PhotoNaturalist

Three Quick Tips For Close-Ups

April 8, 2013 By Steve Berardi 1 Comment

California Wild Rose / Photo by Steve Berardi

Now that spring has arrived here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s time to start thinking about photographing all those wonderful wildflowers and insects. It’s the perfect season for close-up photography.

So, here are three quick tips to get you started:

#1 – Get down to your subject’s level

Many of the plants and insects that come out in the spring live very low to the ground, so your first reaction may be to photograph them from where you first spot them (standing up and looking down at them). But, many times it’s better to get down to your subject’s level and photograph them from there because it captures a more friendly point of view (almost as if you’re seeing eye-to-eye with your subject). [Read more...]

How To Focus Closer With your Lenses

March 5, 2013 By Steve Berardi 4 Comments

Every lens has a minimum focusing distance: the closest point where the lens can get a sharp focus. Generally, the longer the focal length of the lens, the greater the minimum focusing distance.

Most of the time, this distance isn’t a problem because with longer lenses you’ll generally be photographing a distant subject.

But, those longer telephoto lenses are also great for close-up photography, because they help you isolate your subject against a specific part of the background. In these cases, this minimum focus distance often becomes a problem because many lenses won’t let you get close enough to fill the frame with a small subject (such as a wildflower or insect).

So, how do you make your lens focus closer? [Read more...]

How To Reduce Noise In Your Close-Up Photos (using Photoshop)

May 8, 2012 By Steve Berardi 9 Comments

Photo by Steve Berardi

In close-up photography, you often use fast shutter speeds to help battle the wind or freeze the action of your subject (such as a butterfly feeding on a flower).

To get these faster shutter speeds without sacrificing your desired depth of field, your only option is to use higher ISOs (making your camera’s sensor more sensitive).

Unfortunately, at these higher ISOs, sometimes you get some really ugly noise in the background.

Well, there just happens to be a great way to reduce this noise in Photoshop. Here’s how: [Read more...]

Three Reasons to Avoid Relying on the Crop Tool

April 16, 2012 By Steve Berardi 15 Comments

Photo by Steve Berardi

In this age of digital photo editing, it’s tempting to get lazy when you’re taking a photo out in the field and just say to yourself, “well, if I don’t like how I framed this, I could always crop it later.” But, there are a few disadvantages to relying on that crop tool too much: [Read more...]

A Fun Way To Improve Your Wildflower Photography

March 13, 2012 By Vic Berardi 20 Comments

Photo by Vic Berardi

As spring approaches and the dreary overcast days of winter are still upon us, we anxiously await going out in the field for some wildflower photography. But, while you’re waiting for those flowers to pop up, you can still do something to help you prepare for those wildflower photos.

Over the winter, I picked up several excellent flower photography books and a few showed some techniques for indoor photography. So, I thought, why not give this a try and see if I can apply what I learned to outdoor wildflower photography. I didn’t have any studio lighting, so I decided to experiment with what I already had. [Read more...]

How to Win the Battle of Close-up Photography

March 7, 2012 By Steve Berardi 9 Comments

Pitcher Sage / Photo by Steve Berardi

In close-up nature photography, there’s a constant battle of trying to find that perfect balance between a sharp subject and an out-of-focus background.

An out-of-focus background is essential to a good close-up photo, because it helps draw attention to your main subject.

But, it’s not always easy to get that nice background. Sometimes the background is just too close, or your subject has a lot of depth (forcing you to try a smaller aperture, which then puts more of the background in focus).

So, how do you deal with this constant battle? Well, here are a few ways: [Read more...]