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How to Reduce Noise in Your Photos

March 18, 2014 by Steve Berardi 9 Comments

Noise is that ugly discoloration that makes your photos look “grainy” (like in the image on the right, where the noise has been exaggerated to make it more clear). It’s one of the most annoying things you’ll have to deal with in digital images.

Although you’ll never get rid of noise completely, there are a few things you can do to reduce it so it’s barely noticeable by the viewer: [Read more…] about How to Reduce Noise in Your Photos

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: despeckle, exposure, grain, grainy, histogram, how to, iso, long exposure, noise, noisy, photos, ratio, reduce, reduction, sharp, sharpen, signal to noise, speck, speckle

The Most Common Problem In Nature Photography

June 10, 2013 by Steve Berardi

Pitcher Sage (underexposed) / Photo by Steve Berardi
Pitcher Sage (underexposed) / Photo by Steve Berardi
One of the most common problems in nature photography is getting a good exposure. There seems to be a common tendency to underexpose nature photos.

There could be a lot of reasons why this happens. Maybe your camera’s metering mode doesn’t work well for a particular scene.

Or, the more likely issue is that your camera’s LCD screen appears much brighter when you’re outdoors in the sunlight. So, when you take a photo and preview it on your camera, the photo looks a lot brighter than it actually is.

Have you ever gone out and shot a bunch of photos that looked totally fine on your camera’s LCD screen, but then when you got home and opened the photos on your computer they looked super underexposed? [Read more…] about The Most Common Problem In Nature Photography

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: expose, exposure, histogram, nature, photo, photography, post processing, problem, underexpose, underexposure

How to Keep Your Camera Ready For Action

May 28, 2013 by Steve Berardi 26 Comments

Photo by Steve Berardi
It’s probably happened to you before: you’re hiking down this trail, and all of a sudden you notice a bird or any kind of wildlife that doesn’t seem to mind your presence. You’re presented with a perfect photo opportunity, but then you remember, “Oh wait, my camera is tucked all the way into my backpack! And, worse: I think my wide-angle lens is on there!”

By the time you get out your camera, put on a longer lens and find the right exposure, that bird or dragonfly is probably in another zip code.

That’s why it’s a good idea to always keep your camera ready for action as you’re hiking down a trail. Always keep it by your side and ready to photograph a distant subject that may only be there for a second or two. Here are a few tips for making your camera ready to go: [Read more…] about How to Keep Your Camera Ready For Action

Filed Under: Tips, Wildlife Tagged With: action, burst, camera, continuous shooting, exposure, f-number series, histogram, image stabilization, insects, iso, lens cap, long lens, rapid, telephoto, Wildlife

How To Merge Two Exposures

February 18, 2013 by Steve Berardi Leave a Comment

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

Filed Under: Landscapes, Photoshop Tutorials Tagged With: blend, bright, dynamic range, exposure, exposures, hdr, highlights, histogram, landscape, merge, overexpose, photo, shadow, shot

How To Make the Jump To Manual Mode

January 15, 2013 by Steve Berardi 10 Comments

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

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: aperture, av, camera, canon, exposure, histogram, m, manual, mode, priority, program, shutter, shutter speed, slr

3 Ways To Prevent Posterization

January 31, 2012 by Steve Berardi 18 Comments

Creosote (Larrea Tridentata) / Photo by Steve Berardi
Creosote (Larrea Tridentata) / Photo by Steve Berardi
One of the most annoying problems in digital photography is posterization (as seen in the photo above). It can turn your beautiful sunset photos into a jagged mess. But, luckily there are a few ways to prevent this ugly problem: [Read more…] about 3 Ways To Prevent Posterization

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: 16-bit, 8-bit, adobe, degradation, distortion, exposure, gradient, histogram, methods, photoshop, pixelation, post processing, posterization, prevent, processing, rgb, smooth, ways

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