Wildlife Photography Tips
As a travel photographer, I am drawn mostly to people and animals. They both have expressions, moods and activities that beg to be photographed. However, people tend to be more cooperative than animals, especially wild animals. So how do you get great wildlife photos? Let’s look at a few tips that everyone with a DSLR can use:
1. Increase your shutter speed.
The number one cause of blurry wildlife photos is a shutter speed that is too slow. You need a shuttle speed (in fractions of a second) that is at least 3 times your focal length. So if you are using a 400 mm lens maxed out, you need 1/1200 sec for a sharp photo (if the animal is standing still). That’s much faster than most people are use to shooting because they don’t use big zoom lenses often. Some ways to accomplish this are discussed below.
2. Don’t use a lower aperture that you need.
Aperture controls your depth of field. For wildlife, you want enough depth of field to get the animal (or face of an animal) sharp but the background can be blurry. In fact in most cases, you want the background to be blurry so it doesn’t distract from the animal. So you can use settings as high as F6 or F8 for a single animal instead of the F16 you might use for landscapes (remember higher f stops mean lower aperture). Higher apertures increase shutter speed too.
3. Set exposure compensation down.
Many types of wildlife have some white coloring so if you reduce your exposure you will make sure you don’t blow out the whites and you will increase your shutter speed. I set exposure compensation down by 1/3 to 1 F stop for most wildlife photography.
4. Increase ISO to get the desired shutter speed.
Once you have set the aperture and exposure compensation where they need to be, increasing the ISO is the only way to get the higher shutter speed you need for wildlife photography (unless you add more light). Since wildlife is generally more active in the early morning and late afternoon, you usually can’t get faster shutter speeds with increasing the ISO to at least 400 or 800. So keep increasing the ISO until your shutter speed is 3 times your focal length. Even 1600 or 3200 ISO is better than a blurry picture. Noise can be fixed digitally. Blurriness can’t.
5. Use spot focus.
Your camera has several different focusing modes. For wildlife photography, I recommend spot focus. With the shallow depth of field that you desire, it is critical that you focus on the animal’s face or eye if you’re close enough. You don’t want the whole picture in focus – just the animal.
6. Use a flash with a flash extender.
In some cases you will be close enough to wildlife to add some fill light to the picture. Most hot-shoe flashes will only produce about 40 feet of useable fill light. But if you add a flash extender such as Visual Echoes Better Beamer you can concentrate the light and extend it to around 80 feet. It can fill in the shadows and add the twinkle to the eye that everyone looks for.
7. Stabilize your camera.
When you use higher focal lengths, the slightest motion is magnified enough to create serious problems when trying to take sharp pictures. Handholding a 400 mm lens can be very challenging. You need to shoot from a stable platform – a tripod, beanbag or any solid unmoving surface. A tripod should be your first choice, even if it means you have to carry it around with you. If you are in a vehicle that has room for a tripod, I would still use it. If not, use a beanbag on the windowsill or edge of the vehicle.
8. Use two cameras with different lenses.
Some wildlife will actually come very close while others keep their distance. A focal length under 200 mm is good for wildlife that you can get close to while at least 400 mm will be needed for animals at a distance. If you are switching lenses back and forth a lot outdoors, the camera sensor will get dirty much faster and you stand a good chance of dropping something sooner or later. If you put a regular telephoto lens on one camera and a 400+ mm lens on another camera, it is much easier to switch back and forth as conditions change.
9. Use a super-telephoto lens when you can.
Wildlife photographers use super telephoto lenses (400 mm and up) so the animals are not just dots in their pictures (sound familiar?). If you have a zoom lens that reaches 400 or 500 mm, that’s a good start but the ‘big glass’ (500 or 600 mm lenses) is what you really need to photograph wildlife that you can’t get close to. The good news is you don’t have to buy these expensive lenses – you can rent them from a number of reputable sources online including www.lensprotogo.com and www.lensrentals.com.
10. Carry an extender.
Extenders are designed to increase the focal length of a lens. For example, Canon sells 1.4X and 2X extenders that, as their name implies, are designed to increase the focal length of a lens 1.4 or 2 times. While this may sound like a great way to get a longer focal length out of your existing lens, these extenders only work on certain lenses (such as super-telephoto lenses). So, if you’re using a 500 mm lens, a 2X extender will turn it into a 1000 mm lens (at a cost of 2 F stops). They are great for bird photography and very distant animals provided you have a super-telephoto lens to start with.
Wildlife photography can be very challenging but it can also be very rewarding when you capture a great shot at exactly the right moment. You can improve your odds even more by joining a group of like-minded photographers on a tour or outing. Extra sets of eyes always help.
May your travel and your photography both be rewarding!
Roger Nelson