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Do You Refactor Your Photographs?

September 13, 2011 by Steve Berardi 17 Comments

cholla cactusAs a software developer, one of the things I do every day is refactor code. I’ll write some code to solve a problem, test it out to make sure it works, and then I’ll take another look at the code and see if there’s a way to make it more clear or more efficient. Then, of course, I’ll test it again 😉

Writers do this too. First, they’ll write a basic draft of their story to cover the main ideas, and then they’ll read it over and over again to make the words flow better and to make their message stand out more.

But, what about photographers? Do you ever take a look at one of your photos and say something like, “wow, I really like this photo of mine, but I wish one thing was different”? It doesn’t have to be something big, it could even be something as simple as moving your camera one step to the left so a tree stands out more from the background. [Read more…] about Do You Refactor Your Photographs?

Filed Under: Landscapes, Tips Tagged With: cholla, code, composition, envisioned, example, image, improve, landscape, perspective, photo, photographs, previsualize, refactor, software, visualization

When NOT to Use Lens Stabilization

September 6, 2011 by Steve Berardi 29 Comments

lens stabilizationMany camera lenses come with some kind of lens stabilization technology. It’s usually called something different by every camera manufacturer (e.g. Nikon calls it “vibration reduction” and Canon calls it “image stabilization”), but they all have the same goal: helping to stabilize your lens.

It works great for those times when you’re forced to hand-hold your camera, but you should always make sure to turn it off when your camera is on a tripod. [Read more…] about When NOT to Use Lens Stabilization

Filed Under: Macro, Tips, Wildflowers, Wildlife Tagged With: blur, image, lens, lenses, reduction, sharp, stabilization, tripod, vibration

How Perspective Affects Your Photos

August 23, 2011 by Steve Berardi 3 Comments

Ansel Adams once said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” But, before you know where to stand, it’s important to understand a few concepts about perspective.

I’ve written about perspective here on PhotoNaturalist a few times, but I’ve also written a couple posts about it over at the Digital Photography School (a great blog that covers all types of photography). And, one of those posts was just published today, so I thought it’d be good to put a list together of all the posts I’ve written about perspective: [Read more…] about How Perspective Affects Your Photos

Filed Under: Landscapes, Macro, Tips, Wildflowers, Wildlife Tagged With: affect, ansel adams, book, close up, composition, effect, emotion, feeling, focal length, height, image, landscape, management, perspective, photos, telephoto, the camera

Book Review: Science for the Curious Photographer by Charles Johnson

August 23, 2010 by Steve Berardi 5 Comments

As a photographer with a science background, I’ve always been on the lookout for a good book on the science behind photography. Although Ansel Adams got pretty technical in his excellent books, they left me wanting to know more about how cameras, lenses, and sensors work.

So, I started searching for the right book, and immediately found the comprehensive works of Rudolf Kingslake. But, his books turned out to be a little too technical for me.

Just when I thought my search for the perfect book had ended in failure, I ran into Charles Johnson and discovered his wonderful book, Science for the Curious Photographer. I’ve already read it twice, and I must say it’s the perfect book for anyone who wants to understand how their camera works. [Read more…] about Book Review: Science for the Curious Photographer by Charles Johnson

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: book review, camera, charles johnson, curious, how, image, light, mind, perception, photographer, photography, physics, science, sensor, works

Why the Sharpest Photo Isn’t Always the Best Photo

July 6, 2010 by Steve Berardi 7 Comments

Desert Sunflower photo
Desert Sunflower @ f5.6 / Photo by Steve Berardi
As nature photographers, we tend to have an obsession with tack sharp photos and will do almost anything to increase the sharpness just a tiny bit. After all, looking up close at a sharp photo of a dragonfly is one of the greatest rewards of photographing the natural world 🙂

But, sometimes it’s necessary to sacrifice a little sharpness for a better composition.

As an example, consider the photo above of a Desert Sunflower in front of a patch of Desert Sand Verbena (see original size photo too). There are three reasons why the sunflower isn’t as sharp as it could have been:

  1. The wind was blowing pretty hard, and constantly swaying the flower
  2. The camera’s sensor was not parallel to the most important plane of the flower
  3. A pretty large aperture was used (f/5.6), which limited depth of field

Of course, the wind was out of my control, so all I could do for that was wait for the calmest moment possible. But, the other two were in my control. Why didn’t I address these problems? [Read more…] about Why the Sharpest Photo Isn’t Always the Best Photo

Filed Under: Tips, Wildflowers Tagged With: aperture, best photo, composition, depth of field, focus, good photos, image, parallel, photo, plane, sharp, sharpness, tack sharp, tripod, wildflowers

RAW vs. JPEG: Who wins?

September 1, 2009 by Steve Berardi 44 Comments

rawjpegIt seems to be one of the biggest debates in digital photography–what’s better: RAW or JPEG? Who wins?

Some pro photographers say JPEG: you should always know the perfect settings for a photo. And others say always shoot in RAW: it’s better quality and you have more power to change things later on.

Well, I think both formats have advantages and disadvantages, so rather than take one side for everything, I’ll run through some of the key differences between them, and then suggest when each format makes sense. [Read more…] about RAW vs. JPEG: Who wins?

Filed Under: Tips, Wildlife Tagged With: burst rate, camera formats, camera settings, compression, cr2, file, file formats, formats, image, image formats, jpeg, jpeg versus raw, jpg, nature, nature photography, photo, photograph, post processing, raw, whats better jpeg or raw, Wildlife

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