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• jungle calling
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• June 29, 2015

Nature Photography: The Basics

Hello fellow nature enthusiasts. This first article in the Nature Photography series has some streetwise tips for newbie photographers and will give you a huge boost when starting off. Let’s dive right into it!

DISCLAIMER: I have aimed this article mainly at beginner-level photographers and I have oversimplified literally everything. There are different ways to do everything and things change according to the situation.

What camera?

“The best camera is the one you have with you.” – saying among photographers

Most people that buy expensive DSLRs don’t take it off auto mode and never change the lens. Don’t fall into this trap. You will probably end up spending a lot of money to lug more weight around for sub-standard results. There are other, better alternatives for people looking to get into photography, nature photography included.

I strongly urge beginner photographers to learn the basics of photography such as composition, lighting and controlling exposure before purchasing expensive gear.

Smartphone

If you want to capture some kickass landscapes, panoramas and environmental wildlife shots; look no further than your humble smartphone.

It’s great for landscapes and the wide angle really rewards you for getting close to your subject when shooting wildlife. You basically capture more of the environment / landscape than you would with a zoom lens. To have a look at some possibilities, check out this excellent blog article. One thing to beware of is that these little guys generally don’t do so well in low light.

Your smartphone is the perfect tool for learning the basics of photography.

TIPS

• Get a tripod for shooting static subjects in low light, adding extra oomph to your landscapes and steady video
• Get some clip-on lenses for interesting macro shots and fisheye effects

Bridge camera

So you’re going on your first safari and want a camera that’s up to the occasion? Grab a bridge camera, also called semi-DSLR and super/ultra zoom. Just make sure it supports shooting in RAW format (more on this later) and has 50x optical zoom or more. Before heading out on safari, you need to practice or already be familiar with dealing with the massive zoom or you won’t be capturing anything.

These cameras are great for landscapes as well as getting really close-up shots of wildlife. You don’t have to worry about buying/changing lenses as with DSLRs and these things are very compact and light-weight. These systems are optimized for their built-in lenses, which are also generally top-notch.

The catch is that the tiny sensors tend to produce a bit of noise at the ISOs needed for high shutter speed wildlife shots. However, good shooting technique and post-processing can mitigate this problem to a great extent. Bridge cams really push you to become a better photographer, until you reach the point where you actually need the better image quality from the larger sensor of the DSLR and it’s lens choices.

I recommend the Lumix DMCZ70 at ₹17,349 at the time of writing. It has 60x optical zoom, good burst shooting speeds, fast lens, wide shortest focal length and does panoramas and HDR in-camera. Most importantly, it shoots in RAW format. Check out its Flickr gallery.

TIPS

• Get a tripod for night photography, landscapes, macro shots and video
• Get a fast memory card so you can take longer bursts

DSLR

I only recommend this if you already know all about the basics of photography and are reaching the limits of the quality you can squeeze out of your bridge cam. I know people who have spent lahks of rupees on full-frame DSLRs and expensive prime telephoto lenses only to keep it in auto mode and not compose, focus or edit shots properly, resulting in mostly bad photos. Sure, the occasional shot comes out nice, but if you want to be a photographer, you need to be consistent. They probably would’ve gotten better results with a < ₹20,000 bridge cam. Don’t be that guy/girl! It’s like learning to swim in the deep end – it’s just silly!

If you’re really ready to upgrade to DSLR for serious wildlife photography, here’s what you want to keep in mind:

• Crop-sensor or APS-C cameras are superior to more expensive full-frame cameras in most situations. A 500mm is roughly 750mm on a crop-sensor camera and you can crop the image further to really get close to your subject.
• You need a telephoto lens that has a focal length of 300mm or more.
• You also need a lens of 18mm (APS-C) or less for landscapes. Most kit lenses are fine for this.

As an entry-point into wildlife photography, I recommend the relatively pocket-friendly combo that I use – the awesome Nikon d3300 camera with the excellent 18-55mm VR II kit lens and the Sigma 150-500mm lens. Together, they cost about ₹81,000.

This combo is just the best DSLR wildlife photography bang-for-the-buck. The d3300 has a highly acclaimed 24 MP sensor and sufficient autofocus, burst, buffer, noise and dynamic range performance . It lacks auto-bracketing and autofocus tuning, which the mid-high range models have. It’s one of the rare DSLRs that does 1080p video at 60 fps (60p) – great for slow-motion. If you have the cash, grab a higher model like the d7200, but I would recommend investing in other gear like lenses instead. Also, feel free to grab the Canon counterparts. You will get similar results – the Nikons are supposed to have better sensors and do have more megapixels, but the real-world results are very similar.

The Sigma 150-500 lens is a bit soft at 500mm, but is well-built and has good autofocus and stabilization systems. It is also by far the cheapest way to get to 500mm. I have been using this lens for a while now and am happy with the results. Have a look at its Flickr gallery.

If you have an extra ₹20,000, go for the Tamron 150-600mm, which is sharper at full zoom. Remember though, you can get a whole 60x zooming, RAW shooting bridge camera in that amount. There are better places to invest that money such as a good tripod, spare batteries, fast memory card, flash or a wider lens.

I won’t get into intermediate/pro level DSLR and lens options since you wouldn’t need to be reading this at that point.

TIPS

• Get macro tubes for amazing closeups of tiny things
• Get a tripod/monopod, fast memory cards and a spare battery
• Get a polarizing filter to control reflections and make skies pop
• Get ND filters for long exposures in daylight

What camera settings?

As much as I hate to try and give you a set of ‘magic settings’ that just work without you having to learn about what everything means, here they are anyway. Again, this is oversimplified and I am not explaining what each setting is.

These settings are universal – most of them apply to any type of camera. They will get you through most situations when shooting wildlife and landscapes. If you limit yourself to these, however, you will never grow as a photographer. It is essential that you take the time to understand the craft if you want the best results.

FOR HIGH-ZOOM WILDLIFE SHOTS:

• Camera mode: A
• Aperture: Lowest possible, depends on lens
• ISO Mode: Auto
• ISO Sensitivity: 100
• Max. ISO: 800 (bridge), 3200 (crop DSLRs)
• Min. Shutter Speed:  1/1000 (1/500 in bad light)
• Drive Mode: Continuous (High)
• Autofocus mode: AF-C (Nikon) / AI Servo (Canon)
• Autofocus area mode: Dynamic (Nikon) / AF Point Expansion (Canon)
• Select the center focus point
• Image Quality: RAW, Large
• Metering Mode: Center Weighted
• White Balance: Auto
• Lens Image Stabilization: On

FOR LANDSCAPES

• Camera Mode: A
• Aperture: f8 (decrease in low light)
• ISO Mode: Manual
• ISO Sensitivity: 100 (increase if photos are blurry)
• Shutter delay: On, 5 sec
• Autofocus mode: AF-S (Nikon) / One Shot (Canon)
• Autofocus area mode: Single Point (Nikon) / Manual AF Point (Canon)
• Select the center focus point
• Image Quality: RAW, Large
• Metering Mode: Matrix (Nikon) / Evaluative (Canon)
• White Balance: Auto
• Lens Image Stabilization: On

Editing tips and ‘Why shoot RAW’

One word for you guys. Lightroom. This amazing photo organizing and editing software is awesome for beginners to professionals alike. It is very, very easy to get in there, mess around with sliders and see results. It has a great workflow and a shallow learning curve. I urge my fellow triggermen and women not to let a single shot see the light of day without first having been through some capable photo editor, Lightroom being my top recommendation.

We will not get into photo editing here – that’s a topic for another day, but I will just mention that you can get amazing results just by moving a few sliders around. Here’s an example.

I think these before / after images speak for themselves. Dark subjects against a bright background is a very common problem in bird photography, easily fixed with a little editing. This is also why you should shoot in RAW format. Simply put, it gives you more margin for error, allowing you to modify exposure and recover detail in the shadows and highlights where you would normally just see patches of pure white or black. Shooting in JPEG format severely limits your ability to do this.

Resources

Here are some excellent online resources that are worth checking out to learn more about everything photography:

• Photography fundamentals: The Perfect Picture by Bryan Peterson
• General photography and Lightroom tutorials: Serge Ramelli Youtube channel
• HDR and Landscapes: Trey Ratcliffe Youtube channel
• Everything photography: Tony Northrup Youtube channel
• Everything photography (great advice): Ken Rockwell website
• The best editing tutorials (mainly Photoshop): Phlearn Youtube channel

Parting advice

Some general tips that didn’t fit anywhere else, as we get to the end of this article.

• Practice and patience – you probably won’t get the results you expect at first. Don’t get disheartened. Learn, correct errors and move on. You will eventually get there.
• Make sure the eyes and as much else of your subject animal are in focus. Don’t be afraid to discard shots where you have missed focus (there will be many).
• Take a lot of shots using burst mode. Memory cards are huge these days – exploit that to get the perfect shot where the focus, exposure, action and everything else is as you want it.
• It’s easy to overdo things like saturation, contrast and sharpening when editing photos. Less is really more here, keep it subtle.

Hope this article was useful to you. The next article will be about ‘What Makes a Good Wildlife Photo’ – watch this space!

Peace and happy shooting!

Harshal Chheda, Lightseeker Photography for Jungle Calling.