The Ultimate Guide To Wildlife Photography
If you are out in the wild, photographing animals, then you are shooting wildlife photography. It involves documenting the creatures, in and out of their habitats.
For everything you need, from gear to techniques, read our complete wildlife photography guide here.
What Is Wildlife Photography?
This is one of the most challenging areas of photography. You are dealing with animals that don’t take model direction.
Not only do you need to have superb technical skills, but also know how to expose, frame, and compose well.
You will find that some animals are approachable to some extent, and others will require a telephoto lens to get any kind of photographic evidence.
Safety for the animals and for yourself is key. Never put yourself or any wildlife in harm’s way to get a great image. Protect the animals in their habitat, too.
If you are wondering how to go about starting your wildlife photography journey, then keep reading. We will touch on what to look for in wildlife photography and how to improve on a few simple ideas and compositions.
In the end, we shall look at the post-processing side of things. This area makes sure that your images are as good as they possibly could be.
Have fun, experiment and keep practising. Your images could one day win wildlife photography awards.
Best Cameras for Wildlife Photography
Your camera is your tool for capturing amazing wildlife photography. Any DSLR will capture images, but there are a few specific settings that will definitely help you.
The ability to shoot in raw is one of the most important tools your camera needs to have. Raw images will give you significantly more details to play with than jpeg.
They are more than 8x bigger in terms of size, as they hold much more data. Any local adjustments are changed without loss of quality.
Read our list here for the best cameras for wildlife photography.
Best DSLRs
Chances are that you will own and mainly use a DSLR. They offer you the most amount of settings, lenses, and accessories.
DSLRs are also better at auto-focusing, fast and continuous shooting and high ISO capabilities. All of these are perfect for capturing moving subjects in wildlife photography.
This camera comes well protected from the elements with its 92 seals.
It also has image stabilization for those moving animals. Read a full list of DSLR recommendations here.
DSLR Accessories for Wildlife Photography
If you are serious about wildlife photography, you will find that your images will benefit from more than just your camera.
Accessories help you take better images. They help you stay comfortable so you can stay out, photographing for longer.
The accessory that you won’t be able to live without is a bag. It allows you to carry all of your photographic gear, but also other items, such as clothing and binoculars.
Our recommendation, as it lets you carry two telephoto lenses together. It even has space for all your other items.
Remote Shutter Releases
You might not want to photograph some animals using a 50mm lens. You can’t even get close enough to some animals to photograph them.
The solution to this is a remote shutter release. This allows you to release the shutter without touching the camera.
This piece of equipment is also great for long exposures. Touching your camera while the shutter is open for extended periods of time could create shake, ruining your image.
