In 2001, I sat and watched a buddy, Ryan, take apart a 3 megapixel Olympus digital camera and solder some wires to it from a motion trigger he’d bought online. He then put the whole contraption in a green plastic box he bought as a kit after drilling a hole for the sensor and camera lens and hot glueing clear plastic over the holes. This was my first time laying eyes on what was a trail camera. I was blown away that this device could actually take photos of animals without anyone present. Ryan let me borrow one and I headed up into the mountains and went through the then arduous process of setting it up and bungeeing it to a tree. A month later I went back, put the SD card in another single digit megapixel camera of that era, and had five pictures - I couldn’t believe it, I had photos. Out of those five, only one had what I could make out as a grainy 2-point mule deer buck. I was ecstatic - it worked! I thought I had the cheat code for hunting. Little did I know I would decades later start “trail cam’ing” just for the fun of trail camera photography. 

Nowadays the technology has changed by leaps and bounds. Trail cameras have literally changed the game of hunting since I watched Ryan home build the first trail camera I ever saw. 

This article isn’t about how technology has changed or how trail cameras have changed hunting. It’s about the art of trail camera photography and videography. Trail cam’ing has become somewhat its own sport now, with hunters setting dozens and even sometimes hundreds of cameras out during the year. Capturing high-quality high-definition trail camera content is almost as much fun as hunting. Some social media pages are purely dedicated to trail camera content and businesses have been born.

Regardless if you do it for scouting, social media content, or for your personal gratification, here are some tips to take your trail camera photos and videos to the next level. 

Year-after-year trail camera technology moves ahead, with cameras becoming more capable of real-world high quality photo and video content. To sum this tip in the simplest terms - use the highest quality cameras to get the highest quality content. Most popular trail camera companies have affordable cameras capable of 30+ megapixel photos and 4K Ultra-High Definition video. To put that into perspective, a Sony Alpha A7 III professional point-and-shoot camera is 24 megapixels and also shoots 4K video. Trail camera quality rivals high-end point-and-shoot cameras now. 

If you haven’t noticed, we prefer Stealth Cam trail cameras. Stealth cam has a camera for every person, every price range, and every application a hunter may want one for. 

To take next level trail cam pics and video you need to turn off the hunter part of your brain and flip the switch to photographer, engaging yourself in the photography aspect. 

To become engaged like a photographer, try this; as you hike around looking at potential spots to set a camera, visualize what the end photo or video is you want first. We suggest even going as far as using your fingers to create a camera frame like you see photographers do on TV - moving around and trying to frame the best shots. As you do this, you engage yourself in the scene and become capable of visualizing the end product. 

You can also use your phone as a quick reference, holding it against potential trees you may want to set the trail camera on and snapping a quick photo to give you a reference of what the end product may look like.

We’ve all seen those trail camera photos where the background, and even foreground, is a busy menageria of trees, branches, vegetation, and shadows. The picture is difficult for your eyes to focus on any one spot, let alone the animal. If you want to take next level trail camera content, avoid this like the plague. 

One of the most basic aspects of good photography is composition. You can control and manipulate composition with trail cams too. Keep your horizons level (I’ve gone as far as carrying a small bubble level) and avoid distractions in the foreground and background. Setting a trail camera where the photo has a sense of balance and simplicity will put your photos above most others. 

Another unconventional way to control composition and make the photo more interesting if you have a busy background is to climb a tree and take the photo from several feet up looking down. This will change the perspective and the photo completely and give viewers of your trail camera content a unique perspective most are unwilling to get. 

Finding a unique and creative location is a way to really set your photos apart from the rest. Nothing will get you more engagement than a one-of-a-kind trail cam location. 

For example, one year I came across a giant beaver pond and thought, “wow, how cool would it be to set a camera in the water looking out into the pond”. So I set did, capturing some very unique footage of elk behavior as they splashed and cooled off in the summer heat. In one video I even captured a duckling swim up to a small bull and the bull put its head down to sniff it.

The bottom line is, think outside the box. Seek out interesting and engaging settings. Sometimes you sacrifice quantity for quality when setting cameras like this but when it does happen, it is worth the wait.

Watch the video below to see some of our best trail camera footage that include some very unique locations.

By components I mean batteries and SD cards used in the camera. Again, it is pretty simple - use the best to get the best. If you are taking high-def pics and video it eats up more data storage on your SD card and drains battery life. My advice is really simple - use the highest speed, largest data storage SD card the camera will accept. Some of you may not know but SD cards matter. For example, SD cards have a megabytes per second (MB/s) speed on them. The difference is critical for performance: high write speeds are needed for smooth video capture and burst-mode photos, while high read speeds ensure fast file transfers to a computer as well.

Also use name brand lithium batteries for the longest battery life possible. You could even consider using a solar battery if you feel your camera is in a safe enough place people (or animals) won’t mess with it.

When getting just any old picture isn’t priority number one, you can end up in a situation where 

You end up with lots of animal-less photos because things like shadows or the sun may trigger the camera. Don’t fret it. Taking your trail camera content to the next level is more about quality than quantity of photos with animals in them. I often sacrifice the former for the latter to get that exceptional shot. 

For example, let’s use the photo above of the elk in the sunset. This camera set had approximately a 1:1000 ratio of pics with animals in it to pics with nothing but the sun and horizon. Each day the camera would track the sun late in the afternoon until it went down. I accepted the reality of thousands of empty photos knowing when the perfect picture happened, it would be worth it, and it was.

Below is another video showing off some of our best trail cam footage we got in 2024.

If you want truly great trail-cam content, it takes a little extra effort. Start by upgrading your gear—reliable cameras like the Stealth Cam DS4K Ultimate and quality Stealth Cam SD cards make a big difference. Then push yourself in the field: climb ridge tops for dramatic skyline shots, hike deeper into pockets where mature animals live, and set cameras in unique, harder-to-reach locations. Those extra steps are what separate average photos from next-level content.

In addition, pair your trail cams with the HuntStand app to mark camera locations, track your routes in and out of each set, and even scout new trail-cam spots using detailed 3D maps—all from the comfort of your couch.