Wildlife Photography - bsop.ca Darkroom tools for the Wildlife Photographer ..... 32 RAW tools ... Wildlife Photography Workshops and Tours

Wildlife Photography

Paul Burwell paul@bsop.ca

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This page left intentionally blank ........................................................................................... 2Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 5

Whats covered in this course ....................................................................................................... 5Equipment ................................................................................................................................ 6

Cameras ............................................................................................................................................... 6Lenses .................................................................................................................................................. 6Camera Support .................................................................................................................................. 7

Hand-holding ..................................................................................................................................... 7Tripods .............................................................................................................................................. 7Tripod Heads - Gimbal Heads .......................................................................................................... 7Tripod Heads - Ballheads ................................................................................................................. 8Beanbags and other specialized devices .......................................................................................... 8

Storage ................................................................................................................................................. 9Camera Bags .................................................................................................................................... 9Memory Card Storage ....................................................................................................................... 9Portable Storage Devices ................................................................................................................. 9Keeping your equipment from the elements ..................................................................................... 9Flash and flash extenders ................................................................................................................. 9

Making Pictures ..................................................................................................................... 11Film versus digital ............................................................................................................................ 11RAW versus JPEG ............................................................................................................................ 11Digital advantage: histogram ........................................................................................................... 13Camera Exposure modes ................................................................................................................. 15Using Electronic Flash ..................................................................................................................... 16Controlling the light .......................................................................................................................... 16Backgrounds, backgrounds, backgrounds .................................................................................... 17Autofocus considerations ................................................................................................................ 17Image Stabilization Vibration Reduction ..................................................................................... 18Portrait versus behaviour ................................................................................................................ 18Landscape and portrait orientation ................................................................................................. 18Making Sharp Images ....................................................................................................................... 19Eye-to-eye .......................................................................................................................................... 20Water .................................................................................................................................................. 20

In the field ............................................................................................................................... 21Research is your best friend ............................................................................................................ 21Strategies for getting close .............................................................................................................. 21

Should You? ................................................................................................................................... 21By foot ............................................................................................................................................. 22Being Patient ................................................................................................................................... 22Blinds portable, permanent and mobile ....................................................................................... 23Feeding Sites .................................................................................................................................. 23Luring .............................................................................................................................................. 24Blending In ...................................................................................................................................... 25

Being creative ........................................................................................................................ 26Composition ...................................................................................................................................... 26

Examples Stronger versus weaker images ...................................................................... 26Example 1 .......................................................................................................................................... 27Example 2 .......................................................................................................................................... 28Example 3 .......................................................................................................................................... 29Example 4 .......................................................................................................................................... 30Example 5 .......................................................................................................................................... 31

Page 4 of 42 All text and images Paul Burwell Photography unless otherwise indicated

Digital Darkroom tools for the Wildlife Photographer ........................................................ 32RAW tools .......................................................................................................................................... 32

Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) ........................................................................................................... 32Adobe Lightroom ............................................................................................................................. 32

Image processing tools .................................................................................................................... 32Adobe Photoshop ........................................................................................................................... 32Nik Softwares Viveza ..................................................................................................................... 32Noise Ninja or Neat Image .............................................................................................................. 32

Printing ................................................................................................................................... 33Print or die ......................................................................................................................................... 33Home versus lab ............................................................................................................................... 33Fine Art printing ................................................................................................................................ 33

Where to find wildlife ............................................................................................................. 34Close to home ................................................................................................................................... 34

Elk Island National Park .................................................................................................................. 34Hawrelak Park .................................................................