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Ansel Adams in the National Parks (Book Review)

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Ansel Adams in the National ParksAnsel Adams doesn’t need an introduction. Even non-photographers know about his awesomeness. He wasn’t just a master at making amazing images though–he also played a very large role in the preservation of the American wilderness.

Well, about a month ago a new book was published with a few hundred of his photographs that were taken in the national parks of the United States. I finally got a chance to look through the book, so I thought I’d share some of my thoughts. [Read more…] about Ansel Adams in the National Parks (Book Review)

What a TV Show Can Teach You About Photography

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TV
Photo by Michael Pereckas / Used under the CC-Attr license
A few months ago, I was lucky enough to have one of my favorite TV shows (Dexter) filmed right outside my apartment building. They filmed a scene in the alley of my building, and I was able to watch the whole thing from my porch! If you’re a fan of the show, pay close attention to that scene in the alley of Episode 4 in Season 5–that’s my alley!

Anyway, I watched them film the scene for a few hours and actually learned a couple of things about photography: [Read more…] about What a TV Show Can Teach You About Photography

Quick Tip for Getting Sharper Closeup Photos

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Variegated Meadowhawk (female) / Photo by Steve Berardi
Variegated Meadowhawk (female) / Photo by Steve Berardi
In a previous post, I explained a quick way you can get sharper photos by adjusting the “picture style” on your DSLR (if you’re shooting in JPEG). Well, another small way you can make your closeup photos appear sharper is by photographing your subject in front of a contrasting background.

The photo above is a good example. The dragonfly is pretty bright, but the background is much darker. This strong contrast of brightness helps emphasize the edges, making the outline of the dragonfly appear much sharper.

This is actually how most sharpening algorithms work in post-processing software: by increasing the contrast of brightness between edges it makes those edges stand out more and appear sharper. That’s why oversharpened images have those ugly halos. [Read more…] about Quick Tip for Getting Sharper Closeup Photos

Learn by Example in my new eBook!

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Today, I’m happy to announce that my new eBook, Examples, is now available. It’s a collection of 23 of my images and the stories of how those images were made.

The idea was inspired by my firm belief that the best way to learn something is by example. As Albert Einstein put it, “Learning by example isn’t the best way to learn. It’s the only way to learn.”

I remember countless times back in school when I was struggling to understand something, but as soon as the teacher gave us an example or stepped through a problem detail by detail, I finally began to understand.

Examples help us pull concepts together and see how those concepts apply to actual problems. And, that’s my goal for this eBook. Throughout the book, you’ll find a number of links to blog posts I’ve written, or other helpful websites I’ve found that explain a concept I used to create an image. [Read more…] about Learn by Example in my new eBook!

Introduction to Filters for Digital Cameras

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With film photography, filters were pretty important (especially for black and white images). And although they play a much smaller role in digital photography, there’s still a few filters you should be familiar with. So, here’s a brief introduction to some of them: [Read more…] about Introduction to Filters for Digital Cameras

How to Photograph Wildflowers with Flash

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Blue Lechenaultia (Lechenaultia biloba) / Photo by Rob Neave
Blue Lechenaultia (Lechenaultia biloba) / Photo by Rob Neave

Note from Steve: This is a guest post written by Rob Neave, of Perth, Western Australia. In this post he talks about an interesting technique for photographing wildflowers with flash.

As always, if youʼre also interested in writing a guest post, please feel free to contact me. Thanks!
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My state of Western Australia is wildflower central for the known universe. For years, I was entranced by their potential as photographic subjects, but could not figure out how to do it. Eventually I bought a book called “Field Photography” by Alfred A Blaker, which showed me how to get decent shots of wildflowers.

Although the techniques presented in Blaker’s book were originally written for film photography, I have been able to also apply them to digital photography and ETTL flash.

The photo above is an example of what you’ll be able to do with these techniques. The flowers in the photo are Blue Lechenaultia. This image shows the detail and depth of field (DOF) we can get with these techniques. It was shot at f/32 and 1/200 with flash. [Read more…] about How to Photograph Wildflowers with Flash