Seeing the background

Seeing the background is so essential in wildlife photography. Seeing it requires seeing the light as much as the elements making up the background. When you have a span of light between the subject and the background less than three stops, you can painfully see the busy background like above.

Increase that range of light to seven stops and that background you can painfully see through the viewfinder disappears. It’s not magic, it’s light. Oh yeah, light is magical!

The metering was matrix. Seeing the range of light between the subject and the background, I knew that by simply dialing in -2 exp comp, I would pull in the detail of the Little Blue Heron and the background would drop away.

Here’s a little Moose Cam action so you can see what was happening. There is no commentary, it’s just as simple as I just described. You watch the scene, watch how the video camera deals with the exposure range, you’ll start to see the light.

Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film