Nature Photography How To

Landscape photographers are very familiar with their friends, and three of the best are interesting light, weather, and a bit of luck. But what about enemies that can kill your photos?

For whatever reason, lens filters have become less popular in the digital age—except perhaps among nature photographers. In the video below, you’ll learn what one pro says are the “essential filters” that all landscape photographers should have on hand.

Last year, I decided to take on a challenge focusing on the unique natural beauty associated with wildfires in a Florida scrub ecosystem, one of the most rare ecosystems in the state. Florida is no stranger to wildfires. Nationwide, Florida has the second highest number of wildfires annually. In 2011, it was estimated that 300,000 acres of land was burned due to over 4800 wildfires. My project was centered at Indrio Savannahs Preserve, where a 120-acre wildfire was ignited by lightning in March of 2013.

Earlier this week we presented an overview of the most popular lens filters, explaining the basics of how they work to improve the appearance of photos you shoot outdoors. Today we're taking a look at one category of these affordable accessories; namely, the Neutral Density (ND) filters that are so popular among landscape photographers.

The use of negative space is a powerful compositional tool employed by experienced outdoor photographers to give photos a minimalist quality that really grabs attention, whether you're shooting landscapes, seascapes, or all sorts of nature photos. This quick and easy tutorial demonstrates everything you need to know in less than five minutes.

Whenever Adobe updates Lightroom and Photoshop there seems to be one standout feature that gets all the attention, like with noise reduction in the most recent refresh. But as you’ll see in the tutorial below from Photoshop Café, there’s another new Lightroom capability that’s super important.

There are numerous reasons for removing unwanted objects from a photo, including the proverbial telephone pole emanating from a person’s head. In other instances the goal may be eliminate an object that either crowds the image or is too close to one edge of the frame.