PhotoNaturalist - nature photography tips and tutorials

nature photography tips and tutorials

Articles by Steve Berardi

How three bananas can help improve your wildlife photography skills

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(c) iStockPhoto / Lucas Cornwell
(c) iStockPhoto / Lucas Cornwell
One of the hardest parts about photographing wildlife is learning how to use a long lens. There’s a lot of little things you have to get used to with that big lens.

One of those is simply learning how to quickly locate your subject in the viewfinder. With such a long lens (around 400mm or greater), you have such a small field of view that it becomes hard to locate your subject.

Being able to locate your subject quickly is important because you usually only have a second or two to take a shot. This is something I learned pretty quick when I went to photograph hawks with my dad a few weeks ago.

Well, I’ve thought of a little exercise that will help you get used to locating your subjects through that long lens–and it involves three bananas. And, don’t worry: I’m not gonna tell you to use the bananas as bait! [Read more…] about How three bananas can help improve your wildlife photography skills

Why you should memorize the f-number series

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Diagram by Chris Buckley / Used under the GFDL
Diagram by Chris Buckley / Used under the GFDL
In photography there’s something known as the standard f-number series. It’s a geometric sequence of f-numbers that goes like this:

f/1 1.4 2 2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16 22 32

At first this may look like a random series of numbers, but there’s actually a method to this madness, and memorizing this series can help you make quick adjustments to exposure when switching between f-numbers. [Read more…] about Why you should memorize the f-number series

Learn more than exposure from the histogram

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histogram-titleIn a previous post, I explained how to use the histogram to get a better exposure (and then how to do it better with the RGB version). The histogram is a great tool, and it can even tell you a lot more than just the exposure of your image. It can also help show you properties like contrast.

Brian Auer recently wrote some wonderful articles on his blog that illustrate some of the other things you can learn from the histogram, so I thought I’d share them:

I usually just share these kinds of links on our Twitter or Facebook pages, but I thought these were so good that they deserved a blog post 🙂 [Read more…] about Learn more than exposure from the histogram

Quick tip for getting sharper wildlife photos

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Anna's Hummingbird (male) / Photo by Steve Berardi
Anna's Hummingbird (male) / Photo by Steve Berardi
Getting sharp photos of wildlife is a constant battle. With an uncontrollable and constantly moving subject, you usually end up with a lot more blurry shots than sharp ones.

To increase your chances of getting a sharp shot, you can do things like shoot in JPEG to help you take a lot more photos in a burst.

And, if you’re shooting in JPEG, there’s one more setting you should adjust to make your sharp photos even sharper. It won’t do anything for the blurry shots, but it’ll make those good shots even better. [Read more…] about Quick tip for getting sharper wildlife photos

Top 10 PhotoNaturalist posts of 2009

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With 2009 coming to a close last week, I thought it’d be good to take a look back at some of the most popular posts from the year. So, without further ado, here are the top 10 posts from 2009:

  1. 7 tips for getting sharper photographs
  2. 5 things every landscape photographer should carry at all times
  3. Three elements of a great landscape photograph
  4. How to resize your photos (the “sharp” way)
  5. 11 great resources for night photography
  6. What to photograph on an overcast day
  7. 7 great resources for winter photography
  8. How to get sharp photos of birds in flight
  9. 7 tips for photographing silhouettes
  10. Wow, you must have a really good camera!

I hope you had a great holiday season and a great year! And, cheers to a whole new year of capturing natural light 🙂 [Read more…] about Top 10 PhotoNaturalist posts of 2009

When NOT to use mirror lockup

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IMG_0519_mirrorlockupMirror lockup is one of those little things you can do to get sharper photographs. Sure, by itself you may not see a big difference, but combine it with a few other little things, and you’ll begin to notice that extra sharpness.

It makes sense to use mirror lockup when you have a somewhat controllable subject, like a landscape or wildflower. But, when you need to take shots quickly (like when you’re photographing wildlife or insects), then mirror lockup doesn’t make much sense because it only adds more time to your shots.

You should also avoid using mirror lockup when you’re photographing a bright light source (like the setting sun). After reading Canon’s white paper on the XTi, I’ve learned that this can actually damage the shutter curtains. [Read more…] about When NOT to use mirror lockup