Camera Problems | Animal Photography – How to Take Great Pictures of Animals

Animal Photography – How to Take Great Pictures of Animals

Posted on February 12, 2010
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If you love taking pictures of animals then this article will be sure to give you some practical tips that you can immediately start using. Animal photography, also called wildlife photography, encompasses the entire world of animals from your pets to polar bears. This article shares tips and information on wildlife photography but you can also use many of these tips for photographing your pets at home. To learn how nature photographers get those fantastic images of wildlife, read on.

The basics for taking great wildlife pictures start with these tips. As always there are exceptions, but the following go a long ways towards ensuring successful animal photography:

Perhaps you are wondering how you can, without a huge lens and SLR safely get close enough to a wild animal to “capture their personality” or “fill the frame”?

Actually even professional wildlife photographers don’t always take their winning photographs in the wild. Most of the wonderful pictures you see of wolves, polar bears and other wild creatures were taken at wildlife sanctuaries and zoos. Cheating? Not really because it’s safer for the photographer and doesn’t disturb the animals in the wild from their normal mating and feeding cycles.

Some of the wildlife sanctuaries offer special tours for photographers, but even without the advantages these tours offer (often being allowed to get closer shots and without all the people), there are many things the hobbyist with a compact can do to take professional looking photographs of wildlife.

Animal Photography Tips for Wildlife Sanctuaries and Zoos

1) Simplify the Composition: If the background is distracting, use a wide aperture or Portrait mode to blur it. Or, you can use photo editing software like Photoshop to blur or clean up the background.

2) Go Natural: Avoid showing cage bars, fences, humans, signs, etc. If it is safe and not against the rules, point the lens through the gap in the fence so you can take a picture without showing the fence. Often there will be a look out area or vantage point that lets you take pictures over the top of the fence. Look for areas like these that are perfect for a photo. Again, use a good photo editor to blur what you couldn’t eliminate while shooting the photo.

3) Fill the Frame: Use zoom (optical for best quality) or a telephoto lens to get close ups.

4) Use Sports Mode: Use Sports mode or set shutter speed priority to around 1/250 to freeze movements.

5) Use Light and Weather to Best Effect: Overcast days are often best for animal photography. If the overcast isn’t too bright, it will prevent glare from light colored or watery backgrounds. If the overcast is too dark and you have an SLR, increase the ISO to compensate for the dark lighting. With the right amount of overcast lighting, you can get well exposed sharp images with your compact camera without any of the animals squinting.

Since the eyes are usually the most expressive, they are generally the best place to focus so be patient in getting a picture of their eyes wide open and not squinting. Another way to eliminate this is to photograph when the animal’s back is to sun. In this case, you will need to use fill flash (turn off automatic flash and set to “On”) to prevent underexposure or a silhouette, and you will need to use a lens hood or wear a broad brimmed hat to prevent lens flare.

6) Try this When Shooting through Glass: When you want a picture of a terrarium or aquarium critter, turn on the flash and shoot from an angle. Be sure to check your camera manual for the safe distance when taking pictures with a flash of any creature otherwise you could damage their eyes. Or, turn off the flash and carefully press your lens to the glass.

7)    Plan your Visits for the Best Photo Ops: Many people will especially love seeing your animal photography when it includes baby animals. Often zoos and sanctuaries let visitors know when new babies are arriving by posting it on their websites. Another great time to take pictures is during feeding time. Animals that hide out during much of the day will come out to eat. Finally, if you’re visiting a sanctuary or zoo when the weather’s hot, go early in the day when the animals will be most active, not napping.

8)    Use Context: While usually it’s best to fill the frame with the animal, sometimes the context is too interesting to bypass. Examples of using context: a child and baby animal looking at each other, a giraffe, long neck bent as it peers down at a car in front of yours at the drive-through safari park.

9)    Capture Expressions: Animals, whether our pets or wildlife, make the cutest expressions. Be prepared with your camera! Even just normal expressions like a wolf pup yawning or a tiger licking its lips are cute or interesting. The more you learn about your favorite species, the better able you will be to capture these fun shots.

And once you get a few animal or wildlife pictures that you love, don’t forget to display them in picture frames. When selecting a frame, just make sure that you don’t choose a frame that overpowers your picture like a bright red picture frame or a fancy unique picture frame. All you want is a frame with simple clean lines in a material like wood or metal that adds a nice accent to the image.

So, the next time you’re ready to take some animal photos, use these animal photography tips and you’ll be suprised at what a difference it can make.


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