- Finding the Right Light
- Photographing Landscapes
- Photographing Flowers
- Photographing Wildlife
- Enhancing Nature Photos in Photoshop
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Enhancing Nature Photos in Photoshop
Photoshop is the nature photographer's friend. While you're at the mercy of the elements when you're shooting outdoors, you can correct for nature's mistakes when you get back inside, at your computer.
Cropping Wildlife Shots
Photoshop's Crop tool is useful when you're shooting wildlife shots. With active animals, it isn't always possible to keep them properly framed; you may not be able to get close enough to them for a proper composition. As you can see in Figure 23.15, this is where the Crop tool comes in. Crop the photo to make the animal larger in the frame, or to provide better composition. It's not cheating.
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Figure 23.15 Crop a shot to better frame an animal—in this case, a seal at play in the ocean.
Correcting Exposure in Landscapes
Cropping generally isn't a problem with landscape photography, but exposure is. Here's the problem—if you expose for the sky, the foreground is too dark; if you expose for the foreground, the sky is too bright. Unless you use a graduated filter on your camera, you end up with half your photo either under- or overexposed.
The solution is to adjust the exposure for the bad part of the shot in Photoshop. Select that area of the photo you need to fix, and then add an adjustment layer to adjust either exposure, brightness/contrast, or levels.
I prefer to adjust the exposure. After selecting the area to fix (using whatever selection tool you prefer), select Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Exposure; when the Exposure dialog box appears, move the Exposure slider to the left (to decrease the exposure and darken the selected area) or to the right (to increase the exposure and lighten the selected area). Figure 23.16 shows the before and after effect, in this instance adjusting the exposure for an overexposed background.
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Figure 23.16 Fix an overexposed background (top) by editing only that area of the photograph (bottom).
Depending on the particular photograph, you may get better results by adjusting the levels of the selected area. In this instance, select Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Levels; when the Levels dialog box appears, adjust the shadows and highlights sliders as necessary.
Photographing the Urban Landscape
Not all landscapes are natural; when you're in a big city, you can capture the hustle and bustle of the urban landscape.
An urban landscape can be captured in shades of gray (via black-and-white photography), in the muted colors of its architecture, or in the surprisingly brilliant colors of its signs and vehicles (especially at night). Figures 23.17 through 23.19 illustrate all three types of shots.
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Figure 23.17 An urban landscape in black and white.
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Figure 23.18 The muted colors of an urban landscape.
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Figure 23.19 Bright lights, big city.
Know, however, that it's not really an urban landscape photo if there are people in it; that's another type of photography, as we discussed in the previous chapter. Although, to be fair, the evidence of people can sometimes add interest to an otherwise impersonal shot; use your own best judgment.
Some urban cityscape shots work best with a wide-angle lens; others require a telephoto. To that end, a general-purpose zoom might do the trick. Because you'll be traversing the city on foot, you probably don't need a tripod.
Depth of field is totally up to you. Some shots work best with the subject in focus and the rest of the scene not (shallow depth of field); other shots dictate a deeper focus (large depth of field). As I said, let the shot decide.
As in all outdoors photography, natural light is the best light; in an urban canyon, you don't have to worry about direct sunlight washing out the shot. Look for interesting shadows created by the nearby buildings, and play off them. And don't neglect night shooting; the vibe of a city changes tremendously when the sun goes down and the lights go on. A cityscape at night can be a truly beautiful thing.