Wildlife Photography Tips: Don’t Be Afraid of the Shade
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
When I was taking out guests on safari on an overcast day, I would sometimes hear the wildlife photographers in the group complain that they would now not get great wildlife portraits.
Don’t be too concerned as overcast conditions can create a soft light that is not as harsh as direct sunlight, it also makes for even illumination and rich tones in areas that would just be highlighted as almost pure white in direct sunlight.
On an overcast day, your photography time is actually increased because you don’t have to worry about the very harsh midday sun, it also means that the animals may stay out a little longer rather than sheltering from the heat giving you more opportunities to capture them.
To get the best Safari photographs on a cloudy day, try and zoom into the animal as much as possible (get a tight portrait), this is unless the clouds are are making the scene dramatic they will not enhance the photo, the softer light will enable you to capture fine details like the eyelashes of an elephant as I did on the bull elephant (pictured above) not far from our safari lodge in South Africa on an overcast day.
Overcast conditions are also a great time to photograph insects and even flowers around the safari lodge, get you micro lens out or set your camera to it’s micro setting and go and capture some of Africa’s ‘Small Five’, namely the Lion Ant, Rhino Beetle, Buffalo Weaver Bird, Elephant Shrew and the Leopard Tortoise.
If you have ever watched or been directed by a wedding photographer, you may notice how they often look for a large shady tree to place the bride (dressed in white) and groom (dressed in black) under, as this gives him the best chance to capture the contrasting tones under what is known as ‘open shade’.
More >>
