Level Up With These 10 Nature Photography Tips

Nature photography is for everyone. That's why I'm sharing these 10 Nature Photography Tips to help you become a better nature photographer. Many of the students I teach want to improve their nature photography skills.

My 10 nature photography tips are in depth to offer you a better understanding of what makes a great nature photo. Before we get to the tips let's talk about what makes great nature photos so magical.

Great Nature Photography

What makes great nature photography so special? Why are we drawn to certain photos? In other words, what makes a nature photograph standout? That's might not seem like an easy question to answer but it is.

Rare Wildlife Photos

Hard to find or rare animals grab a lot of attention. However, just snapping a picture of a rare animal isn't enough if you're missing the magical ingredients in my list.

What photos might come to mind when you think about spectacular nature photography? Additionally, what photos do you think are iconic? Why are they so great?

What do they have that you can incorporate into your work to make it better? The truth is you can create amazing nature photographs too.

What it takes to make amazing nature photos

Everyone can master what it takes to make amazing nature photos. Yes, photography is both an art and a craft. This means you need the artistic vision to tell the story you want to share. Additionally it means that you need to understand the craft, the technical aspects of photography.

Learn the craft of photography and as long as you love what you're doing the artistic vision will follow.

What Amazing Photos Are Made Of

Amazing nature photos are made of the following parts, composition, exposure, lighting, time, focus, and contrast. They can have other components but at their core these are the things that must be there and must be done right.

Nature Photography Essentials

Focus and expose your subject well. Capture them in a scene with great light. Manage the time, focus, and contrast properly and you'll have created an amazing nature photograph. In fact, I promise that's true even if you're taking photos of a rat or pigeon.

Yes, learning how to expose, how to compose, and about lighting takes time. However, these are skills you can practice and improve.

You will likely get frustrated along the way. As such, your photos may not look how you want at first. Keep going! You'll get there faster than it feel like.

10 Nature Photography Tips

Tip 1. Patience

Patience is critical in nature photography. We can't rush out to the forest and begin to snap away and expect to create photos that rival those of National Geographic. So, we've got to slow down, use all of our sense, and look at what is happening.

Being in the moment helps us see things we otherwise miss. In fact it also helps us hear what we might not have noticed. For example, the calls of a bird in nearby brush.

Slow Down

Life is hectic. As a result, it take take us a few minutes to calm down when we reach the wilderness. When creating great nature photos we must reset ourselves. Then, try to match the pace of the natural world. First find your breath. Then, stand still and look carefully around. Listening to what is happening.

Feel the wind, rain, or the warmth from the sun vs the coolness of the side of your body that's in the shade. As a result, you'll be more in tune with the forest. This helps you anticipate things and react to what nature is sharing.

Use All of Your Senses

Let the sensations lead you to warm or cool spots depending on the animals you're looking for.

Where can you find animals escaping the heat or the cold?

Listen for small streams and you may find bathing birds.

What have you missed by not using all of your senses?

Of course, when it comes to nature photography patience is critical. Therefore, moving off the spot that you feel is the right place to be will often result in you missing otherwise great nature photos.

Tip 2. Declutter

Simple shots are the most stunning. So, learn to declutter your composition. As a result, the viewer will focus on the subject of your work and not the mess around it.

The best way to declutter is with light. Catch your subject in the sun with deep shadows behind them. Also, be sure to use spot metering. Alternatively adjust your exposure so those shadows turn black or nearly black.

Get Closer

Another decluttering trick is to find a location where your subject comes to you. For example, find somewhere your subject will pass close to you. Also, this spot should offer a clean background. If background objects are far enough away then you can throw it out of focus.

This can be frustrating at first. In fact, it's a bit like fishing. Some days you don't get any bites. Then other times you get tantalizingly close. However they still get away sometimes. That said, some days you get really lucky.

The truth is that good nature photography is often more about luck and patience than skills.

Tip 3.  Get Up Early

Get up early to get the best light, the most active animals, and fewer other people. Mid-day light is not a great time for nature photography with the exception of winter in the highest of latitudes. Light striking the side of your subject rather than the top of their heads makes better photos.

Why Get Up Early?

There are two reasons for this.

First, overhead light is harsh. The temperature of it is cold. Too, the shadows it casts are generally unappealing.

If the sun isn't shining and it's overcast the contrast is often not great enough. This makes for flat looking photos. Of course if it's raining or snowing and overcast that can give you exceptional results. Just be sure your gear is weather-proofed.

Active Wildlife Hours

Second, unless it's winter in the high latitudes the wildlife will likely be resting. In the summer mid-day is nap time. Dawn and dusk are much more active times for most animals and the lighting, that warm golden angular light is so much more attractive to photograph with.

Tip 4. Light

Understanding light and how it behaves is necessary for creating amazing photos. Light is everything. While we can use artificial lighting most nature photography relies only on the sun.

The Sun

There is so much we can do with just the sun as well. From backlighting, ring-lighting, or silhouetting our subjects to making them look any number of ways from menacing to cute - light is critical.

To understand light you must play around with it. Study your results. Look at your pictures and ask where the light is coming from. How high is the light, where is it in relation to your subject? Is it behind, at a 45 degree angle, directly behind your camera, where is the light?

Color Temperature

Look at the color temperature. Is is warm or cool? How about the contrast? Are the shadows deep and the edges of them sharp or are they fuzzy and not very dark?

Learn to read and understand light. In doing so you will become an amazing photographer.

Tip 5. Perspective

As with the angle of the light the perspective between you and the subject is critically important. Regular photos of every subject taken from an average height looking down or up are ubiquitous. Unique perspectives are great but more often than not an even height between the camera and subject's face provides insight that makes great photos work.

It can be hard to lay on the ground if you have mobility issues. However, getting as close to your subject's line of sight puts viewers into the subject's world. If you can't be on their level, vary your approach to the subject. Never take a shot from the average height of a person unless the subject is at the same height.

Get Low

For small or close to the ground subjects lay on the ground yourself. Include somethings in your foreground to add depth and framing. Now, place your subject somewhere other than the center of your frame.

This is a challenge when photographing birds in flight but every other subject should come from the subject's perspective unless it makes no sense.

Change your perspective. You'll come away with photos that look a lot different than what you're used to creating.

Tip 6. The Rule of Thirds

If you look for photography tips you're bound to run into the rule of thirds.

That is because the rule of thirds is an integral part of visual design. It has been for centuries.

As animals we center our gaze on what we're interested in seeing. We turn our heads towards what we want to look at. As a result, we expect the center of our attention to be centered.

When it comes to looking at the world we're hardly aware of the end of our visual field. Things become blurry, then we stop seeing them. There's no darkness, things just no longer exist visually to us. However, when we look at objects within a frame our eyes want to settle at the center of the frame. This is where we want to see the subject.

Why This Works

If the subject isn't centered it in the frame our brains get quietly upset. This off-center subject thereby commands our attention for longer. If the entire scene is unbalanced we may also struggle unconsciously. On the other hand, if it is balanced, we may find it relaxes our unease a bit.

I've included using the rule of thirds because I want you to be more aware of your frame. Center your subject if you feel like it. Use the rule of thirds when you feel it works best. Additionally you may place your subject at the edge of the frame to remind the viewer it exists.

Place your subject anywhere in the frame but do it with intention!

Tip 7. Framing

Framing contains our photos. There is a world inside of the image but that world is finite. The story it tells is not unending. What our attention is called to is not lost in a sea of other subjects.

Framing tells your viewer everything you want them to know about the subject. This includes where they are. Too, it tells us how constrained they are. If the subject is near the center facing one edge and has more room before than behind then they are free. If the subject is pinned in a corner they're trapped.

In visual arts our view of the world is constrained into a box (or some other shape). Outside of that, in reality, we see close to 180 degrees in a horizontal direction. We hardly notice things in our peripheral vision unless we're alert.

We're can't escape the frame in photography. Exploit that.

What To Include and Exclude

Exclude things you don't need. Isolate your subject. Do this by zooming in or moving closer. Move your lens until only what you want in the frame is there. Add only what you need to the frame to say what you want to say.

Reminding the viewer of the frame tells them they're peering through a window into a completely different world. Are they are left longing to see more? Maybe they mesmerized by what they see? How do you want them to react?

Take opportunities to place frames within our frame. Shoot through objects in the scene. You can do with with tree branches, cave openings, etc.

The frame within a frame adds focus and isolates your subject. It shows size or perspective. It adds depth or dreaminess.

Tip 8. Contrast

Invite contrast to be your friend. At first contrast is going to be very mean to you. Once you tame it contrast will be your best friend.

Your eyes can see more details in bright and dark areas than your camera can. If the contrast is high you won't see all the details in your photo which you saw with your own eyes. To compensate for this you must control your exposure.

Photos where the contrast fits within your camera's range are often very boring. If you want to create exciting photos work outside of this safe range.

High Contrast Means Drama

Deep shadows remind us that the world is dangerous. We never know what is hiding there. Humans are still scared of the dark because we survived without the assistance of artificial light for thousands of generations. Even with artificial light what hides in the dark can still harm us.

Contrast gives your images a rich feel. Viewers love contrast. Deep black in photos wakes up the viewer's primordial fear. They don't know what is there. Too, this is unconscious. Rarely do viewers express this fear consciously.

Contrast makes your photos appear more three-dimensional. The viewer doesn't know how deep that darkness goes.

Use contrast to control your frame. Frame your subject in the light and reduce your exposure to allow the darkness in the background to become even darker.

Make contrast your friend.

Tip 9. Exposure

Exposure is how much light we choose to record. Choose between what you see and what you want to say. Add or subtract light to adjust the story you're telling or to add drama.

Underexposing your photos will leave more darkness. Additionally your colors will be more saturated. Under exposure creates moodiness. Like everything else on this list - experiment.

Expose For Your Subject and Scene

Learn to expose for both your subject and your scene. Experiment to find out when to favor one over the other.

You're not going to nail your exposure every time. Nobody does, even the most seasoned professionals. If your subject is moving quickly between sunlight and shade  your not going to be fast enough to adjust manually.

A background that changes tone as the subject moves is almost impossible to nail every time.

Photograph subjects in the light with backgrounds in shadow. This will allow you to expose for your subject.

Tip 10. Play

Kids learn everything through play. Play leads to discovery. Discovery leads to repetition. The difference between play and experimentation is writing everything down. In doing so you can repeat your results faster. Experiment or play. Just learn how to replicate your results.

The instinct to play is driven out of us as we grow up. Learn how to play again. I promise it's inside of you.

Playing is the most natural way to learn. Change your settings. Experiment with your focal length. Play with perspective and exposure. Create a bunch of photos you don't like. Delete it later.

Learn By Playing

Play is rewarding. Through playing you learn to do some really magical stuff. Remembering how you did it can be challenging but don't get frustrated.

Play brings us closer to nature. Watch wildlife and see how much they play. Being closer to nature teaches us where to find and photograph nature in ways other photographers don't know about.

If you're worried about playing you're really worry about being judged. Don't let being judged stand in the way of using these 10 nature photography tips to improve your skills. The rewards of play are far greater. The average photos that you will create by playing it safe are far more costly.