No matter whether you are photographing your pet, an animal in zoo, or an animal in the wild, the basic principles of animal photography are pretty much the same. Shooting animals however is not easy as they have a tendency to unexpectedly move and you have to make do with the prevailing light conditions.
If you are not comfortable taking full manual control of your camera then take advantage of your camera’s semi-automatic features rather than opting for full auto. You cannot however get lazy in these modes and it pays to know how the camera will behave to ensure go from a full auto snapshot to an engaging, professional looking picture you will be proud to display.
General guidelines:
-
Focus on the eyes – a great rule of thumb is to focus on the animal’s eyes to create an engaging photograph.
-
Shoot low – if your subject is smaller than you, then get down low to the ground to make the picture more intimate.
-
Fill the frame with your subject or make the background count – think about what you want your viewer to focus on or think about when they view your picture and then include the surrounding elements if they help you to achieve that goal. If you can’t fill the frame with what you want, then crop out what you don’t want later on. Surrounding elements when used wisely can help add:
-
frame for your subject
-
context to the animal’s environment
-
Moving subjects:
-
Shoot in Time Mode or “Sport” mode depending on the type of camera you have. This will minimise the risk of the animal being blurry if it moves. The speed of the shutter will depend on the extent of possible movement. If you can set it, I would recommend a speed of:
-
1/250th – 1/500th of a second for a stationary animal on the ground and fully awake
-
1/600th+for an animal that is walking
-
1/1000th+ for a running animal or flying bird (sometimes a little movement can be effective so try a couple of faster or slower speeds if you can to see what you like)
-
-
Use “auto-servo” focus (continuos focussing when shooting a moving subject
-
Use continuos or burst shooting – if you can fire off a few shots in rapid succession, the more chance you have a of getting a good picture
Non-moving subjects:
-
Shoot in Aperture Mode (and select a wide aperture [i.e. low aperture value] or Portrait mode depending on your camera. This will help to create a shallow “depth of field” (DOF) as it will blur the background and bring attention to the animal. Note – try not to have a too wide an aperture when using a lot of zoom as it can make the DOF too shallow (i.e. not enough of the animal itself will be in focus).
Equipment
-
A monopod or tripod will help stabilise the camera and prevent camera shake.
-
Use a zoom lens, preferably with stabilisation technology to help you get in close to the animal without it becoming dangerous to you, or alarming to animal causing them to flee – be cautious that the more you zoom in, the greater the risk of blurring the photo because of the camera moving (known as “camera shake”); it’s like when you look through binoculars you are holding with your hands, it is hard to keep the image perfectly still. Try and keep your shutter speed at least the same as the focal length (e.g. if you zoom to 200mm on your lens, then keep your shutter speed at least 1/200th of a second; I’d personally go for 1/400th if I did not have image stabilising technology available).
-
Use flash to help fill shadows under the animal and create a catch light in its eyes; perhaps reduce the flash intensity if you are shooting very close to the animal so as not to scare it.
-
Shoot in RAW format if possible – it will allow you to correct your images more selectively and powerfully later on.
Technical note about Time and Aperture shooting modes:
In order to get a correct exposure in either of these modes, the camera will adjust other variables in order get the light it needs to create the picture.
For example, when working in Time mode, you set the shutter speed and the camera will automatically select the Aperture (and ISO is you have ISO set to auto) to get the correct exposure. The reverse is true when working in Aperture mode.
Be mindful of what the camera is choosing for the variable you have given it the right to choose. If you don’t then it might choose one that gets the right exposure, but puts your picture at risk of being blurry or not having enough of the subject in focus.
For example, if it is overcast or you are shooting in the woods, and your subject is moving, then you will want to shoot in Time mode. If you choose say 1/600th of a second, then the camera will need to open up the aperture wide to let more light in to create the exposure. If you have also zoomed in on the subject the wide aperture might give too shallow a depth of field and you might not have enough of the subject in focus. Therefore you need to be aware of the aperture value the camera is choosing (try and keep it a couple of values higher than its lowest setting – this will help ensure you get what you want in focus). If your camera is constantly choosing a very low aperture value (the lower the number the wider the aperture) then manually set the ISO to a higher number. This will make the camera’s sensor more sensitive to light and it won’t need to open the aperture up so wide to get the light it needs to create the exposure.
The same applies when shooting in Aperture mode, only this time you want to make sure the camera is not choosing too low a shutter speed. If it does, then you risk camera shake. Manually adjust the ISO to a higher value to enable the camera to select a faster shutter speed (as the higher ISO will make the sensor more sensitive to light and it won’t need to keep the shutter open as long to get the light it needs).
ISO – the higher the ISO the more chance there is of the picture containing noise, i.e. tiny speckles of colour where they shouldn’t be. Most new digital SLR cameras are be able to cope with ISOs as high as 800 before noise will become a problem. You can also reduce it (to a degree) using software later on. I have also found that shooting in auto ISO is not as effective as manually selecting it as the camera may choose a low ISO to minimise noise but then have to couple it with a low shutter speed for example which might introduce camera shake. In full daylight, select ISO100, full shade select ISO400, dark wooded area select ISO800; raise the ISO if you notice the shutter speed or aperture values are not where you’d like them to be.