. Hot tip: Hold down the shift key while you’re dragging the filter down to keep it straight with the image.
2. Now that we have the graduated filter in place we need to head back over to the right panel and click on the box to the right of the word color (The box looks like an envelope). Select it and Color panel should open up.
3. Here’s the fun part. You get to pick the color of the sky. I decided to shoot for a warm orange, but then again I was sort of in a warm orange mood. You will notice as soon as you pick on a color the sky will change on your image so feel free to move the eyedropper around until you’re satisfied. Remember, you can adjust the saturation of the color by moving the slider labeled S in the bottom of the Select a Color box.
I could have stopped here and called it good, but I wanted to add a few small touches to the image.
1. I wanted to create a stronger sense that the sun was rising/setting from the right of the frame so I created a second graduated filter in the top left corner (shown in the picture with the black circle). This brightened the top left corner, where the sun’s rays would be traveling. Our initial thought is to increase exposure or brightness in that area, but that in fact blows the image out. Instead, by using contrast we’re able to maintain better control over the exposure. The effect is subtle, but just what I was looking for.
2. I had one last household cleaning item–I wanted the viewers eye to start in the bottom left corner of the image and slowly work its way out and around the frame. The composition of the frame should ensure that eye movement, but by brightening the gentleman’s white shirt it enhanced the likelihood of that eye movement.
3. I did this by using the Adjustment Brush tool. Click on the brush, then start painting the area you would like to lighten, in this case his shirt. If you can’t see the brush strokes, make sure you check the box below the image “Show Selected Mask Overlay.” Then, once I was done painting, I increased the brightness slider to +68.
Now that’s better! While it is always key to get it exactly right when you’re out there shooting, it doesn’t always happen. Whatever you do, don’t give up on an image completely. Being resourceful in Lightroom is a great way to add a creative touch and save a great image.
Tags: From Snapshots to Great Shots, General, India, lightroom presets, making of the image, peachpit, travel
Posted in Landscape | No Comments »
Friday, March 11th, 2011
Name a distant corner of the world associated with photography, chances are E.J. Peiker has been there, or is heading there soon. Born in 1960 in Augsburg, Germany, and moving to Mansfield, Ohio, in 1969, E.J. became an American citizen in 1975.
E.J.’s photographic journey started when he received his first camera at age 7, while still in Germany – a square-format, Kodak 126 Instamatic. He still has it. At age 12, he graduated to a Yashica 35mm rangefinder and began to take photography more seriously. His favorite subject matter was landscape photography.
In 1990, E.J.’s photographic aspirations came to a sudden stop. While skiing, E.J. suffered such a serious injury that he was diagnosed as unable to walk again, possibly even losing a leg. As it appeared that E.J. would not be mobile without assistance, he sold all his camera gear. However, determination, resolve, several surgeries and painful physical therapy resulted in E.J.’s full recovery 3 1/2 years later.
Even though he did not photograph, E.J. put his recovery years to good use. His interest in aviation took over and provided him motivation during that tough time. He earned his Private Pilot, Instrument Pilot, Multi-engine Pilot and Commercial Pilot certificates, and became heavily involved in advanced flight simulation. He even logged time in American Airline's full motion flight simulators where he learned to fly a Boeing 727!
After his full recovery, E.J. returned to the world of photography, starting out again with Olympus gear, and migrating to Nikon equipment. His choice of Nikon was heavily influenced by John Shaw's photography, and E.J. concentrated primarily on Southwestern landscapes and captive species animal photography.
In 1999, E.J.’s photographic world expanded when he was introduced to the beautiful bird photography of Arthur Morris through Arthur’s book "The Art of Bird Photography". As with many of today’s nature photographers, this book prompted both a keen interest in avian photography, and a switch to Canon equipment for image stabilized lenses.
E.J.’s previous career path took him through the field of electrical engineering, working for the Intel Corporation in California, New Mexico, Oregon, and Arizona, where he engaged in the production of microprocessors, chip-sets, and communication chips. During that time, he studied photography at the University of New Mexico, the Rocky Mountain School of Photography, and participated in photography seminars and workshops led by renowned photographers including John Shaw, Arthur Morris, and Charles Glatzer.
E.J. began planning his career move into professional photography in 2000, with a target of 2004 for his change. Investment volatility and an unstable economy changed the plans of many Americans, and E.J. had to adapt and extend his plan. He finally made the change to full time professional nature photographer in 2010. Today, E.J. is a Nikon shooter, having made the switch from Canon gear that same year.
Artistic images of ducks are E.J.’s photographic specialty, and he teaches others duck and bird photography through his DuckShopTM photographic workshop series. E.J. has also expanded his love for landscape photography and is heavily engaged in creating artistic landscape images of world's great scenic wonders. Well traveled, E.J. has been fortunate enough to photograph 6 of our planet's 7 continents.
Why the concentration on ducks? In E.J.’s words:
“I have often been asked why I like to photograph ducks so much. Ever since I was a young boy, I have loved their ungainly waddle when on land and their graceful ability to cut through water and air as if they were defying gravity and friction. Some of the most incredible patterns in nature are found in the plumage of ducks. Their colors range the entire spectrum and in one case, every color in the spectrum is contained in one bird – the male Mandarin Duck. Another intriguing thing about them is the ability to completely transform from a drab brown bird into an incredible array of colors in just a few weeks. Finally, ducks have a lot of personality and are much more intelligent than most people realize. There are a number of individual ducks that come back year after year to the Phoenix area that immediately recognize me from the previous years and become very tame around me while they stay away from people that they don’t know. There is a familiarity and a knowledge on their part that this particular human won't hurt me.”
Now an accomplished professional nature photographer, E.J.’s images have been published in many nature, agriculture and photography magazines and books including Outdoor Photographer, Popular Photography, Birding Magazine, Audubon Society publications, National Geographic, and Barron's. The US National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Department and many zoos use his images in their brochures and for their identification displays. You’ll find E.J.’s images in different places such as on T-shirts, wine labels and in iPhone apps. E.J. also stays active on the net, not only with his own website, facebook and his ebook, but with nature photography forums such as NaturePhotographers.net and Naturescapes.net.
When he’s not flying around the world in pursuit of landscapes and ducks, E.J. resides in sunny Chandler, AZ with his two sons, Nicholas and Gregory.
You can view E.J.'s website, with wonderful images and workshop information here: www.ejphoto.com
Check out E.J.'s new ebook in the store here: Ducks of North America
Find E.J. on Facebook here: link
Tags: Avian, ducks, E.J. Peiker, Landscape, Photographer Spotlight
Posted in Landscape, Photographer Spotlight, Wildlife | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
Editor's note: A big welcome to Robert Rodriguez Jr.! We ran across Robert's stuff by way of blog contributors Brett Edge and Guy Tal. From images, to videos, to blog posts, Robert puts out some amazing content. Hailing from the Hudson Valley and passionate about conservation, Robert conducts workshops as well.
You can find links to Robert's site at the end of this article.
Make sure and read this post all the way through, as Robert's explanation of his Lightroom processing is very informative.
We look forward to more of Robert's posts!
Cold Sunrise - Lake Placid, Adirondacks
This was a very cold, early morning hike to a great sunrise location in the Adirondacks, and I really wanted to convey this feeling in the image “Cold Sunrise”. There are many cues that you can use to express how you feel when you’re at a particular location, and these involve all of our senses including sound, touch, smell, etc. Here I’ve tried to convey touch and feel by leading the eye onto the texture of frozen snow on these rocks in the foreground.
In addition, I think that the low fog in the valley conveys that stillness and silence that we often associate with these types of atmospheric events. When we can’t see very clearly, our other senses become more acute, and even though this is a photo, it triggers that sense in our minds to imagine what it would sound like to be there. Notice also the strong diagonals which guide the eye as mentioned before – cool to warm, texture to smooth, dark to bright, all contrasting elements.
Anyone looking at this photo will immediately understand what it must have felt like to stand on this frozen rocky ledge – at least that is my hope, and why it is important to continually practice the language of photography.
• Lightroom Workflow
As a bonus, I’ve included my Lightroom workflow so that you can get a better sense of how I processed this image with these ideas in mind in order to create the best interpretation of the RAW file.
1) Here is the original capture, with the default settings in Lightroom. Aside from a small amount of highlight clipping in the sky, the histogram looks good and I have maximized tonalities by exposing to the right. The image looks a little dark, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t lose any sky detail which was beautiful and adds the warmth to the image – a critical component to the overall feel and composition.
2) Next I made some adjustments in the Basic Panel, mostly increasing the Fill Light to bring out the dark foreground, Recovery to control the clipped highlights, and Clarity to bring out the texture of the ice and snow. I also added a bit of Vibrance for color. This works together with White Balance, which I increased from 6000k to about 6700k – this adds some warmth to the sky and removes some of the blue cast from the snow.
3) Next I wanted to try and increase the mid tone contrast – again with the idea that the textures in the image will help convey the feel – ice, frozen, rough, cold – even the trees appear like frozen statues, and adding contrast emphasizes this. I used the Tone Curve panel to added a tight S curve. This step helps the midtones, but prevents the deep shadows or highlights from being affected. Adding extra points high and low on the curve prevents this from happening.
4) I decided I wanted to darken the sky to help bring out the soft cloud textures, so I decreased the Luminance value of the Blues in the HSL Panel. This will also darken areas of shadow that often have a blue cast, so care must be taken not to go overboard. I wanted to a subtle effect, so -17 felt about right.
5) Now we come to the Detail Panel – one of the most important aspects of this image, and here I used fairly standard settings - Amount=66, Radius=1.0, Masking=25. However the important setting here is Detail=100. The Detail slider in Lightroom acts as a halo suppressor, meaning it tries to prevent halos, the ugly glow around edges when high sharpening is used. While often useful, it can make an image somewhat softer as well, especially a high frequency image like this one. I didn’t want to compromise that, so a setting of 100 removes all halo suppression and gives me the sharpest image possible. Remember that this requires a very clean image (little or no noise), and a sharp capture to begin with.
6) Finally, I was still not happy with the overall mood of the image – I wanted to sky to play a stronger role in leading the eye and conveying a sense of depth. Up to now it just seemed to bright and washed out. I added a Graduated Filter to with a setting of Exposure= -0.15, Brightness= -49. The key here is not to lose the highlights, but bring down the overall brightness of the sky and stretch the tonal values. Had I just used Exposure, then I would have lowered the whitest part of the sky only, which was not my intent. By using mostly the Brightness control, the sky becomes more dynamic and richer – the finishing touch to the image.
• Conclusion
I hope this is helpful in illustrating how I make technical AND creative decisions when processing an image in Lightroom. Having a clear idea of what you want to say with an image is extremely important, and aids the workflow tremendously. Thanks for reading and hanging in there through my explanations, and feel free to post comments and suggestions below.
PS- I teach this extensively in the Real World Lightroom 3 workshop where I go much more in depth and work through a bunch of images explaining how the creative process happens in the field, and continues in the digital darkroom.
Learn more about Robert, his images, his blog and his workshops at his website: www.robertrodriguezjr.com
Tags: Adirondacks, Craft, lightroom, robert rodriguez jr, technique, winter, Workflow
Posted in Articles, Digital Editing, Landscape, Processing, Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments »
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If you were to talk to many of my workshop attendees and they will tell you there are a few things I really espouse throughout the workshop, hopefully not to the point that its information overload. One of these techniques is DEPTH of FIELD. Some of of my attendees did not know what depth of field is, let alone how to achieve it. Some didn’t understand it and others thought it too complicated and therefore have never mastered the techniques. Well, it’s not complicated at all, once you understand it, and perhaps this essay will help explain it to you in as easy terms possible. I will state that Depth of Field is essential in every form of photography and must be understood and applied.
Each F stop one lets in 1/2 as much light as the previous one. The progression of F-stops, 1 – 1.4 – 2 – 2.8 – 4 – 5.6 – 8 – 11 – 16 – 22 – 32, are powers of the square root of 2.
At small apertures like F11, F16 the viewfinder does becomes too dark while depressing the DOF preview button.
Photo of the Day – Light Mind, Rockefeller Preserve
Thursday, July 28th, 2011Light Mind, Rockefeller Preserve
Canon 1DS Mk III, 1/3 @f11, ISO 200, 24mm (EF24-105 f/4 L)
I’m always drawn to textures and colors, especially when the light helps accentuate them in an image. Back lighting is probably my favorite light to work with, though it is also the most difficult in my opinion. But there is no better way to bring out dimension and depth that really helps a viewer “step into” the scene photographed, both visually and emotionally.
I used an 2 stop graduated filter in the field to darken the sky, and then used Lightroom to dodge some areas around the trees that became too dark. I haven’t printed this image yet, but for sure the rich detail deserves at least a 24 x 36 print. I’ll share the specifics of how I print it, what paper I use, and how it turns out – thanks for reading!
Tags: lightroom, Photo of the day
Posted in Commentary, Landscape, Vision | No Comments »