5 Tips to Help You Improve Your Nature Photography Skills

1.Use Natural Light to Improve Your Photos

Natural light photography is outdoor photography using direct or indirect light from the sun or moon. Nature photos will look great in the morning or evening light in general. And during the golden hours in particular.

This light after sunrise and before sunset has a softer, hazy quality. It illuminates your subjects more evenly and eliminates the harsh midday shadows.
Imagine a small bird in a tree or even the leaves of that tree. If that’s your subject, it will be softly lit with the golden hues of a setting sun. That’s what I would call atmospheric.

This type of light can provide an emotional overlay to your images. This is hard to reproduce otherwise. You’ll notice the difference in the effectiveness of the shot. You might even notice a difference between morning and evening shots. Check for colour temperature changes.

2.Choose the Best Time of Day to Get Perfect Nature Shots

There are advantages to shooting in the early morning or late evenings. This includes the likelihood of the area you’re shooting being less crowded.
This is especially important in high-traffic “tourist” areas. These are popular national parks and other landmarks.

If you’re shooting animals, aim for mornings and evenings. You’re more likely to score great wildlife shots then. Many animals escape the heat of the day. They are much more active when it’s darker and cooler.

3. Use Different Angles and Perspectives to Stand Out

Landscape photography isn’t about pleasing someone else. Or appealing to someone else’s sense of style. It’s about shooting what makes you happy.
Take the time to study other nature photographer’s work if you’ve not discovered your own style yet.

What angles do they tend to use? What colors do they coordinate within the frame? How close do they get to their subject?
Try to do something different. Go against the grain! Use a different angle, shoot a close-up where others would shoot wide-angle.

Nature offers us unlimited beautiful setups. Go out there and take advantage of them! Using your own creativity is one of the best wildlife photography tips for beginners.

4.Bring Your Crop Sensor Camera Body

If you have a full-frame and a crop sensor camera body, consider leaving the full-frame at home. Lenses have a more pronounced effective focal length on crop sensor cameras.

This is especially useful when shooting animals. There is a distance you must maintain to avoid frightening them. A 50mm lens on a crop sensor camera body will show a 1.6x effective magnification over a full-frame camera. Using a crop sensor means getting as close as you can for your nature and wildlife photography.

5.Respect the Animals and Environment

It’s impossible to explain this without using the phrase “leave only footprints”. As cliche as it is, it couldn’t be more accurate.

Be sure to take home any rubbish, even if you think an item is biodegradable. An orange or banana peel can take up to 2 years to decompose.

Respect the environment you’re shooting. You have to understand the importance of not disturbing natural environments.

We are photographing a sensitive world that is the home of many living things. We should make every effort to have a minimal lasting impact on that world.

Conclusion

Are you a nature photography lover? What other tips would you give a beginner? And what are some of your favourite subjects and environments in the great outdoors to shoot in?

Join the discussion and comment below!

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