Photography eBooks, Tutorials, Tips, Blog | Learn to take better Landscape Photos

The Shelter

Jay Patel — May 8, 2013

Sometimes, unexpected conditions help me create a unique photograph. While wandering around a local park near Hilo (on the Big Island of Hawaii), we were stunned to see light beams streaming through the branches of this giant tree. The brilliant sunlight was being traced by the mist blowing from the pounding waves a hundred yards away. It was a bright, blue-sky day, but this small section of the park seemed to have its own micro-climate.

I used a small shelter as a point of interest. I often use a man-made structure like this to draw attention in a composition. I used our iHDR manual blending workflow to capture the details in both the highlights and the shadows.

In Photo of the Day Hawaii

Flower Portraits

Varina Patel — May 7, 2013

Photographing flowers isn’t as easy as it looks. Getting close enough to the ground is a challenge in itself. I use a shortened center column on my Induro CT113, and I spread its lets out nice and wide. The small image below shows how low I can go with that setup… and I can actually turn the center column upside down if I want to go even lower! I can actually suspend the camera (upside down) less than an inch above the ground if I need to.

The real trick with flower photography is finding the right angle. I usually take my camera off the tripod and look through the view finder in search of the best angle and composition. Once I’ve found my angle, I set up the tripod and make whatever adjustments I need to get the camera right where I want it.

Sometimes I want to be directly on top of the flower, looking straight down. At other times, I want to be on the same level with the flower itself.

Of course, I’m also acutely aware of the background in each photograph. I like to use a wide aperture to produce a very narrow depth of field. That way, the flower is in sharp focus, but the background is free of distracting elements.

Shooting outdoors usually means you have to deal with wind and light, too. When wind is an issue, I’ll use a higher ISO to get a faster shutter speed. When it’s bright and sunny, I might use a diffuser to soften the light, or a reflector to bounce light onto my subject for a bit of fill light. I sometimes use a diffuser and reflector together to get the look I want.

I love capturing the unique “personality” of a flower in its natural habitat. Can you share any tips for photographing flowers? I’d love to hear about the techniques you are using to capture flower portraits.

If you want to learn more about photography check our eBooks & webinars:

In Quick Tips patel, photography tips, tips, tripod

Interview with TWIP – Episode #302

Jay Patel — May 6, 2013

Recently we had pleasure to sit down with Frederick Van Johnson the host of This Week in Photo for a brief interview. We talked about how we got started in photography, what defines our photographic style and what it takes to balance family life and photography. We love TWIP’s casual interview style and plan to appear on future episodes.

You can listen to the complete interview on TWIP at: http://www.thisweekinphoto.com/2013/twip-302/

To learn more about photography checkout our eBooks below:

In Q and A Interview, landscape photography, photography

Fine Art Prints: The End of Days

Varina Patel — May 3, 2013

Today’s featured print is this unique shot from The Big Island of Hawaii. Right now, you can purchase a 24×36 inch print on beautiful Archival Quality Metallic paper for $265.00. Of course, you can choose from all kinds of different sizes and papers – or you can choose canvas or metal prints.

I took this shot just after sunset on the Big Island of Hawaii. As the lava flowed into the water, it created great bursts of steam that rose as dramatic swirls. The reflected light from the lava itself added to the incredible, otherworldly effect. I used a long exposure to capture this chaos of light and shadow.

Purchase a Print

In Fine Art Prints Fine Art, Hawaii, patel

Put Your Brand On It!

Varina Patel — May 2, 2013

I’m a firm believer in the importance of building a brand. If you see the Coca Cola logo (I bet you can picture it in your head right now) you can almost taste the soda on your tongue. Maybe you start singing the jingle in your head, or remember the last commercial you saw. Maybe you even start craving a nice cold soda all of a sudden. If you’re building a business as an artist, you want your brand to stand out in the minds of your clients in the same way that the CocaCola brand does. Maybe you want it to stand for high quality work, your own artistic style, your excellent educational resources… all the things that you want your customers to associate with your business.

We brand our work in a thousand little ways – from giving out business cards when we speak for a group, to displaying our logo in the header on our websites. That logo appears on the cover of our eBooks, at the beginning and end of our educational videos… even at the top of each invoice. So, you get the picture. I think branding is pretty important to building a business. In this post, I want to show you how I make sure my brand is visible when someone orders prints from my online store.

Maybe you already know that we use SmugMug for our print sales. They offer some really great branding options for artists – letting you keep your brand visible to your clients. This is how I’m using these services for my own business.

If you have a SmugMug Pro Business Account, SmugMug will display your branding in the shopping cart, include a 4×6 “thank you print” with orders, and place a sticker on the packages that contain your prints. That means that people are seeing your brand again and again… which is great marketing. It costs a dollar for the Thank You print and/or sticker. The branding banner on your shopping cart is free. (If you don’t have a SmugMug Pro account, you can use this 20% discount code to get one: SMUGMUGPATEL)

I started by designing my branding images in Photoshop. Make sure you check the size recommendations on the SmugMug website – click on Account Settings > Branding > Manage. You can upload the finished images from that page as well.

Here’s the image I created for my 4×6 “Thank You Print”. I always include a Certificate of Authenticity with my prints, and this is a great way to do that.

I also created a simpler image for the sticker that will be placed on each shipment.

smugmug sticker

And, I made a simple graphic for the shopping cart banner.

Once the images are ready, the next step is easy. Go to your Account Settings, and click on the Business icon, and then choose Branding from the menu. You can see that I already have branding set up on my site. If you are ready to set it up, just click on the Manage button under Branding.

The Pro Branding page will let you upload the files you’ve created. Just click the Choose File button and navigate to the files you’ve created. Once the images are uploaded, you’re done.

SmugMug will show the Shopping Cart banner during checkout – like this:

Nice, eh? They’ll place the sticker you created on the outside of the box for each order – and inside, your client will find the nice thank-you card.

Now, I did have one minor issue when I was setting all this up. My first attempt at creating a shopping cart banner ended up looking like the image below. (I was using a different image at the time, but it was sized correctly according to the suggestion on the upload page.) You can see that part of the logo is cut off, and the displayed area is square. Weird. Support got me a solution right away. If this happens to you, go to your Gallery page, and click on the Settings button under your “My SmugMug Site Files” gallery. (This gallery is not visible to the public unless you make it so.) Scroll down on the Gallery Settings Page to the Look and Feel section, and make sure that the Thumbnail option for this gallery is set to Original. That should solve the problem. Of course, if you run into any problems, you can always contact support. They’re great about getting back to me quickly every single time.

If you are looking for more information about our experience with SmugMug, you can read this post.

SmugMug Pro account 20% Discount Code: SMUGMUGPATEL

In Tutorials photography tips

Dragon’s Tears

Jay Patel — May 1, 2013

There is nothing like being able to walk right up to a lava tube and watch it rupture over and over again right before your eyes. The red hot lava comes flowing out creating some amazing, textures patterns and colors. The heat generated by some of the surface flow is so great that your hands and face start to burn if you get too close… but who cares when you have a camera and tripod in your hands? ;)

This is a composite image created with 3 different photographs – I used Layers and Masks in Photoshop to get the look I wanted. I used parts from different images to replace out-of-focus areas in the original photograph, so that the entire scene would be sharp. I used a long lens to get the shots, and had to move away quickly because of the intense heat.

In Photo of the Day Hawaii

Ink on Parchment

Varina Patel — April 30, 2013

As we hiked down from a ridge overlooking Lanikai Beach on Oahu, I noticed a small cactus flower blooming beside the trail. The mid-day light was shining through the flower, creating a subtle glow inside. When I got close, I could see brilliant, red veins scribbled across the thin membrane inside the flower – so I pulled out my macro lens to take a shot. By the time I finished, I was sweating… but I had the shot I wanted.

I got in as close as I could for this shot – pushing my macro lens to its focusing limit, and cropping the finished image to get in even closer. The repeating patterns are particularly appealing to me. They remind me of writing… I think it’s poetry. Don’t you?

In Photo of the Day Hawaii, macro, photography

Cascades at the Bottom

Jay Patel — April 29, 2013

When we photographed these falls, there was so much mist and water flowing that it was very hard to get close without being splashed. I stood in the stream to take the shot, and ended up soaking wet.

I took this photograph on an overcast day with a circular polarizer. You might think this would be an easy exposure – but it wasn’t. All that water ended up being pretty bright – and the deep shade left me with very dark shadows – so the dynamic range was pretty broad. I used our iHDR manual blending workflow to restore the details in post processing.

In Photo of the Day france, waterfalls

Bisti Wilderness, New Mexico

Varina Patel — April 26, 2013

Map: Cracked Eggs, Bisit Wilderness, New Mexico

Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area is one of the most bizarre and beautiful locations I’ve visited. The area is huge – more than 40-thousand acres. Access can be difficult or impossible in bad weather. The landscape changes from one place to the next in here. You’ll find a ridiculous collection of formations formed by erosion – from hoodoos to flat flood plains. The badlands are scattered with sandstone and shale and mud and silt… and such a variety of colors and patterns that you will hardly know where to begin. It’s a fantastic compositional challenge.

Bring along a good pair of hiking boots, lots of water, a hat to keep off the sun, a good map, and a GPS or compass. It’s easy to get lost in a place like this… so be smart about it and plan your trip.

We explored this spot earlier in the day and then returned to photograph these cool formations at sunset. I simplified the composition as much as possible by choosing a single stone as a foreground element and choosing an angle that allowed me to line up the rocks in a curve that pointed towards the distant sky.

You can find more information at the Bureau of Land Management Website: http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/wilderness/bisti.html

In Locations desert, New Mexico

How Can I Simplify an Image?

Varina Patel — April 25, 2013

Simplifying an image can be difficult, but it starts with choosing a simple subject. Look for subjects that draw the eye and stands out from its surroundings. Don’t try to include the whole scene in the finished image – instead, choose a very simple composition that showcases just one area or object. Once you’ve identified your subject, look for distractions. It’s ok to have a secondary element in your shot… but avoid clutter.

I use lots of other techniques to simplify my images as well. If clashing colors are distracting – try converting to black and white. If dark shadows or bright highlights draw your attention away from the subject, use a diffuser to soften the light. Look for colors that are similar for a simplified color palette.

I like to use a long shutter speed to smooth the surface of a lake or pond to remove ripples on the surface. And sometimes I use a wide aperture to create a narrow depth of field that softens a distracting background.

What techniques do you use to simplify a composition? Feel free to share examples and ideas in the comments!

To learn more about photography check out our eBooks below:

In Q and A aperture, black and white, color, composition, depth of field, Monochrome, nature, Photo Tips, photography, photography tips, tips

The Shelter

Flower Portraits

Interview with TWIP – Episode #302

Fine Art Prints: The End of Days

Put Your Brand On It!

Dragon’s Tears

Ink on Parchment

Cascades at the Bottom

Bisti Wilderness, New Mexico

How Can I Simplify an Image?

Meet Our Sponsors

Categories

Learn How To Photograph

iHDR Webinar Recordings

Newsletter