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Three short Photography articles bundled together for easy reference. Composition, foreground and background focus issues and getting your timing right to capture the best lighting conditions. Although these articles do not mention panoramic photography, all of the tips, comments and advice are just as relevant even if you're taking a three shot Fisheye picture or a twenty four shot picture using a calibrated bracket and tripod head.  Nature and Landscape Photography Tips: Composition
A guide to improving your nature photos, including composition and corner-focus. One those occasions when you're lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, you really can admire the beauty of nature. But capturing those picturesque moments is not as easy as it might seem. There are many different aspects to consider when taking landscape and photos, but in this article, I'll just touch on composition. Nature And Landscape Photography Tips - Foreground Vs. BackgroundA guide on striking a balance between foreground and background when taking photographs. Something many people looking to improve their landscape photos should do is to use a proper foreground. Of course, you can take a beautiful ocean or sunset and I'm sure it looks lovely. Still, it likely looks just any other ocean or landscape photo that millions of other people have taken. You should try being a little more unique. Like a ninja, use the surrounding objects to your advantage. If you're on a beach, see if you can stand near a cool rock formation, jetty or dock and place that in the foreground. Nature and Landscape Photography Tips - It's All About TimingA brief guide on how to capture magical moments in your photography and improve your timing. You know how that famous saying goes: It's all about timing. It goes for a lot of things in life, and in many cases in landscape photography, it's true. There's something special about the angle that light hits objects when the sun is setting or when it's rising. There's such a wide spectrum of colours that you can get from the 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after sunrise or sunset is so broad and amazing. In the middle of this time period, you need pay special attention to cloud formations, weather, shadows and the colour changes in the sky, water and objects you plan to include in your photos.
The Number of Times Nature and Landscape Photography Tips: Composition A Liberated Article Has Been Read Is: 15 The Author of This Liberated Article Is: Ian Spellfield  ARTICLE SUMMARY: A guide to improving your nature photos, including composition and corner-focus. Nature and Landscape Photography Tips: Composition
Many people I know have asked me a little more about how they might be able to improve their own photos. By no means do I think I am a complete expert, but as more and more people are taking up photography as a hobby (since digital camera prices, including dSLRs, have been dropping), I figured I might as well try and just offer a few simple tips and advice to keep in mind for budding photographers.
One those occasions when you're lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, you really can admire the beauty of nature. But capturing those picturesque moments is not as easy as it might seem. There are many different aspects to consider when taking landscape and photos, but in this article, I'll just touch on composition.
Composition
In case you aren't already familiar with the Rule of Thirds, it basically states that you should imagine the viewfinder as having lines dividing it into three sections horizontally and three sections vertically. Essentially, it ends up looking like a grid of 9 boxes. The trick is to try and place your subject strategically in the intersections of those lines. Some cameras will actually draw the lines on the LCD screen for you. All you have to really do is just use your imagination and your best judgment. It's really not a hard and fast rule, just a general guideline to try and follow. You don't have to be 100% accurate, and if you're a little off from one third it's not a big deal.
Aim For the Corners
As for myself, I prefer to place the subject in one of the four corners: top left, top right, bottom left, or bottom right. That means I go in from any of the corners diagonally about one third of the way horizontally and one third of the way vertically. I also recommend that when shooting the horizon (which often times you are by definition when taking landscape photos), you place the horizon line along one of those imaginary lines of thirds. That means that the sky should either fill the top 1/3 of the photo, or it should fill the top 2/3 of the photo. Which one to choose? It really depends on the photo and where the main area of interest is. If there's a lot going on in the sky, and not much going on below, then it makes sense to include more sky. On the other hand, if the sky is more of a background then limit it to just 1/3 of the frame and your photo should still turn out looking good.
Hopefully now you have a little bit better of an idea of how you can compose your nature and landscape photos better. Good luck shooting! Article Republished From: Liberated Press Releases and Other FREE Information a web site that ONLY uses Google Adsense text links in the footer of article content. Author Resource:- Ian Spellfield is a professional photographer who focuses on nature and landscape photography and tries to share his knowledge with others looking for digital photography tips. If you enjoyed reading this article without having to wade through endless Google AdSense and other affiliate links, maybe your friends will too? Search for Other LPR Articles Using These Tags:
photography nature photography Rule of Thirds composition landscape photography The Number of Times Nature And Landscape Photography Tips - Foreground Vs. Background A Liberated Article Has Been Read Is: 15 The Author of This Liberated Article Is: Ian Spellfield ARTICLE SUMMARY: A guide on striking a balance between foreground and background when taking photographs. Nature And Landscape Photography Tips - Foreground Vs. Background
Many people may wonder: What makes a good landscape photo? The answer to this question is not that simple. Personally I believe that simple photos are the best. Still, you don't want them to be so simple that they're boring. On the other hand, you don't want so much going on that the audience has no idea what they're looking at. You have to strike a balance between being too plain and being too complex. I think the main thing to keep in mind is balancing the background vs. the foreground.
A lot of your standard landscape shots are taken with a large depth of field, so you want the aperture to be smaller (using a larger F value). This way, you have objects close to the lens in focus as well as objects far away from the lens. As with any rule, there are exceptions. In case you want to get the blurred effect of some objects in the foreground, but with the background in focus, you wouldn't use a small aperture but a larger one. For example if you're taking a shot of a mountain through a field of flowers, you might want to experiment with how it looks using a large aperture which can be used to blur the flowers in the background and keep the mountains in focus (or vice versa), or you can try keeping the aperture small to keep the entire shot (foreground and background) in focus instead.
Don't Forget about the Foreground
Something many people looking to improve their landscape photos should do is to use a proper foreground. Of course, you can take a beautiful ocean or sunset and I'm sure it looks lovely. Still, it likely looks just any other ocean or landscape photo that millions of other people have taken. You should try being a little more unique. Like a ninja, use the surrounding objects to your advantage. If you're on a beach, see if you can stand near a cool rock formation, jetty or dock and place that in the foreground. Remember, you don't want to overpower the main subject of the ocean or sunset with these foreground objects, but instead you want them to complement the main subject and enhance the way it looks.
You might also consider using trees, flowers or other natural objects in front on your main subject as foregrounds. Additionally, man made structures oftentimes provide a great contrast to beautiful nature landscape shots in the background. If you're shooting from the top of a building, try including other buildings in the shot as well. At sunset, if you place objects directly between the sun and your shot, you can often get hard-line black silhouettes which can have a neat effect at times. To add a personal touch to your photos, add some silhouettes of interesting and anonymous people or objects in the foreground.
I hope this gave you a few more ideas on how you can improve your landscape and nature photography. Keep on shooting!
Article Republished From: Liberated Press Releases and Other FREE Information a web site that ONLY uses Google Adsense text links in the footer of article content. Author Resource:- Ian Spellfield is a professional photographer who specializes in landscape photography. He does his best to help others out by teaching them how to take nature and landscape photos. Search for Other LPR Articles Using These Tags:
photography landscape photography background foreground The Number of Times Nature and Landscape Photography Tips - It's All About Timing A Liberated Article Has Been Read Is: 26 The Author of This Liberated Article Is: Ian Spellfield  ARTICLE SUMMARY: A brief guide on how to capture magical moments in your photography and improve your timing. Nature and Landscape Photography Tips - It's All About Timing
You know how that famous saying goes: It's all about timing. It goes for a lot of things in life, and in many cases in landscape photography, it's true. While we won't go too in depth into lighting in this article, that's basically what photography is all about. Capturing the light reflected by objects that hits your camera's lens. When you take nature landscape photos, you're usually relying on natural light - meaning light from the sun. I'm not sure if Galileo ever told you, but the earth revolves around the sun and rotates, creating days and nights as well as the four seasons.
Well, that's all for the lesson in science. Now, to get down to business with photography. Generally, the best times to take photos are at dawn and at dusk, and some photographers will exclusively shoot only during those times. There's something special about the angle that light hits objects when the sun is setting or when it's rising. There's such a wide spectrum of colours that you can get from the 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after sunrise or sunset is so broad and amazing. In the middle of this time period, you need pay special attention to cloud formations, weather, shadows and the colour changes in the sky, water and objects you plan to include in your photos. Even a difference of even simply 30 seconds can create a drastically different photo. While you don't want to take too many photos, that's the beauty of digital photography and large memory cards: just keep taking photos and you can review them later. I suggest taking them in RAW format so that you can tweak the white balance in afterwards in Photoshop or your photo editor of choice.
How to Catch the Magic Moment
In order to catch the perfect moment, it will help you to know your territory beforehand. Scout it out the day before if possible, and do it at the same time you plan to take your photos if you can. Of course, I know it's not always possible, but if you're travelling in another city or country and you can at least walk by the area you want to shoot from (even if you do it at noon or another part of the day), you can look at the different angles, landmarks and imagine the way the shadows would fall and the way light will hit objects from the east or the west. Plan accordingly depending on if you want to shoot at sunset or sunrise, and take a compass with you if need one to tell your cardinal directions.
It really depends on how remote the areas you want to shoot its, but you'll want to make sure that you know the path to get there - especially if you plan to take photos at sunrise - be sure to carry a flashlight or headlamp with you. Once you get there, before you unpack your gear, especially if you haven't scouted out the area yet, take a quick stroll around to ensure that this is the exact spot you want to shoot from. Once you've begun taking photos, you don't want to be moving around, as you could miss that one magical moment when the light is "absolutely perfect". One more thing to consider would be to check online and see the projected times for sunrise and sunset. Try to arrive early so that you have enough time to set up before the sun starts dazzling you with its amazing colours.
While some might say that a lot of photography is luck, you still have to be prepared and take advantage of the opportunities when you have the chance to take those incredible shots! Article Republished From: a web site that ONLY uses Author Resource:- Ian Spellfield is a professional photographer who specializes in landscape and nature photography. He tries to help others learn more digital photography tips for nature and landscape photos. Search for Other LPR Articles Using These Tags:
Photography Nature Photography Landscape Photography Photo Timing |
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