Background checks

Which backgrounds work best for photographing wildlife? Keith Jackett

AThe most obvious answer to this is natural backgrounds – but that doesn’t mean that every background has to be trees or fields. It all depends on the kind of habitat that animal lives in. If you were photographing hares, you’d expect to see fields behind them, but if you are photographing an urban fox, a manmade backdrop makes sense.

To fully answer your question, Keith, I think it’s worth considering how the background and the main subject work together. Using a long lens, as you will be a lot of the time, the background is generally going to be diffuse when you have focused on the animal. With a lens of 300mm or more and an aperture of f/8, as long as there is some distance between the animal and the background, you will get a good drop-off in focus and that will ensure the attention is on the main subject. Obviously if you want even more diffusion of the background is closer, then open up to f/5.6 or f/4.

I always like a little variation in tone in the background: I think this is more interesting than a one-toned backdrop, but it always pays to avoid ‘hotspots’ such as light bouncing off bright leaves or water that can distract the eye.

When you are photographing animals in the wild, then to a great extent what’s behind them will be totally natural, so you just need to work your composition carefully to make all the elements complement each other.