I’m in love with the many colors and wildlife this pond provides. Curious what techniques other photographers use to capture both the vibrancy of the waters and the wildlife action on top?
I’m in love with the many colors and wildlife this pond provides. Curious what techniques other photographers use to capture both the vibrancy of the waters and the wildlife action on top?
I have little to no experience with water wildlife but I have two things when I think about it:
1. Polarizing filter.
2. Shooting from frog perspective: as low as you can get. Usually animals look lot less flattering when shot from human eye height.
If my primary intent is the birds then I focus on the birds eyes so that the glint in their eyes is visible. People are drawn to their eyes. I use f 2.0 to bokeh the background. If my main purpose is to show the beauty of the water and landscape I use long exposure. I have learned from others on this site that I need a purpose before I start shooting. One subject with supporting cast
I agree with the above, and my contribution would be to soften the image a little by bringing the contrast down bringing out some of the details in the shadows.
This is just a fast example, nothing more.. we all have our own eye of course...
Brought the contrast down, denoised, dodged the eyes and highlights of the main subject duck, sharpened main ducks head and neck but also softened everything else a bit and removed some minor color casting on feathers. Hope you don't mind, just easier for me to show what I'm talking about, sometimes. heh.
I would spend a fair bit of time there and watch the geese as they swim about. Keep an eye on how much light is on the geese relative to how much light is on the water behind them.
In your 2nd image particularly, I notice that the geese are in shadow, while the water behind them in the distance is in sunlight. Most people prefer to have more light on their subject than they do on the background, so keep an eye out for the moment when they finally swim out to where there is light on them, and then look around for a dark area behind them that you can line them up with.