Tips To Follow While Clicking Images In Zoo!

Zoo is a very good location for apprentice photographers to learn different techniques in photography.

Zoo gives you a range of subjects (from animals to people who are observing the animals) and makes you learn the different techniques with some challenging work.

This article helps you in learning about different things and tips which are necessary for clicking great zoo pictures.

Things to remember while clicking images in zoo:

What is the distance? This is very important point to remember while clicking any image. Is the distance too long that you cannot get the right shot of the subject you are shooting? The distance between you and your subject should be in a respective position.

Lighting: You can have adequate amount of natural lighting to add light to the pictures. But look out for foliage, which acts as obstacle for natural lighting. Have your own artificial lighting setups if natural lighting is not supporting.

Fencing and cages: Zoo is full of fences and animals are stored in cages. These can be obstacles for natural photo of the animal. Make sure that the fences are not shown if you are shooting for a natural look.

Necessary accessories for zoo photography:

Camera and lens: Many experts suggest DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) with a longer focal length lenses. You can also use telephoto lenses with preferable camera settings such as ISO, white balance, aperture, shutter speed etc [Photography lens].

Tripod: This is very necessary as you will be using telephoto and longer focal length lenses. You can also use a monopod if tripod usage is not easy in the zoo.

Lens hood: You cannot set a specific time for clicking images in zoo. You should always be ready in any lighting conditions. If you are shooting in midday, then the lens can show glare, so lens hood is very useful to control the lens glare in the photos.

Tips to follow in zoo photography:

Prefer close-up shots: You should always show the animals nearer.

Every one looks the animals from a fairly long distance, so you should develop a feeling of intimacy in the pictures.

It can be a challenging to get the close-up shots of the animals, but experiment with different focal lengths to get a closer look.

Prefer background: Click the pictures in their natural habitat. Never ignore or delete the background of the subject you are shooting. The context of the subject you are shooting must give a natural look to the picture and the viewer must not feel the subject is aloof from the background or distracted from the background.

Remember rule of thirds: Click the animals according to the rule of thirds, highlighting the eyes of the animals. When highlighting the eyes of the animals in rule of thirds, you will develop a prominent position to the animal and a personal connection between the subject and the viewer.

Avoid reflections: Some animals in zoo are kept in glass cages; shooting from glass is very challenging. So, while shooting the animals from these obstacles, you will get reflections in the pictures. It’s very hard to shoot from the glass, but by changing different angles, you can avoid glass refractions. Lens hood can also be used to avoid glass refractions.

Shooting animals inside the cages: This is the worst part of shooting animals; it’s very hard for any photographer to shoot the animals from wires or cages. Sometimes you can see bigger gaps in cages where you have to zoom to get a closer look. What about cages which have smaller gaps? Set the camera into aperture priority mode with wide aperture and narrow depth of field for deleting the cages.