Photos in the wild

— -- Take a walk through the forest and look up at the tree canopy. What do you see? Birds, or squirrels or maybe even monkeys are all lurking within the branches of the trees and photographers trying to capture them face one big problem: backlight. To solve this problem, wildlife photographers often use their flash to "fill" in some light on the primary object in the scene.

In the example here, this howler monkey is posing for what should be a great picture. The problem is that the bright light coming through the canopy makes it impossible to capture any of the detail on the monkey's dark face without totally overexposing the background.

The solution is to use the camera's built-in or externally mounted flash to add some light to the monkey's face and body. The bright light will dissipate before it has a chance to affect any other part of the scene leaving you with just the right amount of light to highlight the monkeys face and arms.

This little trick only works if the primary object is within about ten feet of the flash, as it will not throw effective light much farther than that. Set your aperture and exposure according to the backlight and get ready for a very interesting look at an animal in an otherwise impossible shooting situation.