zoo photography [2007t&tp]

7/29/2019 Zoo Photography [2007T&TP]

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Zoo photography is a greatway of get pictures of animals

hat most people really

wouldn’t see otherwise. A lot

of people think that zoo pho-

ography is pretty easy, the

animals are right there in

ront of you and they’re notgoing anywhere. Contrary to

popular belief, there are quite

a few challenges to zoo pho-

ography. I think the greatest

difficulty is taking a shot that

makes the animal look like it

is in its natural environment.The enclosures, cages, wires,

fences, concrete, shooting

through dirty scratched up

glass, and people wandering

around through your shot are

just some of the things to

consider.

The best advice I’ve been

given for taking pictures of

zoo animals is to shoot tight

and wide open. It’s simple,

straightforward and easy to

remember. Shoot tight andwide-open. By framing the

shots so that the animal fill

the frame, you effectively

eliminate all the man-made

elements in the background

A lot of the best shots I’ve

seen are almost “portrait”shots of the animal, where

head fills half to three quar

ters of the frame. I find

tighter shots are more inter

esting compared to some-

thing looser showing the

T I P S & T R I C K S P H O T O G R A P H Y

© 2007 Tips & Tricks Photography

Zoo PhotographyWritten by Ervin Tong



whole animal and its sur-

oundings, we are there to see

he animals after all.

There are times, however,

hat screams for us to shoot a

ittle looser and show a bit

more background. When you

un into these situations the

wide-open part comes in. By

opening up the aperture you

solate the animal and blur

our most of the distractingelements and take the animal

out of its zoo enclosure and

put it back into something

more natural looking. So how

wide open do you need to

go? Personally, I like to open

up the aperture as far as my

lens will let me. Usually, that

means I’m shooting at f2.8 or

wider. Keep in mind that the

closer you are to your subjectand the larger your aperture

the better your focus needs

to be as the depth of field be-

comes increasingly narrow.

So now we’re all shooting

tight and wide-open, too badthere’s dirty scratched up

glass or cage wires in our

way. These are hard to deal

with and they change from

animal to animal, zoo to zoo.

When shooting through

glass using a polarizermight help reduce some of

the reflection and clear up a

few of the scratches. Per-

sonally I try to avoid using

the polarizer as it just cuts

too much light. Instead I get

right up to the glass and put

the front of my lens against

the glass. Try to pick the

best area of glass in terms of

scratches and dirt to shoot

through and get right up

against it. Inevitably, there

will be some loss in contras

and there may be slight col

shifts depending on the gla

you’re shooting through, b

I find most of these problem

are easily corrected in Pho-

toshop with some curves a

color balance adjustments.

When shooting through cag

wires, there are a couple of

options. If the wires are far

enough apart, you might b

able to get the lens between

them and get an unob-

structed view. Be careful if

you decide to do this, you

don’t want a lion having yo

lens for an appetizer with


© 2007 Tips & Tricks Photog



your fingers as the main

course. Another option is

again to get close. Sometimes

he wires are fine enough that

f you’re right up against

hem they’ll just blur away.

You might also try to get the

ences and cages to work for

you and incorporate them

into your shot. Unfortunately,

some enclosures simply

aren’t photo friendly and it

just won’t work.

When going to the zoo, I usu-

ally try to go on an overcast

day. My flash is good, but it’s

nothing compared to havin

a giant softbox in the sky

provided by Mother Natur

On overcast days you can g

some very even lighting th

won’t blow your highlightsWhen thinking about wher

to shoot form, try to find

some unique perspectives.

Just because everyone else

crowded around one spot

doesn’t mean that’s where

best photo opportunity wil be. Perhaps getting closer t

the ground will produce a

better shot. Maybe getting

little higher and standing o

a bench would work? Mov

around and keep your eyes

open, sometimes, you just

need to be patient.

Depth of Field Comparisons

wanted to pass this website along that I found quite a while back. Tamron has a great

website that allows you to get familiar with how Depth of Field Changes when you chang

he aperture and lenses focal lengths. In general, the bigger the aperture (lower F-stopnumber) the less DOF. Likewise, the larger the focal length on a lens the less DOF. If your

airly new to ideas about DOF, check it out the website and play around to get a sense of

how photographs can change depending on aperture and lens focal length.

http://www.tamroneurope.com/dof.htm

Better yet, grab your camera and a lens or two and try it out for yourself.


© 2007 Tips & Tricks Photography



zoo photography [2007t&tp]

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