Episode Four: How to use backgrounds to take a great wildlife photograph

Episode Four: How to use backgrounds to take a great wildlife photograph

In the fourth episode of BBC Wildlife Magazine's Photography Masterclass, presenter Mark Carwardine shares his expert tips on what makes a great background for wildlife photography.

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Published: May 6, 2021 at 8:00 am

In the fourth episode, presenter Mark Carwardine discusses one of the fundamentals of wildlife photography – backgrounds. “Anything that takes your eye away from the main subject, the main point of the image, makes it a bad background. Critically, a good background doesn't compete with the main subject, and a really good background lifts the whole image to a completely different level.”

The series will consist of ten videos in total, released weekly on Thursdays from 15 April. For each episode, free fact sheets are available to download from Mark Carwardine's website.

Watch the fourth episode now:

About the presenter

Zoologist Mark Carwardine is a widely published wildlife photographer, an award-winning writer, a TV and radio presenter, a best-selling author of more than 50 books, and an outspoken environmentalist.

He was also Chair of the Judging Panel of the prestigious ‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year’ competition for seven years and was selected as one of ‘The World’s 40 Most Influential Nature Photographers’ in Outdoor Photography magazine.

Mark Carwardine is the presenter of the BBC Wildlife Photography Masterclass series
Mark Carwardine is the presenter of the BBC Wildlife Photography Masterclass series

He presented BBC Radio 4’s weekly programme Nature for many years and is best known for his Last Chance to See books, radio series and TV series with the late Douglas Adams and Stephen Fry. He has been writing a conservation column in BBC Wildlife magazine every month since 2004.

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