Mistakes to avoid when photographing wildlife

Photography Mistakes to Avoid When Photographing Wildlife

We all make photo mistakes. That’s just part of being human. Sometimes, while we are out photographing wildlife, we don’t know we’re making mistakes. As a wildlife photographer, it’s difficult to get the perfect shot. You may feel excited about photographing wildlife, which is why mistakes may occur. However, there are ways you can avoid making common mistakes that will improve your chances of capturing a grand image.

Common Photography Mistakes – Wildlife Photography Tips

  • Avoid stressing the animal.
  • Don’t chase or interrupt the animal.
  • It’s important to take your time and be patient when shooting wildlife photos.
  • Get close to your subject to capture natural details and expressions on their faces.
  • Take plenty of shots,
  • don’t clutter the frame.

Wild Animal Photography Tips

Wild animal photography can take a little practice and patience to perfect, but the rewards are worth it. A few mistakes you should avoid include waiting too long to shoot, looking away from your subject, and focusing on the wrong subject.

Wildlife Photos That have Motion Blur

Animals move swiftly. If you’re not careful when photographing, you’ll often have motion blur. Intentional motion in wildlife photography can be beneficial and is a terrific way to add dynamism to your shots through techniques such as panning. However, if you want tack sharp photos I would recommend for most wildlife photographs, that your shutter speed is not too slow.

This can be done by using a slow shutter speed, which allows more light to hit the sensor and results in a blurred image. Motion blur can also be created artificially in post-processing.

Camera ISO Setting to Low

ISO is a measure of how sensitive a camera is to light. The lower the ISO, the less sensitive the camera is to light. As it’s important to keep the ISO as low as possible, it not always the best. A higher ISO can lead to a faster shutter speed and sharper photos. Sometime depending on the situation, I’ll use Auto-ISO. One less thing to worry about.

Be a Boy-Scout with a Camera, Always Being Prepared

Not being prepared can lead to missed opportunities when photographing wildlife. Presetting the camera aperture of shutter speed, will defiantly help. You don’t want to be fiddling with settings as the bird or lions heads off into the horizon. Best tip I can give is anticipate the shot before it occurs.
Preparing your camera the night before can help increase your chances of capturing a beautiful shot. Being unprepared is as simple as your battery going flat or worse, running out of space on your card.

Out-of-Focus Images

There are many ways to focus a camera, but the most common way is by using the auto-focus feature. This will allow the camera to automatically find and focus on the part of the image you want sharp. However, if your subject is too far away or if there is something in between you and your subject, the camera may not be able to auto-focus correctly and your picture may come out blurry. In this case, it’s best to manually focus on your subject by turning the focusing ring on your lens.
Be sure to focus on the part of the image you want in Focus. This will ensure that your picture comes out looking crisp and clear.

Subject Is Too Small in the Frame

subject should be a prominent part of the content.
Wildlife photography can be a challenging and rewarding hobby, but it’s often difficult to get close to the animals due to their timidness. This means that you have to be creative, like getting down on the ground or using a long lens, in order to capture them in their natural habitat. Try a bird blind, kaki-cloths be quite

It’s Not Good to Have a Poor or Lousy Composition.

Poor or bad composition isn’t great because it is not visually appealing and it makes it hard for users to get the information they need.

But with a little bit of practice and some helpful tips, you can dramatically improve your compositional skills.

  • Understand the rule of thirds and basics of good composition
  • How to use lines, shapes, and points of interest to create a more interesting photo
  • How to use negative space to your advantage
  • How to use perspective to create depth in your photos
  • And more!

Inadequate Lighting or a Lack of Understanding of Lighting

As a wildlife photographer, you know well that most of the species we want to photograph are active at dawn or dusk. This is also the time of day when there is the least amount of light; capturing wildlife in poor light is a difficult undertaking.
A lack of understanding about light, or how to use it to your advantage, can also lead to disappointing results. This may be due to the photographer misunderstanding natural light in a way that achieves an undesired effect.
Most often wildlife is shot outdoors, were we do not have any control over the lite. But the best times are usually in the morning or late evening. Noon is not that great, sometimes if it’s cloudy out you can shoot all day.

Wildlife Photography Takes Research

When photographing wildlife, it is important to do your research and understand the consequences of not doing so. One of the biggest mistakes people make is going to a national park or other protected area and expecting to see wildlife without doing any prior research. You need to know where and when you can see wildlife in order to maximize your chances of getting great shots. Additionally, it is important to have a deep understanding of your subject matter- this will help you anticipate their movements and get better shots.

Not taking control of focus

Not taking control of your focus is the biggest mistake you can make as an photographer.
When photographing wildlife, it’s important to be aware of the different auto focus points and how use them to your advantage. This will ensure that you have better creative control over the photograph.
Use continuous auto focus, so the animals stays tack sharp, when capturing a bird in flight or that running cheetah on the savanna. By doing this, you’ll be able to capture sharper photos with greater detail. If you prefer manual focus, pre-focussing on an area where you presume the animals will appear.

Never Use Manual Focus, Unless it’s a Must

This is a very common mistake that many photographers do. When using manual focus, you must be aware of the distance between the camera and the subject. If the distance is too great, or too shallow the subject will be out of focus.
Manual focus can be difficult to use when trying to capture a fast-moving animals in the frame, and it’s more likely that you’ll miss the shot entirely. Instead, use auto focus and let your camera do the work for you.

Not using a fast enough shutter speed

When you’re photographing a moving subject, you need to use a shutter speed that’s fast enough to “freeze” the action. That means if your subject is moving quickly, you need to use a shutter speed of at least 1/250th of a second (or faster).
So if you want sharp photos with crisp details, always use a shutter speed that’s fast enough to freeze the action. Unless you intent to use the Panning technique.

Use a Slow Shutter Speed and Practice Panning

In wildlife photography, the desire is usually to capture animals that are sharp and legible. However, when we instead choose to lower our shutter speed just enough so as not to blur the movement of creatures while still retaining areas of relative sharpness in your photographs you get a wonderful sense of speed and motion.Not capturing distinctive behaviour.

Wildlife Photography Tips – Distinctive Behaviour

Look for those distinctive animal traits. Apes interacting with other ape, or with their young. Elephants at a watering hole. Large Cats climbing a tree.
These types of photographs can be considerably more difficult to photography. Remember to keep your distance and not endanger yourself. However, do your homework ahead of time so you know what kind of behaviour to look for.

Avoid Photographic Remorse Photography Mistakes

It is important to eliminate as much of the error from your photography as possible. The object is to get it right the first time.

  • Take Lots of Pictures: The more pictures you take, the less chance you’ll have.
  • Make Sure Your Camera Is Ready: Make sure your camera is ready before you start to take pictures so that you don’t miss any opportunities.
  • Avoid Chimping And Chatting In The Field: Don’t spend time looking at your pictures after they’ve been taken; keep your focus on the prize.
  • Anticipate the action
  • Use compositions that show the surroundings
  • Move as one with the camera,
  • Shoot at eye level to the subject,
  • To eliminate error, you must be willing to make changes and accept new techniques,
  • Shoot with good lighting
  • Shoot in natural settings

What Are the Most Important Things a Wildlife Photographer Needs to Focus On While Taking Pictures?

The most important things a wildlife photographer needs to focus on while taking pictures are,

  1. depth of field.
  2. framing , composition
  3. right spot at the right time

These will help determine the impact your image has by providing an interesting angle and capturing the unique beauty of your subject.