Nature Photography How To

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "There are too many rules of grammar up with which to put." And the same holds true for photography rules, especially with regard to composition. Instructor Ian worth admits that a few of these familiar notions can help frame an image, as long as you understand when they're advisable and when they should be ignored.

Time blending is one of the most powerful post-processing techniques for making sense out of complicated landscape scenes with a wide range brightness values throughout the frame. Today's instructor Austin James Jackson explains the concept like this: "Capturing stunning wide-angle scenes can be easy when you're willing to do a time blend," and this is what you'll learn how to do in the next 15 minutes.

Photoshop's Gradient tools serve a wide variety of purposes for bringing outdoor photos to life by gradually blending colors or opacity. There are various options available for better colors, smoothing transitions and applying creative effects. The rub is that it takes a bit of time to get the adjustments just right.

All of us who shoot in color have experienced the disappointment of capturing a unique scene that fails to meet expectations. The video below from the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel explains why some images can be significantly more compelling in b&w, with a basic workflow for making a dramatic transformation.

Regular Shutterbug readers are well-acquainted with extraordinary German Landscape pro Christian Mohrle, not just because of his inspirational images but also for the post-processing tutorials shared on the popular PHLOG photography You Tube channel that's loaded with helpful how-to tips.

Not long ago we featured a comprehensive guide to photographing the Milky Way, with camera settings advice, gear recommendations, post-processing tips, and more. We're following up on that today with this primer for inexperienced photographers who want to capture awe-inspiring images of starlit skies, even when the Milky Way isn't visible.

We were all taught early on to always shoot with the sun to our back, and that worked OK for beginners looking for the easiest way to capture a "Kodak moment." If you're still following this familiar "rule," it's long past time to be more creative, and one effective way to do that is by setting aside what you learned about composition and try shooting towards the sun.