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Digital Wildlife Photography Tips

Top 10 nature photography tips

Here are 10 digital wildlife photography tips to help you master this exciting area of photography. The natural world is a great subject for photographers of all levels and you don't have to be in the Serengeti to take amazing images!

These nature photography tips for beginners are aimed at helping you take advantage of the wildlife in your area, whatever it may be. Some of the best images I have ever seen have been macro shots of insects, like ants marching across bright green leaves.

I recently saw some breathtaking images of field mice that were beautifully photographed performing some kind of acrobatics amongst heads of wheat! All animals can be interesting.

So, here are my top 10 digital wildlife photography tips!

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1. Get to know your subject.

Get hold of a little guide to wildlife in your local area. This is not being overly keen and involved - it's actually fairly essential! Check out the favoured habitats of the species you want to shoot. Find out what times of day and year they can best be found.

Discover whether any animals around you have interesting behaviours - like hunting methods, fighting, feeding, nurturing their young and so on.

All this info will give you a much better chance of getting a killer shot. Without it you'll pretty much just be standing around in empty fields or streets!

2. Capture the action!

Wildlife is a dynamic, fast moving, exciting subject. What does that mean? You're going to need some quick shutter speeds.

Set your camera to manual mode (if you're not sure about this, here's some basic advice on how to take better digital pictures using manual controls) and select a really fast shutter speed. This will usually involve opening up the aperture nice and wide to compensate.

Once you've mastered this, try getting creative and using a shutter speed that's just slow enough to produce a little bit of motion blur to illustrate movement and drama - but that doesn't distort the shape of the animal beyond recognition.

3. Use a tripod

This is one of the key digital wildlife photography tips. In fact it's one of the key picture taking tips in general!

I know that wildlife photography often involves quickly turning to grab a crucial moment whilst holding the camera in your hands. In those situations the tripod is a hindrance.

But, trust me, when you have your camera trained on some brilliant stationary subject and waiting patiently for the imminent moment of action, you realize how heavy a DSLR is!

So a tripod is definitely your friend for some digital wildlife photography situations.

Here's my quick and easy guide to choosing and using tripods for digital cameras!

4. Use a wide aperture

As mentioned a bove, the fast shutter speeds that wildlife photography typically requires has the knock on effect of demanding wide apertures, and so a narrow depth of field.

(Not sure about all this manual stuff? Here are some basic picture taking tips on using manual controls).

But actually, even where a fast shutter speed is not needed (static subjects), a small depth of field benefits most animal pictures, so it's one of my top digital wildlife photography tips.

It isolates the subject and just seems to add intensity, drama and intimacy.

5. Telephoto lenses

If you like photographing the natural world, sooner or later you are going to need to invest in a telephoto, or even a super-telephoto lens! Here is some handy information on lens types and what to look for in a lens.

Telephoto lenses make it possible to get a nice close up shot of your subject and fill the frame. They are just essential to take better digital pictures of wildlife.

6. Don't ignore common species

As I mentioned at the start of this article, some of the most stunning wildlife photography ever produced has featured supposedly mundane species: common insects, plain coloured birds, field mice, even the humble city pigeon!

It's all about when, where and how you capture something. Far better to take a brilliant shot of something common than a boring one of something exotic.

Photos can turn amazing animals like lions into something dull and familiar, and elevate innocuous brown rodents into creatures of compelling beauty! So don't give up on the wildlife nearest you. Shoot it at its best, in great light and in interesting compositions.

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7. Get close!

Telephoto lenses enable you to zoom in nice and close on your subjects. But with digital wildlife photography it's often worth trying to actually get as physically close to your subect as possible.

This usually gives you a much clearer view and reduces the obstacles that can stand between you and the subject. It also gives you the best chance of filling the frame well and creating a good composition. Plus, being closer enables you to keep an eye out for where the next potential action is going to come from.

So, here's one of the key nature photography tips for beginners: wear clothes that blend in with the habitat you're shooting in.

I'm not saying you have to get 'safaried up'! But you'll be amazed how much closer to animals you can get when your clothes merge in a bit with the environment. Greens , browns and khakis are often best.

8. The magic hours

Lots of advice on how to take better digital pictures draws attention to the brilliant light that can be found around dawn and sunset. These times of day are indeed fantastic for the beautiful quality of the light. But they are also great for wildlife photography!

Lots of elusive species venture into the open very early in the morning or as the sun is setting. I've taken some cool shots of deer in the early hours when there is less human activity to frighten them away.

So the benefits of an early start aren't confined to better light, you'll see some great wildlife too!

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9. Urban wildlife

Don't worry if you wake up to a rural paradise teeming with animals every day! City streets can make a stunning and contrasting backdrop to wildlife shots.

There's an amazing image of a fox slinking through the snowy, dark streets of London in winter on the Sony World Photography Awards shortlist this year.

Remember the nature photography tips above about how it's the way you capture things not what you capture? There are some beautiful digital wildlife photography shots of pigeons swirling around monuments and big city squares. Do some research on the urban wildlife in your area and find out where they all hang out!

10. Landscape/wildlife combination

Some of my favourite photos are in both the landscape and wildlife categories. The wildlife element enhances the landscape and vice versa.

Digital wildlife photography does not have to be only about animals. It can be about their habitat too. If the environment surrounding a particular species is really beautiful, you might as well take advantage of it.

Using the landscape is a great way to emphasise scale and gives you more to play with in creating interesting compositions.

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Finally...

There's no better way to learn about wildlife photography than to see how it's done by a master. One my all time favourite wildlife collections is "On This Earth: Photographs from East Africa" by Nick Brandt.

It's a truly breathtaking and inspiring study of African wildlife. The black and white format combines with a rich aesthetic clarity to give the animals in Brandt's photos an almost symobolic quality. They stand for the raw power, grandeur and beauty of the natural world.

If you are interested in wildlife and keen to take better digital pictures of it, "On This Earth" is the ultimate example and inspiration!

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