I will be the first to admit, I’m not a wildlife photographer. But I do like to watch animals, and re-imagine new ways to photograph them. The abstract quality of zebra stripes combined with a high-key image approach keeps me behind my camera for hours.
This blog contains both infrared and color images converted to monotone.
Step 1: Patience – wait and study their movements.
Step 2: Make sure the light is consistent. Either bright sunlight, or even shade. Mottled light will cast distracting shadows
Step 3: Try to isolate an individual animal or an area of the body.
Step 4: In post-processing, create a high-contrast monotone image. Push the blacks and the whites as far as they will go.
Step 5: Brush away distractions in the background – dirt clumps, branches, etc.. I use the Adjustment brush in Lightroom. I set the exposure slider to 4.00 (the highest it will go), create a soft brush with a wide feather, and then brush over the distractions. Sometimes I will have to create a new brush and keep brushing over the same area until its white.
pamphotography 