A jumping squirrel, a running hare, territorial fights between foxes – wild animals and their behaviour patterns offer tons of possibilities for great wildlife action photography.
Action-packed wildlife scenes are the most recognised ones, but even with an action shot of a mouse you could win the next nature photography competition.
This article will take you through the role your camera equipment plays, camera settings, and many other tips and tricks to capture that perfect moment.
Study the Animals
In order to take action shots of wild animals you have to find them first. It’s not as hard as you’d think. If you take a walk through the local forest, you’ll be surprised by how many different animal species you can find.
Another great way to find wild animals is to go to the nearest public park. Wild animals in public parks are usually less timid since they are used to humans.
Songbirds are especially easy to find in parks. Grab some sunflower seeds or homemade fat balls, and you can easily get them to come close to you.
What you need to keep in mind for when you encounter an animal species you haven’t photographed before, is to observe them. Try to figure out their habits and if there’s any pattern to their behaviour.
I’ve been a wildlife photographer for almost seven years now and what I have learnt for sure is that all animals have different characteristics. Some are extremely timid, while others get used to the presence of humans much faster. Knowing this is extremely important for when you want to photograph them.
The more time you spend observing a particular animal species, the better you can empathize with them. You might even start to predict their behaviour, and plan your shots in advance.
If you try to photograph timid animals, don’t forget to wear camouflage clothes or even a camouflage tent. This will help you disguise yourself when approaching animals and not scare them off.
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| Camera Body: Canon 7D, Lens: Sigma 120-300, Shutter Speed: 1/1250, Aperture: f 2.8, Focal Length: 300 mm, ISO Speed: 1000 |
Camera Settings for Wildlife Action Photography
The key to breathtaking action pictures of wild animals is to set the right camera settings before everything happens. Once things get going, you won’t have to think about settings and will be able to fully concentrate on what is happening in front of you.
Keep in mind the exposure triangle. This consists of following: Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. Finding the right combination of these three elements will help you capture action wildlife shots perfectly.
And here’s how to find it.
Shutter Speed
For wildlife action photography, shutter speed is probably the most important element out of the exposure triangle. Taking action-loaded wildlife scenes with a slow shutter speed will never work.
Setting a fast shutter speed is always necessary in order to freeze the animals during that right moment. If the shutter speed isn’t fast enough you might end up with blurry images.
It always depends on the movement’s intensity, but I would recommend setting the shutter speed to at least 1/500. In most situations you might need a much faster shutter speed though.
The territorial fight between the two foxes shown in the image below was taken at a shutter speed of 1/5000. If I had set the shutter speed to 1/500, the image would have been blurry.
It’s always better to be safe than sorry, so use the fastest shutter speed possible.
Aperture
Another great way to set a fast shutter speed is to take images with an open aperture. Compared to standard aperture lenses, fast aperture lenses are able to collect much more light. This will allow you to set a fast shutter speed.
Furthermore, using a wide aperture lens will help you get a super soft and blurry background. It will also isolate the subject of your pictures from its surroundings.
Keep in mind that you will have a narrow depth of field when shooting with a narrow aperture.
The higher your aperture value, the slower your shutter speed will need to be, and the busier the background will be. Ideally, you should always try to keep your aperture to a value that enables a fast enough shutter speed to capture action scenes without motion blur.
For wildlife action photography I would recommend always using an aperture between f/2.8 and f/5.6.
ISO
Fast shutter speeds have the disadvantage of allowing less light to get to the camera’s sensor. In order to compensate for that, increase the ISO value. Be aware, however, that a high ISO value can lead to grain in your images.
If there is enough light, you’ll want to set your ISO to the lowest value possible – this can be 100 or 200.
If the light is really bad, you’ll have to select a high ISO value. The good thing about modern cameras is that they are able to shoot at a higher ISO values (up to 3600), without having much grain or noise in the image. This is especially true for modern full frame cameras that offer really brilliant ISO performance.
When it comes to wildlife photography, experiment a bit with ISO settings to figure out your camera’s limits. Keep in mind that good image quality is quite important for the overall impression of your photograph.
If there is a lot of noise in your image, you can always reduce it while post processing your image in Photoshop.
Continuous Shooting Mode
Using continuous shooting speed is another important thing when you try to capture a wildlife action scene. With continuous shooting mode, you will be able to capture every second of your scene.
Most cameras offer two different shooting modes – single frame shooting mode and continuous shooting mode. When selecting single frame shooting mode, you are able to take a single image whenever you press the shutter button. This mode is mainly used for portrait, architecture or landscape photography.
Continuous shooting mode allows you to take a series of shots as long as you press down the shutter button. This is perfect for wildlife action photography. After capturing an action scene, you can simply select the best image.
If you’re using a camera that offers many images per second, you’ll increase your chances of capturing that perfect shot. Or more than one, as you’ll have many images to choose from.
Modern cameras can shoot up to 14 images per second. I would recommend choosing a camera that can provide at least 8 frames per second to get the most out of a wildlife action sequence.
For example the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II is able to shoot 14 frames per second. This is extremely fast, making it one of the best cameras on the market right now for action photography.
Image Stabilisation
Camera shake can cause blurry images. There is almost nothing that will ruin an image worse than an unwanted blur or lack of sharpness. This is where the image stabilisation system comes into play to help produce shake-free images.
If you primarily use your camera handheld and if your camera lens is equipped with an image stabilisation system, I would recommend activating it whenever you try to get action wildlife shots.
The image stabiliser will also be useful if you’re photographing with a slow shutter speed or under bad light conditions. It will give your pictures more clarity and improve their overall quality.
Keep in mind though that you shouldn’t turn on the image stabiliser when your camera is mounted on a tripod. This will create a type of feedback loop that will cause more blurriness than sharpness.
Also, the stabilisation system will use up your camera’s battery faster so don’t keep it on when you don’t need to.
Continuous Focus Mode
Your choice in auto focus mode plays an important role when you want to capture wildlife action shots. Most SLR cameras usually have 2 different auto-focus modes: One-Shot/AF-S mode or Al Servo/AF-C mode.
I would strongly recommend selecting the continuous focus mode for when you want to photograph animals in action.
If you want to activate the continuous focus mode you just need to press your shutter button halfway down. When you are ready to take the shot, press your camera shutter button down fully.
For example, if you want to photograph a bird flying towards to you, the camera focus will stay on the bird as long as you hold the shutter button halfway down. This means that your camera’s focus will always follow and re-focus the bird constantly.
This is a brilliant tool to use in action shots. It will make your life easier and you’ll be surprised by how simple getting everything in focus will be.
So, for successful wildlife action photography, you should:
- keep the ISO as low as possible
- set the Shutter Speed as fast as possible
- and have the aperture as wide as possible
Always Be At The Animal’s Eye Level
Most animals that I have photographed were much shorter or smaller than me. In order to capture their fascinating worlds, I’ve had to go down to their level.
Not being at the same height as them can also make your background much busier. Grass, trees or the ground immediately behind the animal can easily become a distraction from the animal itself.
When you go down to the animal’s eye level, however, you will get a much nicer background. It will usually appear more far away, and the focus will be on the animal you’re photographing. This also allows the viewer to connect better with the animals.
So be ready to get dirty and lay down flat on the ground to capture the most interesting perspectives!
Conclusion
Taking images of wild animals is a beautiful passion to follow and it is not always as difficult as it seems. Photography is a learning-by-doing process, the more time you spend taking images outdoors, the better you will get.
This article has shown you what the right equipment and needed preparation for wildlife action photography are. Now go out there, and take some pictures!
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