PhotoNaturalist - nature photography tips and tutorials

nature photography tips and tutorials

Articles by Steve Berardi

11 Tips For Avoiding Memory Card Problems

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SanDisk Memory Card

Once you snap some photos, the memory card becomes the most important part of your camera, because it’s responsible for transferring your photos safely back to your computer.

Just like any kind of technology, a lot can go wrong with memory cards. And the last thing you want to happen is to lose all your photos after capturing some spectacular shots, right?

So, here are 11 tips that will help prevent you from running into a memory card disaster: [Read more…] about 11 Tips For Avoiding Memory Card Problems

How To Focus Closer With your Lenses

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Every lens has a minimum focusing distance: the closest point where the lens can get a sharp focus. Generally, the longer the focal length of the lens, the greater the minimum focusing distance.

Most of the time, this distance isn’t a problem because with longer lenses you’ll generally be photographing a distant subject.

But, those longer telephoto lenses are also great for close-up photography, because they help you isolate your subject against a specific part of the background. In these cases, this minimum focus distance often becomes a problem because many lenses won’t let you get close enough to fill the frame with a small subject (such as a wildflower or insect).

So, how do you make your lens focus closer? [Read more…] about How To Focus Closer With your Lenses

How To Merge Two Exposures

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Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
One of the most common problems in landscape photography occurs when photographing a sunrise or sunset: the sky is always super bright and the foreground is always super dark. This causes some trouble for your camera because it can’t handle that dramatic range of brightness.

There’s a few ways to solve this problem, but one solution is to shoot two exposures: one exposed for the sky and one exposed for the foreground. Then, you can merge these exposures later in Photoshop.

Here are some details on how to accomplish this: [Read more…] about How To Merge Two Exposures

What To Do When You Can’t Bring a Tripod

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notripodYeah, yeah, I know–you should always use a tripod. But, unfortunately this isn’t always possible. Sometimes you need to travel light, and leave your tripod behind. Or, other times you may be going to a place where they don’t even allow tripods.

So, what do you do without a tripod? How can you possibly get sharp photos without one?

Well, one thing you can do is improvise with the objects around you. The tripod is meant to stabilize your camera and prevent it from shaking, so anything you can rest the camera on will also work (just not as well). Try looking for large rocks, or tree branches, or anything else you can rest your camera on while shooting the photo. [Read more…] about What To Do When You Can’t Bring a Tripod

6 Tips For Photographing Shorebirds

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Sanderling / Photo by Steve Berardi
Sanderling / Photo by Steve Berardi
We’ve talked a lot about photographing birds here on PN: how to photograph them in flight, how to photograph perched birds, and even a few tips for photographing hummingbirds. But, we haven’t talked a whole lot about shorebirds specifically, so I thought it’d be good to share a few tips for photographing these types of birds:

#1 – Get down low to the ground

The single most important thing to do when photographing shorebirds is to get down to their level. This usually means lying down on the ground, so it’s helpful to bring a towel or something to lie down on. Photographing the birds at their eye level does two things: it makes the image more intimate and it usually results in a better background (because from this low angle, the background will usually be farther away). [Read more…] about 6 Tips For Photographing Shorebirds

How To Make the Jump To Manual Mode

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At first, manual mode can seem a little intimidating. Finding the right exposure just doesn’t seem as simple as finding the right f-number, does it? That’s probably why most photographers start with Aperture Priority mode before jumping to full manual.

But, shooting in manual will put you in complete control of the image making process. And luckily, there’s an easy way to make the jump to manual mode, while still treating it somewhat like aperture priority mode. Here’s how: [Read more…] about How To Make the Jump To Manual Mode