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April 2007


How-To

  • Digital Exposure Essentials


    Getting the exposure right is at least as important when shooting digital as when shooting film



    In order to have a proper exposure, how much light needs to hit the image sensor of your camera when you press the shutter release? This is the basic question of exposure, and two factors determine the answer: ƒ-stop and shutter speed. You can let the camera choose these for you or choose them yourself in one of your camera’s manual modes. Either way, the amount of natural light at your location must first be measured—and measured accurately.
  • Essentials


    Think about the core elements that make up all landscape photographs



    What are the essential ingredients for a great landscape photograph? While in the process of developing an online landscape course, I’ve been asking myself this question in order to help photographers improve their work. There’s an obvious list of elements that make up any strong photograph:

  • Get A Move On


    Use these techniques to add a feeling of motion to your images



    As a visual storyteller, I sometimes look at my video-shooting colleagues with more than a little envy. They carry only one camera (albeit a big one) with one zoom lens of incredible range and speed; they not only capture sound, but seem to be able to shoot in pitch-dark conditions as well; and most enviable of all, they can record movement and the passage of time.
  • Wings Of Spring


    Try these 10 tips from renowned professional Tom Vezo and get your best avian images this spring



    A bald eagle skims the surface of its own reflection as it hunts for fish along the coast of Alaska. An Atlantic Coast black skimmer gingerly plucks its offspring in its maw to carry it to a safer place. A Rufous hummingbird gleams iridescent as it sips at nectar in a field of blush rose. These are images from Tom Vezo’s latest award-winning book, Wings of Spring: Courtship, Nesting and Fledging, a collection of intimate photographs of the lives, behavior and beauty of these birds.

Gear

  • Epson P-5000 Multimedia Storage Viewer


    A hard drive/viewer that lets you leave the laptop at home



    Though my wife believes my laptop is permanently tethered to my body, there are times when I don’t want to tote around my computer. Such a time is when I’m out shooting in the field. But since I still want to back up my digital files before I get home, the Epson P-5000 Multimedia Storage Viewer provides a good way to both secure and share my images.
  • Big Images From Digital Cameras


    Digital Blowup • Lasting Impressions • Size Matters • Put Your Best Print Forward • How Much Space?




    I’m shooting with an 8-megapixel digital SLR. I submitted some images to a lab and requested 24x36-inch prints. I was told that my digital file wasn’t large enough to produce prints of acceptable quality in this size. I’ve had prints made as large as 86 inches from slide film. Do I still need to shoot film for large prints?
    T. McGraw
    Kansas City, Missouri
  • Fujifilm FinePix S9100


    9-megapixel RAW capture with an optical 10.7x zoom



    It’s amazing just how much is expected of a basic camera today. Fujifilm’s loaded FinePix S9100, successor to the S9500, does its best to raise expectations even more with an array of impressive features.
  • Gadget Bag: Multimedia Storage


    Back up and review your images in the field with handheld media devices



    Last summer at the Bronx Zoo, I overheard a seasoned professional photographer explaining his Epson multimedia storage viewer to a zoo employee. "I used to work with an assistant," he said. "Now I use this. Best part is, it never oversleeps."
  • In Focus: April 2007


    Quickly import, organize, manage and showcase large volumes of your digital photographs using Adobe Lightroom. With powerful workflow tools and a streamlined user interface, Lightroom processes your images nondestructively in RAW, JPEG and TIFF. All of the tasks you see in the main interface—Library, Develop, Slideshow, Print and Web—are designed to act as independent modules so you have full, intuitive control. Tools include a precision white-balance selection option, tone curve adjustment for making midtone, shadow and highlight modifications, and search presets for quicker image retrieval. Lightroom is compatible with Photoshop CS2 and Elements, and works with Macintosh- and Windows-based systems.
  • Sigma Macro 70mm f/2.8 EX DG


    A versatile lens with a fast aperture and popular focal length for D-SLRs



    When we all shot film, one of the favorite focal lengths for a macro lens was 105mm. Sigma’s new 70mm ƒ/2.8 macro lens fits that tradition for digital cameras. All photographers using digital SLRs with small-format, APS-C-sized sensors will find that this lens acts like a 105mm lens with a 35mm camera because of the crop
    or multiply factor.
  • Small-Format Wide-Angle Zooms


    You don't need a "full-frame"-sensor D-SLR to do wide-angle photography



    The widely used APS-C-sized image sensor has helped make excellent D-SLRs affordable, but long carried a drawback for wide-angle photographers: a narrowed angle of view. Fortunately, camera and independent lens manufacturers now offer very short focal-length zoom lenses for these cameras, designed to eliminate this problem.

Locations

  • Mountain Digital


    Elizabeth Carmel's expressive landscapes are a combination of subtle details and majestic scenes



    A summer day starts early in the high Sierras for photographer Elizabeth Carmel. Arriving at the trailhead in total darkness, she straps on her backpack, and for the next hour, with only a headlamp illuminating the path, she treks up a meandering mountain trail.

Columns

  • Great Falls National Park, Virginia



    Great Falls National Park is a natural jewel situated just 14 miles northwest of our nation’s capitol. The park is part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway and covers some 900 acres on the Virginia side of the falls. On the Maryland side is the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Parkland, which stretches for 184 miles from D.C. to West Virginia. Both sides offer excellent vantage points with easy access, including wheelchair, to the falls by way of level paths and overlooks. The falls have a total vertical drop of some 76 feet in less than a mile and are comprised of several major cascades, the largest of which is 33 feet. The Potomac here is rated as a class 5 whitewater, which is considered a serious risk, and an average of seven people die every year in its powerful grip.
  • HD Digital Video


    The world of high-definition video offers new opportunities for nature photographers



    Many outdoor photographers have long admired nature documentaries like those from the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. Yet when they tried shooting in traditional video, the results were often disappointing. Video wasn’t known for its detail and color rendition.
 

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