FAST-WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY Video Lecture | Capture like a Pro: Digital Photography Tutorial - Professional Skills

[Music]
if you've ever had whetted ography
before you probably know that it can be
extremely difficult to get your subject
even in the frame and then freeze the
motion and get focused on their eye so
Tony and I have some tips to help you
out if you're beginning wildlife
photography and you want to photograph a
fast subject today we're out here and we
have swallows flying around and we're
thinking of some tips for you and first
of all you have to have the correct
setting so make sure that your shutter
speed is fast enough 2000 is good for
bigger flying birds like seagull or
Osprey or if it's a little thing like a
swallow
you better be closer to 1/4 thousandth
of a second you also want to have the
right focusing mode so continuous
autofocus if you have a clean background
like the sky or the ocean here then you
can use all focusing points but I find
that if you have a really distracting
background like maybe a forest or the
sand that we have here a single auto
focus point works really well because
you have more control it's not hunting
and focusing on their own thing and in
the nikon world the 3-d focusing really
helps and with some cameras you might
benefit by changing the focusing
settings to go to relief priority
instead of focus priority not all
cameras have that but some do
that little guy so one thing that can be
really difficult is if you say focus
very far away and you leave your
focusing focus at a very far distance
and then something comes flying close to
you something really difficult for you
to find focus at that point so I'm going
to be blurry don't do anything kidding
as I'm trying to teach you these little
swallows are just flying right in front
of me and I can't resist I like to
refocus my camera somewhere near the
middle ground if I'm focused too far
away and something flies in front of me
then everything will be blurry it won't
have time to grab focus it's something
far away after I'd been focused very
close to something then again it's going
to be blurry so instead of having that
problem I'll just focus somewhere in the
middle or somewhere that I think my
subject might be going and then that
will make focusing faster a zoom lens is
really useful I like to start at the
wide end of it like this is a 200 500 so
it started 200 and get practice keeping
them in the frame and then as they get
better and better I'll zoom in closer
and closer so I can get tighter but if
you start out at the long end of your
zoom trying to keep keep up fast-moving
subjects in there you're just never
going to find it in the frame and the
camera will never be able to focus so
one way to help you practice getting
things in the frame is to first practice
on larger slower subject so goals though
people don't typically really love
pictures of gold they're good subjects
they're everywhere
they hover a lot they're not too fast
they're pretty big they're not ugly
they're just very common crows Magpies
they're Birds we find everywhere and
they're nice to practice on so you can
practice getting those in the frame and
even if there's no wildlife around you
can find a subject and then put your
camera up and see if you can get it in
the frame right away and keep practicing
a large part of wildlife photography is
being able to just get your camera up
very quickly and get it in the frame
right away you don't have time to be oh
where it where is it I'm looking for it
you don't have time
that another problem you might have is
you might not understand wildlife I see
people all of the time scaring away
their subject it does take some patience
and you have to be a little bit of a
biologist you have to understand your
subject go to a public place like this
this is Seaside Park and people are here
all of the time and the animals are used
to seeing people so they're not running
away that's a good way to get practice
that way they're you know your gear you
know your settings you know how to get a
good shot of a goal or a cormorant or
whatever wildlife is near you and when
you go see more novel wildlife in a more
secluded location when you get that
once-in-a-lifetime shot opportunity in
front of you you're ready you know how
to do everything that you need to know
and be patient because you just have to
spend some hours out so get some bug
spray get some sunscreen and do whatever
it takes to be comfortable and have
enough time out there so you can develop
these skills especially while you're in
the process of learning you might just
want to shoot JPEG instead of raw I know
it doesn't give you the same editing
flexibility but you won't fill up your
memory card as fast and you will fill up
your buffer as quickly either yes you
know that you're just getting goal shots
and it's not going to be your portfolio
shot you just want the practice then
there's no use of taking up all of that
space and on your card and your computer
another thing to practice if you go very
telephoto if I'm shooting at 600
millimeters it's extremely difficult to
find things on the frame and I keep both
sides open that way I can see the larger
surrounding and see approximately where
my subject might be in the frame and
then with the eye that's actually
looking through the viewfinder I can
detect if my subject has entered the
frame yet it takes a lot of practice I'm
actually it's almost like a magic eye
kind of where you're decoupling your
focus a little bit so that you're
overlapping these two images it can be a
little bit disorienting but if you're
shooting something like the swallow that
are extremely fast and you're using a
600 millimeter lens that's something
that helps me I get more birds in the
frame that way I need to practice that
more - I've never been
work out that magic I think those are my
main tips check out a book spending
digital photography chapter eight goes
deep into wildlife stuff sorry and
subscribe for more free videos thanks
guys
[Music]