Creativity in wildlife
How I can improve my photography? This is a common question asked by all photographers to me in many occasions. Believe me, only good camera or equipments will not provide you that mileage. You have to create your own identity. Photography is an art. I personally believe, it can be improved by nourishing your thinking process only. Always try to create the image which you are dreaming. It will come from your brain first & then from your camera. One of the most important things is your mindset and how you approach to your image. In wildlife when you are in the field then you don’t have the time to think. You will get only a single opportunity & you have to deal to it accordingly. If you give your hundred percent efforts on that moment, I can assure you, that image will be a remarkable one.Moreover you need to focus on basic three things when you are on field:-
1. Know your subject: Not a single species is predictable in wildlife. But there are patterns of behavior ingrained into every animal species. The subject leads the photographer’s decisions about aspects like lighting, composition, exposure settings and more. How do you decide what shutter speed to use without knowing if your subject is standing still or moving? The subject plays an essential role in shaping the entire image. A better study about the place & the targeted specie will definitely provide you an added advantage on the field.
2. Keep patience: Wildlife photography can be so rewarding and so frustrating at the same time. It can be a challenge to your patience. As a wildlife photographer, your images are predicated on the fact that things in nature are unpredictable. Anything can happen at any time, but most things happen only rarely. Or, at the very least, they rarely coincide with the exact time that you are in that specific spot. It is therefore imperative that you become patient.
3. Learn from your mistakes: Every time you can update yourself by judging & covering your mistakes from your last click. There is no end of up-gradation. You need to think how you can make your last click more interesting. It may be technical or fundamental. Getting overexposed, blurry or badly composed photos can be frustrating, but rather than letting such photos discourage you, use them as a learning tool. The next time you get a bad photo; don’t immediately hit the delete button. Instead, spend some time studying the photo to work out what went wrong and how you could improve it.
Creativity in photography is a different term. Creativity depends on your imagination power. I believe creativity comes when you photograph something in a way that most people would not normally see. If you apply those techniques at the right time or right moment, then it will improve your results. It could be that you look at something from an unusual angle. Using the creativity in wildlife photography you need to remember few important points which will definitely help you to improve your photography outputs.
1. Work on your composition: That starts with knowing the basics of how to compose good photos. Don’t cut off important parts of your subject with the edge of your frame. Keep your horizons level, and try to eliminate any distractions in your photo by adjusting your composition. See if your photo has a sense of balance and simplicity. Composition is how the elements of a photo are arranged. A composition can be made up with many different elements. It’s how the artist puts those things within a frame that help a photograph become more or less interesting to the viewer. Don’t crop your photo to compose a frame. Always try to compose it at the time when you are clicking.
2. Use Light on your image: One of the key components of any photograph is the quality of light. The “feel” of the light in a photograph often can determine its visual impact. Photographers use lighting ratios to describe the amount of contrast in an image. These numbers describe the amount of light illuminating the highlight side of the image versus the shadow side. Using the light with proper intensity, colour & direction we can create some different images. Few techniques are mentioned below:
A. silhouette : Silhouetting is one of the most interesting creative photography techniques. By hiding your subject in the darkness, silhouetting creates a sense of mystery in your photos. As long as the source of light is located behind your photography subject, the subject stays in shadow and automatically turns into a silhouette when you take a photo. From creative point of view it works perfectly. In wildlife photography you need to consider few things like Sunset/sunrise & your subject at the time of composing your photo. It’s essential that the sun is relatively low above the horizon.
B. Rim light’: A full solar eclipse is the perfect example of a rim light. Here you have to position yourself w.r.t. light source. Only thing is the background needs to be dark here. A rim light can keep an image from falling flat. Rim lighting can bring out shapes, textures, and contours that make an image appear more lively. Rim light photography can accentuate a subject’s mystique. Leaving their facial features and details in the dark, but highlighting their shape can portray your subject as an enigma of some sort. Rim light photography utilizes both darkness and specific areas of exposure to create dramatic and emotional images.
3. Black & white : One of the key components of any photograph is the quality of light. The “feel” of the light in a photograph often can determine its visual impact. Photographers use lighting ratios to describe the amount of contrast in an image. These numbers describe the amount of light illuminating the highlight side of the image versus the shadow side. Using the light with proper intensity, colour & direction we can create some different images.
4. Panning technique: Panning is not about movement, it is movement, and that’s what makes it challenging: it’s the following of a moving subject along its plane of motion. In concept, panning is easy: set your shutter speed to freeze motion or blur it, move your camera with the action and snap the shutter. But it’s how you handle the details of the concept that will determine the success of your images. The subject of the shot needs to be moving left to right, or vice versa. A colorful and blurred background helps to lend to the feeling of motion, but the aim is to make sure that your point of interest appears beautifully in focus. To adopt panning, Trial and error is the best approach.Finally practice and more practice will give you a better result.
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