Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Outdoors

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

4 Tips for Taking Better Outdoor Photos Right Now

Mike Richard
By

Some of us are struggling just to find time to shower and feed ourselves during this pandemic. Others have more free time than they ever thought possible and are going stir crazy trying to fill it. If you’ve always wanted to brush up on your creative skills — photography, in particular — now is the time. Although many things are closed or canceled, the great outdoors remain (mostly) open. Why not grab your camera and spend time taking your outdoor photography skills to the next level? Here are four ways you can start taking better outdoor photos right now.

Invest in a Tripod

Even non-photographers know how important a tripod is. It’s easy to assume that you don’t need one because they’re expensive and cumbersome. The fact is, a tripod is among the best investments you can make to seriously up your outdoor photography game. It’s crucial for taking tack-sharp photos, steadying your camera for wildlife shots, and playing with long-exposure and time-lapse photography. Not sure where to start? Here are our recommendations:

  • Good: AmazonBasics Lightweight Tripod. Amazon’s entry-level tripod is a barebones, budget-friendly solution with everything a novice photographer needs to start taking more stable and experimental outdoor shots.
  • Better: Manfrotto Element Traveler. For a more robust alternative, Manfrotto’s Element line is a great mid-range solution. Every tripod in the collection is compact, lightweight, and versatile enough for smartphones, point-and-shoot cameras, and DSLRs with zoom lenses.
  • Best: Peak Design Travel Tripod. If only the best will do, Peak Design’s newly released Travel Tripod is our pick for the best tripod on the market. In either Aluminum or Carbon Fiber, it’s durable, lightweight, and mobile-compatible right out of the box. Peak Design spent four years designing it, and the result is a user-friendly, professional-grade product that packs down to about the width of a Nalgene bottle.

Focus on the Little Things

Human beings are drawn to sweeping, grandiose photos of natural landscapes. However, there are tiny worlds all around us that we rarely notice in detail. Macro photography focuses (pun intended) on the fine, almost imperceptible details in the smallest objects and living things, like insects and flowers. It often requires a specialty lens. For DSLR cameras, they can be pricey, but bolt-on macro lenses are available for many smartphones for less than $50. Moment macro lenses are the closest thing to an industry standard for aftermarket smartphone lenses. They’re also among the most expensive and require a proprietary phone case to get started. For a budget-friendly alternative, the clip-on solutions from Aukey offer the best bang for your buck.

Related

Find Honest Feedback

Listening —  and, more importantly, responding — to independent feedback is a surefire way to grow any skill. Friends and family are likely to soften the blow when critiquing your creative work, including photography. Instead, solicit feedback, ideally from strangers, to narrow in on the pros and cons of your shots. The Photo Critique subreddit is a great place to start for honest criticism from a community of more than 750,000 amateur and professional photographers. Simply upload your shots with a brief description, and receive valuable feedback almost immediately.

Take an Online Class

Honestly evaluate your photography skills to determine your weaknesses. Maybe your composition needs work, or you don’t fully understand proper exposures, or you’re terrified of “ruining” your photos with the wrong settings in manual mode. Whatever your shortcomings, there’s an online video or entire course to help you fix them. Nikon offers comprehensive professional photography videos, and YouTube is a neverending rabbit hole of niche tutorials. Commit to spending a week or the next 30 days brushing up on one particular aspect of photography. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the dizzying combination of technology, creativity, and sheer luck that goes into good photography. Break it all down into manageable pieces, and better your skillset one skill at a time.

To keep your camera kit organized and ready to go, check out our picks for the best camera bags for trail or travel.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trekking: Stay connected with our favorite outdoor apps

1.
The Outbound
2.
REI
3.
Storm
4.
Mountain Project
5.
Star Walk 2
6.
Camp & RV
7.
Chimani National Parks
8.
Yahoo Weather
9.
SAS Survival Guide
10.
PeakFinder Earth
11.
First Aid
12.
AllTrails
13.
MSW Surf Forecast
14.
MotionX GPS
15.
iNaturalist

Man isn’t meant to stay indoors — our weekly “Trekking” column can attest to that. It’s a column dedicated to the adventurer inside of all of us, the one pining to ditch the office humdrum for a quick surf session or seven-week jaunt in the Grand Tetons. One day we may highlight an ultra-light stove and the next a set of handmade canoe paddles. Life doesn’t just happen inside the workplace, so get outside and live it.

Read more
Abominable Labs: Fog Free Riding
Abominable Labs

1.
Carousel 2 Afterburner
2.
Abominable Labs
3.
Abominable Labs

We've all had that moment on the ski slopes at least once: it's a once in a lifetime storm day, and you're measuring powder tracks in feet instead of inches. Then, your goggles decide to fog over and visibility goes to zero. Good bye first tracks; it's time to hit the lodge and dry out a little bit. Fortunately for you, our friends in Tigard, Oregon, Abominable Labs, have finally solved the biggest buzz killer on the mountain (no, we're not talking about a new way to sneak your hipster microbrew on the lifts). Meet the F-BOM ski goggle.

Read more
What’s still to come in the Snowboard World Cup? All dates and venues
High speed snowboarding, huge tricks, and podium places still up for grabs: Check out the FIS World Cup
Slopestyle course at olympics.

We're well over halfway through the Snowboarding World Cup season already, but if you've not managed to catch any of the events yet, don't panic, there's still plenty to come. The U.S. is currently leading the way in both men's and women's slopestyle and providing stiff competition in the boardercross — among other events. With so much still at stake, there has never been a better time to get into the Snowboarding World Cup.

The FIS — responsible, among other things, for skiing safety rules and regulations — put on a skiing and snowboarding world cup each season, bringing elite competitors from around the world together to compete for glory. Stages around the world host race events like giant slalom, parallel, and boardercross, alongside freestyle-oriented snowboarding competitions like halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air. Here's what's still to come this season and how you can catch all the action.

Read more