Category: Technology

  • Canon EOS 60D, Composition

    When creating movies, most of the same rules of composition you use with still photography apply. The rule of thirds is one important rule to keep in mind when shooting video. The 60D’s grid overlay feature places a grid over the LCD Monitor to help you frame your shot properly. Changes to this menu item…

  • Nikon D7000, Advanced Techniques to Explore

    This section comes with a warning attached. All of the techniques and topics up to this point have been centered on your camera. The following two sections, covering panoramas and high dynamic range (HDR) images, require you to use image-processing software to complete the photograph. They are, however, important enough that you should know how…

  • Nikon D7000, Directing the Viewer’s Eye: A Word About Composition

    As a photographer, it’s your job to lead the viewer through your image. You accomplish this by using the principles of composition, which is the arrangement of elements in the scene that draws the viewer’s eyes through your image and holds his attention. You need to understand how people see and then use that information…

  • Canon EOS 60D, Exposure Settings for Video

    Setting the exposure for video is similar to setting exposure for still photographs, but you will notice a few differences that will only apply when recording movies. One obvious difference is that you can only view your scene in Live View, and the LCD Monitor will display a simulated exposure for what your video will…

  • Nikon D7000, Smooth Water

    There’s little that is quite as satisfying for the landscape shooter as capturing a smooth waterfall shot. Creating the smooth-flowing effect is as simple as adjusting your shutter speed to allow the water to be in motion while the shutter is open. The key is to have your camera on a stable platform (such as…

  • Nikon D7000, Focusing Made Easy

    There’s no denying that the automatic focus features on the D7000 are great, but sometimes it pays to turn them off and go manual. Typically I shoot all my landscape images using manual focus because this avoids the hassle of having your camera try to guess what you’re focusing on. If you don’t prefer manual…

  • Nikon D7000, Where to Place Your Focus

    Large landscape scenes are great fun to photograph, but they can present a problem: Where exactly do you focus when you want everything to be sharp? Since our goal is to create a great landscape photo, we will need to concentrate on how to best create an image that is tack sharp, with a depth…

  • Nikon D7000, The Golden Light

    If you ask any professional landscape photographer what his favorite time of day to shoot is, chances are he will tell you it’s the hours surrounding daybreak and sunset (Figures 7.11). The reason for this is that the light is coming from a very low angle to the landscape, which creates shadows and gives depth…

  • Canon EOS 60D, Frames within Frames

    The image you are photographing is already framed inside the confines of the viewfinder, but placing your subject within another frame can be a good way to draw the viewer’s eyes toward the part of the image you’d like to emphasize (Figure 8.21). You can also give the image a feeling of depth and help…