Nature Photography How To

Most photographers understand why shooting in Raw provides maximum image detail and other key attributes that contribute to ultimate image quality. Another benefit of using this format is that it delivers far more control during the image-editing process.

You're no doubt familiar with a common refrain that goes something like this: "You should definitely use RAW format and never shoot Jpegs." But is this really the best advice for you? You may be surprised by the conclusions drawn in today's tutorial from C64 Photo Safaris—a group of Botswana-based photographers with a passion for sharing their favorite shooting and image-editing techniques.

If you’ve visited Shutterbug’s galleries, you’ve likely seen Douglas Croft’s splendid work. A specialist in nature, outdoor, and travel photography, Croft’s gorgeous images have received glowing remarks from fellow Shutterbug readers.

Making natural-looking photo composites used to be somewhat difficult and time consuming, even for those with advanced editing skills. But as Photoshop has evolved, this task has become quick and easy as you’ll see in the tutorial below.

One way to improve the overall “feel” of landscape photographs is to adjust white balance to achieve either a subtle or more dramatic effect. You can often do that by selecting the appropriate camera settings, or in the case of this tutorial, by making a few adjustments when processing an image.

What if you arrive at a location, only to encounter atmospheric that obscures important objects in the background, reduces details throughout the scene, and basically ruins your shot? You can either return on a better day, or take a few photos and fixed them in Photoshop with the simple technique below.

Sometimes the outdoor images we make don’t look as remarkable on the computer as they did through the viewfinder. In some cases that’s due to challenging light, while other times the problem is incorrect exposure or other camera settings.