How to Easily Start A Nature Photography
Business From Home
By: Roy Barker
 Nature
photography is the photography of animals, birds,
fish and other wildlife. We will be discussing
marine photography in a future article, because it
involves specialist, expensive equipment and
assorted diving skills. Here are some important
things that you'll need to know..
Nature photography offers special challenges to
the photographer. Not least of which is the
developing process of film itself. When single
reflex print film is developed it goes through two
processes, development and printing. The development
produces a true color; however automatic printers do
printing processes these days. In most cases these
are set automatically to reproduce flesh tones, the
color of skin. As a tonal color this is not very
much represented in nature so that when your film is
printed, the colours shown, are not necessarily the
colors that were shot. This can be frustrating when
you are trying to improve your technique. One way to
see an instant improvement is to use slide film,
this only goes through the first process of
development, and the distortions that occur in
printing are eliminated.
The medium to top of the range, digital cameras
also improves tonal quality as well as having
improved highlight and shadow features. The
disadvantage to the use of SLR digital in nature
photography is that the consumption of battery power
is higher, and you may not be in a position to re
charge them in remote places. Also the delicate
sensors in digital cameras can be damaged when dust
gets in the mirror chambers.
 Another
challenge for the nature photographer is to
understand how a light meter works. Light meters
reflect light off a surface, but they cannot measure
tone, which is a shade of color. As it cannot
register a shade of color. It makes a basic
assumption that the surface measured will reflect
18% of the incident light, that means the amount of
light falling on a subject. In practise that means
that regardless of the color of the object it will
provide a reading that assumes you want to produce a
shade at 18% mid gray. If you then set your aperture
opening at the suggested setting it will produce 18%
of grey in the finished image. Unfortunately there
is not that much grey in nature, but there is plenty
of pure white, for example snow, and clouds.
Once you have obtained your light reading you
have to manually adjust the aperture setting so that
the final tonal colour will be white and not gray.
To reproduce a pure white image you may have to open
your f/stop settings by 2 full points. Conversely if
you want to reproduce pure black then you have to
close down the aperture, by 2 ½ to 3 f/stops. An
f/stop is only a numerical number that represents
how far the aperture is open.
In changing light conditions for both sand and
snow, bracketing is a useful technique. It means
that you take or three extra exposures at different
settings, so that you can almost guarantee the
"perfect" exposure. If you have determined the best
exposure is to be taken at 1second at f/16, then to
bracket using slide film, you would also shoot
additional exposures at 1/2 f-stop settings above
and below the "best" exposure setting. This means 1
second at an f-stop between f/16 and f/22; and 1
second at an f-stop between f/11 and f/16. This is
1/2 stop above and 1/2 stop below your meter
reading.
For the beginner it is useful to record your
exposure information in a notebook. It will help to
better your techniques when the film is developed.
Record the f/stop, the shutter speed and whether the
exposure was as a result of the light meter reading
or whether it was adjusted for some other reason.
You can also write this information directly on to
your slide mounts, because you may think you will
remember, but chances are you won't! Whilst on the
surface bracketing seems expensive, it does not have
to done all the time, after a while you will have a
feel for a how your own camera reacts, but it is a
good technique to use when a shot is really
important.
If you would like to explore exposure in an
interactive way, this is a simcam simulator and you
change your exposure and shoot and see instantly the
effects.
All nature photography is improved by the use of
slow film; never use more than ISO100, and ISO50 is
better still. When you use slower film it increases
the danger of camera shake. To minimise this a solid
tripod is a good investment. Virtually everyone buys
one that is too light at first. It may have to
support the weight of your camera over rough
terrain. Nature photographs are amongst the most
saleable of pictures and the sharper they are the
more saleable they become. A tripod helps here
because it stabilizes the camera. Make sure that
your tripod legs are independently adjustable to
take full advantage of low shots. These low shots
are used often in natural photography for instance
in shooting flowers. A tripod is usually in two
parts the head and legs, the head needs to be able
to moved up and down as well as to tilt.
Every nature photographer initially balks at the
tripod because it is heavy and unwieldy, but it is
an essential piece of equipment that makes sure your
images are razor sharp. The start up costs of being
a nature photographer are high, you need good
optical equipment and excellent tripod. Can you take
good photographs without a tripod? O course you can,
but are they marketable in a highly competitive
field, can you make more money by investing in the
best equipment money can buy.
The quality of the light is also crucial in
nature photographyand it is always better early in
the morning or late afternoon, or when the sky is
slightly overcast. Harsh midday glare does no favors
to the nature photographer as the resultant images
lack depth.
There is also a specialist magazine available
online for the nature photographer . Their resource
links are excellent and they have free issues
available for you to read.
About the Author
Publisher & Author: Roy Barker. Roy specializes in
profitable photography solutions for budding and
keen photographers. A whole world awaits keen eyes,
imagination and some get up and go. Find out you can
easily expand your passion and skills in photography
into a profitable career at
http://www.profitable-photography-resources.com |
