Love wildlife? Here are 5 tips to improve your shots.

Five Tips to Help Improve your Wildlife Photography.

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1. Shoot from the eye level of your subject (or slightly lower). The difference is remarkable when compared to just standing and shooting down on your subject. Shooting shorebirds? Take a towel or canvas sheet with you and lay down on the sand to shoot. Try the different angles next time you're out in the field and you will soon notice the difference.

Get down at eye level


2. Focus on the eye. Make sure you get those eyes in focus or your image will surely fail. It is just that simple. The eyes must be tack sharp and if they are, you are halfway to a great shot.

Focus on the eyes 


3. Blur out your background. Shoot "wide open", i.e. use a large aperture, say, f/2.8 to f/5.6 depending on your lens of course. This will eliminate distractions in the background and allow all of your viewer's attention to be directed to your subject. Nice soft bokeh (background blur) can make or break a good photo. The added advantage to shooting with a wide open aperture is that, automatically, your shutter speed will be faster. Faster shutter speed equals less chance of a blurred image due to movement or camera shake especially when using a longer focal length lens.

Shoot wide open and blur the background.

4. Watch your composition. Leave space in the direction the animal or bird is facing or leaning towards. Reduce the space at the subject's back.

Leave space in front of your subject

5. Choose your background carefully when composing your shot. You can't always do this with moving subjects as you may just have to grab the moment, but if you do have time, study your background. Moving a small distance may mean the difference between having a stick growing out of your subject's head or not. It is easy to get carried away with the excitement of the moment but that small change of position could be the difference between a good shot and an award winner.

Watch your background