ADVENTURE PHOTOGRAPHY

with Cathy & Gordon ILLG

PHOTO TIPS

 

I SAW THE LIGHT Part 2

MAKE THE MOST OF ALTERNATIVE LIGHTING SITUATIONS IN WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY
In Part 1 of this Photo Tip we covered front light and side light, and in this installment we’ll cover back light and overcast light.
Back Light--With the exception of silhouettes at sunrise and sunset, backlighting is probably the most underused light direction. Let’s say you’ve got some tolerant mule deer bucks, the summer sun’s just coming up, and you have to decide which side of the deer you’re going to set up on. The deer are moving, so you don’t have time to photograph from both sides.
Most photographers would automatically head for the sunny side of the deer, and put the sun at their backs, and they could be missing a great opportunity. Backlight works great in situations where the subject is fuzzy or hairy, and since the bucks are in velvet (it’s summer) backlight will make their antlers look like they’re charged with electricity.

Backlighting also works great when part of your subject is translucent. Sometimes you don’t even realize you have a translucent subject until you shoot it. For example, many bird beaks, like great blue heron’s and bald eagle’s, glow when lit from behind. If a bird’s flying overhead, unless it’s a particularly dark bird, it’s a great opportunity to show the light shining through the bird’s primary feathers.

Overcast Light--Many photographers go out in cloudy or overcast light, but most of them are not especially excited about it. Overcast light is some of the prettiest light there is. The big problem with it is there is often just not enough of it. You don’t want to include the sky in your images, but this kind of light is so nice because there are no shadows, consequently no contrast. The light is bounced around in the clouds so much that overcast light is light from every direction. Since the light is coming from every direction, there are no shadows to speak of. Because there are no shadows, overcast light is excellent for showing details in fur and feathers.
When Cathy was in Alaska photographing bears, it rained for 5 days straight. She spent most of the trip wishing for sunlight and blue sky. On the last day, her wish came true, and the bears she photographed in direct sunlight had so much contrast they were of little use other than to document the fact that she had seen bears. The bears she photographed in the rain, on the other hand, looked great. Granted, she had some problems with subject movement because there was so little light, but details in the fur showed up nicely, and the bears were not squinting in light that was too bright. Don’t hang up your camera just because it turns cloudy.

Most of the species we photograph have been photographed quite often. Let’s face it. There are just lots of nature photographers out there. Very seldom are we trying to shoot something new. All we can do is try to make it look a little different, make it a little more interesting, so our viewers will spend more time looking at our images. And one way to make the subject look different is to play with the direction of the light source.