Pierre Steenberg

Don't be afraid to shoot into the sun

September 11, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Be safe; never look into the sun - and not through an optical viewfinder. The sun adds interest of can often add drama. I know people advised you to shoot with the sun to your back, but please do not listen to them. The light can really be nice if you were brave enough to try shooting into the sun. Because of all the cloud cover the light on the...

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Get really close with a wide angle

September 04, 2016 • Leave a Comment

I have written on this topic a few times before. The reason I keep on repeating it is to get you away from thinking that wide angles are simply there to include more into your image. What I really want you to be looking for is to use your wide angle lens to create amazing perspectives. I want to encourage you to use a wide angle and then to get rea...

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Ripples in the sand

August 28, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Sand by itself may be boring in an image. Sand with ripples are magical. They form lines which you can used to lead your viewer into the image. Sand ripples add interest and strengthen your foreground. Here is an example: Sand ripples can also be used differently: I just love playing with sand ripples: Here are some tips to get nice sand ripples...

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Rainbows

August 21, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Rainbows are great for photography. They come and they may go quickly. So we need to work fast to get the images we want. Polarizer filters work well with rainbows (you can also eliminate rainbows with a polarizer if you really have to). Rainbows can get us so excited that we only focus on the rainbow forgetting about composition. We can find ourse...

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Asking questions

August 21, 2016 • Leave a Comment

I have seen really good images in my life. Sometimes those image are great because they ask questions that leave the viewer wondering about the question for a long time. Examples of such questions may be: How did that get up there? How did that happen? Where did that come from? That does not make sense; what is going on here? Please no...

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The human element

August 14, 2016 • Leave a Comment

When I was much younger senior landscape photographers taught me that pure landscapes cannot have any man-made or human influence present in the image. I used to believe that once. I thought that we were purists. One day the thought dawned on me that I am an artist and that I have the right to include whatever I wanted in my images. I realized that...

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Shapes and patterns

August 07, 2016 • Leave a Comment

When on location we often focus on the grand scene in front of us. As landscape photographers we often forget to look for shapes and patterns. Great abstract images can be had by just thinking out of the landscape. How about looking for things that repeat? Have you noticed shadows and light? Are there any patterns? How about this? This image of...

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Using Shadows

July 31, 2016 • Leave a Comment

There are many sources of lead in lines; fallen trees, railroad tracks, water, footpaths, roads, etc. One that is often overlooked is shadows. We can use shadows to point into the image thereby encouraging the viewer to look that way. How are shadows best used? The best shadows are from early sunrise or sunset light. They have detail in them and a...

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Framing

July 24, 2016 • Leave a Comment

No, I am not talking about framing your images with wooden frames to hang on the wall. Photographers use a technique called framing to keep the viewer's attention on what is found in between the frame. Instead of having a blank blue sky we may shoot from under a tree and show some leaves in the top portion of the image to frame out the sky. Anothe...

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Lens perspective

July 17, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Why do we use different lenses? Most people think that we use different lenses to alter how much we can include in the frame. When we want to include a lot use a wide-angle. When we want a narrow field of view, use a telephoto lens. These are answers that typically come from amateurs. Yes, it is true the different focal length lenses change the fie...

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