I’m old enough to remember shooting photos with film. In fact, one of the duties I had for my first editing gig at a bowhunting magazine was to scour slides for perfect cover and lead images. Every photo you took back then had to have some intention behind it, because you knew you had limited film, and every shutter click was going to cost you.
Today, it’s a different story. It’s estimated that 2.1 trillion photos will be taken in 2025, and that US citizens take an average of 20 pictures a day. That’s bonkers, but such is the nature of high-end cameras in our pockets at all times, which is actually good news for any whitetail hunter looking to capture their after-kill moments so that they can share them in their hunting group chat or post them to the ‘gram.
And yes, you can point and shoot and get something that shows you and your deer, but if you want a really nice memory, there are some tricks you can use. The first is one that photographers have been using since long before the digital camera revolution.
The Perfect Setting
If you have a way to photograph your deer early or late in the day, do it. Golden light, as the sun starts to rise or set, has been the ticket for a hell of a lot of good photography over the years. The softer the light, the better the photo, generally.
This is an easy one that will help your photos pop, but it’s also important to think about the setting. When I first started hunting, if my dad or I arrowed a deer, we took a picture either with it lying in the front yard or hanging in the garage. Today, we take photos where they died. Or at least, in a setting that looks like where you’d hunt deer.
The fall woods, provided you have even light, are always a nice setting. Wood edges, too. Grassy fields are great as well. The more habitat you can see behind the deer, the better, usually. I like to take my grip-and-grins as close to where I recover my deer as possible, but simply thinking through the actual setting is a good idea.
When you position your deer, prop it up so that you can see as much of its side as possible. Clean any gratuitous blood off, snip any brush or grass in the way, and then consider it a work in progress. The great thing about cell phones is that you can review your photos in real time. If you see that there is a distracting vine or a leaf stuck to your buck’s nose, fix it. Shoot photos, review them, make changes, and shoot some more.
Then, try to learn your camera’s features a little to enhance your grip-and-grins even more.
Get Somewhat Technical
If you have to take nighttime photos, use the flash but no other lights. A flashlight shining on your buck’s noggin might seem like a good idea to help you focus, but it’ll change the photos (and not for the better). Learning how to use your auto-flash is generally a good idea anyway, because it’s also nice for certain daytime photos, like when the sun is high enough overhead to produce real shadows.
Scroll through your camera settings some time, and you’ll likely see several options. While plain old “photo” mode will get the job done, I often use “portrait” mode. This setting provides an interesting depth of field effect, which really puts the subject in focus. Again, since you have an unlimited amount of photos you can shoot, try different things with different settings.
And remember to get close and low. Whether that means propping your phone up on a cooler like I had to recently to photograph a buck I killed solo, or you have someone else helping you out. A lot of people stand straight up and shoot down, which never looks very good. You want the camera to maybe be eye level with your buck, or even lower.
Then, shoot straight broadside, angled from the front of your deer, and from behind. After each session, check your work. Find the angle that makes you and your deer pop, and then keep going. After you’re satisfied you have it, you might want to do a little touch-up work.
Photo Editing
Stored in my computer and a couple of backup hard drives are close to 80,000 high-res images, all taken with a high-end DSLR camera. While I’m technically a writer by trade, I’m definitely a photographer by default. This is a long-winded way of saying that editing photos is an absolute chore for me, because I’ve done it so much.
With a cell phone, this is a different story. You can adjust exposure, contrast, brightness, vibrance, sharpness, and a whole lot more very simply. And the good part is, you really don’t need to know what you’re doing, you just have to look at how your image changes as you toggle through the settings. You can also add a vignette, either light or dark, to really make your photos pop.
This is all really pretty easy and is just a great way to capture your hard-earned kills so you always have something to look at that, well, looks really good.
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