Outdoor Photography How To

Today's basic Photoshop tutorial from one of our favorite landscape shooters begins with this question: "Do you run into a problem taking photos when part of the image is in focus, like the background, but other areas like the foreground are really soft? And then when you focus on the foreground instead, the opposite problem occurs."

Proper focusing techniques are essential for all types of photography, whether you’re shooting indoors or outside. This is particular true with travel and nature images that include a variety of elements from near to far. Do things right and you’ve captured a winning shot—otherwise it’s just another missed opportunity.

Whether you’re traveling the world, going on a family vacation, or just taking a quick weekend trip, you want to come home with images that are just as amazing as your memories. Our friends at Macphun teamed up with four top pros who, in their own words, provide the following advice for capturing the travel images of a lifetime.

Good landscape composition is one of the easiest things to understand but, perhaps, one of the most difficult things to explain in photography. It's like that old saying: "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like."

This comprehensive macro tutorial from the Naturefold YouTube channel is designed for those new to the genre. Yet, everything discussed will prove equally helpful if you've given closeups a try and were disappointed with your results.

Since the development of photography in the early 1800s, there has always been a strong tradition of photographers using their work to promote conservation and social justice issues. One need only to look at the development of the National Park System in the United States to see the impact early photographers had on conservation. William Henry Jackson, with his 1871 Yellowstone photographs, helped push through legislation that established Yellowstone as the world’s first National Park. Another well-known example of a conservationist photographer was Ansel Adams, whose tireless efforts both as a photographer and as a 37-year member of the Sierra Club’s Board of Directors led to the establishment of Kings Canyon National Park in 1940.

One big challenge for all of us who shoot landscapes is creating order out of expansive, chaotic scenes, and that's why good composition skills are so important for this genre of photography. And one of the first framing techniques we all learn from the get-go is the familiar Rule of Thirds.