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Sharpness – Relative vs Absolute

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ManzanitaThe more I photograph nature, the less I’ve been concerned about sharpness. It’s not out of laziness, but from the realization that relative sharpness is much more important than absolute sharpness.

Absolute sharpness is about making your subject as sharp as possible, within the limits of your camera and lens.

On the other hand, relative sharpness is about making your subject as sharp as possible relative to other elements in that image.

This also applies to depth of field, and in this article when I mention sharpness I also mean depth of field/focus.

For example, here’s a photo with a lot of absolute sharpness: [Read more…] about Sharpness – Relative vs Absolute

How To Make Any Lens a Macro Lens

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Yucca photographed with close-up filterClose-up and macro photography is one of the most popular ways to capture the beauty of nature: whether it’s photographing tiny insects to show their amazing detail or just a simple close-up of a plant (like the Yucca leaves above).

When you think of macro photography, you might think you need a special lens, but there’s actually a few options for turning any lens into a macro lens, saving you money (and space in your backpack!).

First, it’s helpful to understand what makes a macro lens a macro lens. Well, it’s super simple: the macro lens is built to focus extremely close to objects. That’s it. A macro lens is usually at least 50mm too, but the most important part is that it focuses close.

The good news is that there’s two simple ways to make ANY lens focus closer:

  1. Extension tubes
  2. Close-up filters

I’ve already talked about extension tubes a lot here on PhotoNaturalist, and they’re excellent options because they don’t affect image quality at all. [Read more…] about How To Make Any Lens a Macro Lens

Photographing The Solar Eclipse

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Annular Solar EclipseOn Monday, August 21, there will be a Total Solar Eclipse, visible from North America. The next one visible from North America won’t be until 2024.

A solar eclipse is when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth. This upcoming eclipse is special though because it’s a “total” eclipse, meaning the Moon will completely block the bright light of the sun, leaving only the outer edge (the corona) visible. If you’ve never seen one, they’re pretty cool to watch (just make sure you watch them safely!).

I don’t have much experience with photographing solar eclipses, but I did some research on how to photograph them properly, and below are some great resources I found: [Read more…] about Photographing The Solar Eclipse

The Warmup

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The WarmupWhat photo would you say is the one you’re least prepared to take? For me, it’s the very first photo on any given day. Have you ever gone out for a day of nature photography, regardless of your subject preference, and find that when you go to shoot that very first photo something is “off?” I’m not referring to an equipment checklist, I’m talking about a preparedness checklist.

Although an equipment checklist is a good idea and you should always make sure you are bringing everything you think you will possibly need on any given day. But here’s what happens to me. And, if it happens to you then read on. When I’m done photographing for the day I usually just download my images and put my batteries on a charger. I might check a few things and rearrange my pack to the order I had but that’s pretty much it. I rarely go and look at anything else as far as where I left my camera settings at.

So, to help with the potential mistake of not being 100% ready the next day, what I’ve begun to do as part of my routine is to go through the motions of taking that first photo as soon as I step out of my vehicle. That’s when you’ll notice you had your ISO set for the last time you were out and it may not be what you want to use right now. Maybe it was near dark and you pushed your ISO to 800 but today is bright and sunny. You might prefer something in the low 100’s. You may have forgotten to re-format your card. Or, perhaps you left your lens on manual focus because you were photographing wildflowers the day before, but today you’re shooting something where you’d want autofocus. Each of us I’m sure will have different circumstances and issues. [Read more…] about The Warmup

Pressing The Button

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Pressing the ButtonPressing the shutter button to snap a photo seems like the most simple part of photography. I mean, you just “press the button” — right?

Well, there’s a few things to remember when pressing that button, especially when you’re handholding the camera:

1 — Press the button halfway first

You’ve probably noticed that you can press the shutter button halfway or all the way down. When you first got your camera, pressing it halfway probably initiated autofocus (but, hopefully now you use back-button autofocus).

With back-button AF (and if you’re in manual mode), pressing the button halfway does nothing to camera settings, but physically it’s important. Pressing the button all the way down in one press puts much more physical pressure on the camera than doing it halfway first, stopping for half a second and then going down the rest of the way. Physical pressure is important because with more pressure, you’re shaking the camera more and that increases your chance of getting a blurry photo and can mess up your focus point and/or composition (especially true for close-up images). [Read more…] about Pressing The Button

How To Show Depth In Landscapes

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Mojave DesertOne of the common goals of a landscape photograph is to show depth—either to show the viewer how vast a landscape is or to help lead the viewer’s eye from the foreground into the background.

You might think that adding depth is as simple as using a wide angle lens, but it’s a little more subtle than that.

Here are a few ways to show depth in a landscape photo:

1. Focus on elements that lead the viewer’s eye

The general thing to remember with capturing depth in a landscape is to focus on elements that naturally lead the viewer’s eyes through all dimensions of the landscape. This could be things like a fallen tree that points towards the back of the frame and leads the eye to the base of a mountain, or a stream that serves a similar purpose. [Read more…] about How To Show Depth In Landscapes