Nature Photography How To

Autumn is upon us and winter isn’t far behind. In the tutorial below you’ll learn one pro’s secrets for capturing spectacular landscape photos during the months ahead.

Photographer and author Bryan Peterson has said, “There is no better time to crop a bad composition than just before you press the shutter release.” In the video below, photographer Robert Rodriguez, Jr. explores this notion in a detailed discussion of essential composition techniques for great landscape photography.

Every photographer has a personal vision and a particular taste in composition, light, color and so on. For example, many photographers chose nature’s details simply to abstract the color and form they find. Others like to use extremely shallow depth of field—also called selective focus—so only a sliver of the subject is sharp while the rest of it is soft. People who are intrigued by the beauty, intricacy and complexity of nature usually shoot with the opposite approach. They want to reveal as much detail in the subjects as possible so those who view their work can appreciate the designs and the patterns in the images with tack sharp clarity.

Hernando Rivera is a graphic designer and nature photographer living in Mexico, and he recently made a series of amazing photos of lightning striking lava that was spewing out of the Colima Volcano in Western Mexico near his home.

This is the perfect time of year for macro photography, with vibrant flowers, colorful insects and other creepy crawlies just about everywhere you look. In fact, you can often find great subjects in your own backyard.

Sunsets and many afternoon landscape scenes are usually resplendent in soft warm colors, and a typical approach to editing such images is to enhance those red and orange tones. This Lightroom tutorial takes a different approach, by emphasizing cool tones within a photograph to create a unique look that still appears natural.

Long exposure outdoor photography can be quite a challenge, because considerable experimentation is often required to get great results. In the tutorial below you’ll pick up some valuable tips that will significantly improve your odds of success.