Outdoor Photography How To

Remember that macro lens you stashed in the back of your camera cabinet at the end of summer? Well, there's a lot more to closeup photography than photographing spring buds and the flowers and insects that emerge later.

The megapixel race shows no signs of abating as camera manufacturers continue to promote the benefits of high-res cameras while ignoring some of the disadvantages. The result is that many shooters are think about investing in a new and expensive high-resolution monster.

Inexperienced photographers typically strive for maximum sharpness from foreground to background in every image they shoot. A more sophisticated approach often involves strategically adding lens blur to accentuate a key subject within frame. And you'll learn an effective way to do exactly that in this tutorial from the Park Cameras YouTube channel.

There are several reasons why your outdoor photographs may be far less compelling than possible. Perhaps your images lack uniqueness and don't stand out from the crowd. Or maybe they're short on impact for reasons that are easy to correct by changing the approach you take in the field.

If we asked you to name the "one concept that 99% of photographers get wrong," it's doubtful that contrast is the first thing that comes to mind. According to photographer James Parsons, however, this is a critical element that should never be ignored.

The typical goal of most landscape photographers is to capture an image with a broad range of tonal values, with properly exposed highlights, dramatic shadows, and everything in between. This tutorial from the PHLOG Photography You channel demonstrates a different style that will really make your images stand out from the crowd.

There's a notion going ground that photographers aren't serious about the craft unless the mode dial on their camera is set to "M." We strongly disagree, but if you want to experiment with Manual mode photography this tutorial explains everything necessary for getting started today.