THE ART OF LOVING NATURALISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY: HOW TO OBSERVE THE LIGHT
INTO THE WORLD OF NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS
The visual sensitivity of a landscape and how it is shaped by the light, is the basic characteristic that must be developed during the shooting of naturalistic photography workshop and as a photographer, even before to grab your camera.
During the best professional wildlife photography workshops around the world, is essential to learn first how to spontaneously approach and react to the light changing, you literally have to acquire insight.
Without noticing changes, you will be led to think that an object is always the same as it has been seen.
The word photography means to paint with light.
Awareness of using natural light is your first and most essential tool for exercising aesthetic control of the image, to look for all photos you are gonna take.
A good exercise for an amateur photographer is when he has to notice how the appearance of the light changes over the course of the day.
Whatever is good: your house, a field, an isolated tree.
Photographing every hour, from sunrise to the twilight, using the same photographic lens and the same frame.
Then you must observe these photos by observing the changes caused by the light.
Don’t be in a hurry; persevere just a little more, wait and see.
Only by being in place and observing the landscape around you, that will possible to understand what role light plays and only in this way, you will learn how to deeply see the world around you.
Perhaps, even to be able immediately to take wonderful photos from your nature photography workshop while time you’are full immersion by the environment.
OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES, HOW TO USE THE SHUTTER FOR:
1) ISOLATE THE SUBJECT
2) SUBJECT IN MOVEMENT WITH THE PHOTOCAMERA STOPPED
3) FOLLOW A SUBJECT WITH THE CAMERA WHILE IT MOVES
4) FREEZE THE ACTION
The photo camera allows us to see and do things that go beyond the human eye, expanding our range of observation and offering us new opportunities when it comes to nature photography workshops.
A high shutter speed can freeze an instant too fast for the eye to catch, and a slow shutter speed allows us to record motion in a way we cannot experience.
The simple choice of shutter speeds can therefore have a big effect on the final photo.
The camera lens is capable of changing depth of field depending on the size of the aperture.
It’s a property of the lens: the smaller aperture, the greater will be the depth of field.
As photographers we can take advantage of this feature by deliberately choosing to focus only an lement into the frame, where all the rest may be blurred.
This is selective focus, one of many creative tools available for photography.
Other useful elements that any wildlife photographer has to use are related by using photography filters, flash and high dynamic range (HDR) images; together they allow us to go beyond an intellectual interpretation of the world we see.
Generally for many naturalistic photographers of the digital age, filters such as a graduated neutral density and a polarizer to reduce flare and reflections and intensify the color, are sufficient to shoot the photographic phase of your workshops.
Furthermore the use of the flash makes it possible to photograph even when lighting conditions are not ideal.
If once, the flash was a useful tool for photographing only at night, today it is increasingly used even in daylight.
A fill flash can be used to compensate dark shadows in high-contrast conditions and restore the subject’s natural colors.
UNDERSTANDING THE FUNCTION OF ISO DURING NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS:
5) USE LOW SHUTTER SPEED TO CAPTURE UNUSUAL EVENTS
6) INCREASE DEPTH OF FIELD (CLOSE THE APERTURE)
7) DECREASE DEPTH OF FIELD (OPEN THE APERTURE)
We often think that exposure is determined by only two settings: the aperture and the shutter speed, but there is a third variable, the ISO which indicates the sensitivity of the film or digital sensor.
With film, we can choose a particular type that is partly distinguished by the ISO values; a low value, such as 100 ISO, means that the film has a low sensitivity to light and therefore requires a slower shutter speed (Also another reason to use a professional photography tripod).
Furthermore we can get a very fine grain, and amazing result as more uniform-looking image.
Higher values, such as ISO 800 or more, can be used in a wider range of lighting conditions but will also increase the grain (the noise) of images, which may or may not be appreciated.
With digital photography, things are quite similar but with important differences.
First of all you cannot change the sensitivity of the sensor, what makes it increase (going up with the ISO), is the amplification of the signal received by the sensor.
Raising the ISO values of a digital camera can result more problematic in the final image.
Noise is represented by random in tones and colors, at the pixel level.
The higher ISO value, the wider will be the amplification on the image data and the more noise you may have.
For the best quality, use the lowest ISO value possible.
However, especially in low light condition, when you’re trying to have a good depth of field or when you need a very fast shutter speed, it may be necessary to increase the ISO.
Using low ISO values will show minimal noise but it’s important to know first the characteristics of each camera.
Go out for a test, taking pictures of different subjects, in different lighting conditions, and shooting each scene with a range of ISO settings.
You can then evaluate these photos on your computer, zooming them and compare the results.
By reviewing the settings used for this test, you will have a good idea of the ISO range that produces acceptable results with your camera.
Since noise can be a determining factor in the final photo, it’s very important to pay attention to the ISO settings, as well as adjust the aperture and shutter speed, to achieve the ideal exposure.
