Creative Nature & Outdoor Photography

by Brenda Tharp

  One spring morning, while traveling the country roads of central Italy, I saw a great cloud formation occurring overhead. This is when you scramble to find something to put beneath that great sky, yet you want the sky to be the real story. I found an old abandoned farmhouse, and the dirt lane leading to it. Using a 24mm focal length, I framed the scene vertically. The wide angle of view accentuated the sweeping clouds, which drew you to the farmhouse. I used a small aperture of f/16 and set my hyper-focal distance on my lens for best depth of field. (Note: Even though a wide-angle lens has great depth of field, it still makes sense to set the hyper-focal focus to get the most depth of field possible from the situation. Since most zoom lenses don’t have hyper-focal marks, I now pack along a small hyper-focal chart as a guide.)

  DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA. Using a superwide-angle lens, I moved in close on the hardpan in the dunes, exaggerating their size. The lens optically pushed the mountains away, and created an expansive feeling to the landscape. 20mm lens, f/ 16 at 1/60 sec.

  If you can’t get both foreground and background in focus, you’ll have to choose which you want to emphasize. For most landscapes, it’s more pleasing to the eye if the foreground is sharp and the background falls into softness, as that is the natural way the eye would see the scene. When I’m assigned an environmental portrait, I often use my wide-angle to get in close to the person while emphasizing their surroundings, too. Having the person up close creates a sense of intimacy while having the background in the frame tells more of a story. Yet it doesn’t have to be entirely in focus in this case, just enough to express the environment around the person. You can use this same technique with nature subjects, such as a particular flower that you want to show growing in a garden.

  BODIE STATE PARK, CALIFORNIA. I was attracted to this half-buried wagon wheel in the field, yet I wanted to relate it to the surroundings of the ghost town. The relationship of the wheel to the buildings suggests space and makes you feel the emptiness of the place. 24–105mm lens at 31mm, f/ 16 at 1/6 sec.

  With a wide-angle, you can frame a background object with a foreground element such as a doorway, or emphasize a bridge railing or fence while keeping both the foreground and the background in focus. The near-far relationship will express depth. You can also take advantage of a wide-angle’s ability to distort and use it to accentuate leading lines—whether it’s a trail, a planted field, or a fence—and visually draw your viewer into the scene.

  The best way to learn how a wide-angle lens “sees” is to put one on your camera and begin looking through the lens. Move in, out, up, down, and around your scene to see the potential the lens has to offer.

  FIELD AND HOUSE, WHIDBEY ISLAND, WASHINGTON. The bright green planted rows were lit by beautiful late-afternoon light. They take your eye all the way back to the farmhouse and tractor. It was all about leading lines in this composition. 70–200mm lens at 200mm, f/ 20 at 1/3 sec.

  NORMAL LENSES

  Normal lenses are called “normal” because they render a scene much like the way the human eye sees it, with spatial relationships appearing realistic and objects appearing as their normal sizes in relation to each other. Normal lenses range from 45mm to 65mm in focal length for 35mm cameras. Over the years, many photographers have tried to make outstanding pictures with normal lenses. Unless they applied the concepts of perspective and good composition, however, most made mediocre pictures, giving the normal focal-length range a bad reputation. Many creative photographers today will tell you that the 45–65mm range produces boring pictures. This is really not true! Henri Cartier-Bresson used only a 50mm lens, and his images are not boring at all. It’s how we see, as visual artists, and where we choose to position ourselves to make the picture, that matters, no matter what the focal length.

  While normal lenses are limited in their ability to exaggerate perspective, you can still create strong compositions if you learn how normal lenses “see.” To prove that you can make wonderful pictures in the normal focal length, dust off your old normal lens or tape a zoom lens into the normal range, and spend an entire day using only that lens. Push yourself to make interesting compositions. You can do it.

  TELEPHOTO LENSES

  GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK, TENNESSEE. The short telephoto of 105mm assured me that even at f/13, I would not get an entirely sharp background. This allowed me to keep some separation between the redbud tree and the flowing river and rocks behind, suggesting some depth to the scene and keeping the eye on the redbud tree. 24–105mm lens at 105mm, f/ 13 at 1/3 sec.

  There is magic in bringing in closer the details of distant and inaccessible scenes, or in bringing wildlife visually closer without putting yourself in danger. I’m always delighted when I look through “long” lenses, as they offer a view that can’t be seen with the normal eye. Using telephoto lenses, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to see a hummingbird weave a spider web thread into its nest. Once I thought an elk was charging me, but when I took my eye away from the viewfinder, he was a hundred feet away and his interest was in a female elk near me! It’s the chance to capture wildlife and action sports that makes telephoto lenses popular with outdoor photographers. I also like to use them to extract details and textures from the landscape.

  Within telephoto lenses there is substantial difference in focal lengths: Any lens in the 100mm to 1,200mm range is considered a telephoto. The shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of view and the less optical compression there is. With a 100mm lens, for instance, you have less optical compression than you would with a 400mm lens. A 100mm lens is a great portrait lens—it does flatten the optical perspective just a bit, which flattens the appearance of facial features slightly, but with a pleasing effect. The longer the focal length, the narrower the angle of view, and the stronger the optical compression, flattening the appearance of depth. Trees at the edge of a forest can look very close together, when in reality they might be 30 feet apart. The longer telephoto lenses (300mm or longer) can make a flock of 200 flamingos look like a thousand by visually “stacking” the birds tightly together—if you fill the frame with nothing but birds. While this may not be realistic, it is artistic.

  GRIZZLY BEAR CUB AND MOM, ALASKA. My 500mm with a teleconverter enabled me to feel up close and personal with this bear cub and mom, from a safe distance! I love using long lenses with wide apertures: They can create a wonderful softening of the background. 500mm lens with 1.4x, f/ 6.3 at 1/500 sec.

  When you optically compress elements with a telephoto lens, graphic patterns can develop. You can photograph the pattern of birds in flight or a mosaic of autumn-hued trees on a hillside. The narrow field of view isolates the pattern from its surroundings and can create a graphic composition. Telephotos lenses are also wonderful at wide apertures for photographing wildlife and bird portraits when you want the background to become a soft wash of colors, with the animal standing out in the image. Depending upon the magnifying power of the lens, the optical compression can also eliminate any suggestion of depth between the elements, at smaller apertures, resulting in a tapestry effect.

  After many years of photography, I can see with my eyes the potential a scene offers for using a telephoto. Nonetheless, I am always fascinated when I look through the lens and see what I’ll get. I often put one on the camera just to have a look around, because the effect a telephoto lens has on a scene can be a wonderful surprise.

  SIERRA RANGE, BISHOP, CALIFORNIA. The layers of rocks in this area behind Bishop, California, are truly beautiful. In late afternoon, I like how the rabbit brush glowed with backlighting, and the rock formations and layers of ridges repeated into the distance. Even the light blue sky created a shape. At f16, I captured as much in focus as was possible within the depth of field for this focal length. 70–200mm lens at 153mm, f/ 16 at 1/60 sec.

  A final word about lenses: Many photographers who use zooms don’t have a clue which focal length they used to make their photograph. Does this matter? Yes, to a degree. In order to resp
ond quickly to changing conditions, you need to choose the right lens from your bag right off. Knowing what focal length you need—and not having to guess at which lens to use—can make the difference between getting a photograph and missing it. Even when choosing a zoom lens, you’ll want to be able to select the right zoom range. Luckily, information about focal length is stored in the EXIF data for every digital image. If you review this data for all your pictures, you can determine what focal lengths normally worked best for certain situations. This builds a reference “library” in your mind and helps you anticipate what focal length ranges will be useful in a given situation when you’re out in the field.

  DEPTH OF FIELD: A PRACTICAL DEFINITION

  Depth of field (DOF) is the area in front of, and behind, a focused subject that appears sharp in the final photograph. In any situation, you must choose the aperture that will give you the sharpness you desire. It may be a lot of sharpness (called a large depth of field) or very little (a shallow depth of field). The sandstone formation on this page is an example of lots of depth of field, while the image of the red poppy amidst lavender flowers on this page is an example of only a little depth of field. The choice is yours and depends on the type of photograph you are making. Typically, when working with a landscape, the goal is to have everything from the foreground to the background sharp. However, with close-ups and portraits, you may want to limit the sharpness so the background does not compete with your subject. There are exceptions, but generally this is what works.

  DOF extends from 1/3 in front of the point in focus to 2/3 behind it. In other words, you will have twice as much DOF behind your subject as in front. This matters only in terms of understanding that you have a range of what will be sharp in front of and behind your focused subject. To effectively utilize the range, you will want to set your focus using a hyper-focal distance setting.

  Hyper-focal distance is the closest point of focus in the scene at which infinity still falls within the depth of field at a given aperture. For a landscape or scenic photograph, this is an important fact. For example, if we choose a 35mm focal length and set the aperture at f /8, depth-of-field programs will show that the hyper-focal distance is 16.9 feet. If you set your focus at that distance, everything from half that distance, roughly 8.4 feet to infinity will be in focus. This is great if your rock in the foreground is 10 feet or more away from the camera. If it’s closer, then you’ll need to use a smaller aperture to increase your depth of field.

  Many depth-of-field charts circulating among photographers show rough calculations of these settings. Depth of Field Master has a great software program to help you calculate hyper-focal distance, which you can download to your phone or PDA for use in the field. With this, you can find the right aperture to include all the elements you want sharp within the depth-of-field range. You can also choose a larger aperture to throw the background out of focus if you want. Using a DOF chart, along with your depth-of-field preview button, is essential to getting the DOF you want. You might ask, “How am I going to figure all that out when the lion is about to pounce on the gazelle?” Truth is, you can’t in the moment. But with practice, you’ll just “know” when you want, for example, a wider aperture to minimize focus on the background. And for a landscape with a fleeting rainbow, you’ll know that you probably want the smallest aperture you can get to maximize the depth of field in the scene.

  OLD GLASS BOTTLES, VINALHAVEN, MAINE. I spotted these glass bottles in the window as I was ordering my lunch, and set up my tripod to capture the scene before the light disappeared. By using a shallow depth of field, I was able to minimize the strength of the window in the background, and also create a feeling of depth in the scene. 70–200mm lens at 200mm, f/5 at 1/160 sec.

  CASCADE FALLS, ALASKA. I positioned my tripod about 3 feet above the water and angled my camera down to accentuate the foreground. This exaggerated the foreground and pushed the falls farther into the background, creating depth in the scene. 12–24mm lens at 15mm, f/20 at 1/20 sec.

  If I’ve lost you at this point, you’re not alone! These concepts have long confused photographers. Being more an artist than a technician myself, I learned what I needed to know to master my craft. But to explain it is another matter! There are many helpful tutorials on the subject of depth of field, as well as photographers who love to have technical discussions about all of this. (See the resource section for references to good explanations of depth of field and hyper-focal distance.)

  While on the subject of lenses and depth of field, I must include a discussion on the digital crop factor due to different sensor sizes. I use full-frame cameras for much of my work, but many popular cameras have smaller sensors, which change both the angle of view of a lens and the resulting depth of field. First, the angle of view: A 24mm on a full-size sensor is still a 24mm. But on a camera with a slightly smaller sensor, a “crop factor” goes into effect. The factor varies—for Nikon, it has been 1.5x; for Canon, 1.6x; and for Olympus 2x. So, 24mm on a Nikon would be equivalent to a 36mm angle of view. On a Canon, the equivalent would be 38mm, and on an Olympus it would be 48mm. Many photographers buy camera bodies with “crop factors” for photographing birds, wildlife, and sports, giving their existing lenses a little more telephoto power. The trade-off is in the wide-angle end. To obtain a true 24mm angle of view on any of the crop factor cameras, you would need to use a lens within the range of 12–16mm.

  Note: On 35mm cameras with a smaller sensor, commonly referred to as a digital crop factor, there is a slight difference in depth of field and the hyperfocal distance settings you would use, compared to those for cameras with a full-size sensor. There are charts available for your camera type that will help you determine the proper distance setting for the lens you are using. They are indispensable to achieve the best depth of field for any scene.

  {CHAPTER FIVE}

  CREATING EFFECTIVE COMPOSITIONS

  “Anybody can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.”

  —CHARLES MINGUS

  WHY DOES ONE PHOTOGRAPH HOLD YOUR ATTENTION when another elicits only a passing glance? Part of the answer lies in the composition, the way in which all the lines, shapes, and colors are arranged in the picture. The right lens, point of view, appropriate f-stop, and correct exposure are important factors, too, but they are only tools to help you bring all the creative elements of your picture together in a compelling way.

  Composition is the art of presenting your vision in an uncluttered, clear arrangement. A great piece of music relies on the thoughtful arrangement of sound and silence. A great photograph relies on the thoughtful arrangement of objects and space. No matter how visually interesting your subject matter is, a chaotic composition will diminish its impact.

  As I mentioned in the chapter on learning to see, if you don’t know what you find important in the photograph, how is your viewer going to know? The first step in composing a photograph is to develop a clear vision of what you want to express.

  BUTTERMILK ROCKS, BISHOP, CALIFORNIA. The unusual shapes and forms of the rock formations in eastern California are a source of endless fascination for me. Here, the low-angled sun creates great shading that brings out the rocks’ rough texture. The yellow bush grabbed my attention right away, so I placed it in the frame as the focal point of the composition, while the rock formation forms its counterpoint in the background. 24–105mm lens at 28mm, f/ 16 at 1/4 sec.

  OAK TREE AND FIELDS, TUSCANY, ITALY. This large oak tree in central Tuscany is a favorite of mine. In early morning, the tree is sidelit and creates a great shadow to its right. It just felt right to place it in the upper left and let the shadow spill to the right. Along with that, the triangular shapes of the crisscrossed slopes added a graphic element to the scene. 70–200mm lens with 2x teleconverter at 400mm, f/ 14 at 1/50 sec.

  Once you have determined that, you can organize the elements in your frame to support your vision. The purpose of composition is to lead the viewer through an asso
rtment of elements and objects that, when combined, tell the story you want to tell. You might want to show us an interesting object or an unusual perspective, or convey a mood or impression.

  The human mind craves structure and order, and good composition creates order from visual chaos. As a photographer, your role is to organize your scene with just enough structure to effectively articulate your vision. Good composition is the foundation of every successful artistic image. It’s not as simple as pointing the camera straight at your subject. It’s not enough to just routinely place your subject off-center in the composition. You have to think about what’s dominant in each scene you encounter, and whether you can create a composition that is balanced. You have to consider whether the proportion of objects and spaces is correct.

  I can hear you exclaiming, “Gosh, if I have to spend time thinking about all of these things, the elk will have moved on to a different meadow!” This may be true at first, but an increased awareness of these important composition ideas will have you seeing differently, and, before long, seeing in a new way becomes an intuitive process—but only if you first develop the habit of considering these points. When you apply the following ideas of dominance, balance, and proportion, you’ll find your compositions becoming simpler yet stronger statements of your own creative vision.