Wildlife photography is all about creating dramatic and striking images. There are many ways to bring attention to the subject of your photograph, and knowing how exposure works can result in much better images.
Simplicity
Most cameras have a landscape setting in their Mode menus that is a good place to get started. With the landscape mode, the camera will optimize the setting for that type of photograph. If you are shooting a more active wildlife subject, using the sports mode is a good choice as it will optimize the camera for motion.
Depth of field
The best wildlife photographers use an SLR camera, usually mounted on a tripod, and shoot in aperture priority mode. The aperture is the opening in the lens, and controls how much light hits the camera sensor. More important, aperture is used to create depth-of-field in your shot. A high "F" number, equivalent to a small aperture in the lens, results in having large depth-of-field in the image, meaning more of the image from front to back is in focus. This helps bring out the background in the shot, but requires a longer exposure time, so is best in daylight. A low "F" number equals shallow depth-of-field, and can create dramatic shots where only the subject is in focus while the background is blurred out.
White balance
Most advanced shooters will also take control of the white balance in the camera. Professionals nickname the auto white balance setting of the camera "always wrong balance." If you aren't familiar with the Kelvin setting that equates to different types of light, you can choose from white balance modes. Most cameras allow you to choose white balance for Daylight, Cloudy day, fluorescent lights and tungsten lights, as well as finer Kelvin settings. For instance, shooting in bright daylight is equivalent to 5600 on the Kelvin setting. The average Kelvin range for outdoor shooting is 4300 to 5800.
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