How To Improve Your Nature Photography

Hello there!

I often receive questions from people wondering how they can take better nature photos. So, as this is my first newsletter, I thought I’d start things off by covering this very topic!

Here are 9 actionable steps that you can take to improve your nature photography. 👇️ 

1. Understanding Your Camera

Knowing your camera and its settings is essential if you want to achieve its full potential. The three most important settings that you need to keep track of are shutter speed, aperture and ISO.

The shutter speed controls the amount of light that reaches the camera’s sensor by the length of time that a photo is being taken. A longer shutter speed equals more light and enables motion blur, while a shorter one would be more suitable for fast moving subjects.

The aperture controls the light that reaches the camera’s sensor by changing the size of the lens opening. A bigger aperture such as f/1.8 means more light and a more creamy background if you’re shooting close-up shots, while a smaller aperture such as f/16 would do the complete opposite.

The ISO can be seen as an artificial way of creating more light. Higher ISO enables you to shoot with faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures with less natural light. Always keep it as low as possible though, higher ISO also worsens the image quality.

When you find the right balance between these three parameters, you can start achieving some amazing results.

So, what does this mean in practice? Here are some examples to better illustrate everything:

Camera settings: ISO 320 | F1.8 | 15 s - F1.8 lets in a ton of light which enables me to keep the ISO as low as 320. In this case, a 15 s exposure portrayed the aurora the best.

Camera settings: ISO 100 | F16 | 1/10 s - long exposure shot in daylight means low ISO and a small aperture to compensate for the long shutter speed. Otherwise, the photo would have been way too bright.

Camera settings: ISO 1000 | F6.3 | 1/800 s - fast shutter speed to catch the flying bird. Less natural light means higher ISO and a small aperture to brighten up the image. In this case, a small aperture is also ideal since we want a blurry background.

I use my camera’s aperture mode 90% of the time and the manual mode when I’m shooting night skies. I’ve personally found the aperture mode to be the most useful as it gives me more time to actually focus on the compositions.

2. Choosing The Right Gear

Generally speaking, expensive cameras offer more high-end features and better performance. The thing is that you don’t always need those features, so I highly recommend finding one that suits your needs the best.

I personally use a Nikon Z6 II, it’s not Nikon’s cheapest camera but it’s definitely not their most expensive either. Based on my needs, I found the best value in the middle of the spectrum with the Z6 II.

My best advice when it comes to gear would be to invest in good lenses. Well-built lenses really make a big difference.

Prime lenses offer the best image quality and are ideal for specific purposes. Zoom-lenses on the other hand offer more flexibility while compromising on the image quality.

I highly recommend getting a mix of both, as they complement each other well. If there are some specific motives that you photograph often, it could be worth investing in a prime lens for this purpose.

Apart from this, investing in a good zoom-lens will serve you well in the long run. The trick when it comes to zoom lenses is finding one that offers a flexible range with decent image quality, while also not being too expensive.

Here are my three go-to lenses at the moment:

• Nikkor 24/1.8 - my astrophotography lens.

• Nikkor 24-120/4 - versatile landscape photography lens.

• Sigma 150-600 C - wildlife & landscape photography lens.

  
  

A great way of finding good quality gear to a decent price is by buying used equipment from camera retailers that you trust. This can help save quite a lot of money.

3. Time Of Day & Weather

Shooting at sunrise or sunset is crucial if you want to capture the best possible photos. I cannot emphasize enough what big of a difference this makes.

When I was new to photography, I used to head out in broad daylight with the hopes of capturing the best photos of my life. I was quite disappointed to say the least when I came home with mediocre images.

When I started shooting during sunrise and sunset, it was like a whole new world opened up. I was finally able to actually get somewhere with my photography.

Of course, there is no rule forbidding you from photographing during the day. I do so myself occasionally too, especially on cloudy days.

But generally speaking, you will capture the best photos if you shoot during sunrise or sunset. The soft light during these times of the day is a real game changer and will enable you to capture really unique images.

4. Lighting

Photography is really all about lighting, and it’s your job to use it to your advantage.

A great way of creating more depth in your images is by photographing with a slight angle towards the light source, in other words the sun.

When the light enters the frame from the side, you can really play around with the light, shadows and warmth in order to create your desired vibe.

Below, you’ll find some images that better illustrate this. Notice how the light source is placed at a 45 degree angle just outside of the frame.

Remember, you don’t always need to do this. It’s just one of the many techniques that you can implement here and there to give your photos that extra touch.

Another great way of using lighting to your advantage is by photographing using longer focal lengths.

Let’s say that there’s a part of the morning sky that is incredibly beautiful. By zooming in, you can take advantage of this and find suitable subjects that you can compose together with the sky.

With a long focal length, you can also be quite selective with what to include in the frame.

Here’s one of the best examples I can think of right now:

Photographed using a Sigma 150-600mm C lens.

5. Composition

My best advice is to not overthink the way you compose your images. There are however three guidelines that I believe are very useful to have in mind regardless of what you are photographing.

The rule of thirds simply means that you place your main subject about one third into the frame. This is a really efficient way of creating a more dynamic feel to your photos. This composition technique can pretty much be implemented anywhere.

Another great technique is using leading lines to your advantage. This means that you find “lines” or patterns in your composition that help guide the attention of the viewer to where you want it to be.

The third composition technique you definitely should be using is framing. This means that you frame your subject with something in order to create more depth, for example by photographing through branches.

Framing is also a great way of creating a foreground in scenes that otherwise could be interpreted as quite dull. Just make sure you don’t overdo this!

By using the footprints as leading lines, the attention of the viewer is more drawn towards the house and the northern lights. In this case, the footprints also adds a more adventurous and mystic feel to the image.

6. Storytelling

A cool way of improving the way you photograph is by incorporating more elements into your photos in a way that they start conveying a story.

For example, instead of just taking regular landscape photos when you’re out, take some different ones as well! Close-up shots, behind the scenes images of yourself when you’re working, photos of bypassing cars, just to name a few.

When you take these different types of images, you can afterwards blend them together into a series to convey the story of the entire photo shoot, instead of just a specific moment.

Apart from conveying a more meaningful story to your viewers, this also is a great way of improving the way you take photos.

7. Editing

I’ve got a free Photo Editing Guide where I share my complete editing workflow. Access it here. 

There’s one thing though that I’d like you to take away from this newsletter.

Before you start editing a photo, ask yourself what you really want to accomplish with it. What kind of atmosphere do you want to create? What feeling should the photo convey?

When you have a clear answer to these questions, you will start becoming more aware of how you edit and why.

It’s really important to not overdo editing either. All changes that you do to a photo should be done for a reason, with a specific purpose.

This is just a small mindset shift that has helped me personally quite a lot when editing. It makes it easier to edit properly and more efficiently.

If you’d like to learn more about photo editing, feel free to check out my in-depth guide over here. 🤝 

8. Mistakes To Avoid

Here are two common mistakes that I’ve personally made countless amounts of times, but that quite easily also can be prevented.

Unwanted motion blur or “shakiness” can appear in a photo when the shutter speed is too slow. You’ll most likely face this problem when you’re shooting handheld in less ideal lighting conditions.

The best way to solve this issue is by making sure you have a fast enough shutter speed for your focal length. You can do so by using a wide aperture and increasing the ISO until the shutter speed is fast enough.

While higher ISO does mean less image quality, you’d much rather have some extra noise in your photo than motion blur. It’s easier to get rid of the noise afterwards than having to solve the motion blur.

Another way of improving your photos is by underexposing your photos rather than overexposing them. It’s more convenient to brighten up shadows afterwards than darkening bright areas.

9. Practice, Practice, Practice!

One thing that’s for sure, is that you will only become better the more time you spend taking photos. So grab your camera, take some photos every now and then, and I can assure you that you will become even better with time!

If you’ve made it this far, I really hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter!

As always, if you have any questions or recommendations for what I should cover in the next one, simply answer this email or shoot me a DM on Instagram!

Take care,

Kevin