Backlighting Your Macro Images

June 8th, 2010 by Mike Moats

Here's a quick macro tip:

For a unique look in your macro images use the sun to backlight your subject. Low angle early morning or late evening sun works best. Use it to highlight edges of a flower or highlighting the flower petals.

The Appalachian Trail in Maine.

June 7th, 2010 by Jerry Monkman

Near the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

I spent two days backpacking on the Appalachian Trail in May. It was my first time spending a night in the backcountry this year, and it felt great to be out. The smell of balsam fir was intense along this section of trail, conjuring all kinds of great memories of hikes past. I was working on a project that has great potential.

Five Ways Photography Changed My Life

June 4th, 2010 by Bret Edge

Mt. Shuksan and Picture Lake, Washington

There was a time, many years ago, when my world revolved around being an outdoor athlete. I was a rock climber, trail runner, backpacker, mountain biker, long distance hiker, canyoneer, and kayaker. Sometimes I would combine them all when doing adventure races. I spent most of my free time training. I was obsessed with going far and getting there fast. I spent a lot of time in the outdoors, but it went by so quickly that I rarely had a moment to enjoy a sunset or notice the coyote yipping in the distance.

And then it happened. I fell in love with nature photography. I gave up adventure racing. I spent more time photographing and less time training. I stopped counting miles traveled each week and started counting rolls of film exposed. Everything just sort of slowed down.

Looking back I realize that photography has taught me some valuable lessons. I’ve learned that when you don’t train on a daily basis the size of your waistband increases. Actually, I’ll blame that on age. More importantly, I’ve learned a few things that are helpful to me as a member of the human race and I think they’ve made me a better husband, brother, friend and an all-around better person.

One Photo, One Dozen Photography Tips

June 3rd, 2010 by Rick Sammon

Here are some quick tips for portrait shooters. Enjoy

Make a photograph — don’t simply take one. Work with the subject, props, posing and lighting to create a unique image.
The name of the game is to fill the frame. In other words, crop out the boring stuff in a scene so that the viewer’s attention is drawn to the main subject — immediately.
Crop creatively. More often than not, a picture can be enhanced with basic cropping in the digital darkroom. Experiment with different crops. Also try to see pictures within a picture.
Remember that light illuminates; shadows define. That is the first step to lighting a portrait.
Carefully light the scene. In this case, I used a combination of available light and the light from a flash to create a well-lit portrait.
Choose your lens wisely. Think about how the focal length and f-stop will affect the end result. Use at least a medium telephoto lens (85mm) for head and shoulder shot. Wider-angle lenses are okay for environmental portraits (like this one).
Carefully pose your subject. Pay special attention to where the subject is looking (toward or away from the camera). Also pay attention to the hands.
Shoot RAW files because they are more forgiving than JPEG files – and because you can rescue more from overexposed highlight areas than you can from JPEG files.
Use the lowest possible ISO for the cleanest (little or no noise) possible shot.
Don’t over saturate an image in Photoshop (or Aperture or Lightroom or anywhere.) When areas of an image are oversaturated, details can be softened and lost. If the reds here had been over saturated, the detail and the folds in the dress could have been lost.
Think selectively. Apply adjustments (especially sharpening) to select areas of an image rather than applying them globally (to the entire image).
Always sharpen an image as the final step – before you save your file as a TIFF file or PSD files with all those adjustment layers (just in case you change your mind about how you enhanced your image.)

Explore the light,

Rick

Keep up with Rick at the Digital Photo Experience.

Top Ten Annoying Things To Say To A Wildlife Photographer

June 1st, 2010 by Paul Burwell

The other day I started to think about things people have innocently said to me about my photography that have annoyed me. Now, I know that most of the comments were meant without any malice and were well intentioned. I get that. But, that doesn’t stop them from bothering the heck out of me. I’ve taken the liberty of compiling the top offending comments into a top ten list, presented in the traditional descending order for your reading pleasure. I also decided to annotate each of the comments with my own thoughts which would not normally remain safely ensconced in my brain.

10. Will you photograph my wedding?

Okay, I know that I should take this as a compliment. But unless the bride and groom are going to wallow through a swamp on all fours, count me out. Brides and their mothers scare me more than coming face-to-face with a mother bear and her cubs while hiking.

Female Black Bear and her cubs walking on a trail

9. Why can’t I get pictures like that with my cell phone?

Hmmmmmm. Tough one. Could it be that the miniscule image sensor and cheap piece of plastic they call a lens can’t quite compete with quality glass and the resolving power of the sensors in modern digital SLR cameras?

8. Digital is okay I guess, but it’s too bad it doesn’t have the quality of film

Hello? 1995 called and they want their camera back. Seriously, the quality of digital cameras surpassed film several years ago. Seriously.

Northern Pintail flying over a golden pond

Simply Put: You Must Be Prepared for the Worst

May 31st, 2010 by Rick Sammon

Photographs © Rick Sammon

Canon 15mm lens (above). Canon 24-105mm lens (below).

Both: Canon 5D Mark II.

Last month my photography workshop brought us to the Sister’s Meal Festival in a remote area of China. It’s truly an amazing experience: hundreds of women get dressed in heavy silver and cloth outfits and perform a dance in the hope of attracting a husband.

The outfits weigh more than 40 pounds. Dancing in the hot sun for hours can’t be fun.

Anyway, the light was bad: harsh, direct sunlight. Adding to the challenge, the silver head dresses reflected the bright light, and the subject’s faces were shaded by the headdresses. Aaargh!

Wildlife Week: Pre-visualize

May 30th, 2010 by Juan Pons

Luna Moth, Chatham County, NC

You may have noticed that when referring to the process of photographing something I use the verb “make” and not “take.” The use of the word “make” on my part is VERY deliberate. To me, “making” an image requires fore-thought, planing and skill. Yes we all get lucky from time to time and “take” a great image without much thought, but in order to consistently create great images you have to be disciplined, prepare, plan and pre-visualize.

Pre-visualization is a simple and effective technique that can help in providing direction and focus to your photography, whether that is wildlife, portrait, lifestyle or whatever other type of photography you are into.

All of us, wildlife photographers, have those destinations we dream about going to, whether it is Africa, Madagascar, Costa Rica, Yellowstone, Alaska, or wherever. Naturally we want to make the best of the time we are there, and be productive and effective at making pictures. This is were pre-visualization can help.

Wildlife Week: Respect Wildlife

May 29th, 2010 by Juan Pons

Pileated Woodpeckers, Chatham County, NC

No image, no matter how good, unique or special it may be, is worth stressing, endangering or otherwise harming wildlife. As wildlife photographers, we all need to be advocates for wildlife, after all, if we, who love to photograph them, are not, who will?