Hi!

It’s Jaymes again, wishing you a happy Saturday! Here in Southeast Michigan, the trees are finally budding in earnest and the tulip plants in my garden seem to have survived the extreme temperature fluctuations over the last couple of weeks - so I am in good spirits! 

Unfortunately, despite the good weather, I haven’t had much chance to get out with my camera over the last few weeks. How about you? What have you been up to, photographically speaking? If you’ve recently captured a photo you’re proud of, I’d love to see it!

Anyway, for those of you who sent in images, I very much appreciate it, and this newsletter will, of course, include a couple of critiques for the dPS community’s pleasure. 

And while I know that not everyone is currently heading toward warmer weather, I wanted to share a few dPS articles that can help you improve your outdoor photography. Wherever you are in the world, and whatever the temperatures and precipitation, hopefully there’s an inspiring subject or two that these articles will help you capture!

Oh, and before I move on: There’s a lot of talk in the US about the solar eclipse that’s coming up on Monday. If you’re interested in photographing the eclipse, expert photographer and dPS author Simon Ringsmuth wrote an excellent piece on solar eclipse photography a few years back, and I highly recommend you check it out. 

I do want to emphasize, however - as Simon does in the article - that solar eclipses are dangerous, both for your eyes and for your camera equipment. Please, please, please do not attempt to view or photograph the eclipse without proper protection! The protective equipment detailed in the article won’t cost you much, and viewing/photographing without the necessary protection is simply not worth the damage. 

With that out of the way, let’s dive in, starting with:

Tips and ideas for outdoor photography

If you’re looking to get outside with your camera and take some photos, we can help! Here are just a few handy articles - many of them recently updated - that offer both inspiration and advice:

1. How to Photography Flowers: A Beginner’s Guide - With flowers starting to bloom in some locations, I’ve recently expanded and updated my dPS flower photography guide to include fresh insights. In the article, I cover everything you need to get started with flower photography, from my gear recommendations and favorite camera settings to my best tips to improve your lighting and composition skills. 
2. 16 Nature Photography Ideas (for Easy Inspiration) - Need some nature photography inspiration? This recently expanded article includes a slew of ideas to get your creative juices flowing. And the best part is that most of the photos can be captured directly in your backyard!
3. 9 Tips for Beautiful Spring Landscape Photography - Spring is a great time for landscape photography. You can capture green pastures, budding trees, flowers in the environment, and more. For landscape photographers hoping to level up their shots, this article is a must-read!
4. Bird Photography: 17 Expert Tips for Breathtaking Images - Whether it’s spring or autumn where you live, the bird photography opportunities are likely outstanding! Read our comprehensive bird photography guide, then use the advice to create amazing images of migrating warblers, shorebirds, and so much more! 
5. Outdoor Portrait Photography: A Comprehensive Guide (+ Tips) - For those of you who prefer more people-focused photography, don’t worry; I have a recommendation for you, too! Our comprehensive guide to outdoor portrait photography will help you create better portraits (and it’ll likely inspire you to schedule some fun photoshoot sessions with friends and family, too!).

Of course, if I didn’t address your favorite photography genre, I’m sure we have an article (or 10!) that’ll speak to your interests. Just head over to the dPS home page and type your genre of choice into the search bar (in the upper right-hand corner) - the search will return plenty of articles written by our expert authors!

Two more critiques!

First of all, thank you to everyone who sent in images! I really enjoyed looking at them all, and while I don’t have time today to critique each and every file, I’ll certainly try to get to many of them in the coming weeks.

(And as always, for those of you who would like to see your images critiqued in a future newsletter, feel free to hit Reply to this message and send along a file or two! Just make sure you mention that the images are indeed for critique in the email body or subject line, and please make sure the files are JPEGs and at least 1000 pixels on the long end!)

First, we have this wonderful mountainscape from Rob:

What I like:

• Rob, I’m loving the scale of this photo - by including the small trees at the bottom of the image, you’ve done a wonderful job of conveying the majestic size of the mountains. 
• The sidelight is beautiful, and it makes the shot more three-dimensional by carving out the mountains and trees with intense shadows and highlights.
• I also like the simple color palette. This is something that’s easy to forget when out with your camera, but by paying careful attention to the colors in your scene, and by working to exclude colors that don’t work with the overall shot, you can create a more harmonious image. 

Ideas for improvement:

• I’d consider selectively brightening the shadowy mountain on the right-hand side (as well as the dark trees at the bottom of the mountain on the left). I like the shadowy effect, but the extreme darkness feels at odds with the rest of the image. Here, I think that a bit more tonal balance - where each section of the land shows at least some clear detail - would be ideal. 
• I love the way the mountains direct the eye toward a nice resting point at their base, but the scene - with the huge empty area on the right-hand side and the wealth of detail on the left - seems slightly off-balance. I’d recommend playing with different crops to see what feels right. You could try cropping off the right to remove some of the emptier areas, but another suggestion would be to crop off the left instead!
• One other minor note: The snow on the mountain peaks is looking a little blown out on my monitor. I’d recommend bringing it down just a touch - that way, you can keep the intensity mostly intact without losing detail!

Second, we have a beautiful lily image from Krishnan:  

What I like:

• Krishnan, the colors of that flower are just marvelous, and I love how they contrast with all those greens in the stem as well as the dark background.
• And speaking of backgrounds: It’s relatively uniform, it’s simple, and it really helps isolate the flower and ensure that it stands out! The combination of a (relatively) sharp focal point and a non-distracting background is one of the things I often look for in flower photography, and you’ve done a great job here.
• I also like how you’ve chosen to keep the exposure relatively dark; it’s another thing that helps bring out the colors. And the light is really nice, too. It looks like you’re working in either overcast conditions or heavy shade, both of which are great for flower photography!

Ideas for improvement:

• I think you’ve done a good job of keeping the viewer’s focus on the flower - especially with that uniform background! - but there are a few distractions that are drawing my eye. First, there’s a white spot on the right-hand edge of the background. Given how dark the background is, it’s a little more noticeable than I’d like. It would be easy to clone out using a program like Lightroom, though if you prefer not to clone, you could try darkening it down or cropping it out instead!
• I’m also noticing some distractions on the left-hand side, especially in the bottom corner. There’s a spot of out-of-focus vegetation, as well as a brown twig, that pokes out into the scene and drags 

That’s all for this week!

Talk to you next Saturday,

Jaymes & the dPS Team