Wildlife Photography - Part 2 of 3 - Technique

The previous article - Equipment and Preparation dealt with what equipment I think is needed for Bird and Animal wildlife photography.

This article deals with the practical side of capturing that 'once in a lifetime' image. At some point it needs to be realised that to succeed in wildlife photography the equipment you use plays a significant part in the capture of a quality image without disturbing the wildlife or the environment. The rest of this article assumes you are using a dSLR (or film camera) with good quality long focal length lens and that the point & shoot cameras are left at home unless you are shooting insects and macro subject.

All of the information given is based on my experience and what techniques suit me. Are they the only way? hell no! If you have a technique that works for you great

Ok, if you wanna grab a coffee and make yourself comfortable we'll have a chat about the basic camera settings whilst I drive us out to a typical shoot:

Camera Preparation
I dislike compromising and I am always looking to maximise the quality of my work and this is reflected in my camera settings.

Jpeg or Raw
I never ever shoot in jpeg mode, if your camera has a Raw mode use it. Do I hear someone say I can't get as many images on the memory card shooting in Raw mode and it takes longer to process the images on the computer? This is very true, Raw files are much bigger because they contain more detail than jpeg files. The question is, do you want the best quality or not? If the answer is yes then shoot in Raw mode and buy more memory cards.

Colorspace
Adobe RGB colorspace contains more color information than sRGB so I always shoot in aRGB mode and convert the colour profile on the computer to suit the output I need.

In-camera Processing
Any image quality setting is always set to maximum and any in-camera sharpening, colour saturation and noise reduction is turned off. I control what processing the image is given not accept what the camera wants to give me.

Shooting Modes
Imo, there is only one shooting mode that works consistently well and that is Manual mode. So my cameras pretty much live in Manual mode, again this gives me the control. Aperture (AE) and Shutter (TV) priority modes do have their uses and I do use them occasionally. Full Auto and Programme mode are, imo, the worst thing ever to be developed for cameras and and are only good for snapshots! I also use Spot metering so I can check what exposure range I need to allow for, centre weighted would be my next choice.

Auto focus or Manual focus?
Good question If your lens are fast enough and the response of the AF is good then generally speaking use AF mode on moving subjects. If the subject is static or slow moving use manual focus. As a general rule the point of focus should always be the eye. With a static subject this is easy to achieve in Manual mode it is almost always wrong when you use AF because people tend to frame the subject centrally and focus on the side or chest of the subject. With long focal length lens the DoF is minimal and by focussing on the side or chest the eye will not be the sharpest part of the image.

Hand-held or Tripod?
If you want the best quality use a tripod, beanbag, monopod or a solid structure to support the camera and lens. If you just want a picture shoot hand-held. Remember I dislike compromises and shooting hand-held is a serious compromise. If you think you can shoot long focal length lens hand-held then you are compromising.

ok that's the camera sorted, let's take a look at a couple of scenarios and the techniques that might be useful:

In-flight Bird Photography
Best Light
The best light for in-flight photography is early or late in the day, so best be prepared for some early wake up calls . The warm side lighting seems to pick out the detail much better and gives you an opportunity to frame the bird against nicely lit backgrounds or skies. The lighting at mid-day is much more vertical putting the underside of the bird into deep shadows.

Exposure
A lot of digital photographers routinely set their cameras to underexpose by 1/2 stop to stop highlights being blown out and lost. I used to do this until I read an article on exposure that turned my thinking on it's head. Now I aim to maximise the exposure by pushing the histogram as far the the right as possible without blowing the highlights i.e giving the image the maximum exposure without losing the highlight detail. The reason for this is that a lot of the fine detail is held in the brightest 'stop' of the image. If I has continued to underexpose the images I would never get this detail.

Another significant reason to avoid underexposure is noise, if you correct an under exposed image in Photoshop then the noise increases a lot especially in the darker regions of the image. To correct this noise you can run the image through a noise reduction programme and this programme will reduce the noise BUT it will also reduce the detail.

Exposure Compensation
This is one of the main reasons why I shoot in Manual mode. Once you have sorted out the right exposure for the bird it won't change significantly so you can shoot at a relatively constant exposure regardless of the background lighting. If you were shooting in Av or Tv mode you will have to use the exposure compensation dial to make an allowance for the effect the background is making to the overall exposure. If the bird flies in front of a dark background the exposure will need to be reduced, if it then flies against a bright sky the exposure will need to be increased.

Shutter speeds and Aperture
Generally the shutter speed takes priority when shooting birds in flight. To freeze a bird in-flight you will need at least 1/500 second or less. A longer expsoure will show wing movement, which can be attractive. A much longer exposure will cause motion blur of the bird unless you pan carefully with the subject. Try to avoid shooting with the aperture fully open as this will minimise the DoF and the lens quality is less than optimum. Try shooting with the lens stopped down at least 2 stop or more. Around this setting most lens are at their sharpest and give a more useful DoF.

Composition
I dislike cropping images so I try to frame the bird in the camera. Big lens are a real help with this and allows you to capture the maximum amount of detail. Most in-flight bird photographs are improved by leaving some space in front the bird, this give the bird somewhere to 'fly' into. If you try to focus on the head of the bird in-flight this gives a natural space in front of the bird for a good composition.


Static bird Photography
Best time of Year
I personally like winter and spring for bird photography but that will depend on the presence of the birds I'm trying to photograph. If they are migrants then when they arrive/depart from the UK is upto them I dislike the summer and autumn months mainly because of the foliage in the trees giving the birds a lot of hiding places and distracting backgrounds and also the very contrasty light that a bright day will give.

Locations
How you find the birds to photograph is upto you. Some people enjoy photographing captive zoo subjects or birds on nature reserves. Others will enjoy the pleasures of going up into the hills looking for locations and revisiting them when the conditions are right. I tend to favour the second approach but I still go out to nature reserves for photography and practise There are benefits to both types of photography; at zoos and nature reserves you know that the birds will be there but you will have little control over the background or lighting, out in the woods you have to find the birds and then hopefully sort out a good location and background to tempt them into.

Shutter speeds and Aperture
When shooting static birds the aperture tends to take priority to allow you to control the clarity of the backgrounds. Using the large aperture will throw the background nicely out of focus allowing the subject to dominate the image without any distractions. Using a smaller aperture will increase the DoF and allow the background to be clearly seen. sometimes this works if the background isn't too distracting or too bright and fights with the subject for attention.

Focus
In all type of wildlife photography the eye of the subject is almost always the critical focus point. If the eye isn't sharp the image loses it's impact and, imo, goes in the trashcan.

It should be said that every single statement above is not written in stone. There are times when throwing the guidelines away works and works extremely well.

Coming soon
Part 3 - Image Processing


If you have any questions just ask

regards
Kev