Wildlife Photography How To

Motion blur is a very popular technique in which slow shutter speeds are used to give photos a sense of movement, and appropriate subjects span the gamut from flowing water, clouds blowing across the sky, and even action shots of athletes. This effect can be achieved in the camera or during post processing.

Camera technology these days is amazing; it’s practically magic. The problem, though, to my way of thinking and photographing, is that the magic offers a very wide and deep comfort zone—you might call it a zone of automatic decisions, and it’s probably best not to spend a lot of time there, certainly not if you want to create individualistic images.

The history of photography and camera technology is littered with controversies about the “best” way to capture an image. For a while shooters questioned the value of autofocus, then there was a debate regarding the quality of digital images vs. those shot with film.

Earlier this month we featured a tutorial explaining why low ISO settings can ruin the photo of a lifetime. Today we have another video contradicting conventional wisdom, and you may discover that you’re been making a simple mistake all along.

Whether you own a dog, cat, bird, or some other animal, we bet you shoot a lot of photos of your beloved pet. It’s rather odd that many pet photos taken by good photographers look more like snapshots than the real thing, and we’re going to put an end to that today.

Nailing exposure is often a challenge with all forms of outdoor photography because of ever-changing light, complicated scenes, and a variety of tones from foreground to background. With wildlife subjects this task may require even more thought and precision.

When I started in photography my pictures were factual; they fulfilled the “here’s what it looked like” requirement and checked off all the familiar guides: a clearly-defined subject; properly placed leading lines; the rule of thirds obeyed; backgrounds taken into careful consideration. But they were static images, and there was no real communication of what the images were about.