PhotoNaturalist - nature photography tips and tutorials

nature photography tips and tutorials

wildflowers

Why the Sharpest Photo Isn’t Always the Best Photo

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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

9 tips for photographing wildflowers with a point and shoot camera

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Photo by Steve Berardi (shot with a Canon G10 point and shoot camera)
Although wildflowers are best photographed with an SLR camera, it’s still possible to take some pretty good shots with a plain old point and shoot camera. And, sometimes this may be the only camera you have with you at the time, either because you’re backpacking far into the wilderness and want to travel light, or maybe you haven’t made the jump to an SLR just yet.

The biggest problem you’ll run into with the point and shoot camera is the large depth of field you get from the super small sensor. This limits some of your options, but there’s a few ways to get around it, and as always, light also plays a huge role in the success of a photo.

So, here are a few tips for photographing wildflowers when you’re limited to a point and shoot camera: [Read more…] about 9 tips for photographing wildflowers with a point and shoot camera

New eBook, Digital Wildflower Photography, is now available!

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Digital Wildflower Photography (cover)Today I’m happy to announce that my new eBook, Digital Wildflower Photography, is now available.

The first thing you’re probably wondering is how it’s different from the free eBook I released last spring. Well, this new one is over twice as long at 55 pages, and has a ton of new content.

While the free eBook was really just a collection of a few tips for getting better wildflower photos, this new ebook is more of a complete guide that will teach you how to take stunning wildflower photos and how to post-process them in Adobe Photoshop (CS and Elements 8). [Read more…] about New eBook, Digital Wildflower Photography, is now available!

5 great resources for nature photographers

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When I started this website, I listed a few great resources on the right sidebar, but I just realized that I’ve never written about them in a post before. So, I thought I’d take a moment to list them here and explain how each one can be helpful on your journey to photograph the wonderful natural world:

mooncal

#1 – Moon Phase Calendar

This website will show you the moon phases for the current calendar month. It’s helpful when you’re trying to plan a landscape shot and need the moon to be in a specific phase (mostly likely full). I usually just use it as a sort of “quick look” planning tool, and then move on to the next site for more details. [Read more…] about 5 great resources for nature photographers

How to use the “special” RGB Histogram

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IMG_0506fA few weeks ago, I explained how to use the histogram to get a better exposure. And although the default histogram will give you a general idea of an image’s exposure, there’s actually a special histogram that’ll tell you a lot more: the RGB histogram.

Here’s how it works:

If you understand the regular histogram, then the RGB histogram is simple: it shows you the histogram of each individual color channel (red, green, and blue).

The bad thing about the regular histogram is that it lumps all these color channels together, making it hard for you to see if you’re underexposing or overexposing a specific color channel. And, on some cameras, I’ve heard that the regular histogram only shows you the green channel. [Read more…] about How to use the “special” RGB Histogram

How To Get Better Control of Autofocus

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IMG_0482cSometimes autofocus can be really annoying. For some shots it’ll focus on the right part of your subject, but then the very next shot it may choose to focus on something far and away into the background.

In a previous post, I shared a few ways to avoid problems like this, but I just found a new solution that I like a lot better: back-button autofocusing.

Here’s how it works:

Normally, your camera will auto focus when you press the shutter button halfway, but with back-button autofocusing, you have to press a button on the back of the camera instead, giving you complete control of when autofocus is initiated. [Read more…] about How To Get Better Control of Autofocus