Planning ahead can be beneficial when going out for photos. But don’t get so locked in that you miss opportunities that arise spontaneously. Be open to changing weather conditions; turn your head toward what might be interesting subjects; work the scene; you may come back home with more winners from these outings than expected!
Plan: photograph the Milky Way My apps informed me that, despite what seemed like thick cloud cover outside, the skies would clear by the time I wanted to photograph it – they were right but I needed to learn how best to use my apps.
Clear Outside provides you with an accurate report on the clouds: low, medium, high, and total cloud cover. I was right in its prediction – my head cleared of clouds as stars began to shine through them; unfortunately my surroundings did not.
Next time, I will ensure to include towns to my south when looking at my cloud forecasts. Without Milky Way that evening – lesson learned.
This contrast between Cathedral Rock and its adjacent juniper tree was an intriguing one for me to capture with my camera, straight out of camera. Though it might not look like much now, post-processing and artwork could turn it into something remarkable.
Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) begins to bring images back into focus by opening up shadows and adding details in the sky.
Photograph with a Plan
Not everything needs to be planned out carefully when taking photographs with plans in mind; I will demonstrate some images I created by remaining open-minded to different ideas and turning around at just the right moment.
Be mindful to always turn around when photographing nature – you never know what surprises might await behind.
Background is the first layer after basic adjustment in ACR. I used Camera Raw as a filter with six or seven masks with individual adjustments; and then added a Soft Light Layer for dodging and burning along with some saturation using masks.
I created a layer in Photoshop and used ACR with it as a filter, to enable more targeted adjustments of colors and tones for this look.
Gear used
An Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera is my choice when hitting the trails, the OM-D E-M1 Mark III equipped with M.Zuiko 12-100mm f/4.0 lens being my preferred lens and mounted on a Fotopro Eagle E-6 carbon fiber tripod due to its tight specifications and light weight design.
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