A lot of landscape photographers are interested in focus stacking — combining multiple images of the same scene, each focused at different distances, into a single photo. This is a useful tool to have at your disposal, since it lets you take pictures in more situations than you otherwise could. For example, if elements of your photo are very close to your camera, focus stacking may be the only way to get a sharp shot. Although I don’t use this…
Read This Article
How to Critique Your Photos Accurately
In general, photographers are very good at deciding how much they like someone else’s photo. It isn’t hard — your first reaction to a shot is either positive or negative, and it typically doesn’t change much after that. Things get more complicated, though, when you’re talking about your own work. For me, at least, I find it tough to judge the quality of some photos I’ve taken. Sure, I know when a photo is awful, but what about the other…
Read This Article
Read This Article
How to Use Wide Angle Lenses
Wide-angle lenses are incredibly popular for landscape photographers, but they can be very tricky to use. The main problem is that these lenses are so different from the way we normally see the world, which makes it easy to use them incorrectly. Still, wide-angle lenses are one of the most important tools that you have at your disposal, and — used well — they can lead to spectacular photos. In this article, I will cover everything you need to know…
Read This Article
Read This Article
Searching for Unique Photographs
Millions — perhaps billions — of people take pictures every day. Famous places and people have been photographed more times than anyone can count. All of this leads to the deluge of images that we are seeing online and in social media. Every time that a photographer visits a beautiful location for the first time, thousands of people already photographed it under the best possible conditions (and the worst conditions, and everywhere in between). Recently, I have heard more than…
Read This Article
Read This Article
Which Camera Settings Affect RAW Photos?
Most of us think we have a good understanding of the camera settings that affect your RAW photos — it seems like common sense. However, the more that you look into it, the more complicated that this topic gets. In fact, no matter how much you know about your camera, chances are good that you have a few misconceptions about the camera settings that affect your RAW photos. Does high-ISO noise reduction change the way your camera records a RAW file? What…
Read This Article
Read This Article
The Decisive Moment in Landscape Photography
The name Henri Cartier-Bresson does not immediately remind most people of landscape photography. It shouldn’t; he wasn’t a landscape photographer! Instead, of course, Henri Cartier-Bresson was a street photographer — arguably the founding father of the genre. However, although he rarely took photos of nature, his intimate approach to street photography still has value to people who prefer the company of grand landscapes. One technique is especially worth learning, no matter what genre of photography you do: the decisive moment.
Read This Article
Read This Article
Olympic National Park: Our Last Days on the Road
This summer’s Photography Life road trip has come to an end, but not before a final visit to Olympic National Park. After dropping John off at the Seattle airport, Nasim and I spent a couple of days exploring Washington’s dramatic coasts and rainforests, taking some photos and filming the remainder of our Composition chapter. Hopefully you have enjoyed these quick articles from the road. I certainly have had fun sharing our experiences!
Read This News
Read This News
The Question of “Good Enough” Image Quality
One of the largest debates in the world of photography is split into two main camps. On one side are people who strive to take photos with the highest technical level of image quality — in everything from their equipment to their camera settings — for most of their photos. The other side of the debate says that photographs are more about the subject and emotion of the scene, and the image quality is only a minor factor. Neither side is…
Read This Article
Read This Article
On the Road: Two Days at Mount Rainier
After a few weeks of travel, the three of us — Nasim, John Bosley, and I — have made it back from our landscape photography road trip through the Western United States. From the Rocky Mountains to the Cascades, we visited some of the country’s most beautiful landscapes, and we captured some footage that we are very excited to add to our upcoming landscape photography video course. We’ve already written about our sunset and nighttime photography in the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone’s dramatic hot springs,…
Read This News
Read This News
Happy 100th Birthday to the US National Park Service!
In the past month, I have visited more National Parks than in any other time of my life. I have seen some of the most beautiful places in the world under incredible conditions, and I managed to take photos of landscapes that I had heard of since I was a young child. That’s why I am happy to say that today, August 25th, marks the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service in the United States.
Read This News
Read This News
What Is Dual-Pixel RAW in the Canon 5D Mark IV?
Canon’s newest 5D Mark IV camera has a lot of exciting specifications — the fast frame rate and 4K video capabilities, for example — but there is more to this camera than what first meets the eye. One new feature buried in Canon’s promotional material is a technology called Dual Pixel RAW. This isn’t something that we have seen before, but it seems like it could be one of the most interesting features of this new camera. So, what is Dual-Pixel…
Read This Article
Read This Article
On the Road: Exploring Glacier National Park
The past few days filming our landscape photography video have been fun and exhausting, and we’ve seen some wonderful sights along the way. After leaving Yellowstone National Park, we headed north to film some mountains and snow. For our next stop, we spent about a week in and around Glacier National Park. Although we missed the peak wildflower season in Glacier by a few weeks, the park was still absolutely beautiful — and very nice for photography.
Read This News
Read This News
How Was This Picture Made #10: The Answer
We had a lot of good guesses on our tenth “How Was This Picture Made” article, including a couple that were almost entirely spot-on. Congratulations to Photography Life reader Goh Wei Jun for his guess — he will receive a copy of our upcoming eBook, Creative Landscape Photography, as a prize. So, how was this photograph made? This article dives into the entire process.
Read This Article
Read This Article
On the Road: Traveling Through Yellowstone
Our landscape photography tutorial has taken us from Colorado to Wyoming to Montana, and we have filmed in some amazing locations along the way. Cell coverage is hard to find in this area of the country, but there is no shortage of beautiful landscapes to photograph. After packing up and heading out of Grand Teton National Park, we took a short detour through Yellowstone on the way to Montana. This was the first visit for both John and I, and…
Read This News
Read This News
On the Road: Milky Way and Sunrise Photography
After almost a week of filming, we just packed up and left Grand Teton National Park. We were very lucky to capture some great light, and we had a few clear nights to take good Milky Way photos as well. We’re now heading to Yellowstone for some photos — hopefully avoiding the crazy tourists — and then going north to film some videos throughout Montana.
Read This News
Read This News
On the Road: Arriving in Grand Tetons National Park
A couple days ago, John Bosley and I flew out to Colorado to meet up with Nasim. We’re in the first stages of another exciting video for Photography Life: an advanced landscape photography tutorial. We’ve had this particular project in mind for a while, and it feels great to start putting our plans into action. After landing in Denver, the three of us stopped for some food and camping supplies, and then we hit the road to Grand Teton National…
Read This Article
Read This Article
A Rainbow and a Waterfall at Sunrise: The Making of a Photograph
After a week in Ireland, I have seen some incredible sights. This is a beautiful country, and the people are incredibly warm and welcoming. Although most days here have been rainy, I’ve tried to make the most of foggy landscapes and simply enjoy my time in such a unique place. However, the weather has made it difficult to take colorful sunrise and sunset photos, which is a bit unfortunate — it is no secret that golden hour is a wonderful time to take pictures. Still, there has been…
Read This Article
Read This Article
Dangerous Photographers at the Cliffs of Moher
I arrived in Ireland a couple days ago, and I have been taking plenty of photos along the way. I’ll post them in future articles, but there is something more important to discuss for now: the dangerous, idiotic behavior I saw at the Cliffs of Moher.
Read This Article
Read This Article
How Was This Picture Made #10?
This is the tenth post in our “How Was This Picture Taken” series, and this one features a photograph I took at Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. Since this is the tenth installment in our series, and because we have a number of exciting projects coming up, we’d like to do something a bit special this time:
Read This Article
Read This Article
A Look Back at the Intimate, Otherworldly Photography of Fan Ho
I am sad to say that the world of photography lost one of its true masters this past Sunday. Chinese photographer Fan Ho, known for his intimate street photographs of 1950’s Hong Kong, died of pneumonia at the age of 84. His photographs are more than simply beautiful; they show an understanding of light and composition is truly unparalleled. I cannot write anything that does justice to work like this, so I will leave with one of Fan Ho’s quotes…
Read This News
Read This News