It’s not uncommon for photographers to adopt a “set-it-and-forget it” mentality when configuring their cameras, thereby ending up with photographs that aren’t as good as possible. Whether you call this habit lazy or uninformed, there are times when the choice of a custom setting results in more creative images.
Photographers often turn to Lightroom's HSL sliders as the first step in editing landscape and nature photos. But what do you do when this technique falls short? As you'll see in the tutorial below, there's often a better solution that's very easy to accomplish.
Manny Ortiz is a professional photographer we turn to again and again for inspiration and instruction. In this video titled “All Photographers Take Bad Pictures,” he offers a little bit of both.
Candid street photography is all about timing, and recognizing the precise moment your subject is perfectly positioned in the frame. It’s this ability to press the shutter in a split of a second that results in a great image.
Conventional wisdom is that autofocus is the best mode to use for photographing birds, especially when your subjects are in flight. But every so often manual focus is a better choice, as you’ll see in the tutorial below.
If you’ve been around the block more than once you’re no doubt familiar with many of the “rules” of composition. Budding outdoor photographers are told to use the Rule of Thirds, always include the foreground to create a sense of depth, and never position a subject in the middle of the frame or bisect a shot with the horizon.
The humorous (and sadly, all too true) video below by Nils Langenbacher was created using bits of live international news broadcasts and various home videos. Titled “Photographer FAIL Compilation,” this is nearly twelve solid minutes of photographic mishap fun.
Any photographer who’s worked with a model knows that one of the hardest things about the process is creating photogenic poses. It might seem simple, but it most certainly is not.
Many photographers set their camera for Auto White Balance and never modify the setting regardless of the subject at hand. If that sounds like you it may explain why the colors in your photos don't accurately convey the colors in a scene.
Most photographers are familiar with the Rule of Thirds, a popular compositional aid that helps determine where to position the key element of a photo within the frame. But as we all know, rules are meant to be broken, and when it comes to composition there are often better options for composing a shot.
There are numerous “rules” of photography, many of which apply to shooting landscapes. There’s the Rules of Thirds, certain “must have” filters, the importance of paying attention to hyperfocal distance, and many more.
The quick tutorial below from the Adorama TV YouTube channel is all about the basics of using ISO when selecting your camera settings, and when choosing the sensitivity setting should be the first thing you do. Then, depending upon light levels and the scene at hand, you can modify shutter speed and f/stop if need be.
Most experienced photographers turn up their noses at the Program exposure mode, preferring to shoot in Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, or Manual. But as you'll see in this quick video from the Great Big Photography World channel, there are situations under which this "beginner" mode makes total sense—even if you have advanced skills.
One of the primary goals of landscape photographers is to arrive at a “correct” exposure, and we regularly post tutorials on this subject to help get the job done. But in the quick tutorial below you’ll see why certain types of scenes look much better by adding a bit of intentional overexposure during the editing process.
One of the first things most photographers learn is to avoid high ISO settings whenever possible. That’s because the more you crank up ISO, the more image quality tends to suffer.