In the video below you will watch Pangolin Photo Host Charl Stols share his top 10 beginner wildlife photography tips and then below that is an additional list created by all the photo hosts together. Enjoy! 카지노사이트
Tips to be a better wildlife photographer
We know there are plenty of lists of photography tips out there to help you improve your wildlife photography and they are pretty much the same old story. So we asked the Pangolin Photo Hosts to come up with their own version specifically aimed at beginners wanting to get into wildlife photography. As with all our teaching, we like to keep it light and fun at the offset and we hope you enjoy our list.
1. Know your camera gear before you travel
Believe it or not, we have clients arriving in Botswana sometimes with their cameras still in their original packaging and they can be found scouring the manual just before the game drive. This is such a waste.
Knowing your camera and how it works is an essential part of becoming a better wildlife photographer. You need to know where the buttons are and how they work or react to your inputs. You should be able to change a setting without your eye having to leave the viewfinder as that second or two not concentrating on your subject can ultimately be the difference between great shots and missed shots.
Even if you simply practice your photography skills on small birds in your garden or photograph the family pet you have to spend time with your camera in your hands. There are no shortcuts here.
We suggest figuring out five go-to shutter speed choices that will cover all of the situations that you might encounter on a photo safari. You can read more on that in our shutter speed tips for wildlife photography here.
You need to understand exposure settings and know which mode you are going to shoot on whether that is Aperture or Shutter priority or perhaps even full Manual mode – and stick with it.
1.1 Our shutter speed golden rule!
Our golden rule for the right fast shutter speed is that the shutter speed should be twice the focal length as a minimum if you are handholding. If you are using a sturdy tripod for example this can be slowed down….but not too much.
If you are shooting with a 400mm lens on full zoom your shutter speed should be 1/800s as a minimum. A faster shutter speed is always best but this is the minimum.바카라사이트
2. Location
Every wildlife photography destination is different. Is the area that you are going to photograph forested or are you going to the vast open plains of the Masai Mara? Which different animals are you likely to see? What seasonal weather patterns could affect your nature photography ambitions?
A simple way to get an idea of what to expect is a Google image search. Type in where you are going and scan through the great images taken there. Maybe search through websites like 500px, National Geographic, Natural History Museum and even our own galleries (see photo hub above!).
Then talk to the experts. If you are wanting to travel on a safari then speak to a safari operator that specialises in wildlife photography. Lots of flashy safari websites will have a section on wildlife photography safaris but often these are just standard safaris, at their preferred suppliers dressed up as a photo safari because one destination has a photographic hide for example.
Tell them what you want to see and photograph and any photo safari operator worth their salt will give you their honest opinion as to where, when and how you can make that happen. The reputation of a photo safari operator relies solely on this information and not convincing you to go on any old safari just because it might be more profitable for them.
3. Golden light is important…but not essential
Light is obviously a very important factor in wildlife photography and much is made of the so-called “Golden hours” or golden moment – the hour just after sunrise and just before sunset.
This doesn’t mean though that you should just put down your camera and give up for the day. Even in a harsher light, there are photographs to get and techniques to employ such as dramatic over and underexposing your images for low and high key shots.
In Africa, people are often nervous about going on safari during the rainy seasons as they think it will be just grey and miserable with bad light but that’s just not the case. Overcast conditions have the effect of diffusing the harsh African sun meaning that you can shoot for more hours in the day before excessive shadows wreak havoc on your light metering…..plus we think that cloudy skies make for more interesting backdrops to landscapes than just clear blue!온라인카지
4. Shoot wide…to tell the story
Wildlife (and Sports) photographers are synonymous with cameras with big focal length zoom or fixed focal length long lenses.
The temptation to zoom right into the subject is ever-present but if you are going to tell the story of your subject you need to remember that close-up is not always the best composition.
By including more of your subject’s environment in the image you immediately tell more of a story. Instead of it just being a lovely bull elephant portrait perhaps you now have a lovely bull elephant on the banks of a wide river with some clouds in the distance and its fellow herd members gently blurred in the background. Which image is most compelling? Both are in their own way…so take both images and cover all your bases!
If you can afford it a second camera body with a wide-angle lens will save you time but to be honest, the camera capabilities of some cellphones mean grabbing it from your pocket and firing away a few wider shots can produce good images too.
5. Go low. As low as you can go
In our opinion, you can never go too low in wildlife photography. This is why waterhole hides and our photo boats (which are inches above water level) are so popular to photograph animals from.
Not only can you shoot upwards at your subject making a large land mammal that much more imposing but you can also control an important element of your depth of field.
When trying to blur out a background it’s important to maximise the distance between your subject and the background. So, if you are shooting down on an animal (close to you) from a vehicle or raised hide for example the ground (read background is very close) to your subject. If you are as close to eye level as possible the angle changes and now the background is much further away.