Outdoor Photography How To

One was the first man to walk on the moon; the other arguably the greatest athlete of all time. I’ve photographed both Neil Armstrong and Muhammad Ali, among hundreds of other celebrities over the years.

Do your long exposure photos not always look the way you want them to? You could be making some basic mistakes and not be aware of it.

OK, be honest here: Your camera has an AE-L/AF-L button, right? Do you understand how it works? Are you using it regularly? If you’re like many photographers, your answer to the first question is, “sure,” to the second question, “I think so,” and to the third question, “not really.”

The best travel and nature images include a bit of artistic flair, but there are also several common mistakes to avoid if you want your images to be really special. In the two-minute video below, an accomplished New Zealand pro summarizes the most consistent errors we make and explains how to fix them.

All outdoor photographers are at the mercy of Mother Nature, especially when shooting landscapes. That’s because sometimes you scout out a perfect scene in advance, prepare your gear, and arrive at the right time of day—only to confront disappointingly dull skies.

When it comes to photographing our feathered friends in the field, large birds tend to be the most popular, perhaps because you don’t need a super-telephoto lens to fill the frame, and these subjects are more often out in the open. But small birds have their own appeal, and with that come a unique set of challenges.

Sharpening photos isn’t particularly difficult, nor is it always necessary. But as image-editing expert Blake Rudis says, “Unlike many things in photography, sharpening is one of those tasks where there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.”