• 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

sharpness

5 Things That Cause Blurry Photos

January 25, 2018 by Steve Berardi 8 Comments

Photo by Steve BerardiI recently wrote an article about why sharpness isn’t always that important. I argued that relative sharpness is what really matters, and not so much absolute sharpness. As long as your subject is sharp relative to other parts of the photo, that should be enough to make it stand out.

I still strongly believe in that idea, but I also want to make clear that I’m not saying your photos should be “blurry” — there’s still a minimum level of sharpness you should strive for, unless you’re intentionally trying to make things look blurry (i.e. you want to show motion).

If you think some of your photos are too blurry, and you don’t want them to be blurry, then here are five things that could’ve caused the problem: [Read more…] about 5 Things That Cause Blurry Photos

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: blurry, depth of field, motion, movement, out of focus, sharpness, shutter speed

Sharpness – Relative vs Absolute

August 30, 2017 by Steve Berardi 9 Comments

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

Filed Under: Close-Up, Macro, Tips, Wildflowers, Wildlife Tagged With: butterfly, depth of field, dragonfly, focus, sharp, sharpness, wildflowers

How To Prepare Your Images For the Web

April 30, 2015 by Steve Berardi 2 Comments

Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
These days, most photographers share their images on the web (for many good reasons). But, before posting images online, there’s a few things you should do to prepare them:

#1 – Convert color space to sRGB

Color spaces are a complex topic, but to ensure the colors in your images look consistently across a wide range of screens, it’s important to convert your images to the sRGB color space before posting them online. This is the most compatible color space across all devices.

Your images may already be in the sRGB color space, but many cameras export images in Adobe RGB 1998 or some cameras have their own unique color space. Be sure to check! [Read more…] about How To Prepare Your Images For the Web

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: adobe rgb 1998, colorspace, copyright, images, internet, jpeg, online, photos, prepare, resize, share, sharpness, srgb, watermark, web

Three Reasons To Periodically Look Through Your Old Photos

July 29, 2013 by Steve Berardi 17 Comments

Photos by Steve BerardiOne of the great things about digital photography is that memory is cheap. We can take lots and lots of photos without ever having to worry about expensive film. You can buy a big memory card once, and use it over and over again.

As a result, you probably have a big stockpile of photos somewhere. Maybe it’s in some obscure folder on your computer, or maybe it’s on a big external hard drive somewhere.

With all these photos, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. When you get back from a long day out on the trails, you might go through all your photos quickly, and grab the really good ones to process and share online. But, in this process you might immediately label a lot of those photos as “bad” — and bury them in that giant stockpile of photos you have hiding somewhere.

Since we’re always adding more and more photos to this stockpile, it’s easy to forget about them and never look through them again.

But, it’s a good idea to browse through all those “rejects” every once in a while. Here are a few reasons why: [Read more…] about Three Reasons To Periodically Look Through Your Old Photos

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: backup, bad, good, look, memory card, old, photos, portfolio, post processing, processing, rejects, review, sharpness

Why You Should Always Shoot Lots of Photos

May 29, 2012 by Steve Berardi 8 Comments

Creosote Bush / Photos by Steve Berardi
Creosote Bush / Photos by Steve Berardi
There seems to be a common habit among photographers to take just one shot of something and then immediately move on.

Although you can definitely get good shots this way, I think it’s also beneficial to slow down a little bit and take lots of photos of your subject. Here are a few reasons why: [Read more…] about Why You Should Always Shoot Lots of Photos

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: bracketing, capture, changing, composition, exposure, golden hours, landscape, light, lots, photos, sharp, sharper, sharpness, shoot, shots, take, Wildlife

Three Reasons to Avoid Relying on the Crop Tool

April 16, 2012 by Steve Berardi 15 Comments

Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
In this age of digital photo editing, it’s tempting to get lazy when you’re taking a photo out in the field and just say to yourself, “well, if I don’t like how I framed this, I could always crop it later.” But, there are a few disadvantages to relying on that crop tool too much: [Read more…] about Three Reasons to Avoid Relying on the Crop Tool

Filed Under: Macro, Tips Tagged With: composition, crop, cropping, depth of field, editing, photos, post processing, print, sharp, sharpness, size

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 © 2023 · Wellness Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in