Nature Photography How To

It’s can be challenging to achieve perfectly exposed photos when shooting outdoors under difficult lighting conditions with a broad range of tones from highlights to shadows. While it’s often possible to rehabilitate poorly exposed images during the editing process, wouldn’t you rather get it right in the camera?

One of the most basic components of great photographs is an accurate exposure with a broad range of tones, yielding details in both shadows and highlights. This goal can often be a challenge when shooting outside under complicated mixed light.

As one of our favorite landscape photographers insists, “contrast is a crucial aspect of photo editing.” That’s because this key variable helps define the relationship between different tones and colors in an image.

Have you ever photographed a scene with vibrant natural-looking colors, only to discover that your image doesn’t look nearly as good on the computer as it did through the viewfinder? Well, join the club.

Experienced landscape photographers know that accurate colors, the right amount of contrast, and the proper use of light greatly contribute to the success of an image. Unfortunately, conditions in the field sometimes make it impossible to attain these goals in the camera. That’s when it’s time for a bit of Photoshop magic.

A couple days ago we featured an interesting tutorial explaining how to shoot intentionally blurry photos and capture artistic images full of motion and emotion. Today it's back to a primary goal of most landscape photographers; namely, the best way to maximize sharpness when shooting in the field.

If you're a regular visitor to the Shutterbug website you know that we frequently post tutorials on attaining fast and precise focus. That's because many of our favorite instructors have a personal technique that differ from others, and it's worth giving them all a try until you find a method that works best for you.