If you like nature, you will inevitably like nature photography. When you see such amazing, shocking and alluring beauty, you can’t help but click. You want to capture its essence on camera and take it home with you. It is something irresistible. I’m wrong? Nature photography is felt, breathed, lived. That’s why today I bring you 100 express tips so you can enjoy it to the fullest.
1. Enjoy of the environment, it will be easier for you to detect what you want to photograph.
2. Better to plan to improvise
3. Try not to copy what you see, but capture what you see with your eyes, with your gaze full of lived experiences.
4. Start to practice close to home, the plants on your balcony, the little animals in the park. Once you start taking practice, you will be able to enjoy and take more advantage of the breaks.
5. When it comes to getting new lenses or accessories, think carefully what kind of nature photography you want to do, within it the themes are very diverse.
6. For long walks, choose the equipment that you are really going to use, weight is a factor that you must take into account.
7. If you will be photographing often, or most of the time, in very humid environments or near water, consider getting a camera with sealed body.
8. To gain sharpness, hold the camera well arms close to the body.
9. With long exposures, if you can block the mirror (this does not apply to mirrorless cameras, of course).
10. And shoot in remote to avoid tremors.
11. Don’t be afraid to get up early, it has a prize 😉 .
12. Stay away from light pollution to photograph the stars. But if you can not with the enemy, join him.
13. If you are going to photograph skies, landscapes or macro, get a good tripod. You will appreciate it.
14. To extend the tripod, start with the sections above. They are more stable.
15. Put weight on the tripod hook to gain stability.
16. dissociate focus of the fire button.
17. In wildlife photography, if you need it, use a monopod, it will give you more freedom than a tripod. And use the right lens depending on the animal or the photo you want to take.
18. Confirm that your subject is in focus by enlarging it on the screen. In small it does not always look good.
19. For long daytime exposures, use neutral density filters (ND).
20. When you have a very bright sky and the rest is dark, use a neutral density gradient filter to compensate for light contrast.
21. To achieve greater depth in macro photography, take a focus stacking.
22. Use Photopills or any similar app to plan your landscapes or night/sky photos. Calculating the time of sunrise and sunset and the moon with them is extremely easy.
23. Do not stay on the side of the road, your best friends are your feet, they will take you where your eyes and your camera want to be.
24. Investigate the species you want to photograph, knowledge will help you know where to look, to observe and get ahead.
25. If you bring a company, preferably one that has the same interest as you in photography.
26. The trick to getting a photo of the huge moon with a small silhouette inside it is a good telephoto lens and the right distance. To do this, you need to plan well, and some accomplice to help you.
27. If you are looking for sharpness above all else, get fixed optics.
28. If you prefer comfort, better a zoom lens that offers you different focal lengths.
29. For birds and other animals on the move, shoot in burst
30. If you want one quick Burst, make sure the memory card has a good write speed, and don’t shoot in RAW+JPG because the burst will be very slow.
31. Whenever you come back from the field or the beach, make sure you clean your computer from dust and possible splashes.
32. And if you’ve been in humid environments, store your gear with silica bags. You will avoid the appearance of fungi.
33. Look at the light how it influences all the elements, be it a plant, a landscape or an animal. You don’t even need the camera, wherever you are, at any time, you can do this exercise.
34. With diffused light you will awaken nostalgia with your landscapes.
35. The hard light lateral highlights the volumes and makes the colors vibrate.
36. The backlighting highlights the transparencies of the wings and draws light contours on the stems.
37. Use hard light to highlight barrenness of the landscape or transmit desolation.
38. Whenever you want detail, look for a headlight.
39. Write down the ideas in a notebook, when you lack creativity, turn to it.
40. Larger birds are better to start practicing.
41. Use reflectors (specific or natural) to fill in the shadows when you prefer.
42. To transmit delicacy, resort to diffused light.
43. Cloudy days are great for diffused light.
44. Watch the color temperature. If you don’t want an orange or bluish cast in your photo, adjust the white balance accordingly.
45. OR shoot in RAW and change it in the edit.
46. Editing can work wonders, but not miracles. Make sure your photo is well exposed on-sitea burned photo is not fixed by San Lightroom or San Photoshop.
47. If fauna is your thing, look for the Native species In your area, dreaming of elephants is fine, but taking photos instead of dreaming them is much better.
48. Nature photography usually requires greater sharpness than other disciplines, you can probably increase the exposure time, if so, it is better to make a longer exposure than to increase the ISO value.
49. Although a photo with noise is better than a jerky one, if you can’t ensure that nothing comes out shaky because you lack stabilization, it’s better to raise the ISO if you can’t open the diaphragm any further.
50. Learn to use the hyperfocal.
51. Whenever you use a tripod, turn off the stabilizer.
52. But, if you don’t use a tripod and use somewhat slow speeds or a telephoto lens, don’t forget to activate it.
53. Watch the histogram, there is no need to obsess, but as I said before, if you have time to correct the exposure, it better be on-site.
54. Do not trust what your screen tells you outdoors, better look at the histogram.
55. Always try to have a center of interest.
56. Make this center of interest stand out above everything else. For it…
57. Use the lines to lead the gaze to it (trails, streams, footprints, a trail of ants, a path of stones, etc.).
58. Play with contrasts color or focus.
59. Use the complementary colors to create contrasts.
60. Includes analogous colors to convey harmony.
61. Includes natural settings.
62. First learn the rules, then break them.
63. And experience, much.
64. Do not lose sight of the textures, nature is full of them.
65. Less is more. In nature photography too 😉
66. That the background do not detract from your motif.
67. For small motifs such as insects, flowers, etc., you can use cardboard or fabrics of different colors in order to achieve better backgrounds.
68. Get abstract photographs with a drone, with long exposures and camera movement, or isolating details.
69. Or with a macro lens, looking for textures invisible to the eye.
70. Use a wide angle lens to create depth in your landscapes.
71. With a portrait framing You also manage to add more depth.
72. With him horizontal framing You transmit more serenity.
73. Look for forms in nature that have nothing to do with what you are photographing, a landscape inside a rock, a face in the bark of a tree, a heart-shaped stone, etc.
74. Remember that panoramas can also be vertical. For example, they can be an excellent resource when photographing waterfalls.
75. If you take several shots for a panorama, try to have 20-30% overlap.
76. The HDR It is an interesting technique to achieve a better dynamic range, but you should not abuse this resource in editing.
77. For extra sharpness, look for the Sweet spot of your target.
78. Plan your next photo shoot meteor shower with photo pills.
79. To photograph at night, always look for company, because it is more fun, and security.
80. The silky effect of water is very interesting, but capturing the shape of the crashing waves can also give you great satisfaction.
81. For long exposure night photography, best on cold nights.
82. For long exposures, remember to always carry extra battery.
83. Use a flashlight to focus at night.
84. Search inspiration in other artists, museums, music, cinema, etc., but above all, in nature. Walk through it, breathe the fresh air, bathe in stars, caress the bark of the trees, the fur of an animal, watch the flowers dance to the sound of the wind, the sun’s rays crash on the rock… Feel all this and your mind It will be a source of creativity.
85. Embark on a series or a project, it will keep your photographic activity.
86. Use a approach AF-C or AI Servo with moving subjects; AF-S or One Shot, with static subjects; and AF-A or AI Focus, with subjects that are static but can move at any time. But the best thing, with static subjects, is that you start with the manual focus ;). Start practicing.
87. To photograph the fog, the best is a telephoto lens.
88. Shoot in RAW, If you intend to get the best out of your photo, don’t hesitate.
89. But if you’re too lazy to connect to a computer, and you think that editing is not your thing, don’t even bother, better in JPG.
90. Fog or Vaseline in a filter can be a good fog simulator.
91. Pretend The rain with a diffuser spray water bottle.
92. Take advantage of what it offers you each station. The light, the environment, the possibilities, etc. Everything changes!
93. Try that the adjustments of the edition are not noticed in your photo, that they are imperceptible.
94. Carrying a thermal blanket in your backpack hardly takes up any space and can save you or your camera from a hurry.
95. Make sure you wear the right clothes and shoes.
96. a front It will be a good ally on your outings, especially around sunrise or sunset. To see your camera and to see where you step.
97. respect the environment, its flora and fauna. Nature is our home and its care is above any photograph.
98. Do not give up at the first change. Some photos require a lot of practice and time.
99. Put a big dose of passion.
100. And another greater than patience.
I could go on, nature photography is sooo wide and so inspiring that we could reach 1000 tips, but we already have the book for that 😉 I hope these 100 nature photography tips will…