Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 1 i Outdoor Photography The Complete Manual

CHOOSE THE RIGHT LENS Choose the right lens Make sure your next lens is right for the job A camera can stand or fall depending on how a good a lens you have attached to it, and also if it is right for the job in hand. Imagine setting up by a beautiful lake that stretches off as far as the eye can see in each direction. You would need a wide angle lens with a very short focal length that is capable of capturing all that grandeur and spectacle, but all you have is a telephoto lens. That is going to limit the kind of shot you could take there. You could also find yourself in a field of bluebells, wanting to get an extreme close-up of the dew…

HOW IMAGE COMPRESSION WORKS How image compression works How you can squeeze that big panorama into such a small file If you’ve ever edited a photograph on your computer using Photoshop, Gimp, or any of the main image editing programs, you may have noticed a disparity between the size of the image as displayed in your computer’s file manager, and the size of the image once opened for editing. That image of the Lake District you took was about 4MB according to your file manager, but Photoshop is telling you it’s actually 35MB. Well, thanks to some clever maths and algorithms, image compression is at work here. We’ll start with the one you’ve all probably heard of which is the JPEG. The JPEG standard also happens to be an ideal…

CONTROLLING THE LIGHT Controlling the light Accurate exposure in challenging outdoor lighting conditions is the key to good photos “Apart from camera shake, bad exposure probably ruins more photos than any other single cause. The main problem is over reliance on automatic metering.” Understanding exposure and how it affects your photographs is probably the single most important technical skill you can learn in photography. It’s certainly the one that most people get wrong, and apart from camera shake, bad exposure probably ruins more photos than any other single cause. The main problem is over reliance on automatic metering. Most modern cameras, even relatively cheap compacts, have sophisticated built-in TTL multi-zone evaluative exposure meters that measure light levels at dozens, in some cases hundreds, of points within the frame, instantly comparing…

THE RULES OF COMPOSITION The rules of composition Make a good picture great with some simple tips The main difference between a well taken snapshot and a truly artistic photograph is simply a matter of composition. By changing the focal length, the angle and the position of the camera, the photographer can change the relative positions and sizes of objects in the frame to produce a more visually pleasing effect. Learning to do this is mostly a matter of practice and experimentation, but there are a number of simple tips and rules-of-thumb that can help you to take better pictures. The first and most important thing to remember is to take your time. Look at the scene in the viewfinder or on your monitor and try to see it not…

MOBILE PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY Mobile phone photography Amazing photos and video from a new camera benchmark It goes by many names, mobilography, iPhoneography, mobile phone photography, etc. and it cannot be ignored. The mobile phone has now become more than a mere telecommunication device, it has transformed into a smartphone, or as more people refer to it, a camera phone. The boom in sales of smartphones has been huge. At first of course, it was just a mobile telephone but as the technology advanced, it became a gaming device, social media hub and a camera too. You only have to take a look at a busy high street or any large gathering of people at an event and you’ll see more hands holding up a phone to record a moment than…

SHOOTING PANORAMAS AND VERTORAMAS Shooting panoramas and vertoramas We show you how to think big and shoot big The word panorama means ‘an unbroken view of the whole region surrounding an observer’. In more simple terms, it means a photograph containing a wide view. A vertorama is simply a panorama that is shot in a vertical orientation. It all came about in the 1700s when artists would paint a horizontal image that encircled an entire room. These wide, expansive views are much prized by landscape photographers who strive to capture entire vistas to give the viewer of the final image a sense of the scale of the scene that was visible to them whilst they were there. Conveying all this ‘bigness’ would normally require the use of wide angle lenses.…

PLANTS AND FLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY Plants and flower photography Take it easy with some relaxing plant-based still life As your photography evolves, you will no doubt be trying out various types of subject matter and getting involved in photo shoots with people, animals, children and the like. You may also be working at larger events, functions, or even weddings, where you are herding people around and generally having to be in charge to get the shots required by your client. Having been in the thick of it, you can be forgiven for occasionally wanting something a little less wearisome. We can’t speak for all photographers, but now and again, we believe it is quite therapeutic to grab your gear, head out and photograph something for yourself, just for the sheer pleasure…

DAYTIME LONG EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY Daytime long exposure photography Give your daytime shots a long exposure twist “Those longer exposure times mean that moving objects, be they clouds, the sea, cars or people take on a more other-worldly feel.” It may sound counterintuitive. Why would you want long exposures during the day? Daytime shooting means you have no shortage of light, shutter speeds are high and there is little chance of either motion blur or camera shake. Why would you deliberately want to choose slow shutter speeds? It is, for want of a better phrase, an artistic choice. We are very used to seeing images taken in the daytime that are sharp, free from camera shake or motion blur where everything is static and frozen in place. That’s fine if it’s…

CHOOSING THE RIGHT CAMERA Choosing the right camera Which one is right for you to take outdoors on your next adventure? Cameras come in so many shapes and sizes, packed with gadgets and technology that can be confusing to the average enthusiast. Add to that the fact that there are many types of camera system too, and you would be forgiven for wondering if it’s easier to take up fishing instead. Don’t worry, if you just want to snap pictures of your friends on holiday or shoot with the latest medium format camera in the wilds of Borneo, we’ve got a list of camera types that help sort it out for you. 1. Standard compact Most compact cameras fall into this category. They tend to be fairly small and light,…

TRIPOD TIPS Tripod tips The best way to avoid camera shake spoiling your shots There can be no worse feeling, for a photographer of any skill level, than finding yourself in a location where the combination of setting sun, clouds, land and water conspires to create the perfect landscape image and what you actually capture is blurry due to too slow a shutter speed and the fact you shot it hand held. In situations like this, the tripod becomes your saviour. All the best cameras and lenses in the world cannot save you from the need to shoot long exposures in low light conditions. Even the most modern DSLRs with very high ISO capability will still produce a noisy image if you bump the sensitivity too high. If you want…

SHOOTING MODES The right mode for the right conditions If you’re trying to capture fast action on the football field or a sweeping panorama, there’s a mode for that Sometimes it’s great to set your camera on a particular shot mode setting knowing it will take care of business for you in your particular shooting environment. This means that you can get on with just enjoying taking the shots you want. Most new compact cameras, mid range compact system cameras and DSLRs offer a range of modes or creative options that you can choose. There is a mode for action and sports that means your images of the important football match are shake free and the action is frozen. There is also a landscape mode that boosts saturation and contrast…

CHANGING YOUR VIEW WITH FOCAL LENGTH Changing your view with focal length Focal length is another great compositional and creative tool to use in your outdoor photography Whether it’s the smallest flower filling the frame of your viewfinder, or the sweeping vistas of the high moors and dales, these images would not be possible to capture without the aid of different focal lengths, giving you very narrow or very wide angles of view. A zoom lens allows you to choose a wide angle of view, or zoom in and use a narrower angle of view, magnifying the image. Focal length is one of your primary tools for adjusting composition. Selecting the right focal length for the scene allows the photographer to control perspective, angle of view and magnification, and can…

KEEP AN EYE ON WHITE BALANCE Keep an eye on white balance Outdoor colour balance can sometimes be a challenge If you look at a white snow-covered scene, your brain takes over and manipulates what you see, so that it matches your expectation of what white should look like. So, what you see, even under differing lighting conditions, is white. If you put a camera in the same scene, it does not make any such adjustments and adapt to a certain expectation. The camera will simply record the colours that are present in the scene. ‘White’ light visible to humans can actually vary in colour from reddish orange to greenish-blue. This variation is usually described as a temperature range, with warm being the red end and cold at the blue…

OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY HINTS & TIPS OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY HINTS & TIPS Some handy quick reference tips to start you off “So you have a new camera, or you are itching to get one and get out there and start snapping away, filling memory card after memory card, right?” For many people, new to the world of photography, one of the easiest and most accessible areas first explored with a new camera is the great outdoors, and why not? You don’t need a studio or masses of expensive equipment. There is plenty of available light, unless you’re feeling adventurous and want to try night photography, and beautiful seaside or countryside scenes are usually not too far away by car or a brisk walk. Photographing outdoors is an amazing and rewarding experience for…

LIGHT PAINTING Light painting Light up night shots with some simple techniques Light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source. The term light painting also encompasses images lit from outside the frame with handheld light sources. The latter is what we are looking at in this example. You don’t necessarily need huge, complicated, flash setups to produce some amazingly lit images. With a subject to photograph, your camera on a tripod, one torch with a couple of coloured gels [1], you can light paint to your hearts content. This is an example of one type of light painting technique that uses, ‘a big brush’, shall we say, to colour a scene in large swathes of light. In our example we have…

SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD Shallow depth of field Isolate your subject using narrow depth of field Careful control of depth of field by adjusting aperture and focal length is one of the most striking creative techniques available to the photographer, and you don’t need any special equipment to do it, just your camera and a zoom lens. For this lovely butterfly image, the photographer has used a 100mm, fast macro lens with a large maximum aperture of f2.8. This has resulted in a narrow depth of field but by carefully focusing on the creature’s body the effect of this narrow plane of focus is to isolate the insect against what could otherwise be a very busy and distracting leafy woodland background. One consideration to bear in mind is that when…

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY Astrophotography with your digital camera Some handy information about shooting the night sky Shooting the night sky is not just the reserve of astronomers and large telescopes. Although you are not going to be imaging deep-sky nebulae and planets in extreme close-up, there is still plenty of scope for any photographer to create memorable and creative images of the night sky. It is a fascinating subject and with care, you can produce some stunning images of the heavens with just a digital camera, a tripod, and perhaps a useful app on your phone. Your options include twilight images, and photos of the sky long after the sun has set. Not only that, you also have some options to capture the stars in creative ways too. Have you ever wondered…

OFF-CAMERA FLASH Off-camera flash Set your flash and your creative vision free If you have a flash in your camera setup, you have no doubt been enjoying the benefits of having an available light source when conditions demand it. You may discover there are times when you want a little more creative control over the end result. At the moment, your flash sits atop your camera providing one light source, perhaps with the option of bouncing it off a nearby wall or ceiling if you happen to be indoors so you can modify the light to soften the shadows. Anything is better than the direct flash rabbit-in-the-headlights look right? This is great, bounce flash can create some lovely images. If you were outdoors though, trying to do a portrait, where…

YOUR NEXT CAMERA? Your next camera? Some interesting cameras to consider If you are just a holiday shooter or an enthusiast landscape photographer, then your choice of camera can be fairly specific. Obviously, when looking at a new camera, budget will have a major part to play. It is always recommended that you try to get the best camera you can afford without breaking the bank. Just be aware that it is a good idea to get something that you can grow into as you develop as a photographer. You may find that if you get a basic model with limited manual controls, you will quickly outgrow it and go looking for a new camera anyway, so it is something to keep in mind. You may not need all the…

DIGITAL STORAGE Digital storage Your precious holiday photos in safe hands As camera technology develops and the megapixel count increases with every new camera that is released, the file sizes that these cameras create when shooting in Raw format can be substantial. As an example, if you were to shoot a highly detailed landscape image with lots of tree, grass, clouds and mountains, an uncompressed 12-bit Raw file from something like a Nikon D810 could be as much as 55MB. Now imagine shooting an action scene of ponies running across the moorlands in burst mode and capturing twenty shots in just one sequence, you can imagine how quickly you would start filling up any digital storage. There’s more to it than just the amount of storage you have. A memory…

UNDERSTANDING HOW APERTURE WORKS Understanding how aperture works Aperture can control how much of your picture is sharp and how much is out of focus Apart from the role that aperture plays in controlling the exposure in your image, it is also the key ingredient in defining how much of your image is sharp and how much is out of focus. If you want your landscape shots to be as sharp as possible from front to back, or you want a close-up of a butterfly to be the only thing that is sharp in the scene, then it’s aperture that will do that for you. The aperture is literally a hole through which light passes after it enters the lens. The diameter of this hole can be altered, allowing a…

LANDSCAPES AND HYPERFOCAL DISTANCE Landscapes and hyperfocal distance How to make your outdoor shots as sharp as they can be Landscape photography is one of those genres where sharpness is everything. Wide angle shots of amazing vistas usually require front to back sharpness in your scene to maintain all the detail that was present. The viewer of the final photograph will appreciate the image more if their eye is able to take in all that detail. It will make the photograph ‘live’ for them. Nothing ruins a shot more than the image being fuzzy and blurry when you need it to be tack sharp. The problem however, is that in many cases in landscape photography you have a foreground element as well as a distant object that you want to…

PET PHOTOGRAPHY Pet photography Time to get our furry friends ready for their close up We love our pets. In fact for most people they are more than mere pets and become more like family members, the recipients of love, affection and lavish attention. It is likely then that their owners, at some point, are going to want photographs of their furry friends (or scaly, feathery or otherwise). We have a dog, and the number of photos that include him specifically outnumber those of all other family members put together. However, pet photography presents its own special problems. Animals, as we all know, can be unpredictable, lazy, aggressive, hyperactive and downright cute. If you’re thinking of trying pet photography, here are a few pointers to get you started. Pet personality…

IN-CAR LONG EXPOSURE In-car long exposure A different take on traffic trail long exposure images On a personal level, this is something I always wanted to try. We have all seen long exposure images of night skies and the infamous traffic trails. This just takes that basic idea and changes the point of view to favour a driver in his car with the world going by outside at hyper speed. It goes without saying of course that the speed is achieved with a long shutter duration rather than breaking either the speed limits or the laws of physics! In our example we will show you the basic setup to achieve the end result you see here. Because it was shot at night, the shutter speeds we are working with are…

ENHANCE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY Enhance your photography A word about using filters and why they are still so useful As your photography skills increase and you delve deeper into the techniques available, you are very likely to encounter words like Neutral Density Filter, Graduated Filter and Polarising Filter. Filters, in this case, are not the kind of effects you add in Instagram at the touch of a button, these are physical items that are attached to your lens to alter the incoming light that is hitting your camera’s sensor. Don’t think of these filters as somehow being old-fashioned and just opt to do it all in post, filters are still a very relevant aspect of your photography skills and techniques and that’s why we wanted to introduce a few of them…

BEACHES, SNOW AND VERY BRIGHT SCENES Beaches, snow and very bright scenes Very bright scenes can be an exposure nightmare If you’ve ever taken a photo where most of the background was white snow, or bright white sand on a sunny beach, you’ve probably been disappointed by the results. That crisp, white snow comes out looking grey and murky, while your subjects come out looking very dark and under-exposed. There is a very good reason for this, and fortunately, it is very easy to correct. The problem lies with your camera’s light meter. It is designed to measure the light and set the exposure for an average scene and, under average conditions, it will normally do a very good job. This is because an average scene has an unusual property;…

NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY Night photography Some tips for quality night shots Whether it’s the lure of bright city lights, barren moorland bathed in moonlight or a tumbledown barn in the country under a starry sky, night-time photography is a big draw for many photographers. It can be challenging, it can be very frustrating and time-consuming, but once you get the bug for it and get those first few ‘wow!’ images under your belt, it’s a hard habit to break. There are a lot of photographers who find the whole process very relaxing. As you are normally dealing with much longer exposures than usual and having to carefully compose and focus your shots, it forces you to slow it all down and take a much more considered approach. After all, if you…