nature, wildlife, help with basic settings!

Wifey

Hi there,

I am wondering if there is anyone that can help me with some information on shooting wildlife?
Tomorrow friends and I will be travelling to the national park and I've just learned the to try and use manual mode with macro, and now wish to apply it with normal photography. I will be using my sigma 50-500mm.
I think my main concern is with the ISO setting, with the marco I have been using mainly an ISO of 400, with wildlife what would be a good starting value?:dunno
Any help would be much appreciated by this learner

Art Scott

Personally I try and stay away from high ISO's...this comes from film daus of only shooting ISO 50 / 100 film....so I sill use ISO 100 as much as possible and a tripod for nature/wildlife/landscapes/macros.....if I have to raise the iso then just enuff to get the shutter speed I want at the aperture I want to shoot at.

pyroPrints.com

I'm a relative beginner myself. The way i deal with shooting w/out a tripod is, I choose a lowest "safe" shutter speed (where I won't get any lens blur) anything around 1/80 - 1/100 works well I think. Then I let aperture adjust as it may. If you find yourself running out of aperture, then you want to crank up the ISO. Shooting in 400 when you don't need too isn't always the best idea because of the noise. If you're shooting street scenes some grain might even be welcome, if you're shooting wild life, you want to minimize the noise.

Osprey Whisperer

With wildlife (as with all photography) it is a juggling act to get the best settings for the shot desired. You are always balancing the appropriate shutter speed, aperture and ISO for the best results.

With wildlife this is really no different. Your priorities will change a bit from other types of photography, but the goal of a well exposed ...sharp image is the same. With wildlife you may want to put more emphasis on shutter speed than aperture or ISO. If the object is fast moving and you want to capture the action (stop action as apposed to blurred action for effect) you need a high shutter speed. What shutter speed to use really depends of the subject matter, the lens you are using and the desired effect.

A good rule of thumb to eliminate camera shake ill-effects is to use a shutter speed high enough to eliminate this problem. The simple rule is take the focal length and insert it into 1/x ..x being the length (ie. 200mm use 200, 400mm use 400) So basically if you are using a 300mm lens you should shoot no slower than 1/300 of a second...but really that would more likely translate to 1/500 on most cameras. This is a very crude method..and more times than not you will need/want a much higher shutter speed. For fast moving animals like flying birds I would recommend no less than 1/1000 of a second for shutter speed. If you are on a rocking boat shooting these same flying birds then perhaps more like 1/1600-1/2500 would be better to help stop the action adn also eliminate any camera shake or rock from the moving boat.

I might suggest setting your camera in shutter priority mode and working that way. Select the more critical shutter speed for the shot desired. Keep an eye on the aperture as well. If you want to limit the depth of field or increase it...make sure you have the appropriate setting. You may not initially be able to obtain the desired shutter speed and/or aperture you want/need for the desired shot. This is where you start adjusting your ISO to produce the needed speed or light. As mentioned before..this is a balancing act. It's usually a compromise and you need to keep the shutter speed up for moving action..the aperture somewher to give you enough depth of field to get the whole animal in focus (if this is desired) and all this while trying to keep your ISO as low as you can.

Use your hsitogram to help you nail exposures. If possible try and get a few shots of your desired subject matter to get a reading for exposure. Then you can keep the camera in shutter priority or change over to manual once you have the settings dialed in for perfect exposure. With wildlife, often times the exposure is a gut /expeirience thing. You need to guess sometimes if you approach an animal and only have a split second to shoot. The old "practice, practice , practice" comes to mind.

Regarding other settings for wildlife you may want to also experiment here. For static animals you can use the focus lock mode. I highly recommend using AI-servo (or equic) when trying to capture anything moving. This will allow the camera to keep tracking and refocusing the lens if you keep the focus point on the "target".

Take a tripod and monopod if you have them. Very useful tools in wildlife (as all other) photography. With long telephoto lenses you chance of camera shake is high. The magnification of the image makes even the slightes shake a serous problem for sharp images. Keep steady. If you need to hand hold hte camera..brace your arms against your body for added support. If you can use some other object to brace the camera...do it.

Probably enough to swallow for the moment.

Good luck.

DavidTO

HarryB has written a most excellent tutorial in our....tada!...tutorials section (see the link in the navbar, top of the page). It is here: http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1958634

Wifey

Bird Man Photographer wrote:

With wildlife (as with all photography) it is a juggling act to get the best settings for the shot desired. You are always balancing the appropriate shutter speed, aperture and ISO for the best results.

With wildlife this is really no different. Your priorities will change a bit from other types of photography, but the goal of a well exposed ...sharp image is the same. With wildlife you may want to put more emphasis on shutter speed than aperture or ISO. If the object is fast moving and you want to capture the action (stop action as apposed to blurred action for effect) you need a high shutter speed. What shutter speed to use really depends of the subject matter, the lens you are using and the desired effect.

A good rule of thumb to eliminate camera shake ill-effects is to use a shutter speed high enough to eliminate this problem. The simple rule is take the focal length and insert it into 1/x ..x being the length (ie. 200mm use 200, 400mm use 400) So basically if you are using a 300mm lens you should shoot no slower than 1/300 of a second...but really that would more likely translate to 1/500 on most cameras. This is a very crude method..and more times than not you will need/want a much higher shutter speed. For fast moving animals like flying birds I would recommend no less than 1/1000 of a second for shutter speed. If you are on a rocking boat shooting these same flying birds then perhaps more like 1/1600-1/2500 would be better to help stop the action adn also eliminate any camera shake or rock from the moving boat.

I might suggest setting your camera in shutter priority mode and working that way. Select the more critical shutter speed for the shot desired. Keep an eye on the aperture as well. If you want to limit the depth of field or increase it...make sure you have the appropriate setting. You may not initially be able to obtain the desired shutter speed and/or aperture you want/need for the desired shot. This is where you start adjusting your ISO to produce the needed speed or light. As mentioned before..this is a balancing act. It's usually a compromise and you need to keep the shutter speed up for moving action..the aperture somewher to give you enough depth of field to get the whole animal in focus (if this is desired) and all this while trying to keep your ISO as low as you can.

Use your hsitogram to help you nail exposures. If possible try and get a few shots of your desired subject matter to get a reading for exposure. Then you can keep the camera in shutter priority or change over to manual once you have the settings dialed in for perfect exposure. With wildlife, often times the exposure is a gut /expeirience thing. You need to guess sometimes if you approach an animal and only have a split second to shoot. The old "practice, practice , practice" comes to mind.

Regarding other settings for wildlife you may want to also experiment here. For static animals you can use the focus lock mode. I highly recommend using AI-servo (or equic) when trying to capture anything moving. This will allow the camera to keep tracking and refocusing the lens if you keep the focus point on the "target".

Take a tripod and monopod if you have them. Very useful tools in wildlife (as all other) photography. With long telephoto lenses you chance of camera shake is high. The magnification of the image makes even the slightes shake a serous problem for sharp images. Keep steady. If you need to hand hold hte camera..brace your arms against your body for added support. If you can use some other object to brace the camera...do it.

Probably enough to swallow for the moment.

Good luck.

Thanks Mike, will see how I go

Wifey

thanks for all the information, hope to put it into practice tomorrow, depending on results I hope to post some

LiquidAir

In direct midday sun, you'll probably want to be setup about ISO 100, f/5.6 1/800s if you are hand holding at 500mm. If your subject is in the shade, you will probably need to bump to ISO 800 or even more to hand hold that lens. In bright shade on a tripod, the best setting is probably in the vicinity of ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/200s. As the shade gets darker you can use that as a starting point and either bump the ISO or slow the shutter speed as appropriate.

Wifey

Thanks for all your comments, I tried to put them to practice will have to wait and see if any shots are ok to post to show you.
Not alot out there today must have known I was coming and went into hiding for the day:cry
we went one the boat trip and I managed a couple of shots of birds and hippo's but they weren't doing much this time:cry
Again thanks for all your input on my question

Wifey

IMG_1828_edited-1_1.jpg

Av 6.3, Tv 1/800, Iso 200, shot in raw, haven't played other than changing to Jpeg, hand holing the 50-500mm lens no mean feet, while on a boat ride,

:cry about the eye

but otherwise I think it is ok

CC and edits welcome

Northern Monkey

I use Av mode, open the lens as wide as it will go, and then change the ISO until the time sits roughly where I want it. Probably around the 1/500th mark, using a 300mm lens