INTRODUCTION:
One of the most amazing types of photography is wildlife photography. Photographers who specialize in wildlife take pictures of wild animals in their natural habitat.
It is without a doubt a meaningful and beautiful career in photography. However, it also requires a lot of effort, patience, and time.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Avoid taking photos in bright midday sun.
2. Learn how to handle the low light circumstances.
3. Golden light is significant but not necessary
4. Before your camera, Upgrade your lens.
5. Try not to zoom always
6. Try to shoot in Raw
1. AVOID TAKING PHOTOS IN BRIGHT MIDDAY SUN
If there is a most important rule from this list, it would be this: Wildlife that is directly illuminated by the clear midday sun should not be shot. Under those circumstances, getting a good shot is almost impossible. Most of the time, your subject will have harsh shadows and no catchlights in their eyes. Due to the glowing effects produced by fur and feathers, harsh lighting frequently reduces sharpness.
And it goes beyond just the topic. As the images which has the background with this kind of light frequently have bright, specular highlights, drawing attention away from your subject.
2. LEARN HOW TO HANDLE LOW LIGHT CIRCUMSTANCES
Most of the wild animals are active between dawn and dusk. Naturally, there is less light at these times of day, so it can be hard to keep your shutter speed high enough to prevent motion blur or even camera shake from showing up in your shots.
In addition, animals typically do not stand out in the open. There will probably be even less light available to you if you shoot into the shade or under the cover of trees.
When you have a shutter speed of 1/20th of a second, it can be extremely frustrating to shoot a lot of frames after waiting hours, only to find that they are ruined by motion blur.
As a wildlife photographer, your ISO speed will become very familiar to you, and you will probably find yourself constantly adjusting it as the light gets lower and lower. Your camera’s sensor will be more sensitive to light if you increase the ISO value, but you will also introduce more digital noise into your shot.
However, keep in mind that your ISO speed should be as low as possible while remaining as high as necessary. When it comes to ISO speeds, the capabilities of various cameras vary as well. Higher ISO values will typically result in less digital noise from more expensive cameras; however, you should experiment and become familiar with your camera’s limitations to anticipate when images will become unusable.
3. GOLDEN LIGHT IS SIGNIFICANT BUT NOT NECESSARY
In wildlife photography, light is obviously very important, and the so-called “golden moment”, also called as “golden light” ; the hour just after sunrise and before sunset. However, this does not mean that you should put your camera down and give up for the day. Even in harsher lighting, you can still get pictures and use techniques like dramatic over- and underexposure for low- and high-key shots.
In Africa it is said that going on safari during the rainy seasons will cause bad lightning. However, this is not the case at all. The cloudy skies make for more interesting backdrops to landscapes than just clear blue because they diffuse the harsh African sun, allowing you to shoot for longer periods of time before excessive shadows affect your light metering.
4. BEFORE YOUR CAMERA UPGRADE YOUR LENS
A better body will typically go further than a better lens most of the time. If your maximum focal length is 300mm, for instance, purchasing a lens with a maximum aperture of 500mm will be much more beneficial than upgrading to the most recent and greatest camera body.
If you find that you are cropping your images a lot or increasing the ISO value too much, it is generally a good idea to upgrade your lens.A new camera might give you a few more pixels to crop or slightly better high ISO performance, but a better lens will give you much more.It’s possible to see a world of difference between, say, f/5.6 and f/2.8.Similarly, for the difference between 200 and 500 millimeters.
5. TRY NOT TO ZOOM ALWAYS
When starting out in the field of wildlife photography, one of the most common sources of dissatisfaction is the feeling that you can’t get close enough. You don’t necessarily have to do that every time you point the camera at an animal, though.
It’s great to fill the frame because it lets you capture every animal detail. But think about shooting a lot wider. Make the most of a bad situation by selecting a shot that takes into account the surroundings if you are unable to get close to an animal for any reason.
6. TRY TO SHOOT IN RAW
Any photographer could benefit from this advice. Obviously, shooting in Raw rather than JPEG has numerous advantages. Shooting in Raw will let you recover tonal information, which is especially helpful when dealing with challenging lighting conditions like those found in wildlife photography. Additionally, noise reduction in JPEG mode may be enabled on some cameras, but it will not be as effective as noise reduction in post-processing. Raw also makes it easier to adjust white balance, and I’ve noticed that the auto white balance on some cameras has a hard time dealing with green things like grass or leaves.
Naturally, this also indicates that you ought to devote some time to mastering the more advanced functions of your Raw developer. You can add that final 5% to a photo that will really make it outstanding by pushing your files to their limit.
CONCLUSION
I hope some of these hints will help you discover new opportunities in wildlife photography. When you’re out photographing birds, mammals, macro subjects or any other kind of wildlife, try to use the majority of these tips every time. Even though you are long term photographer in wildlife. Try to continue to acquire new skills on a regular basis. There is more and more to learn in wildlife photography, get to explore more! For other photography tips visit www.craftpencil.com and stay connected with more blogs.