Sensors, Contrast, and Wildlife Photography

Sensor Cleaning Tips

Steve Paxton at Picture Correct gives us the low-down on sensor cleaning in his post titled “Cleaning and Maintaining Your Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera“.  This topic can be a scary one when you've paid a good deal of money for your camera and you're faced with dust spots that need to be cleaned.  If you haven't cleaned your sensor yourself, it can be daunting and nerve-racking to say the least.  Steve breaks it down for us and tells us what tools to use and how to effectively use them.  Once you do the cleaning yourself, you'll realize that it's not rocket science and your camera isn't made of fine china and tissue paper.

Adding Contrast to Those Bland Photos

The Photocritic posted an essential photo editing tutorial called “Contrast in photos”.  He talks about using the LEVELS adjustment tool found in many photo editing softwares.  I say this is essential, because it's really one of the first things you should do to your photo and because it makes such a big difference in such a small amount of time.  If you've been using direct CONTRAST adjustment tools on your photos, you should really consider the LEVELS adjustment.  It does essentially the same thing, but offers much more control on the output of your photo.  It's not hard, I promise.

Wildlife Photography Composition Tips

Chris Garrett at DSLRBlog posts a good article titled “Wildlife Photography Tips for Beginners”.  He gives out all kinds of tips for things like composing your subject, equipment to use, how to get close, and much more.  Wildlife photography is probably one of the more difficult types of photography because it's so dependant on your subjects, but it can be one of the most rewarding too.

Photo of the Day…

Photo by Brian Auer
11/07/06 Princeton, NJ
Princeton campus building at wide angle
Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D
Konica Minolta AF DT 18-200
27mm equiv * f/9.5 * 1/125s * ISO100