Spring into action

As temperatures begin to rise and the days become longer, now is the perfect time to get outdoors. We speak to three professionals for their tips on shooting all manner of subjects

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Guy Edwardes 
Based in his home county of Dorset, Guy Edwardes has been a professional landscape and nature photographer for over 25 years. His work has been widely published worldwide and he runs a series of popular photographic workshops. Visit www.guyedwardes.com

Ensure front-to-back sharpness
When shooting spring landscapes, you may wish to include an expanse of flowers in the foreground. Even when using a wideangle lens, you'll still have to take great care to achieve perfect front-to-back sharpness. The simplest way is to employ hyperfocal focusing, where you focus on a precise point (that varies according to the subject distance and focal length used) that will allow complete sharpness throughout the scene at your chosen aperture. Alternatively focus-stacking can be used to achieve even better sharpness by using software to stack a series of images taken using a middle aperture. This eliminates the softening effects of diffraction but can only really be used if the foreground flowers are not moving in the breeze!

Allow light to dictate location 
Try to choose your locations based on the weather and lighting conditions on the day. Open landscapes and coastal areas look great bathed in early morning or late evening sunlight, but shady woodlands often work better in overcast or foggy conditions where the reduced contrast is beneficial, and colours will be recorded more accurately.

Timing is critical