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Learn The Secrets Behind Incredible Photos

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FotozaarHave you ever seen an incredible photo and wondered: how on earth did the photographer create that image?

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, the photographer will share what settings they used on their camera (such as aperture, shutter speed, and ISO).

But, as I’m sure you know, this kind of information only begins to tell the story of how the image was made. What you really want to know is stuff like: how the composition was chosen, what the lighting conditions were like, what kind of special equipment was needed, or what inspired the photographer to create the image.

Unfortunately, photographers rarely share this kind of detailed information.

Well, today I’m super excited to announce a new solution to this problem: [Read more…] about Learn The Secrets Behind Incredible Photos

Quick Tip For Recharging Your Creativity

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Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
In a previous post, I talked about something you could do when you need inpsiration: look at a ton of photos.

Well, if you’ve already tried looking at a hundred photos, and still don’t feel that creative energy kicking in, then there’s something else you can try that I just recently discovered:

Limit yourself to just one lens and one camera body.

So, instead of taking all your lenses (or even just a couple) on your next hike, just take ONE. And, preferably choose a prime lens (a lens with a fixed focal length), so you eliminate even more variables. [Read more…] about Quick Tip For Recharging Your Creativity

Top 10 PhotoNaturalist Posts of 2011

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Photo by Steve Berardi
With 2011 coming to a close in about a week, I thought it’d be good to check out the top posts of the year. So, here they are:

  1. When NOT to Use Lens Stabilization
  2. The Perfect Tripod For a Hiking Photographer
  3. How to Fix a Washed Out Sky in Photoshop
  4. 5 Essential Tools For Closeup Photography
  5. 9 Tips For Photographing Perched Birds
  6. Keys To Getting Sharp Photos of Birds In Flight
  7. How To Make Your Camera Shoot Faster
  8. How Perspective Affects Your Photos
  9. How to Keep Your Camera Ready For Action
  10. How to Photograph Landscapes With The Moon

I hope you enjoyed all the articles at PhotoNaturalist this year! I’m looking forward to another great year of capturing natural light 🙂 [Read more…] about Top 10 PhotoNaturalist Posts of 2011

How to Fix a Washed Out Sky In Photoshop

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Photo by Steve Berardi
One of the common problems you’ll run into while using a wide-angle lens with a polarizer is a partly washed out sky. The photo on the left illustrates this ugly problem.

It happens because the polarizer works better on some parts of the sky than others. And, since you’re capturing such a wide part of the sky with a wide-angle lens, you’re almost always going to run into this problem.

Sure, you could avoid this problem all together by not using a polarizer on a wide-angle lens, but then you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the other great benefits of the polarizer: reducing unwanted reflections, and saturating colors. [Read more…] about How to Fix a Washed Out Sky In Photoshop

Quick Tip for Getting a Faster Autofocus

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Sometimes autofocus can be really annoying: it’ll search and search for an object to focus on, and either never find it, or go through multiple cycles until it finally finds the right object to focus on. And by that time, you may have already missed the shot–especially if you’re photographing a quick moving subject like birds.

In previous posts, I’ve talked about a few ways you can get better control of your autofocus. But, there’s also a little switch on your lens that can help it focus faster. [Read more…] about Quick Tip for Getting a Faster Autofocus

Quick tip for getting sharper wildlife photos

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Anna's Hummingbird (male) / Photo by Steve Berardi
Anna's Hummingbird (male) / Photo by Steve Berardi
Getting sharp photos of wildlife is a constant battle. With an uncontrollable and constantly moving subject, you usually end up with a lot more blurry shots than sharp ones.

To increase your chances of getting a sharp shot, you can do things like shoot in JPEG to help you take a lot more photos in a burst.

And, if you’re shooting in JPEG, there’s one more setting you should adjust to make your sharp photos even sharper. It won’t do anything for the blurry shots, but it’ll make those good shots even better. [Read more…] about Quick tip for getting sharper wildlife photos