• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

PhotoNaturalist - nature photography tips and tutorials

nature photography tips and tutorials

  • Home
  • Articles
  • eBooks
  • About
  • Contact

nature photography

How to get a closer focus with your lens

June 28, 2009 by Steve Berardi 7 Comments

800px-extensiontube5733Every 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 too important: with longer lenses you’ll generally be photographing a distant subject, because you just can’t get close to it.

But, sometimes you can get close to your subject and you’ll want to use a long lens to get that great bokeh (a result of the narrower angle of view). Good examples of this include wildflowers and butterflies. In these cases, to fill the frame with your subject, you’ll usually need to focus closer than that minimum focusing distance.

So, how do you make your lens focus closer? [Read more…] about How to get a closer focus with your lens

Filed Under: Tips, Wildflowers, Wildlife Tagged With: 25mm, butterflies, camera lens, close focusing, closer focus, extension tube, focus distance, focusing distance, how to focus, lens focus point, macro lens, magnification, minimum focus distance, nature photography, telephoto close focus, wildflowers, Wildlife

Learn about prime lenses and taking photos in the fog in our latest podcast!

June 23, 2009 by Steve Berardi 3 Comments

podcast3In our newest podcast, Matthew Fletcher talks about prime lenses, taking photos in the fog, and things you can do “in camera” to get better color in your photos. At the end, he also goes over some interesting news stories, including the release of Canon’s new 5D Mk II firmware. [Read more…] about Learn about prime lenses and taking photos in the fog in our latest podcast!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: camera lens, fog, foggy, low light, nature photography, overcast, photography, podcast, prime lenses, soft light

How to reduce noise for long exposures

June 14, 2009 by Steve Berardi 10 Comments

Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
If not handled properly, noise can really degrade the quality of your photographs. Those pesky little dots can become a big distraction in an otherwise great photo.

You can usually avoid noise problems by shooting at a low ISO (400 or lower for most cameras), but noise becomes a problem again when using a long exposure (anything longer than one second). [Read more…] about How to reduce noise for long exposures

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: astrophotography, exposure, how to, lake, lake tahoe, long exposure, low light, low light photography, motion, nature photography, noise reduction, noisy images, star photos, water

Announcing our first podcast episode!

May 31, 2009 by Steve Berardi Leave a Comment

podcast3A few weeks ago, we asked you for nature photography questions, and today we’re happy to announce the release of our first podcast (hosted by Matthew Fletcher), where we answer some of these questions.

Thanks to all those who sent in questions, and although we don’t answer them all in this first episode, we may get a chance to answer them in a future episode (or write an article about it). So, stay tuned!

In our first episode we talk about the top 3 things to know before a trip to Yellowstone along with the top 3 things to bring, tips for getting sharper macro photos, and a critique of the photo below of a male Frigate Bird taken by Janet Atkinson. We also summarize a few news stories. [Read more…] about Announcing our first podcast episode!

Filed Under: Landscapes, Macro, Tips, Wildlife Tagged With: bird photography, camera news, episode, landscape photography, macro photography, male frigate bird, nature photography, photographing bugs, photography news, podcast, polarizing filter, yellowstone

Why timing is everything for landscape photography

May 27, 2009 by Steve Berardi 6 Comments

Photo by Jurvetson (used under the CC-Attr-2.0 license)
Photo by Jurvetson (used under the CC-Attr-2.0 license)
During the day, lighting conditions are usually pretty consistent. Sure, the Sun may hide behind a cloud for a minute or two, or a storm may roll in, but on most days, you’ll have pretty consistent light throughout the day (at least from the perspective of a landscape photographer).

But, that all changes during the golden hours–those precious moments of warm sunlight that occur around sunrise and sunset.

During these times, the quality of light constantly changes as the Sun rises or sets and the light scatters more through the atmosphere. Add some clouds in there, and you’ll see some really drastic changes–in minutes or seconds.

To illustrate just how drastic the light can change during a sunrise, here’s a photo I took at the Alabama Hills (Eastern Sierra, California), about 15 minutes before sunrise: [Read more…] about Why timing is everything for landscape photography

Filed Under: Landscapes, Tips Tagged With: clouds, golden hours, landscape, landscape photography, natural light, nature photography, photonaturalist, sunrise, sunset, weather

Look for subtle features of your subject

May 19, 2009 by Steve Berardi 3 Comments

(c) iStockPhoto/Emrah Turudu
(c) iStockPhoto / Emrah Turudu
Do you ever feel like you don’t really see your subject until you photograph them?

Photography allows you to capture a seemingly instant moment of time, and observe it forever. In a way, the camera is almost like a time stopper. This may even be one of the reasons you originally got into photography.

After you snap that photo, and check it out later on your computer, you probably inspect it pretty carefully, exploring each and every aspect of your image. Sometimes during these inspections, you’ll notice an intricate detail of your subject that you never noticed before. [Read more…] about Look for subtle features of your subject

Filed Under: Tips, Wildlife Tagged With: bird photography, landscape, nature photography, photonaturalist, photos, snowy plover, Tips, Wildlife

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Before Footer

Topics

aperture bird photography birds camera close close up clouds composition depth of field ebook exposure flower focus gear histogram image landscape lens lenses light Macro moon nature nature photography photo photograph photography photonaturalist photos photoshop sharp sharpness subject sun sunrise sunset telephoto Tips tripod vision weather wild wildflower wildflowers Wildlife

Footer

Popular Articles

  • 7 tips for getting sharper photographs
  • How to use the histogram for a good exposure
  • How to resize your photos (the “sharp” way)
  • 13 tips for better wildflower photography
  • How to photograph dragonflies (free eBook!)
  • RAW vs JPEG: Who wins?
  • How to get sharp photos of birds in flight
  • What to photograph on an overcast day
  • What is a natural photograph?
  • Three elements of a great landscape
  • 11 tips for avoiding memory card problems
  • Tips for photographing shorebirds
  • What mode should you shoot in?

Categories

  • Book Reviews
  • Close-Up
  • Gear Reviews
  • Landscapes
  • Macro
  • Philosophy
  • Photoshop Tutorials
  • Tips
  • Uncategorized
  • Wildflowers
  • Wildlife

Copyright © 2025 · Wellness Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in