Close-up Photo Tips

To witness two lovers is a spectacle for the gods. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Coconut Creek, Florida
Canon 1Ds Mark II
Canon 50mm Macro Lens
Aperture Priority Mode
ISO 400
f/9.0 @ 1/80th sec.

Close-up Photo Tips:
• Use a true macro lens for close-up photography. It will get you closer than a zoom with a macro setting.
• Pay extra attention to depth-of-field, because depth-of-field is limited.
• Use a ringlight for even illumination.
• The background can make or break the photograph.

Life Lessons We Can Learn from Mother Nature, my latest iPad app, was recently released on the iTunes app store. The concept: On each page of the e-book-type app you’ll find an inspirational or motivational quote accompanied by one of my wildlife or landscape photographs. I tired to match each photograph to the quote, which was a challenging but rewarding process.

The photographs are from my travels over the years; the quotes are gathered from a lifetime of looking for inspiration from others.

To celebrate the iPad app, co-developed with Juan Pons (the dude who started the Digital Photo Experience with me), I’ll be posting a picture and quote from time to time here on my blog – pictures and quotes that are not in the app. I’ll also include the location in which each photograph was taken, as well as the camera data – as I do in the app.

To order the app, which also features my favorite Photoshop techniques for wildlife and nature photography, click on the iPhone/iPad photos on the right.

If you have an inspiration quote you’d like to share, please share it here via a Comment.

Explore the light – and explore the iPad!
Rick

Life Lessons We Can Learn From Mother Nature – iPad App Now Available

The bird hunting a locust is unaware of the hawk hunting him. – Chinese Proverb

Vermont
Canon 1Ds Mark II
Canon 100-400mm IS lens @ 375mm
Aperture Priority Mode
ISO 160
f/6.3 @ 1/250th sec.

Photo tips:
• Focus on the eyes.
• Blur the background to make your subject stand out in the scene.
• Shoot at eye level as possible.
• Try to light the eyes, with either natural light or a flash.

• • •

Life Lessons We Can Learn from Mother Nature, my latest iPad app, was recently released on the iTunes app store. The concept: On each page of the e-book-type app you’ll find an inspirational or motivational quote accompanied by one of my wildlife or landscape photographs. I tired to match each photograph to the quote, which was a challenging but rewarding process.

The photographs are from my travels over the years; the quotes are gathered from a lifetime of looking for inspiration from others.

To celebrate the iPad app, co-developed with Juan Pons (the dude who started the Digital Photo Experience with me), I’ll be posting a picture and quote from time to time here on my blog – pictures and quotes that are not in the app. I’ll also include the location in which each photograph was taken, as well as the camera data – as I do in the app.

To order the app, which also features my favorite Photoshop techniques for wildlife and nature photography, click on the iPhone/iPad photos on the right.

If you have an inspiration quote you’d like to share, please share it here via a Comment.

Explore the light – and explore the iPad!
Rick

Tuesday's Tip

Focus on Focusing
Greg Downing

When making close-up photographs (with super telephoto zooms and macro lenses) of wildlife, some photographers make the common mistake of always focusing on the eyes.

Generally speaking, the eyes are the preferred point of focus but the photographer also needs to consider the other elements in the scene – and how to make the most of the available depth-of-field. For example, when looking at my image of a bald eagle, the eyes are in focus – but as important in this shot, so is the tip of the eagle's bill.

With any lens, more than half of the depth-of-field falls beyond the initial point of focus. So, in this case, had I chosen the eyes as the focus point, getting the tip of the bill sharp might not have been possible.

Here the depth-of-field just barely makes it to the eyes before falling off rapidly. To get the desired depth-of-field, I very carefully composed the shot and then manually tweaked my focus well in front of the eyes, near the base of the bill. I used my depth-of-field preview feature to ensure that the eyes were also in focus. The magnification was so great (I was shooting with a 600mm lens on my Canon 1D Mark II) that I needed to use f/22 to get the bill and the eyes in sharp focus.

I also used a bit of fill-flash to help maintain sharpness – a technique that I often use to do close-ups shots of distant animals.

To learn more about how I create close ups in nature, see my article on Creating Intimate Portraits in Nature on NatureScapes.net.

And . . . mark your calendar: Rick and I are giving a full-day seminar on wildlife, outdoor and nature photography on November 7th in Fairfax, VA. Be there or be square.

Until then, focus on focusing.