Wildlife Photography

Introduction to Wildlife Photography

Composition

 Introduction to Wildlife Photography

 • Photographing animal for general and scientific
purposes
 • Cameras and lenses for wildlife photography
 • Accessories and set-up for wildlife photography
Purpose of Wildlife Photography
 Scientific
 behaviour, identification, population, habitat
 Scale, perspective (neutral), colour management (as
close to the original condition)
 Field Studio/ Studio
 Natural Environment - honesty is the best policy

 General/Artistic
 Various uses – exhibition, self-collection, portfolio, poster
etc.
 Animal ethic
 Photographer ethic
Camera for Wildlife Phtography
 Digital Single Lens Reflect (DSLR)

 Mirrorless Camera (ILCs)

 Enthusiast Compact @ Point and Shoot

 Super Zoom
 Advance compact
 Rugged compact (shock proof, water proof, dust proof etc)

 Other
 Rangefinder
 Medium format
 Action cam
DSLR

Mirror box
Mirrorless

Sensor
Enthusiast compact
Important Camera Properties

 Sensor size & Type

 Full Frame (35mm), APS-C (1.5 x Crop factor), Four-third (2 x Crop
factor, 1”, 1/1.7”, 1/2.3”)
 CCD, CMOS, BSI-CMOS, X-trans,

 Control Mode
 Program, Shutter-speed priority, Aperture-priority, Manual, Auto,
Customise

 Focusing Unit
 Cross type, Phase Detection, etc… Focus point
Sensor Size & type
Important Camera Properties

 View Finder/LCD
 Optical vs Electronic, Coverage, Magnification
 Fixed vs Tilt LCD, Pixel Density, Touch-Screen

 Button & Connection

 Aperture & Shutter dial, Exposure compensation, Exposure/Focus Lock,
Fn (Customise), Wifi, GPS, Hot-shoe

 Image stabilisation
 Lens, Sensor-shift, Digital
.
Image Stabilisation

 Sensor Stabilisation:
 Not depended on lens
 Can be annoying
 Additional feature on some
camera - Star tracer, level
correction

 Lens Stabilisation:
 Optimised for specific lens
 Not available on prime lens
Lenses

 Type
 Special purposes
 Prime
 Macro/micro
 Zoom
 Fisheye
 Tilt-shift @ Perspective
 Focal Length Control (PC)

 Ultra wide
 Wide
 Normal
 Tele-photo
 Super tele-photo
Prime vs Zoom

 Prime – Fixed focal length, normally

sharper and having faster aperture

 Zoom – variable focal length for

flexibility, typically not as sharp
compared to prime on the same focal
length
Focal Length
Focal length

 Changing the focal length changes the angle of view

 For a valid comparison of angle of view between camera that have

different sensor size (i.e. Full frame, APS-C, four-third….etc), we need
to standardised our calculation to the equivalent Full Frame format.
 Full frame to full frame = focal length x1
 1.5 crop APS-C to full frame = x1.5
 Four third (2x crop) to full frame = x2

 This is also true for aperture when we want to compare characteristic such as
‘Bokeh’.
Special Purpose lenses
Fish eye, macro & tilt-shift
Lens properties

 Prime vs Zoom  Performance

 Focal length (angle  T-stop

of view)  Sharpness : perceptual

megapixel
 Aperture (f-stop,
 Distortion – barrel,
blade, ring) pincushion
 Vignette, Flare,
Ghosting, Coma
 Coating
Lens Distortion

 Not really a big issue in

wildlife photography
unless it involve straight
lines
Shrapness

 Lens resolution
 Center sharpness
 Edge sharpness

 Optimal aperture
 At small aperture, lens loses it
sharpness due to diffraction

 Perceptual megapixel (P-Mpix)

 Easier to understand then
reading the MTF curve
(Modulation Transfer Function)
Optimal Aperture
MTF and P-Mpix (go to DxO mark website)
Accessories

 Filters  Dot sight

 Tripod/Monopod

 Extension tube/Bellow

 Tele converter

 Speedlight/Flash/Strobe

 Remote
Fitlers

 Rarely needed in wildlife photography but can be

useful in certain situation such as;

 Polarising filter
 reduce surface reflection, e.g. aquarium surface (field
studio) for aquatic organism.
 Increase surface reflection, e.g. animal reflection on
water surface

 Neutral Density (ND) filter

 To reduce shutter speed for ‘panning’ in bright day light
Reflection control
Tripod/Monopod

 To stabilised camera from shacking

 Tripod usage:
 Stabilise vertical and horizontal shacking
 Long exposure
 Heavy telephoto lens
 Panning

 Monopod usage:
 Stabilise vertical shaking
 Panning
 Birding
Extension tube/Bellow

 To reduced focusing distance

 i.e. increase image

magnification

 Side-effect;
 Reduced the lens f-stop and
t-stop
 Can’t focus to infinity
 Reduce lens sharpness
Speedlight / Flash

 Artificial / additional lighting

 Extremely important in night and

close-up photography or to freeze
motion while photographing in shaded
area (e.g. under rainforest canopy)

 Also usable for catch light or fill-flash

in strong back-lighting

 More info in LU3 (Lighting)

Flash photography

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2006169/Midnight-feast-Incredibly-patient-photographer-uses-hunters-instinct-capture-bat-swooping-scorpion.html
Remote

 Avoid shutter shake when using tripod

 Photographing shy or dangerous animals (e.g. venomous snake)