“After a heavy snow last year on the Front Range of northern Colorado, I went to check on a nesting pair of bald eagles,” recalls Arthur Trevino. “This one was perched on a bare cottonwood tree. I pulled my car over and waited for it to fly off. When it did, I followed it with my camera, firing away as it dove to grab a prairie dog. It missed and landed a few feet away. The prairie dog turned around and lunged at the eagle and startled it, which gave the prairie dog time to scamper away to its burrow and live another day.”
One time when I was packing for a wildlife photography trip, I wrote a list of my equipment on a piece of paper – complete with lenses, batteries, clothing, and so on. I wanted to have a useful reference for the next trip, but then the “next trip” came along and I couldn’t find the paper! So, I took a more modern approach and wrote a reference document on my computer. Now that I have such a list, why not share it with you? It might come in handy next time that you’re going on a wildlife photography trip.
There’s one sure way to take your photography to the next level: Shoot images with a totally different look from those you’ve captured in the past. You can do this by switching up the subject matter, trying a different technique, or composing images from an unusual vantage point—either high or low.
The video below demonstrates another way to capture images that will stand out from the crowd—by using negative space to capture minimalist photos with a sense of mystery and drama. This tutorial comes to us from the Photography Course YouTube channel—a pioneer in free online photography training and education.
Instructor Taya Iv demonstrates how easy it is to use this powerful technique in less than five minutes. She discusses camera settings, composition and more. By following her advice you’ll able to direct a viewer’s eye to exactly where you want it to go, and give you photos a compelling sense of “atmosphere” or emotion.
Iv says, “This is a very simple approach, but it can have a very big impact on your work.” She notes that this style is similar to shooting images for book covers, except that you’re not constrained to a vertical orientation and you don’t have to worry about type placement or other graphic elements.
This technique works great whether you’re shooting indoors or outside, and the lesson is illustrated with a number of powerful photos to give you a some inspiration. As you’ll see, the first step is finding an interesting subject in an isolated space. This can be a beach scene with a lonely shell or starfish in the sand, an empty field with a featureless sky, or just about anything else that grabs your fancy.
She explains that a few minor distracting elements or textures behind your subject won’t spoil the effect, as long as you use the widest lens aperture available to minimize depth of field. She demonstrates a number of other ways to get the job done, including what she refers to as “flat lay photography.”
This technique is also very effective for shooting indoor portraits against a bright window that’s covered with a semi-transparent curtain. Ivy has a few other tricks up her sleeve, so take a close look and start visualizing things differently today.
This video is episode #25 of the “52-Week Project” that’s full of other interesting techniques, and we encourage you to click on this link and explore.
Dynamic Range is an important concept that most photographers claim to understand. But ask for an explanation of exactly how it works, and you may receive a blank stare. The quick tutorial below from the popular Booray Explains series covers everything to know about how Dynamic Range affects your photos.
This concept is particularly important when shooting high contrast outdoor scenes with a wide range of tones from bright highlights to deep shadows. That’s because, in basic terms, Dynamic Range refers to a camera’s ability to capture everything from pure black to the brightest whites.
Some cameras offer significantly more Dynamic Range than others, which is why this variable should be one of the specs you review closely before buying a new model. And regardless of the camera you use, Dynamic Range affects both the settings you choose and how you edit your work,
Instructor Booray Perry is very popular among Shutterbug readers for his ability to make seemingly complicated issues easy to understand. He also infuses his lessons with some funny stuff—making them fun to watch.
To put things in perspective, Perry says “the human eye has 21-24 stops of Dynamic Range, while a high-end camera may only have 15.” These numbers make it easy to understand why what you see through the viewfinder may look dramatically different than the image you shot.
Perry describes Dynamic Range like this: “It’s the number of different shades of brightness that your eye or a camera’s sensor can detect,” and he includes a simple graphic illustrating this point. Even more interesting is Perry’s answer to this rhetorical question: “If the human eye can detect 24 levels of brightness, but your camera can only detect and display 15, what happens to the missing levels?”
Now that he has your attention, Perry moves on to practical matters. He describes why Dynamic Range really matters, and how to deal with difficult lighting with whatever camera you have.
There’s are many more quick explainers on Perry’s YouTube channel, along with the occasional joke, so pay a visit and subscribe if you haven’t already done so.
