Today I’m happy to announce that my new eBook, Digital Wildflower Photography, is now available.

The first thing you’re probably wondering is how it’s different from the free eBook I released last spring. Well, this new one is over twice as long at 55 pages, and has a ton of new content.

While the free eBook was really just a collection of a few tips for getting better wildflower photos, this new ebook is more of a complete guide that will teach you how to take stunning wildflower photos and how to post-process them in Adobe Photoshop (CS and Elements 8).

Here’s a sneak peak of what you’ll learn in this 55-page eBook:

• What equipment you need for photographing wildflowers.

• How to setup your shot to create pleasing compositions and maximize sharpness.

• How to choose the right aperture to ensure all parts of the flower are tack sharp, and to isolate the flower against its background.

• How to find the perfect exposure by using tools like the RGB histogram (complete with a step-by-step example).

• The secret to getting perfect light, and what to do when you can’t wait for that perfect light.

• How to photograph butterflies (including how to maximize sharpness and how to get closer to butterflies without scaring them away).

• How to compose landscapes of wildflowers and include the three essential elements.

• How to post-process your photos with Adobe Photoshop to reduce noise, increase contrast and saturation, make small adjustments to exposure, and make your images super sharp (tutorials apply to both Photoshop CS and Photoshop Elements 8).

Also included are 7 example photos with complete stories about how they were taken and processed. It’s like Albert Einstein said,

“Learning by example isn’t the best way to learn–it’s the only way to learn.”

Here are some of the examples you’ll learn about:

Photos by Steve Berardi

A few of the topics in this eBook have already been discussed here on PhotoNaturalist, but the vast majority of this eBook is new content, and I have updated and expanded upon a lot of the old content.

The eBook is mostly geared towards beginner to intermediate photographers, but I think thereʼs something in here for everyone. And, although a lot of the material could be applied to any digital camera, you’ll get the most out of the book if you own a digital SLR.

Oh, and I almost forgot: I’ve also included a 1-page quick reference guide for wildflower photography. It basically summarizes everything in the book, so you can print it out and take it on the trail with you

You can buy the eBook now for just $12.95

Sure, it’s a little more than a cup of coffee, but it’s practically free when you stack it up against all that expensive camera gear

And, don’t worry–if you buy it and realize it’s not what you thought it was or you’re unsatisfied in any way, I’ll be happy to give you a full refund within 30-days after you purchase it. No questions asked.

After paying, make sure you click the “Complete Purchase” button.

The eBook comes in the standard PDF format, which you can view with Adobe’s free Reader software. Feel free to print the eBook, but please do not redistribute copies

Payments for the eBook are handled through PayPal, the #1 service on the Internet for making online payments (they’re owned by eBay).

Digital delivery of the eBook is handled by E-Junkie, a service which is used and recommended by some of the top bloggers in the world. After you pay through PayPal, you’ll receive an e-mail with a link to download the eBook.

If you experience any problems with payment or downloading the eBook, please contact me and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

About the Author: Steve Berardi is a naturalist, photographer, computer scientist, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the beautiful mountains and deserts of Southern California. His photographs have been used by the National Wildlife Federation and Nature Photographer Magazine.

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Photo by Steve Berardi

There are times, however, when that perfect exposure doesn’t exist. We’ve already explained how to fix blown-out highlights, but what if your flower photo suffers from shadows or underexposed areas?

You may think of taking two exposures in this case, but flowers bounce so much through the air that aligning these two exposures later will not be fun.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to fix these underexposed areas of your photos, using Photoshop. Here’s how:

We’ll use the photo below as an example. This photo of a Tidy Tip is underexposed a little bit in the center (it should be a brighter yellow):

Photo by Steve Berardi

We’ll fix this by using a Levels adjustment layer with a mask. So, let’s start clicking!

1) Use the “Elliptical Marquee” tool to circle your underexposed area (which usually occurs in the center of flowers). If your area isn’t circular, then you’ll need to use the lasso tool to outline it.

2) Add a new “Levels Adjustment Layer” by going to the Layer menu, then selecting New Adjustment Layer and finally “Levels”

3) Make your selection lighter by dragging the center triangle towards the left (see red circle in screenshot below). The more you drag this triangle to the left, the lighter your selection will get. Stop when you’re satisfied, and click “OK” (alternatively, you may have to drag the rightmost triangle to the left instead of the center one, so try both!)

4) Your underexposed area should now be properly exposed, but there’s probably a sharp outline between this area and the rest of your flower (see below photo). To get rid of this, go to the Filter menu and select Gaussian Blur under the Blur submenu. Start at 0 pixels and keep increasing the value until that sharp edge is gone and the area merges smoothly with the rest of your wildflower.

See that circular outline?

And, here’s the final result:

Photo by Steve Berardi

You may have noticed this is almost the complete opposite procedure that was in our eBook, “How to darken a background in Photoshop”

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About the Author: Steve Berardi is a naturalist, photographer, computer scientist, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains or the Mojave Desert, both located in the beautiful state of California.

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Photo by Steve Berardi

Well, sometimes there just isn’t a perfect exposure, and no matter what shutter speed you choose, you’ll either get a wildflower that is way too underexposed, or you’ll get tiny overexposed “patches” on your wildflower.

Fortunately, if these “patches” are small enough, there’s an easy way to fix them in Photoshop. Here’s how:

Photo by Steve Berardi

1) From the toolbox window, select the “sponge” tool. Depending on which version of Photoshop you have, this may be under the same tab as the Burn/Dodge tools (see screenshot below):

2) Use these values for the tool settings:

• Mode: Desaturate
• Flow: 35%
• Brush Diameter: 130
• Brush Hardness: 16%

3) Finally, simply draw the sponge over the problem areas (hold down the mouse button, and release when finished).

If this desaturates the flower too much, then go back and try a lower “flow” value.

Here’s the final image used in this example:

Photo by Steve Berardi

Remember, this method only works well when you have small “patches” of blown-out highlights, and if they’re not blown-out too much. You still need to get as perfect an exposure as possible.

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About the Author: Steve Berardi is a naturalist, photographer, computer scientist, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains or the Mojave Desert, both located in the beautiful state of California.

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Photo metadata, simply put, is a set of data that describes various aspects of your photo (i.e. where it was taken, settings used, etc).

Photos without metadata are like the thousands of items at an antique market, whose origin and history you can only guess at. Using metadata is like adding a card next to each item in the antique market with details such as its origin, maker, purpose, how it was made, etc.

There are two types of metadata: technical and informational.

Technical metadata

The technical data (EXIF) tells you all about the settings used when you took the shot. This includes things like:

• date and time
• shutter speed
• aperture
• ISO speed
• focal length

On most cameras, this information will automatically be added to each photo when you take them, so you generally don’t need to do anything to include this.

Informational metadata

The informational data (IPTC, XMP and Keywords) includes things like:

• name and type of subject
• name of the photographer
• where the photo was taken
• copyright info
• keywords to describe the photo
• just about anything else you can think of!

This type of information isn’t automatically generated by the camera (sorry!), so you’ll have to manually enter it yourself, but making use of this information will make your photographic life much easier!

Advantages of using metadata

Metadata is written to the image file, so it stays with the image wherever it goes. This means whether you email it or post it on the web, the metadata you include will be available for all to read (only you can decide whether that is a good thing!).

There are two main advantages of using metadata:

1. It helps identify you as the photographer and owner of the photo
2. It helps you find the photo again later (through keywords, and any other info you attach to the photo)

An example of metadata in action

Photo by Matthew Fletcher

Technical data (EXIF):

• ISO Speed: 400
• Focal Length: 400mm
• Exposure: 1/500
• F-Number: f/8

Informational data:

• Copyright notice (“Copyright (c) 2008 Matthew Fletcher”)
• Rights usage notice (“For consideration only. No reproduction without prior permission”)
• City/State (Lauderdale, Tasmania)
• Country (Australia)
• Keywords (white faced heron, Egretta novaehollandiae, Lauderdale Canal)

By including all this metadata, I can safely post this image online or send it to a friend, bureau or magazine (because the copyright notice is included). I can also search my computer for this image by using keywords I attached to the photo (i.e. “White-faced Heron” or “Australia” or “Tasmania” or “Lauderdale” or “Lauderdale Canal” or any combination of these).

With so many ways to find this image, I’ll surely find it quickly and easily whenever I need it in the future.

As an alternative to metadata, I could have simply renamed the file to “White-faced Heron” but then you wouldn’t be able to determine where the picture was taken, nor the other features. And if this picture had multiple subjects, what would you call it without having a terribly long file name?

Using metadata is the only way to attach all information about the photo.

How to add metadata to your photos

Depending on which program you use, there will be different ways of adding keywords to your image. It may be called keywords, or tags, or simply “metadata.” Programs like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom have advanced keywording and metadata options. But you can also add keywords in programs like Apple’s iPhoto and many others.

It’s worth the extra time investment…

It does take extra time to add keywords, but the small investment of time up-front is well worth it in the future. Try it next time you import your photos or look at existing photos, and see how metadata can work for you. Oh, and if you do go antiquing, think how much easier life would be if each item included metadata!

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In anticipation of a great spring wildflower season, we decided to put together a FREE 20-page eBook, 13 tips for better wildflower photography. It contains some of our existing articles, but also includes SIX brand new articles!

Here’s what you’ll learn in this free 20-page eBook:

#1 – How to identify wildflowers

#2 – The secret to getting perfect light

#3 – What to do if you can’t wait for perfect light

#4 – (NEW) How to get a proper exposure

#5 – How to position your camera

#6 – How to get sharper photos

#7 – (NEW) How to get a perfect background

#8 – (NEW) How to battle the wind

#9 – (NEW) How to compose landscapes with wildflowers

#10 – (NEW) How to get butterflies in your photos

#11 – Why it’s important to leave no trace

#12 – How to sharpen your photos in Photoshop

#13 – (NEW) How to darken a background in Photoshop

So, what are you waiting for?

Download the FREE eBook now!

The eBook is in Adobe PDF format (which you can view with Adobe’s free reader).

If you enjoy the tips in this eBook, the best way to thank us is to share it with your friends

And, if you’re not already subscribed to PhotoNaturalist, then sign up for FREE updates by email or RSS. Thanks, and have a great day!

About the Author: Steve Berardi is a naturalist, photographer, computer scientist, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the beautiful mountains and deserts of Southern California.

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Photo by kelpenhagen (used under the CC-Attr-NC 2.0 license)

Yesterday, I wrote a few tips for getting a perfect exposure of a snow covered landscape (or, how to avoid the “gray snow problem”).

But, what do you do with all those gray snow photos you already took? Throw them away?

Nope! Fortunately, there’s an easy way to fix the gray snow problem in Photoshop. With just a few clicks, you’ll transform that dull grayness into a beautiful bed of white textured snow.

Here’s how to do it:

Starting with this photo…

1) Add a new levels adjustment layer, by going to the “Layer” menu, then the “New Adjustment Layer” submenu, and finally select “Levels…”

2) Name the layer if you’d like, and hit “OK.”

3) Click on the “white eyedropper” button (circled in the screenshot below):

4) Here’s the part where you’ll have to do some experimenting. While keeping this window open, click on a part of the photo that you think represents the brightest white (anywhere on the snow should be a good first guess).

5) You might now see some blown out highlights, like this:

6) To get rid of those blown out highlights, just keep clicking around the photo (but only click on parts you think should be white), until you get a photo with just a few sections of blown highlights (they’ll look like bright white circles or blobs).

7) Keep clicking with the eyedropper towards the center of these circles/blobs, until it’s gone, and you’re left with a nice textured bed of snow, like the one here:

You may also want to zoom in on the photo before adding the adjustment layer, to ensure you don’t create any subtle blown out highlights.

Only use this method as a last resort!

With the wonderful power of tools like Photoshop, it’s tempting to get lazy out in the field (not thinking about exposure) and just say to yourself “eh, I’ll fix it in photoshop later.” Always remember that any post processing you do in Photoshop (or any other program) will significantly add noise to your photo.

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The photograph used in this article was taken by kelpenhagen and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 license.

About the Author: Steve Berardi is a naturalist, photographer, computer scientist, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the beautiful mountains and deserts of Southern California.

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There seems to be a lot of debate about the best sharpening method in Photoshop. Some say it’s “unsharp mask,” while others swear by “smart sharpen,” and a few have developed complex multi-step workflows for sharpening their photos.

I’ve tried a few of these techniques, but the one I like best is High-Pass sharpening. It’s my favorite method for two reasons:

• It barely adds any noise to your photo
• It’s a short and quick process

So, here’s how you do it:

1.) You’ll need to have a flat image for this, so if you have multiple layers, merge them together by selecting “Flatten Image” from the “Layer” menu.

2.) Create a duplicate layer of your flat image by selecting “Duplicate Layer…” from the “Layer” menu:

3.) Go to the “Filter” menu, and go all the way to the bottom until you get to the submenu labeled “Other,” and then click on “High Pass…”

4.) You should now see a window that looks like this:

5.) The goal here is to select a pixel radius large enough so it outlines the edges of your photograph and shows a little bit of color (make sure the “preview” box is checked!). Usually values between 4 and 10 work very well. Here are a few examples of radius values that are too small, too big, and perfect:

6.) Click “OK” to apply the filter

7.) In the “Layers” window, click on the blending mode listbox, and select “Overlay”

8.) Your photo should now look like it’s too sharp. But, don’t worry, the next step is to fix that! Right next to the blending mode listbox, there’s an “Opacity” slider. Click on that and lower the opacity until your photo looks sharp, but not too sharp. I usually set it between 30-45%.

You should now have a super sharp photo! Here’s an example before/after:

Photo by Steve Berardi

Photo by Steve Berardi

Click here to open a side-by-side comparison. It’s a lot easier to see the difference if you do an undo/redo in Photoshop.

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Do you constantly find yourself resizing your photos to prepare them for the Internet? Maybe for posting them to a blog, emailing them to a friend, or adding them to your online photo gallery?

Surprisingly, photo resizing (or resampling) involves some very complex computer algorithms. There’s many ways to do it, and I won’t go into all the technical details here, but the bottom line is that the default resizing method in Photoshop isn’t the best one available.

If you change just one setting when resizing your photos, you can get much higher quality results that will even make your photos look sharper!

Here’s how to do it:

1.) Under the “Image” menu on top, select “Image Size…”

2.) This will bring up the resize window, pictured below. Notice the drop down listbox at the bottom, where the default selection is “Bicubic (best for smooth gradients).” Unfortunately, this is not always the best option.

3.) From the listbox, select “Bicubic Sharper (best for reduction)” instead, and enter a new size for your image (try something around 600 pixels wide to see dramatic effects):

4.) Click “OK” and check out the results! Try comparing it with the standard resizing option to see how much better this method works. Here’s an example comparison:

Photo by Steve Berardi

Photo by Steve Berardi

Click here to open a side-by-side comparison of the above photos.

Most of the time (but, not always), this method will produce much better results than the standard resize option. If you use this method and get a weird looking photograph (sometimes it may look “too sharp”), then go back to the default!

And, one last note: have you ever noticed how photographs on Flickr look a lot sharper than anywhere else? It’s actually because Flickr uses the best resizing algorithm, known as Lanczos resampling. For some reason this algorithm isn’t available in Photoshop.

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