Pierre Steenberg

Aurora HDR 2019

October 28, 2018 • Leave a Comment

As you know I am using Luminar software as my photo editing app. Skylum is the company behind Luminar. I really like Luminar. Skylum has now also updated Aurora HDR (high dynamic range - blending bracketed images of different exposures together to retain the best exposure in the bright and dark parts of each image thereby stretching your dynamic ra...

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Composing at night

October 21, 2018 • Leave a Comment

Night photography can be tricky. It presents various challenges. The most obvious of which is that it is dark. How do you focus in the dark? How do you compose your image if you can't see? How do you cope with noise (since you are probably shooting at high ISO)? I am not going to address of these issues today as you can read a previous blog on nigh...

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Be ready!

October 14, 2018 • Leave a Comment

During our recent photographic workshop in Namibia, I was reminded how important it is to be ready. Many people miss once in a lifetime images because they were not ready when it occurred. We went into this Cheetah enclosure which has two male Cheetahs. It is a very large enclosure in which the animals run wild. We walked well into the enclosure wi...

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Character and composition

October 07, 2018 • Leave a Comment

When you visit a scene that is a photographic icon you don't want to just get the image that everybody gets. Hopefully, you want to get something different. You are a creative photographer and as such you don't just want to copy what has been done before. You want your composition to stand out. You want to include some character. Here is an image o...

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Major Photography Gear Changes

September 30, 2018 • Leave a Comment

This blog typically covers the art of photography. Most of the time we discuss and image to see what we can learn about composition, editing, vision, and so forth. Even when we cover the topic of editing we do not often go deep into software and the technical topics associated with editing. I almost never write just about photographic gear. Today I...

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Sun Star Position

September 23, 2018 • Leave a Comment

So who does not like a nice sun star image? Sun star images are popular for a reason; they are stunning. The quality of the sun star has to do with the lens. Getting a sun star is easy as I have written in previous blogs. You simply need the following ingredients: The sun on a hard edge (clouds can work) A small F.Stop (large number) Since I...

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Post Processing for Balance

September 16, 2018 • Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago I wrote about contrast and balance. Today I want to talk about post-processing for balance. When I am out in the field shooting I do not just shoot seeing what is in front of me, I also visualize what I can do in post-processing. My compositions are made with what I can do in post in mind. I do what Black and White photographers of...

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Foregrounds can be very important

September 09, 2018 • Leave a Comment

Some images do not need much foreground interest. A beach scene with a beautiful lit dramatic sky typically does not rely on a foreground to make the image. Other images just have to have a strong foreground or they break down. A strong foreground gives you depth. It anchors the viewer's eyes. Hopefully, the background will then draw the viewer int...

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Get really close

September 02, 2018 • Leave a Comment

One of the best things you can do to improve your landscape photography is to use a wide-angle lens and then get really close to a foreground element. Doing so emphasizes the foreground element. It makes it look much bigger than what it is in relation to the rest of the image. It brings out details that most people rarely see because we don't typic...

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Using texture to draw attention

August 26, 2018 • Leave a Comment

Texture can be used powerfully in photography. The texture of bark, sand, skin, hair, and so forth can be used as a focal point. In landscape photography texture can often be found when things are dry. Texture is brought out with very low light creating longer shadows that contrast with streaks of light. This is what gives ripples in sand dunes the...

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