Where better to capture the dramatic beauty of the outdoors with your digital camera than New Mexico, where the light is mega-clear and the scenery is breathtaking!
My first rule for taking outdoor pictures? Shoot big! The outdoors is big, so buy the biggest memory card you can afford and set your camera to take the largest size it can record. Whether you’re shooting a majestic mountain vista or the delicate petals of a wildflower, big is always better. You’ll appreciate using your camera’s highest-pixel setting after you’ve downloaded your photos to your computer and observed the details you’ve captured. Remember, while it’s always possible to reduce the size of a digital picture for emailing or use on a website, enlarging a digital picture will only produce an image that is pixelated or grainy.
Second rule? Well, there is no second “rule”; however, if your camera has an eyepiece, I recommend using it when taking outdoor pictures. Framing a photograph through the eyepiece allows you to see only the image your camera will record, eliminating visual distractions caused when framing your picture with the viewscreen on the back of the camera. The eyepiece delivers more finite information to your brain about the focus, contrast and other visual details of your shot.
Tripping the light fantastic
Next, be aware of distance when taking pictures of those far-away magnificent mountains and meadows. Because of prevailing low humidity in New Mexico, sunlight refraction through moisture in the air is limited, often muting colors and making distant scenery shots appear “flat.” Using a telephoto lens can also “flatten” the image. If your camera has a “bright sunlight” setting, I recommend using it. This setting enhances contrast and colors, thereby producing more depth in a photograph. Shooting a distant scene from a shady area will also produce more depth, as will taking pictures with objects casting shadows.
Before shooting any picture, check your light source. Both morning light and afternoon light offer opportunities for photographs without the glare often found when taking pictures under the midday sun; and generally, shooting pictures with the sun at your back will produce the sharpest images. Clouds can be a great help when photographing while the sun is at its brightest – waiting an extra minute or two for a cloud to obscure the glare of the sun will allow your lens to focus on the details of the scene you are shooting while maintaining the brightness of the light. Don’t be afraid, however, to shoot into your light source, particularly during sunrise or sunset, and especially if your camera has an auto-focus feature. Auto-focus lenses will adjust to the light, silhouetting objects in the foreground against the colors of the sky and sun, often producing stunning results. Many digital cameras have “scene settings” which adjust the camera’s exposure for various light sources. It’s always fun to experiment with the settings, and I recommend taking the same picture with several different settings to learn how your camera adapts to different lighting situations.
Even in the brightest sunlight, using a flash can often “help” a picture, especially if part of the image you want to capture is in shadow. Highlighting objects closest to you with a flash can produce a “whole” picture, without decreasing details of objects farther away.
Be aware of what you might be missing! Be careful and don’t break any laws, but don’t be afraid to pull off the road or back up to take a second look at a possible picture. Also, check to see if there is more than one photograph worth taking from wherever you are. Once I’ve taken the picture I think is my “money shot,” I stop in my tracks and make a slow 360º turn just to see what else is in the immediate area. Often I will see one or more other scenes I find just as good or better to photograph. Maybe the most wonderful thing about digital cameras is that the “film” is cheap, the “roll size” is limited only by the size of the memory card and the “processing cost” is zip! So shoot everything you find interesting – it’s just data, after all.
The wide, wide West
So what can you do when an outdoor scene is just too big for one picture? Voila! Go for the “panorama” shot. Some digital cameras have a panorama setting, which adjusts the focal length of the lens to take a wider picture while using the same number of pixels. Give it a try! Sometimes, the most dramatic outdoor scenes are those with less sky and more width. If your camera doesn’t have a panorama setting, you can achieve the same (and often better) results by taking several shots of your scene, left to right, while standing in one place. Once downloaded, these pictures can be “stitched” together on your computer in Photoshop or with other photo editing software. Before shooting, check your light source and frame each individual picture to slightly overlap the previous one. Keep your feet in the same spot and turn only your body as you shoot each photo.
Frequently, the smallest outdoor scenes can be the most beautiful and the most fascinating, which is why most digital cameras have a “macro” setting for taking pictures of small objects up close. So don’t overlook the tiny flower or the fallen leaf or the bee on a bud – you might even find it fun to experiment with what I call the “Georgia O’Keeffe” shot, framing just the details in the center of a small object. As always, check your light source first, and take more than one picture, using different settings and/or a flash.
One last paragraph of advice: download your pictures and save them on a CD or separate hard drive. The best photo you ever shot is fragile and can be lost forever while still in the camera or on a computer which can crash or be infected with a virus. Also, never edit an original picture. Make a copy for editing and preserve the original. As software improves, even a “bad” photograph might be “saved” in the future.
—Story and photo by Janet Sailor
