Nature Photography How To

Careful preparation is essential for all forms of outdoor photography, whether you shoot travel scenes, landscapes, or adventure images—especially when you’ll be in the backcountry far from home. To that end, one of our favorite instructors put together the checklist below, to help you avoid the unexpected.

It often takes considerable concentration to capture compelling images, and every so often we miss a distracting background element while focusing on our main subject. Other times we’re aware of the distraction, but make the shot anyway because there’s no way to recompose and avoid the problem.

When it comes to photography, there’s color and then there’s COLOR! In other words, sometimes you want to take a subtle approach while other times the goal is to create eye-popping images—either by choosing vivid subjects, using certain camera settings and shooting techniques, employing a bit of editing wizardry, or a combination of the above.

Every so often we come upon a simple tutorial that demonstrates a few “essential” skills that can actually change one’s approach to photography. And that’s what you’ll find here, as an experienced pro reveals the secrets to his success.

Vibrant nighttime street scenes, brilliant sunsets, vivid parades, and automobile light trails after dark are just a few of the many opportunities for eye-popping photos. But if you don’t do things right, the impact is lost.

Conventional wisdom is that landscape photography calls for wide-angle lenses. Another “rule” is that if you shoot with long lenses a tripod is absolutely essential. But this quick tutorial takes a somewhat radical approach that you may find surprising.

Everyone seems to have their own approach to editing images in Photoshop, and some are more complex than others. But if you’re looking for a simple technique that will make a big difference in your results, this tutorial is for you.