Conventional wisdom tells us to always keep the sun at our backs when taking a picture. This is a pretty good rule to follow for most subjects – especially if you don’t want details lost under a heavy silhouette. However, always following conventional wisdom will usually result in conven...
Continue readingSpring is finally here and the abundance of blooming flowers will soon present an array of interesting photo opportunities. Tulips are one of the first flowers to make an appearance, and are usually photographed in large, backlit colorful clusters. As beautiful as this may be, these types of sho...
Continue readingIn my new eBook Visual Flow: Mastering the Art of Composition, I discuss a number of compositional tools and techniques which have been used by the masters of painting and photography for centuries. Composition—the artistic arrangement and placement of visual elements within the picture fram...
Continue readingOne of the most important parts of a successful landscape image is sharpness. This is one of those things that you HAVE to get right in camera—there’s no fixing an image that is lacking sharpness in Photoshop. A lot of factors are at play when it comes to controlling the depth of field i...
Continue readingPicture a panoramic image in your mind. It’s horizontal, isn’t it? Of course it is, because a horizontal panoramic image is just the most logical result of panoramic photography. But every now and then, you may want to create a vertical panorama, and that can present some challenges....
Continue readingThe photo was taken from a boat during my summer trip to Norway. I used the Canon 1D Mark 2 with a fast shutter speed of 1/1250th of a second and wide aperture of f/4 with my Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 lens. To capture the shot, I followed the eagle before the dive and set the camera mode to AI Servo...
Continue readingLayer masks are an incredibly powerful feature in Photoshop, enabling you to apply targeted adjustments and create impressive composite images. However, at times you may find yourself frustrated by a layer mask that just won’t come together to produce a good result.
Continue readingSince starting photography in fall 2004, the months of May through to August have always been my most productive. There are plenty of nature subjects to choose from: birds, amphibians, flowers, insects, landscapes, and more. On weekends, I’d often head out before dawn to a marsh near my ho...
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