Wildlife Photography across the Water: Light Direction

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Light Direction

One thing that makes a image look great is the quality of the light-warm soft early morning or late evening light adds a soft glow to the image rather than the harsh bright light of mid day, But another thing that must be taken into consideration is the angle of the light, Always try to position yourself with the sun on your back unless you are trying to get a silhouette, That way your subject will be evenly lit, If you have the sun at an angle to you you will end up with a heavy shadow on the side of your subject, If its not possible to to get the sun on your back then a small amount of flash (fill in) can be used to even the shadow out, I do this by using a better beamer on my flash when using a long lens and dialing down the flash compensation to say -3, If you are using a lens smaller than 300 then you do not need a better beamer, When shooting from your own hide take the morning and evening light into consideration when setting the hide up, if you set up in deep woodland where you are shooting in the trees shadows then you do not need to worry about the light direction just the amount of available light around you at the time of shooting, Here in North Carolina (East Coast USA) i like to shoot on the beach in the evening as the sun sets behind me but if i lived on the west coast then morning would be the best time, Its one of those very important but often over looked things in photography but one that will make a lot of difference from making nice images into great images

Dave

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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.