Wildlife Photography

[mozfet]

My wife and I recently returned from safari where I tried take some wildlife photos. Problem is my photos seem lifeless, they all look alike, and I struggle to make the animals stand out from their surroundings. Any tips?

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by mozfet

My wife and I recently returned from safari where I tried take some wildlife photos. Problem is my photos seem lifeless, they all look alike, and I struggle to make the animals stand out from their surroundings. Any tips?

post some pics mozfet and i , and i'm sure others will be happy to give you some constructive criticism - dont worry about them not being british wildlife - if you put them in the forum images Gallery and link them to a post then any subject matter (so long as its not obcene) is allowed

[Jon]

Originally Posted by mozfet

My wife and I recently returned from safari where I tried take some wildlife photos. Problem is my photos seem lifeless, they all look alike, and I struggle to make the animals stand out from their surroundings. Any tips?

Yes I'll be happy to comment. First thing that springs to mind was what time of day was it and did you use a high ISO and therefore possibly end up using fairly small apertures. When you reply give an indication of equipment and ISO settings
Jon

[Interpreter]

Originally Posted by mozfet

My wife and I recently returned from safari where I tried take some wildlife photos. Problem is my photos seem lifeless, they all look alike, and I struggle to make the animals stand out from their surroundings. Any tips?

Enlarge them to as big a size as is possible. Most photos look good when blown up to A1.

[mozfet]

Thanks for the help sofar.

Unfortunately the firewall here prohibits uploading of pictures, so uploading is a bit of a problem

I'm quite inexperienced in photography and only recently brough my first proper camera, a Nikon D40, with a Nikkor 50 mm F1.8D lens.

Most of my pictures were taken in bright daylight and mostly used a low ISO.

The trouble seems to be around framing and the background, the animals seem to blend into the picture and not stand out. Most of the photos were taken from the car as we were not allowed to leave the vehicle.

[Boddie]

Originally Posted by mozfet

Thanks for the help sofar.

Unfortunately the firewall here prohibits uploading of pictures, so uploading is a bit of a problem

I'm quite inexperienced in photography and only recently brough my first proper camera, a Nikon D40, with a Nikkor 50 mm F1.8D lens.

Most of my pictures were taken in bright daylight and mostly used a low ISO.

The trouble seems to be around framing and the background, the animals seem to blend into the picture and not stand out. Most of the photos were taken from the car as we were not allowed to leave the vehicle.

Send them to my email address and I will send them round for you

andrewhunteruk @ aol.com

without the spaces

[matt_xyz]

Originally Posted by mozfet

Thanks for the help sofar.

Unfortunately the firewall here prohibits uploading of pictures, so uploading is a bit of a problem

I'm quite inexperienced in photography and only recently brough my first proper camera, a Nikon D40, with a Nikkor 50 mm F1.8D lens.

Most of my pictures were taken in bright daylight and mostly used a low ISO.

The trouble seems to be around framing and the background, the animals seem to blend into the picture and not stand out. Most of the photos were taken from the car as we were not allowed to leave the vehicle.

If you're photographing animals from distance using a 50mm lens it is practically impossible to get them to stand out from the background, particularly if they are standing close to the background. A large aperture would obviously help (i.e. a small f number) as this reduces depth of field, but ultimately a telephoto lens is required. This not only enlarges the subject matter but it helps separate it from the background by throwing the background out of focus to an extent (it depends on the space between the subject and the background).

With a 50mm lens you would need to concentrate more on landscape style shots and try to ensure that any animals are clear of background clutter as much as possible.

Matt

[Tormentil]

One must also bear in mind that some animals are designed to blend into the background.

[GME]

Originally Posted by Tormentil

One must also bear in mind that some animals are designed to blend into the background.

Ha, yes I was also thinking this

You could always try a bit of 'Photoshopping' with the colours to make the background Black and White and keep the animals in question in colour to really make them stand out. It would probably work for a few shots but might be overkill for all of them. I remember someone posting some nice examples of this done with a group of Flamingoes in a pond, but can't now find the thread. It was effective though.

Obviously, you can also use software to blur the background to make your animal stand out if the shot does not already have this effect. All depends on how comfortable you are with image editing software too.
Good luck and I look forward to seeing a few if you manage to get them uploaded!

[eeyore]

like matt said the biggest problem is that you are using a 50mm lens - by its nature unless you are very close this will mean that the animals are small in the frame - the 50mm f1.8 is a fantastic lens to use for portraiture , closes ups or macro (when teamed with ext tubes) but for safari situations you need something a bit longer like a 70-300 or even 80-400