Learn How To Harness The Light In Your Wildlife Photography
Kevin Lisota and I just returned from our annual photo workshop in Newfoundland. During this trip, we do a lot of wildlife photography. We visit one of the largest Northern Gannet colonies in the world, the most accessible Atlantic Puffin colony in North America, and get up close and personal with various other land and sea wildlife like Red Fox, Moose, and a variety of Whales.
There are just not enough sunrises and sunsets to pack all this wildlife photography into one visit to Newfoundland. We have lots of seascapes and lighthouses that we also visit. This forced me to think about how I would use all the different lighting situations we encountered on this workshop to my advantage. How would I harness this continually changing light to create the best wildlife images I could?
Let us look at the three most important characteristics of natural light in a wildlife photography scene. For me, there are three light characteristics that can positively or negatively impact the location you’re photographing. How do you harness the available light and have it work to your advantage? That answer lies in your understanding of how light affects an image.
The intensity of available light in a scene – Light intensity refers to how bright the ambient light is. Harsh mid-day light that comes from the sun high in the sky, soft golden hour light that happens with low-level sunlight, and diffused light of an overcast day – the kind of light that is like photographing under a giant softbox with minimal shadows.
The direction of the lighting in your scene – There are three different directional lighting situations that will illuminate your scene. Front lighting happens where the sun is directly behind you. Side lighting is where the sun illuminates the location from your right or left. Backlighting is when the sun is behind your subject.
The color of the available light in a scene – This can range from very cool tones on an overcast day to warm tones caused by direct sunshine on your location. Out of these three lighting characteristics, the color of light will have the most dramatic effect on the mood of the scene you are photographing.
How you handle these three lighting scenarios shows your maturity and the willingness to explore visual effects in your wildlife photography.
Let’s look at how these different lighting situations impacted my wildlife photography in Newfoundland this summer.
As the sun was almost behind the hills behind me, these two puffins started to hang out together on the cliff’s edge. I had two things I needed to worry about. (1) depth of field to ensure both were in focus, and (2) using an aperture of f/11 caused me to adjust my shutter speed and ISO to accommodate for correct exposure in the low-light image
Nikon Z9, Nikon 70-200mm, Shutter Speed of 1/500th of a second to freeze minimal movement, f/11 to keep the focus on the two Puffins, ISO800,
We were following a pod of 8 Sperm Whales off the coast near Bonavista Lighthouse close to the sun setting. While the photos of the whale tails were nice with the sun behind our shoulders, it didn’t capture the moment’s mood. I could feel the sun’s warmth on my back, but the photos we were taking felt cold, void of the emotion I was feeling. I asked the boat captain to position the whales between the sun and us. I wanted the warmth of the scene to come through in my images, and I wanted the water trails falling off the fluke to shimmer in the evening light.
Camera Settings: Nikon Z9, Nikon 70-200mm with a 2x teleconverter, Shutter Speed of 1/4000th of a second to account for boat movement and whale movement, f/5.6 to keep the focus on the whale tail and blur out the background, ISO320
One of my favorite locations for seabird photography is the Northern Gannet colony at Cape St. Marys in Newfoundland. We arrived there around 5;30pm, three hours before sunset. As sunset approached, I noticed the Gannets using the winds for their landings. It took them into the colony with the sun at their backs. I noticed an almost angelic look as the Gannets opened their wings for their landing as the sun came through their primary and secondary feathers. If I positioned myself just right, I knew my camera would capture these landing angels.
Camera Settings: Nikon Z9, Nikon 500mm PF, Shutter Speed of 1/2000th of a second to freeze the wing movement, f/5.6 to keep the focus on the Northern Gannet and blur out the background, ISO320, spot metering on the Gannet to decrease the exposure of the shadowed rocks behind the Gannet.
The Puffins started to come over where we were standing as the sun descended in the evening sky. It was still a little bright for my liking, and with no other physical position to take, the sun had to be behind my back for these images.
The sun was a little brighter than I would like. The solution was to expose for the white on the chest and face of the Puffin. In doing so, you jeopardize underexposing the black of the bird. Just pay attention to your histogram in these situations.
The result was a well-balanced exposure after some lightroom edits.
Nikon Z9, Nikon 70-200mm, Shutter Speed of 1/1250th of a second caused some light blur in the wings ( I like this in my bord images), f/5.6 to keep the focus on the Puffin and blur out the background, ISO320, EV adjustment to underexpose in camera.
The sun was veiled by a thin layer of sea fog and clouds. Because of this, the light was diffused. When the conditions are like this, you generally do not have to worry about the sun’s direction. Your subjects are flying under a huge softbox. You just have to pay closer attention to fine details like feathers because there is less contrast in the image you are taking.
Camera Settings: Nikon Z9, Nikon 500mm PF, Shutter Speed of 1/2000th of a second to freeze the wing movement, f/5.6 to keep the focus on the Northern Gannet and blur out the background, ISO320.
As you can see, each can dramatically impact the scene and animal you’re photographing. Observe the light you are dealing with, and learn how each of the characteristics we discussed affects your wildlife subject.
Join us on one of our wildlife workshops. Our photography instructors will help you in the field and with post-processing your wildlife images.