In case you didn’t catch this yet, I was interviewed about Horsetail Fall for NPR’s All Things Considered yesterday. You can listen to the piece here. All I can say is that they did a good job of editing this! It was a lot of fun and quite an honor to be on this premier radio program.
—Michael Frye
Exposure for Outdoor Photogoraphy
I’m pleased to announce the release of my second ebook: Exposure for Outdoor Photography.
In photography, creativity and technical skill are both essential. It’s great to have a wonderful eye and imagination, but no one will appreciate your genius if your images are washed out and blurry.
The most essential technical skill a photographer must master is exposure. On the surface, exposure seems easy. It’s simply a matter of making the image bright enough—not too dark, and not too light. But the endless variety of light makes exposure challenging. No two situations are the same, so there can be no exact formula for getting the right exposure. On the other hand, exposure doesn’t need to be overly complicated. The fundamental controls—shutter speed, aperture, ISO, light meters—are easy to understand.
Previously on this blog I’ve written about some of these fundamentals, like reading histograms and adjusting exposure. In this ebook I start with a more comprehensive discussion of these essentials, then go deeper by taking you through ten practical, real-life examples where I’ve used these basic principles to control the exposure, the sharpness, and the photograph’s message.
The examples go from easy to complex, and include using a histogram to find the right exposure, controlling depth of field, freezing and blurring motion, when to push the ISO, spot metering and the Zone System, and HDR and exposure blending. I also include several exercises to help improve your technique. It’s a concise, easy to understand, yet comprehensive course in mastering the most important skill in photography.
Like all Craft & Vision ebooks, Exposure for Outdoor Photography is normally only five dollars. But for the next four days you can get it for only four dollars. Just use the code EXPOSURE4 at checkout. Or use the code EXPOSURE20 to get 20 percent off if you buy five or more Craft & Vision ebooks—including my previous volume, Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom.
Exposure for Outdoor Photography is temporarily unavailable. Stay tuned for updates on a revised version.
—Michael Frye
Related Posts: Light & Land eBook Available Today!; Digital Photography Basics: Reading Histograms; Digital Photography Basics: Adjusting Exposure
Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBook Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.
The votes are in, and here are my top ten photographs for 2011 as chosen by you, the readers!
The response was truly extraordinary. 225 people looked through my initial selection of 41 images and posted their picks here on the blog, on Facebook, Google+, and by email. My deepest thanks to all of you who took the time to look through these photographs and voice your opinions. I really appreciate your help in making these difficult choices! And thanks to my most excellent assistant Claudia for tallying all those votes and running the print contest.
Did I say contest? Yes! We were so blown away by the response from all of you that we wanted to express our appreciation by giving away a print. We assigned a number to everyone who voted and used a random number generator to pick the recipient. And the winner is… (drumroll please) Earl Robicheaux! Earl will receive a signed, numbered, matted 16×20 print of his choice from among the 41 original selections. Congratulations Earl!
Happy New Year! If you’ve recovered (at least partially) from your New Year’s Eve celebrations, and can tear yourself away from watching football, I could use your help picking my best images from the past year. I’ve posted 41 of my best photographs from 2011 below. After you look through please post a comment listing your ten favorites. Once the votes are in I’ll put the top ten or twelve on this blog, and submit the finalists to Jim Goldstein’s blog project, where once again he’ll be showcasing the best images of the year from over 100 photographers. The voting deadline is Thursday, January 5th at midnight Pacific time.
The judging for the my final ten will be more like Dancing With the Stars than America Idol. That means that unlike Idol, where only the viewer’s votes count, the judge—me—gets a say too, so if one of my favorites gets panned by everyone else I may still include it. But as one of my photographer friends, Clinton Smith, once said, we don’t get to pick our best images—the world does. So your votes will carry a lot of weight; in fact last year I thought the choices were so good I just went with the votes.
Ice and reflections along the Merced River, Yosemite, January 19, 2011
The year has flown by! Here are my most popular posts from 2011; I hope this list helps you find some tips or articles you may have missed, and get a head start on making your best images in 2012.
Are some of your favorites missing from this list? I’d love to hear which posts you liked best, as well as what topics you’d like me to cover in 2012.
Thanks for making 2011 such a great year! Your comments and participation add immensely to the quality of this blog. I hope you have a wonderful New Year!
Jan 4: 2010: My Best Images
Jan 6: White Balance for Landscape Photographs – Part 3: A Special Problem
Feb 3: Digital Photography Basics: Reading Histograms
Mar 11: Lightroom or Photoshop?
Apr 7: Digital Photography Basics: Adjusting Exposure
Jun 22: Yosemite Valley Under Water
Jul 8: Why Am I Taking Forty Frames of the Same Thing?
Aug 25: Lightroom HDR
Sep 15: The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite iPhone App is Available Today!
Dec 5: Lunar Eclipse This Saturday
—Michael Frye
P.S. Tune in New Year’s Day to help pick my best images from 2011!
Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite,Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBook Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.
Yosemite Valley After a Snowstorm
Last night Claudia and I went to the Bracebridge dinner at Yosemite’s Ahwahnee Hotel. This is a wonderful event—musical theater combined with a seven-course dinner and Christmas celebration. And believe it or not Ansel Adams was heavily involved with the creation of this event in its current form. He re-wrote the script and music in 1929, and performed various roles, including the jester, or “Lord of Misrule,” for much of his life. Ansel was a very talented musician—and known for his great sense of humor!
Mike and Linda – the “Visiting Squire and Lady”
The story, loosely based on Washington Irving’s sketchbook “A Christmas at Bracebridge Hall,” is that you are Christmas dinner guests of Squire and Lady Bracebridge in their medieval English manor. Our good friends Mike Osborne and Linda Eade were invited to be the “Visiting Squire and Lady,” which means they got dressed in costume and sat on stage with the actors who played Squire Bracebridge and his family. Some of you have met Mike during one of the many workshops he’s assisted for me, and I thought you might get a kick out of seeing him and Linda in costume, so here’s an iPhone snapshot of them before the dinner. And even if you don’t know Mike or Linda, I hope this puts a smile on your face!
Claudia and I got to be the Visiting Squire and Lady a few years ago, and it was a blast. But I seem to have conveniently misplaced the photos somehow…
Well as you can see, we’re really enjoying the holidays. Wherever you are, I hope you’re warm and safe, enjoying the beauty of the season and the company of family and friends. To all who celebrate it, I wish you a very Merry Christmas!
I’ve been using Lightroom since Adobe released the beta version in 2006. Over the years I’ve learned many shortcuts, and in this video I share some of my favorite tips – things I use all the time to streamline my workflow:
