How To Photograph Lions: Tips & Tricks

I’m lucky enough to say that lions were actually one of the first animals I ever took photos of!

I too found myself searching “how to take photos of lions” on Google before my safari in Kruger National Park.

During my 5 days of game drives, I was lucky enough to see lions every single day, usually more than once!

I have so many incredible memories and incredible photos from that trip, so I want to help make sure you have the same, so I’ve put together this guide to help you take the best photos possible.

Where to see Lions in the Wild

Before knowing how to take a photo of lions, it’s important to know where to find them first of all.

Lions are one of the “Big Five” on safaris and are usually top of people’s lists to see when in Africa.

You can see them in Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, and a number of other African countries.

You’re pretty much guaranteed to see lions during your safari holiday, especially if you are there for a few days. Personally, I saw them at the Modilto Wildlife Reserve in South Africa which had multiple prides.

Tracking Lions

Knowing lions are there is one thing, and finding them is another thing. You have two options: go on a game drive or self-drive a National Park.

Everyone has different preferences but for me, a game drive wins every day of the week. You get an expert driver and local tracker who knows the area inside out and knows how to find all of the animals. It’s a no-brainer if you ask me.

However, if you do opt for a self-drive safari, to track lions down, you want to look for prints which are similar in shape to dog prints but a lot bigger. As always with tracking prints, if there is a light layer of dust or sand on top of them, they are fresh; if there is not, they are old as the wind has blown the sand away.

Lions are very territorial and will stay in the same area for generations, so it’s worth doing your research and finding out which part of the National Parks has lions as you will know where to look.

Another tell-tale sign that there are lions (or another predator) in the area is the prey animals like gazelles and impalas. If they are alert rather than grazing carelessly, there’s probably something around.

If you are driving at dawn or twilight, or after dark, you can listen for the roar. I remember the first time I heard a lion roar up close, just a mere few metres away from me, and although it was quieter than I was expecting, you can feel it reverberate for miles and miles – it’s almost like it makes the ground shake.

Simply follow the noise and you’ll find lions, but make sure to keep your distance, especially at night.

Lion Behaviour

One of the best tips I have for wildlife photography is to study the animal you are going to be capturing and learn about its behaviours. Not only is it fun to learn, it helps you know what types of shots to try and get.

When it comes to lions, it’s pretty easy. They pretty much act the same as domesticated house cats. What I mean is their personalities- how they play, groom themself, stretch, yawn, everything resembles a house cat. So it’s easy to know what shots to expect in that regard.

As for the wild aspect of them, it’s the lionesses who hunt and kill prey (most of the time) to feed the pride including the male and cubs. So if you see a couple of lion adults near a group of antelope, if anyone is going to take off and get one, it’ll be one of the females.

Lions are also very social animals, the only social big cat in fact, which means that you can get lots of great shots of them interacting with each other, especially when they are young.

But to be honest, a lot of the time you see lions they’ll be lying down either asleep or just resting. They can sleep up to 20 hours a day so don’t feel unlucky if they’re not out and about, it’s just how it is.

I think lions are fascinating and could watch them all day, so personally, I don’t mind waiting for them to do something. Whether it’s a yawn, a look at the camera or simply walking.

Lion Photography Tips

While general wildlife photography tips apply to lion photography, such as using the rule of thirds and aiming for a back-lit shot, there are some tips which are more specific to lions. Here are a few I have picked up:

Golden Hour is the Best

As an animal which is mostly yellow, the sun during Golden Hour is absolutely perfect for photographing lions. Golden Hour is the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset.

During these times, you can get some really nice warm images of the lions, where their fur looks incredibly vibrant. I particularly liked shooting the male lions’ manes at this time!

Shoot in Burst Mode

Lions can actually get up to pretty fast speeds, especially when they’re hunting, so make sure to shoot in burst mode so you don’t miss a shot. This also helps to prevent motion blur in your photos. There’s nothing worse than looking at your photos when you get home and realising they’re all blurry 🙁

Don’t zoom in too much

One of the biggest mistakes beginner wildlife photographers make is trying to zoom in as far as possible to get nice portrait shots. Don’t get me wrong, these are always amazing photos and I recommend getting them, but don’t exclusively get them.

Capture a variety of different shots, angles and compositions to really tell a story. After all, a safari is all about making memories and photos which use the full focal length of your lens, often lack the personality and atmosphere of the scenario where you are so close to lions.

This shot, for example, is really fun because the two cubs are cuddling while one is playing with elephant dung.

Try and get Head On

Getting photos of lions from behind is better than not getting photos at all. And depending on the landscape, environment and situation, you can definitely get cool shots of the lions walking away from the camera, but if possible, try and get head-on.

The dream shot for me was getting a male lion with a nice big mane looking straight down my lens and I was lucky enough to get this shot (later in the post), but being in the lions’ line of sight also means you are less likely to disturb them as they can see what you are doing if they want to keep a lookout.

It also means you can capture the expressions of the lions and this is essential for cubs in my opinion – they’re sooo cute!

Shoot eye-level if possible

This one is easier said than done on safari, as naturally, you are higher than the lions as you are up in a jeep while they are (probably) lying on the ground.

You have to get creative and ask if you can move to a position where it is safe for you to lower your camera out of the vehicle and use your camera’s display screen to get the right shot.

Important: Only do this if it is allowed in the National Park or Reserve. Some places forbid you to hang anything out of the jeeps.

Alternatively, you can position the jeep at a lower level so you are automatically eye-level with the lions. Or if you’re taking a walking safari (lucky you!), simply photograph as normal.

Camera Equipment & Settings

• Camera: DSLR or Mirrorless with fast autofocus
• Lens: Telephoto (200-600mm) or Zoom (70-200mm)
• Shutter Speed: 1/1000s or faster for motion, 1/500s for stills
• Aperture: f/5.6 to f/8 for balance between sharpness and background blur
• ISO: 100-400 in good light; increase for low light
• Focus Mode: Continuous AF (AF-C) to track movement

For most people, the opportunity to photograph lions in Africa is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so you’re going to want to make the most of it.

This means having the right equipment and settings on your camera to help you take the best photos possible.

For your camera body, you’re going to want a good DSLR or Mirrorless which has a fast autofocus. Personally, I prefer mirrorless as they have slightly faster burst modes and a quieter shutter speed, which is obviously ideal for wildlife photography.

As for your lens, you’re going to want a telephoto lens of up to ideally 500mm or more. This allows you to get good close-up portraits of the lions, even from a distance.

That being said, you can ethically get close to lions without disrupting their patterns. All of these photos were taken on a 200mm lens as I did not have a larger lens at the time of my trip to South Africa. So it is definitely possible to have a lens with a shorter focal length, but obviously, the longer the better.

If you’re like me, as much as you love photography, you still don’t love the technical side of it. And by that I mean, the ever-loved (not) exposure settings.

So I’ve done the hard work for you 🙂

If you’re new to photography, your exposure settings are shutter speed, aperture and ISO.

Lions can move quickly, especially if they’re on the hunt or playing. A fast shutter speed of around 1/1000s will help freeze motion and avoid blur. If the lion is stationary, you can go slower, around 1/500s.

For aperture, f/5.6 to f/8 is about right. This range will provide a good balance between sharpness and background blur (bokeh), which helps isolate the lion from its environment. You might want to adjust to a higher f-stop (f/11-f/16) if the lion is in a group or when you need more depth of field such as to capture the surrounding area.

Lastly, for ISO, always use the lowest ISO possible without underexposing the shot as higher ISOs have more noise. ISO 100-400 should be good for photographing lions during a safari during the daytime. You may need to push it higher during lower light, including dawn and dusk.

Remember, you want to find the right spot between the right amount of exposure, and keeping the high quality of your image. The exposure triangle is a good reference if you are a beginner.

How to Edit a Photo of a Lion

As someone who has a background in graphic design, the editing process for photos is something which I enjoy almost as much as photography itself.

Naturally, every photo is different and every photographer is different, so how you might approach editing an image will be different from me, and different from he next person etc.

But if you are new to editing and looking for some general tips, I have a few things which I do to most images I capture of lions. Here they are:

1. Add a slight silhouette: Silhouettes are like marmalade, you either love them or hate them. Personally, I love them, so I always add them to my shots.
2. Increase contrast to help the lion stand out from the background.
3. Decrease saturation of background especially if the lion is on a dirt or sand background like this.
4. Add sharpness to help the lion’s fur look nice and crisp.
5. Increase saturation slightly to help the lion look that gorgeous orange-yellow colour.
6. Crop to rule of thirds if it wasn’t already captured this way.

By the way, these are similar settings to those I recommend in my leopard photography guide. So make sure to check it out if you are wondering how to photograph the most elusive of the Big 5!

Photographing Lions Ethics

Some photographers have the attitude of “I would do anything to get the perfect shot of a lion” and that’s fine – as long as you don’t take it literally.

When photographing wildlife, you should always keep the animal’s welfare as your number one priority.

You don’t want to disturb or disrupt the lions, you want them to pay you no attention and act like you aren’t there at all. Here are some basic things you should do in order to remain ethical while photographing lions.

• Do not bait or lure: You can disrupt a lion’s feeding and hunting pattern by feeding them. It’s best to let them hunt for themselves which if nothing else, makes for great photos
• Be quiet: It goes without saying but you should keep noise to a minimum. Lions are usually pretty alert and if you make a loud noise such as dropping your phone onto the jeep, they’ll jump up and look right at you.
• Keep your distance: You can actually get really close to lions while still remaining ethical, such as shown in the photo below. I’ve even had them walk within a metre of the jeep before which was surreal! But remember they are wild animals and you should not get much closer than the distance in this photo.
• Respect conservation attempts: Lions are a protected species in most African countries, so there are constant conservation attempts going on, such as moving prides to different parks or reserves, and sometimes putting collars on lions to track them. It doesn’t make for the best photos, but it’s easy to Photoshop out!
• Don’t litter: This one should be obvious but unfortunately one of the photos in my cheetah photography guide will show you that people still litter, even in the middle of a savannah in South Africa.

Conclusion

And there you have it, a complete guide on how to photograph lions.

It’s bound to be one of your favourite wildlife photography moments you ever have – they’re such a prestigious animal, plus they photograph incredibly well.

So to summarise, use a mirrorless camera with a telephoto lens, then shoot with fast shutter speed to prevent motion blur and capture every movement. Burst mode helps to do this too.

Most importantly, enjoy your time photographing lions. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so make sure you make a lot of memories, as well as take a lot of photos.