Page 91 - World of Animals - Issue #29

Wildlife photography

Tip 1 Use a fast shutter
speed to freeze
Freeze the action the movements of

animals in flight
Tips and tricks to help you eradicate blur

from your in-flight shots
A lot of wildlife shots are ruined by the nuisance of
blur, causing the animal to appear as just a streak of
colour across the image. To capture intricate detail,
you’ll want to freeze their movements. First of all,
set your camera to Shutter Priority mode (S or Tv
on the mode dial) and select a fast shutter speed
– what you set exactly will depend on the speed
the animal is moving, but you’ll probably want to
use at least 1/800sec or faster to stop blurring. To
get the exposure right at this speed, you may need
to increase your ISO, but experiment here, as you
ideally want it as low as possible to avoid noise
appearing. You’ll also want to set your camera to a
continuous shooting mode to increase your chances
of getting the perfect shot. If your camera doesn’t
have these settings or you aren’t used to these
modes yet, use a Sports mode to tell the camera
you want to freeze any movement.

Continuous shooting mode will
allow you to take a rapid burst
of images with just one press of
the shutter

Tip 2
Keep in focus

Get pin-sharp shots with a bit of
focusing trickery
Getting your camera to focus on a moving subject
can be tricky, but continuous focusing mode
helps. With this selected, your camera will keep
focused on the moving animal as long as your
shutter is half-pressed. This is called Al Servo on
Canon models or AF-C on Nikons. Alternatively,
pre-focus if you know the area of the frame the

When butterflies fly between animal is likely to fly into. To do this, select manual

plants and you can predict their focus and adjust it by turning the ring on the front
movements, pre-focus on the of your lens. When the animal flies through the

plant and get ready to snap when
it moves into the same area. area you’ve focused on, quickly take the shot.
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