PictureCorrect.com: Interesting Photo of the Day: Stunning Reflection of Autumn Glory

High in the mountains of Quebec, Canada lies a beautiful 205-square-mile natural conservation area named La Mauricie National Park. Despite the impending wintry weather, autumn is arguably the best time to visit La Mauricie, since the park boasts a vibrant array of fall colors—thanks to its many sugar maple and yellow birch trees.

Photographer Pierre Leclerc captured this stunning photograph of the park in its autumn glory from the shores of glassy Modene Lake:

Autumn reflection on Quebec’s glassy Modene Lake. (Via Imgur, Click to see larger size.)

“To be a photographer is to be aware of things around you,” writes Leclerc on his website. “Lots of people miss the most beautiful of things. You need to appreciate nature and see it as it is. You need to be aware.”

Leclerc is a landscape, wildlife, and action sports photographer based in Quebec, Canada. His work has been featured in many outdoors-based publications, including Canadian Geographic magazine.

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PictureCorrect.com: How to Shift Perspective to Improve Spacing in Photography

What is it as photographers that you pay the most attention to when composing your photos? Probably the subject, right? It’s a logical decision. But besides the subject itself, there are other important elements that photographer Mark Denney believes can make or break your photos. Let’s see how the surrounding elements of your prime subject can help to elevate your photos:

Denney emphasizes two critical aspects that you should be paying attention to: converging lines and the spacing between supporting elements. The tips he shares in the video will help you invite breathing space into your image.

Time and again we shoot from a lower angle in search of a unique perspective. This can work great, but if you haven’t noticed, this technique significantly affects the midground. Shooting low emphasizes the foreground while keeping the background intact, but we can lose the midground entirely. This is just one example Denney shares—but the problem can arise in other scenarios, too.

Converging lines are one of the most powerful composition elements. However, if you’re not careful, you could be missing out on some opportunities. Ensure that any converging line you have in your image is clear of obstruction. Move around slightly and you might be surprised to see the difference it can make. Keep in mind that prominent converging lines add more value to your photograph.

“Not paying attention to converging lines is a mistake. Converging lines can make or break a photograph.”

On a similar note, Denney emphasizes the importance of having a clear separation between foreground and background elements. Including room to breathe declutters the image and allows viewers’ eyes to move around more comfortably. Here, too, is the same advice: continuously move around while scanning your frame to see that the elements are not competing for attention.

Denney shares a handful of examples to illustrate how his tips can improve your images. Be sure to watch the complete video and use the tips to take your photography to the next level.

For further training: The Understanding Composition Digital Guide

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PictureCorrect.com: Slot Canyon Photography Tips & Techniques

Slot canyons represent one of the most fascinating corners of our planet: the American Southwest. Sandstone, over millions of years, has been eroded by the power of water, creating deep, winding corridors. For anyone of any age with an explorative spirit, slot canyons are a playground. The two most iconic, and likely the most photogenic canyons in the world, are within a two-hour drive of each other. They are the Zion Narrows and Antelope Canyon.

Photo by Hikersbay Hikersbay

My name is Seth Hamel. I’m a professional landscape and adventure photographer working in the Zion National Park area. When I go into the Narrows by myself or with clients, the start time isn’t until 10 am or so, depending on the time of year. Many of the clients that I guide through the Narrows ask, “Can we start earlier? I want to make sure I’m in there for the best light.” With typical landscape photography, we want to get that early, glowing light on the features of whatever we’re photographing.

In slot canyons, however, the best light occurs mid-day on cloudless, sunny days. The best light is not direct sunlight hitting the walls of the canyon but rather reflected light. Reflected light occurs when bright, harsh, direct sunlight hits a canyon wall and reflects that light onto another wall. This is the type of light that produces rich, saturated, glowing colors in slot canyons. It’s important to keep even a peep of sky or direct sunlight out of your photos, as this produces blown out areas of your image and can produce a nasty haze near those areas. Naturally, there are exceptions to this rule, but they are uncommon.

Photo by Scott Osborn

The Zion Narrows and Antelope Canyon are significantly different canyons.

The Zion Narrows is the largest slot canyon in the world! Carved by the power of the Virgin River, the Narrows is a canyon where you hike in the river itself. Antelope Canyon is a dry canyon unless there has been recent rainfall. Due to the narrowness of this canyon and its large water gathering area during the monsoon season, this canyon has been carved by powerful raging flash floods. Because of the differences between these canyons, camera settings can vary with each.

To obtain professional quality images, a tripod is required. As a general rule, setting your ISO to 100 will give you crisp, printable images. In canyons, you typically want to have the entire scene in focus–no blurring of the foreground or background (again this is a general rule). In order to obtain such depth of field, set your aperture to a higher number. F/16, f/18 or f/22 is useful. From there, read your camera’s internal light meter and adjust your shutter speed in order to get the appropriate exposure. These settings are a safe bet for Antelope Canyon.

Photo by Dave Dollar

The Zion Narrows presents situations where controlling your shutter speed is the first priority. Due to the beautiful flowing water in this magnificent canyon, controlling what the flowing water looks like plays a major role in the artistic outcome of your image.

Good shutter speeds range from 1/2 of a second to 1/10 of a second. This requires some experimentation with different speeds of water flow and the effect you’re hoping to achieve. After setting the shutter speed, I would adjust my aperture and then the ISO. This can be a tricky balance. Having an experienced mentor in this situation is helpful.

Slot canyons are amazingly beautiful and awe-inspiring. They are candy lands for any level of photographer. Keep in mind that during rainy periods, slot canyons are very dangerous due to flash flooding. Be sure to do your research on flash flooding and weather conditions before you enter into these canyons. There have been numbers of fatalities in both of these canyons.

About the Author
Seth Hamel offers professional guiding and photography instruction in Zion National Park. Tracking the best light in the Zion Narrows throughout the year, you are guaranteed to have the opportunity to shoot some of the best scenes in the canyon. Learn more about available guided Zion photography opportunities at zion-photography.com. Along with artistic and technical instruction, you will be walking away with professional quality images that will be some of your favorite images from the desert Southwest.

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PictureCorrect.com: Interesting Photo of the Day: Moonlit Long Exposure

Photographing landscapes at night is not something most of us can do. It seems very difficult. However, once you get the hang of it, nighttime landscape photography can be even more breathtaking than “regular” landscape photography. Take for instance the following image taken by photographer Arslan. This beautiful landscape in Pakistan appears perfectly stunning under the moonlight.

“A Landscape in Pakistan Under Moonlight” by Arslan (Via Reddit. Click image to see full size.)

The image is a 20-second exposure that Arslan took at f/8 and ISO 100. As the photographer explains, the moon is indeed superimposed from a separate exposure of the same scene, but with a different focus. Nevertheless, the blend seems perfect and adds so much to the image.

It’s the mood of the image that immediately catches the eye. Everything appears so calm, and it’s fantastic how the image looks so vibrant even in low-light conditions.

Besides the mood, the composition here is also noteworthy. The river works fantastically well to draw our eyes right into the image and toward the distant mountains. Then there’s another highlight of the image—the spectacular light trail of the cars. It appears almost like a river or fire intercepting the water, creating some unique tension.

Have you ever taken landscape photos during low-light conditions? Let us know how your experience has been.

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PictureCorrect.com: How to Shoot Portraits with Christmas Lights

Holidays are just around the corner, and with holidays come dazzling colored Christmas lights. It is but natural that you try and capture photos of your friends and family with beautiful lights in the background. In this brief video, Daniel Norton from Adorama demonstrates how you can mix strobes with Christmas lights to create beautiful holiday portraits:

Most studio photographers shooting portraits prefer to use an aperture somewhere around f/5.6. As Norton explains, it allows you to keep a reasonable depth of field so that the whole of the subject’s head is in focus. Even if the subject moves in between frames, a slightly larger depth of field ensures nothing goes out of focus.

Shallow Depth of Field

For this shoot, however, an extremely shallow depth of field is necessary. This is so that the Christmas lights in the background can be blurred out so that all you see are large blobs of light. The strings and supporting tools are completely obliterated.

A simple rule of background blur is the closer you are to your subject, relative to the background, the more background blur you can achieve. Norton moved as far back as possible, almost standing against the wall so that the model can move closer, and as a result, the background is as far away as possible.

Move your subject farther from the background and closer to the camera.

Lighting Setup

For this shoot, Norton used a Profoto B2 with a beauty dish to ensure that the light was zeroed in on a specific area. He used a kicker light in the back to isolate the subject from the background.

At f/5.6 this is the result:

Shot at f/5.6

Watch how the background lights have blurred. They are now tiny dots of color with no visible strings and other contraptions. But the result is nowhere close to what Norton had in mind.

To get the desired effect—larger circles of light—Norton opens up his lens. At a larger aperture, the lens opening tends to make the out of focus lights appear larger. This is the result at f/2.8:

Shot at f/2.8

Notice how the lights have increased in size. As the aperture was increased to f/2.8, the shutter speed was also adjusted in the other direction to give the same exposure. With TTL metering the flash adjusted accordingly to fire the optimum amount of light to give the same exposure. The lights are, however, not bright enough.

To make the lights just a tag brighter Norton slowed down the shutter and that produced this image, shot at f/2.8 and 1/15 of a second:

f/2.8, 1/15 of a second

He even experimented by keeping a chain of light in between the subject and the camera. That way it was possible to capture some nice bokeh in the foreground. The trick with foreground bokeh is that it shouldn’t obscure the subject and shouldn’t look out of place.

With lights in the foreground and background

Give these tips a try while you celebrate the holidays, and show us your results!

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PictureCorrect.com: Cyber Monday for Photographers

Cyber Monday is typically the busiest day of the year for online shopping and this year is expected to be the biggest ever. Hope you aren’t fatigued from Black Friday because the great deals keep coming.

There are indeed some incredible photography offers today.

Here is a comprehensive list of the best Cyber Monday deals we found (some of them are new and some are discounts still going on from Black Friday). Many of them expire at midnight so don’t miss them!

• A.I. Image Quality Bundle Last Chance – also try promo code picturecorrect

For the photos where exceptional quality matters. Get all the Topaz AI image quality editors for the lowest price of the year.

• Infinite Exposures Photography Course – at 50% off

An in-depth course designed to cover everything you need to take stunning long exposure photography.

• The Photography Tutorial eBook – at 78% off

Over 250 pages of insider tips & tutorials on how to take better landscapes, cityscapes, and advanced trick photography such as long exposure light painting. 10 presets included.

• Luminar Neo Photo Editor – Black Friday preorder offer

Offers everything a modern photographer needs for photo editing, including new filters powered by artificial intelligence.

• iPhone Photo Academy – at 90% off

iPhone Photo Academy is an in-depth online course that will show you how to take incredible iPhone photos.

• The Landscape Photographer’s Lightroom Presets – at 50% off

A premium collection of over 100 presets designed and developed specifically for landscape photographers but any photographer can benefit.

• iPhone Photo Editing Academy – at 90% off

iPhone Editing Academy is an online course that reveals how to use photo editing apps to make ordinary photos look spectacular.

• DSLR Crash Course – also use discount coupon cm20

Takes you by the hand and leads you step-by-step in discovering photography skills using your DSLR.

• Landscape Recipe Cards – at 80% off

By following a proven ‘recipe’ you can quickly improve your photography skills and gain the confidence to capture professional results.

• Fundamental Photo Editing Guide – also use discount coupon cm20

Digital photography is so intrinsically tied to the editing process that you can’t really consider doing one without doing the other.

• Digital Camera Mastery Course – at 90% off

Designed to get you off the Auto mode once and for all so that you can take outstanding photos that leave your viewers speechless.

• Milky Way Mastery

How to take magazine-quality pictures of the night sky without being a pro photographer and without fancy equipment.

• Photographing Fabulous Flowers – also use discount coupon cm20

An in-depth eBook offering a step-by-step method for shooting delicate, gorgeous, & perfectly lit flower photographs.

• The Lightroom Mastery eBook – at 65% off

This book will show you how to use Lightroom Classic to its full potential through teaching you the basic premises of the software.

• PhotoSerge Top Photography Courses

Serge Ramelli is a photography educator with many leading in-depth courses. He is currently discounting them for Thanksgiving.

• Action Cards for Photographers – also use discount coupon cm20

Printable project sheets that will give you over 200 photography assignments, covering everything you can imagine.

• Lightroom Made Easy – at 38% off

Master the Lightroom skills and secret pro tricks that will transform your photos today. By this time tomorrow you could be a Lightroom expert.

• Contrastly Lightroom Presets Bundle – at 86% off

The 1,100+ Lightroom presets included in the Complete Lightroom Presets Bundle were designed by and for photographers.

• Quick Capture Cheat Sheets

You can study them at home or print and slip them into your camera bag (or load them onto your phone or tablet), for a full-sized guide on-the-go.

• Understanding Masking in Photo Editing – also use discount coupon cm20

One of the most important photo editing skills to learn is called “Masking” and a new in-depth guide was just released to help photographers master it.

• How to Photograph Fireworks eBook – at 55% off

Fireworks photography is indeed one of the most daunting types of photography. This eBook explains the process from start to finish.

• Black Friday Specials at Adorama

Serving customers for more than 35 years, Adorama has grown from its flagship NYC store to include the leading online destination for photography.

• Photoshop Basics for Photographers – at 30% off

In this course you get the stuff you absolutely must know, the techniques that you’ll use on every photo, day after day, to turn out beautiful, professional-looking work.

• Long Exposure Photography Guide – also use discount coupon cm20

Aims to transform your photography into whimsical, jaw-dropping images that just cannot be created in any other manner.

• Black Friday Steals at B&H Photo Video

B&H is world renown as the place to go for all your photo, video, pro audio and digital imaging needs.

• Secrets of Successful Event Photography – at 33% off

Designed to teach photographers the techniques used by professionals to get great photos – every time – even in the most difficult conditions.

• Understanding Light: Fundamental Building Block of Photography

This popular guide is meant to give you an understanding of how light works, and how you can manipulate it. Marked down to just $9, it’s never been priced this low.

• Understanding Light: Book Two

Study this eBook, and you’ll become a master of light. It is carefully crafted and designed to give you the ability to recognize, control, and harness LIGHT.

• Advanced Composition Guide – also use discount coupon cm20

Create truly visually stunning images that tell your story, express your vision, and captivate any audience.

• Complete Landscape Photo Guide – also use discount coupon cm20

237 pages jam-packed with training, illustrations, and assignments. Get ready to absolutely transform your landscape work…

• Mastering Shutter Speed Course – at 62% off

How to use shutter speed to not merely capture what your eyes see…but create what your mind imagines.

• Macro Magic Photography Course

How to capture the world’s hidden beauty with macro photography using basic gear and at-home setups through in-depth video tutorials.

• Contrastly Photoshop Actions Bundle – at 70% off

Create gorgeous photographs quickly and easily. The 135 Photoshop actions in this bundle were carefully crafted to make the lives of photographers easier.

• Cameras in the Wild eBook – at 38% off

In this ebook you will learn not only how to capture a strong photograph, but also how to develop the images to match your unique vision.

• Effortless Editing with Lightroom

Pictures so striking and vibrant that others might accuse you of outsourcing your processing to a professional.

• Mastering Natural Light Course – also use discount coupon cm20

You don’t need to spend more money on gear. You don’t need assistants. The most powerful tool is free. That tool is natural light.

• Total Time-lapse Photography Course

What if you could create awe-inspiring time-lapse movies, without having to invest in expensive equipment or software… would that make it more accessible to you?

• The Street Photographer’s Lightroom Presets – at 50% off

A premium collection of 50 presets designed and developed specifically for street photographers but any photographer can benefit.

• Wow Factor Photography Course

One of the most common misconceptions about creative photography is the need for a bunch of fancy gear.

• Picture Perfect Properties

Do you want a simple way to capture real estate photography that books viewings fast? How to capture photos that rent and sell properties at higher prices.

• Organic Marketing for Photographers

Organic marketing course for photographers. How to rank your website, outrank your competitors, and get more clients organically.

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