Welcome to our online basic nature photography book called “How To? What For?” We look forward to sharing our love and passion for nature photography with you so you can enjoy all the magic and wonder nature photography can bring into you life.
We ask that you take your time to explore this new interest and not just run out with a camera into the wilderness. Study and learn about the techniques within these pages and start small, your backyard or neighborhood garden or vacant lot. There is a wonder of nature to be found and much of it is closer than you image. Even if you live in a busy city, buy a bunch of flowers from a flower shop and set up a small practice studio in your living room, playing with the light from a nearby window, your flash, or even the light in your house. Experiment and practice and you will find a new sense of wonder as the natural world is slowly exposed to you.
As you pour through these pages, you will be inundated with all the how tos and what fors about nature photography. We will do our very best to make it simple and fun, but it can get complicated, especially when we get to the math problems. We’ve included a lot of exercises at the end of each section and chapter to help you put into practice what we’ve just shown you. There are photographic examples and lots of commentary to help you learn all you can about nature photography.
These notes are meant to cover much of the detail taught in our live program. Many aspects of nature photography are covered in depth and others are covered only lightly. We highly recommend reviewing the book lists in the Appendix to learn more about specific areas of interest. Foremost, we recommend the first book purchase you make be John Shaw’s Nature Photography Field Guide. We offer it for sale in our online bookstore. We also recommend you take time during your studies to peruse our book recommendations on nature, nature photography, and travel to further enhance your studies.
When you have completed this educational series, take time to visit the rest of our website for more information. Our Learning Zone is stuffed with tips, techniques, and tricks for nature photographers.
What You Need to Know
The following are a few things you need to know to help you get started with your personal Basic Nature Photography course by Brent and Lorelle VanFossen:
Any camera will work: It doesn’t matter what kind of camera you have, SLR, point-and-shoot, or digital. The techniques described herein are basically the same. Even if your camera can’t control the exposure, you still need to be aware of how it works and when to recognize quality light, and decent light, when you find it. Other than that, everything applies no matter what camera you have.
Exercise the Exercises: There are exercises at the end of each section. We recommend you put what you learn into practice as soon as you finish the chapter before moving on. You don’t have to, but you will learn more if you do.
Workbook is printable: We’ve left the images in black and white to allow the pages to be printed quickly and easily, using less colored ink, so you can take this with you into the field.
Web Reference's article, "Stock Photography for Web Developers", is a interesting step-by-step explanation of how to use images on your website, but it goes much further.
This week we're going to take a brief look at a few of the photographic and design techniques necessary to create your own stock images. However, it's important to realize [...]
In our free online book, How To? What For? Basics of Nature Photography, learn the basics of nature photography techniques such as understanding equipment, exposure, composition, patterns in nature, wildlife photography, and other field techniques.
Each chapter takes you through the step-by-step process of learning about your camera and how to use it, followed by exercises to put into practice each step of the process. No matter where you are, or what kind of nature is around you, we'll take you through the process of learning to use your traditional or digital camera, understanding how it works and how to get the best nature photographs possible.
Beginning your basic nature photography course, we start with the basics of creating a strong composition. A photograph is simply a picture of something, but a well composed photograph can be artwork. We introduce you to the basics you need to know for composing interesting natural images, learning how to keep it simple, avoid distractions, understand common composition mistakes, and improve the quality of your images quickly and easily.
Writing with light. This is the translation of the word "photography" from Greek. Light literally writes across the film during exposure. Light is the soul of photography. It is critical to capturing the color, form and expression of a subject on film. The artistic language of photography uses expressions representative of color and light. We even discuss our camera lenses based upon the amount of light they permit through to the film. For many photographers, "seeing the light" and all its characteristics is the most important skill to develop.
Many different effects can be made with light. The challenge is not only learning to "see the light" but learning how to expose for the light in your camera. Learning to use the light accordingly and create these dramatic effects adds not only sparkle and excitement but also drama to your images. We look at the different types of light and how to photograph under the different light conditions such as sunrise and sunset, fog, twilight, full sun, shadows, and more.
Film sees the world differently than our eyes do. One of the challenges of photography is learning what those differences are so we can successfully put our vision on film. The human eye sees millions of colors and color variations at the same time. The eye sees all shades of white: off-white, cream, egg, ecru, soft-white, etc. The palette of colors available for oil paints is not as varied as the eye can see. Film is more limited. Understanding how film sees and how the eyes work will help you learn to "see" photographically, expanding your photography skills.
A painter has a problem painting without some basic tools, and so a photographer needs his or her photographic tools. We examine the basic principles of the camera body and lens to help you understand how they work and how to make them work for you. This applies to traditional film cameras and digital cameras equally. The more you know how your camera works, the better it can work for you, putting your “focus” on your subject and not on figuring out what button does what on your camera.
Just as you need to understand how your camera works, inside and out, you need to understand the roll lenses play in helping you capture that magical nature photograph. There are a variety of lens types for photographers to use: fixed, zoom, macro, and combinations of fixed and zoom lens with macro capabilities. We examine the differences, and uses, of the various photographic lenses.
