I would like to share with you the shooting strategies I currently use to photograph landscapes and wildlife. Using the various camera controls in the way I do works well and successfully for me. It does not mean they will be perfect for you and your camera equipment, but perhaps this discussion will shed some light on possible ways for you to change your shooting strategies to help you shoot better images consistently.

RAW Images

Some camera settings I use all of the time (or nearly all), no matter what the subject is, so let's cover those first. I only shoot RAW images for my nature photography. I tend to shoot a lot, but edit them very fast and tightly with PhotoMechanic (www.camerabits.com), so I don't end up with many images once my edit is finished. If I was photographing people or sports, then I use a high quality JPEG to save time.

White Balance

The white balance setting is critical when shooting JPEGs. Do your best to match the white balance as closely as possible. While you do have some white balance adjustment control with software, it is always best to get it right before the camera turns the Raw data into a JPEG and throws out some of the information. By the way, all digital images begin as a Raw image. A JPEG is merely a Raw image that is processed by the camera and converted into a JPEG image.

White balance isn't critical when shooting RAW images because the color can easily be adjusted later with the raw converter in PhotoShop without losing any quality. Since I tend to like warm images and find the image rendered on my camera monitor is usually better to view if slightly yellow, I leave the white balance set on my camera to cloudy, no matter what color the light. This eliminates having to remember to set the white balance control when the shooting is fast and furious. I always adjust the blue-yellow and green-magenta color slider in the Raw converter anyway and don't lose any quality.

Histogram

I began my digital career by using the luminance histogram which averages the three color channels into a single histogram. This seemed to work fine at first, but I found it was possible to clip one or two color channels without it showing up on the luminance histogram. I now set my Canon cameras to show the RGB histogram which displays three separate histograms for the red, green, and blue channels. In most cases, I consider the best exposure is one where one of the color channels nearly touches the right edge of the histogram chart without actually climbing up the right edge which indicates clipping or overexposure in that color channel.

Highlight Alert

Another aid to help you achieve the best exposure is the highlight alert. When this is turned on, pixels that have received too much light flash on and off when viewed on the cameras monitor. Some cameras even offer a shadow alert to indicate underexposure. The highlight alert is the most useful, however, because it helps you avoid overexposing parts of the image. It is easier to pull up detail in underexposed areas (though you may have to deal with noise) than overexposed ones. However, if only one channel is clipped on the overexposure side, it is quite easy to get detail and decent color values from the adjacent pixels that represent other colors that are not clipped. Always remember the worst sin you can do to a digital image is to overexpose important highlights with detail, so deal with that first.

Stop Increments

Now that I use the RGB Histogram that shows separate color channels, it does make sense to use 1/3 stop increments because it helps you to precisely get one of the color channels close to the right edge of the histogram without clipping. When using ¨1/2-stop increments, you might have to settle for the color channel closest to the right edge of the histogram being a little more left of it than necessary. The difference between ¨1/2-stop and 1/3-stop is tiny, only 1/6-stop, but every little bit helps.

Color Space

Most cameras offer a choice of color spaces. My Canon cameras offer sRGB and Adobe RGB 1998. Both color spaces have their place. Adobe RGB is a wider color space than sRGB. It does not have more colors, but the wider color space skips some similar colors to reach out farther into the visible color spectrum. We all want more, so clearly Adobe RGB is the best one to use--or is it? Most output devices actually use sRGB such as computer monitors, digital projectors, and most print labs are set up for sRGB, too. Therefore, I prefer to use the sRGB color space because the images look better (more colorful) on my camera's LCD and my computer monitor than when using Adobe RGB. It is true a wider color space is highly useful for print makers. So, when we make a print, we take the RAW image, run it through the Photoshop raw converter, and choose an even wider color space called ProPhoto RGB. This reveals another enormous advantage of shooting RAW images. The color space is not "baked" into the image. You can change it after the fact in the raw converter with no loss of quality. Therefore, for both JPEG and RAW images, we suggest using the sRGB color space.

Matrix or Evaluative Metering

Landscapes & Closeups

I tend to use a combination of settings for photographing these subjects. In no way do I want to imply that these settings are the only way to photograph these subjects, but they work for me most of the time. Of course, there are exceptions.

ISO Speed

The sensor of the digital camera has a native speed. Usually it is ISO 100, but it could be ISO 200, or perhaps some other speed. All cameras offer a range of ISO speeds though, typically beginning at ISO 100 and going up to ISO 1600. Some cameras even offer ISO 50, ISO 3200, ISO 6400, and even more. There is currently a race to greatly increase ISO values in new cameras, while still getting fine results without too much noise. This trend helps all of us enormously.

If the camera's sensor has a native speed, how does it offer other ISO choices? The camera uses sophisticated electronics that can be varied to provide a range of ISO speeds. When using higher ISO speeds, the camera amplifies the electronic signal. However, the native ISO speed is always the best one to use for achieving the finest quality. Boosting the ISO speed well above the native speed of the sensor is sure to increase the digital noise problem, so there is no point in doing that unless absolutely necessary.

Landscapes tend to be static, so single shooting works best most of the time. When you press the cable release all the way down, the camera takes one shot and stops. However, there are times to use high speed shooting where you might shoot four or more images per second on landscapes. I enjoy photographing waves crashing into rocks or breaking up on the beach. While it is certainly a landscape image, the crashing waves are action photography where high speed shooting is most effective.

Use a Polarizing Filter

I find using a polarizing filter greatly improves nearly all landscape and many closeup images. While everyone knows the polarizing filter works tremendously well for darkening a blue sky, especially when shooting at right angles to the sun, it is equally effective for removing unwanted glare. Anything wet such as autumn leaves, the rocks adjacent to a waterfalls, the wet skin of frogs, and shiny objects such as flowers often have glare which hides the true colors of the subject. The polarizing filter when carefully used is effective for removing or at least greatly reducing glare. I use it far more often for removing glare than darkening skies. It needs to be used properly. Always rotate the filter in the direction you used to screw it on the lens. All too often photographers try to adjust the polarizing filter the other way. It will work this way, but frequently my students accidently unscrew the filter and drop it causing severe damage. Good polarizing filters such as the B + W filters I use aren't cheap. Take care of them and keep them clean for best results. Be aware that if you have the polarizing filter rotated just right to remove glare for a horizontal shot, it needs to be readjusted again when you switch to a vertical composition. The polarizing filter is easily the most useful filter any digital photographer can use. You need one for all of your lenses, with the possible exception of huge telephotos. Even image processing software programs can't really duplicate the results delivered by a properly used polarizer.

Back-button Focusing

I nearly always use custom functions to remove the autofocus control from the shutter button to a button on the back of the camera that is located to the right of the viewfinder. This solves a host of problems. When photographing a landscape such as a waterfall, I point the middle autofocus sensor at the area of the waterfall where I want the camera to focus and push the AF-On button on the back of the camera. The camera immediately focuses on that spot. I pick a spot such as a point where black rocks meet the white water and focus on that. The contrast between the white water and the black rock is easy for the camera to focus the lens on. As soon as I focus the lens, I let off the back-button focus control, which locks the focus, and recompose the waterfall. Pressing the shutter button to activate the self-timer or using a cable release to trip the camera doesn't cause the camera to refocus. If it did, the image may go way out of focus if the activated autofocus sensor is now pointed at a point in the near foreground, or more likely, the far background.

Continuous Autofocus

My camera is always set on continuous autofocus. I have no need for single focusing when using back-button focusing. Using the AF-On button along with setting back-button focusing gives me the choice of single focus or continuous focus at the press of a button. By holding the AF-On button in, I have immediate continuous autofocus which is great for tracking action. Letting up on the button locks focus immediately, just like it would if the camera was set to One-shot autofocus.

I use the back-button focusing control for nearly all of my landscapes with excellent results. However, for closeup images, back-button focusing and recomposing is not the best way to achieve sharp focus. When shooting at such close lens to subject distances, the best focusing technique is manually focusing the lens precisely on the spot where you want the sharpest focus to fall while the camera is already properly composed for best effect. With my Canon 180mm macro lens, I just turn the AF switch on the lens to off, and manually focus the lens. Nikon generally has a switch on the camera body that can be turned to switch to manual focus. In this case, both of us use live view, enlarge the image that appears on the camera's LCD display by 5x or 10x, and manually focus the image. We also watch this live display to detect minute subject motion. We wait for the subject to be perfectly still, before tripping the shutter with the cable release.

F/16 Depth of Field

For both closeups and landscapes, I tend to want plenty of depth of field, so I usually start with f/16. This f/stop offers a lot of depth of field, but maintains excellent sharpness. I tend to avoid f/22 which delivers even more depth of field, unless absolutely necessary. While you get more depth of field at f/22, you do lose image sharpness due to diffraction. As the physical size of the aperture gets smaller, a higher proportion of the light rays passing through the hole strike the edge of the hole which causes them to slow down and diffract. This optical phenomenon causes unsharp images. This problem is especially problematic with short focal lengths. Why? By pressing in the depth of field preview button on your camera, you can actually see the aperture when you look in the front of the lens. Set f/22 on a 24mm lens and f/22 on a 200mm lens and press in the depth of field preview button. Are the apertures the same size?  F/22 on the 24mm lens is much smaller than f/22 on the 200mm lens, so diffraction is much worse on the 24mm lens. Indeed, if depth of field isn't critical, the sharpest apertures on most lenses fall in the f/8 to f/11 range, or about 2 to 3 stops down from the wide open aperture. I find f/16 is a good compromise between maximum depth of field and excellent image sharpness, so I use that a great deal.

Self-timer on 2-second Delay

I normally trip my tripod mounted camera by using the self-timer set on two-second delay. This is a very effective way to fire the camera. I gently, and I do mean to stress gently, press the shutter button and move my hand away from the camera. Any tiny vibration caused by pressing the shutter button disappears soon and is completely gone by the time two seconds count down and the camera takes the image. This technique is quick and easy and eliminates the need to attach the cable release which seems to always be hanging in the way.

Although I prefer to use the self-timer to trip the camera, the cable release is necessary if you are waiting for a flower to stop swaying in a slight breeze. When the flower stops moving, you can fire the camera almost instantly with the cable release. You have no way of knowing if the flower will be still or resume its swaying two seconds later when you push the shutter button and use the self-timer. The cable release is also best for catching the peak of the action such as a wave crashing into a rock along the shoreline.

Mirror Lockup

I routinely use mirror lockup for both landscapes and closeups. The action of the mirror can cause a loss of sharpness, especially at shutter speeds in the 1/8 to 1/30 second range. Faster shutter speeds than 1/30 second or slower speeds below 1/8 second suffer little from the mirror slap problem. If you don't have mirror lockup, just avoid shutter speeds in the 1/8 to 1/30 second range. Canon digital cameras use custom function to set mirror lockup. Unfortunately, the custom function that controls this varies from model to model, so just look for mirror lockup in your manual to locate the control. Some Nikon cameras have a switch for locking up the mirror.

Wind Technique

While I prefer to use mirror lockup and a self-timer or cable release to trip the camera when mounted on a tripod, there are exceptions. A tripod sitting in the fast water of a stream or used in the wind does shake causing unsharp images. The moving water is fairly easy to solve. Set the tripod up, so all of the legs are on something solid. Now running water won't vibrate the tripod. Usually, this is possible by using rocks or perhaps a nearby log. If you have to, you might even put a rock in front of the leg to block the current momentarily while you shoot the image. Always return the rock to the place where it was originally. Rather than moving rocks, I sometimes plant my foot in front of the tripod leg to block the water, so the offending tripod leg is now in a temporary quiet pool behind my foot.

Wind is notoriously prone to vibrating tripods causing unsharp images. I avoid shooting in wind, but sometimes it is unavoidable. Therefore, if I have to shoot with the tripod in fast water or buffeted by wind, I switch to another technique. It does no good to use the mirror lockup, cable release, or self-timer in these situations, so I turn it all off. Instead, I find it is better to reduce vibration from the wind or moving water by hanging onto the camera that is mounted on the tripod to absorb most of the vibration. Since I can't get sharp results by shooting at long shutter speeds if I am gripping the camera, I make adjustments that allow me to use faster shutter speeds. The two obvious adjustments that permit faster shutter speeds are to boost the ISO higher to perhaps ISO 400 or even ISO 800 if necessary. You could also open up the lens a bit. Changing the aperture from f/16 to f/8 provides two more shutter speeds. Using ISO and aperture adjustments together makes shooting sharp images in tough situations quite feasible. Suppose your camera is set at ISO 100 and f/16. You want to photograph the huge waves that crash into the colorful rocks of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore when the north wind howls. Using a polarizing filter to remove glare off the wet rocks, the exposure is 1/8 second at f/16. Since the North wind is howling at 30 mph, how can you get a sharp image? Changing the ISO from ISO 100 to ISO 800 is a three stop adjustment toward more light. Opening the aperture from f/16 to f/8 is a two stop adjustment to more light. You now have five stops of additional light to work with which permits you to change the shutter speed from 1/8 second to 1/250 second. By bracing the camera with the tripod and hanging on to it, it easy quite possible to shoot sharp images in what seems like an impossible situation. If you have an IS or VR lens, so much the better. This technology reduces the problems of camera shake, but has no effect on subject movement.ĦĦ

Aperture Priority and Matrix Metering

I once preferred to use automatic exposure (mainly aperture priority) with matrix (Nikon) or evaluative (Canon terminology) metering for both landscapes and closeups. Since depth of field is critical for both subjects, it makes sense to use aperture priority, usually set on f/16. Using the RGB histogram and the highlight alert, it is rather easy to use the exposure compensation control for natural light to adjust the exposure, so one color channel is close to the right edge of the histogram chart without clipping. This prevents overexposing important light areas in the image while moving the dark values to the right, reducing the problem of noise. However, due to the enormous problem described in the next few paragraphs, both Barbara and I have gone back to using manual exposure most of the time.

Be Aware of this Autoexposure Problem

Although I have been a professional nature photographer since 1980, I continue to learn new tricks and discover new problems that I hadn't noticed before. During my film career, I only used spotmetering and manual exposure. I never used any autoexposure mode such as shutter or aperture priority, so perhaps I can be forgiven for only recently (2005) discovering this serious problem with autoexposure. During my summer workshops in Michigan, I attempted to photograph the single leaf of a sundew full-frame with my new Canon 65mm macro lens. This lens is made to begin at life-size magnification. By focusing the lens out, the lens can go all the way to five times life size. If you need to fill the frame with a tiny subject, this lens will do it. Using a focusing rail to carefully focus the lens on the miniature sundew leaf (smaller than a dime), I set the lens on f/11 and expected aperture priority to get the exposure close, since the subject was fairly middle tone when average out. However, the exposure data was stacked up on the left side of the histogram indicating severe underexposure. I didn't think the shiny dew drops should cause such severe underexposure, but apparently it did. I set the exposure compensation to plus one and tried another shot. The exposure data was still jammed up against the left side of the histogram. I tried a compensation of plus two and even plus three stops of exposure compensation and got the same result. I didn't know what the problem was and thought perhaps I was using this new lens improperly in some way, so I thought I would come back to the problem at another time.  Do you know what the problem is?  If you use any autoexposure mode, you have to know about this problem.  Let's continue on.

I put the lens away and forgot about the problem while I led (actually Barbara is the real leader because she is so superb at it) a wildlife photo tour to Kenya and then another to Yellowstone National Park. Finally, during a Michigan fall color workshop, I noticed this problem of underexposure again. I could not increase the exposure with the exposure compensation control when I was demonstrating to my group of workshop participants how to photograph a waterfall that was surrounded by black rocks with a polarizing filter. Finally, it dawned on me that in certain situations where the camera is pointed at dimly lit scenes and the light is further reduced by the use of the polarizer, enough light passes through the viewfinder to affect the exposure meter. In the case of the 65mm macro, just shooting at three times life size cost me a few stops of light, too. If a bright sky is overhead, enough light finds its way through the uncovered viewfinder to radically change the exposure.

You might think light passing through the viewfinder on the back of the camera might cause overexposure. Actually, the light passing through the viewfinder isn't recorded by the digital sensor at all. Instead, the light is measured by the meter along with the light that passes through the lens. Since the light that enters through the viewfinder, and is measured by the light meter, doesn't find its way to the sensor, underexposure is the result--not overexposure. You don't see this problem when you are shooting the camera with your eye up to the viewfinder because it blocks most of the light, but shooting the camera on a tripod without blocking the viewfinder quickly becomes a problem when using autoexposure.

If you want to see the problem, put your camera on aperture priority, attach a polarizing filter on the lens to reduce light, and point the camera at a dark area. Be sure the viewfinder is pointed at a brighter light source such as the sun or a cloudy sky. With the camera mounted on a tripod, don't block the viewfinder and note the exposure that the camera suggests. Perhaps your camera shows f/16 at 1 second. Now slowly cover the viewfinder with your hand. If the camera changes the exposure to f/16 at 4 seconds when the viewfinder is shielded from the ambient light, it means the exposure would be two stops underexposed because the shutter really had to stay open for four seconds, not one second The ambient light passing through the viewfinder reduced the exposure by two whole stops in this instance.

Light passing through the viewfinder is a huge problem anytime you use autoexposure and don't cover up the viewfinder. Fortunately, there are a few ways to solve the problem once you know it occurs. If your camera provides a curtain to cover up the viewfinder, use that. But, some devices such as a little plastic cover that attaches to the viewfinder isn't convenient or easy to do. If you have a switch that closes a curtain, that works much better, but it still is a nuisance to have to do that all of the time. You can also hold your hand in front of the viewfinder without touching the camera. This seems to work fairly well, but you have to remember to do it each time. Anything you have to do over and over and over again is highly inefficient. There must be a better way!

We use another solution altogether. When shooting on a tripod where I don't have my eye to the viewfinder, I use manual metering which eliminates the problem immediately. It must be clear to you why metering manually eliminates the problem. Let's expose a snowy scene in Yellowstone. With the camera set to manual metering, use evaluative (Canon's term) or color matrix (Nikon's term) and don't even try to compensate the exposure for the reflectance of the snow. Set f/16 for excellent depth of field. Now adjust the shutter speed until the exposure level indicator that you see in the viewfinder aligns with the zero or null position on the exposure scale. Shoot the image and check the histogram. Determine what color channel has data farthest to the right. Ignore the other color channel histograms. Your exposure goal is to get that rightmost data snuggled up to the far right edge of the histogram, without climbing the right edge to avoid clipping or overexposure problems. Do this by adjusting the shutter speed and shoot more images until you get the histogram we are looking for. (Just so you know, when using manual exposure, the ISO can also be used to move the histogram's data right or left.) Once you arrive at the best exposure, forget about the metering scale. Taking your eye away from the viewfinder permits light to enter, so the exposure level indicator may move, but don't worry about it. When you shoot the image, the exposure remains proper. Even though the exposure level indicator may have moved, the exposure you actually shoot remains the same because the camera cannot change the ISO, shutter speed, or aperture all by itself when set to manual exposure. You have to do it!

The unruly automatic exposure mode can and does change things--even when you don't want it to do so and without your permission. There is such a thing as automatic exposure (AE) lock, but that is yet another nuisance thing you have to do. We realize the vast majority of amateur and professional photographers rely on autoexposure, but we truly don't understand why. There are so many problems (at least five serious ones) with autoexposure that we use manual exposure techniques most of the time. We feel manual really is the best way to get super exposures fast, consistently, and easily!

Wildlife Strategies

My college degree is in wildlife biology, so it is no surprise that I spend a lot of time photographing wildlife. I have been quite fortunate to travel extensively around the world photographing exotic wildlife from the Arctic to Antarctica and many points in-between. I don't photograph wildlife subjects using the same settings all the time, but there is a combination I use most of the time.

ISO 200

Wildlife is normally photographed with long lenses in the 400mm to 600mm range. Even on a tripod or sturdy bean bag, it is best to favor higher shutter speeds to produce sharp images consistently. Therefore, even in bright sun, I tend to use ISO 200, rather than ISO 100. This gives me one more shutter speed or another stop of depth of field to work with. If the light is dim enough to require it, I don't hesitate to bump the ISO up to ISO 400 (sometimes ISO 800) if I absolutely have no other choice. The quality of ISO 400 with the digital camera is easily better than any ISO 400 slide film I ever saw. It is quite good and permits shooting in low light that just wasn't feasible with film. Even ISO 800 is surprisingly good if you properly expose the image. Indeed, now that the megapixel war is hopefully nearing an end, camera makers are improving the quality of images shot at even higher ISOs. We see the day fast approaching when even ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 will produce fine images!

Use Shutter speeds of 1/200 second and Up

Higher ISO values make it easier to favor higher shutter speeds to photograph wildlife with long lenses. Even with a tripod mounted camera or one used on a bean bag, I prefer shutter speeds of 1/200 second or faster to consistently make sharp images. The longer the focal length, the more shutter speed I like. With a 300mm lens, I am pretty confident of getting sharp images at 1/200 second. With a 500mm lens, I like 1/250 second or more if possible.

Seldom Use a Polarizer

Since shutter speed is so critical with long lenses for making sharp images, I seldom use a polarizing filter because I just can't give up two shutter speeds due to the filter factor, especially with really long lenses. I have used a polarizing filter with my 300mm lens on wildlife with good results (such as hippos with their shiny skin), but normally I photograph wildlife in soft or golden light at dawn and dusk when the polarizing filter doesn't have much impact. I do know that noise will be controlled better in future cameras, so ISO 800 and even ISO 1600 may produce acceptable images. Then a polarizing filter will be much easier to use since high shutter speeds can be maintained.

Tripping the Camera

Since I nearly always photograph wildlife with the camera on a tripod (or bean bag in a Land Rover) and my eye to the viewfinder, I favor higher shutter speeds to capture sharp images. This makes it unnecessary to use a cable release or self-timer to trip the camera. I use my finger and steady the camera with my left hand. By focusing carefully on the eyes or face of the animal and using high shutter speeds, it is easy to shoot sharp images.

Back-button Focusing and Continuous Focusing

I use custom functions to move the focus control to the rear of my Canon cameras. Not every camera can do this, but most can, including all of the Canon cameras I have seen. Unfortunately, the custom function that allows back-button focusing varies from model to model and the instruction manual doesn't use a name for it that makes any since, so I can't tell you precisely how to set it unless I have it in my hands, so I can look at the custom function choices. Most Nikon cameras have back-button focusing capability, too. With many Nikon's, you have to go to the autofocus menu and deactivate autofocus on the shutter button. Now your dedicated AF-On button (if you have one) on the rear of the camera controls autofocusing.

I always use continuous autofocusing, rather than single focusing, so the camera can track moving animals. Since I separate the focusing control from the shutter button and have the camera set on continuous autofocus, effectively photographing an animal that is standing still and then suddenly begins to move is quite easy. If a male lion is quietly looking at me, I place the middle autofocus point right between the eyes and push the AF-On button to make the lens focus on that spot. Then I let up on the button which locks the focus, recompose, and take the photo. If the lion begins to walk toward me, I hold the rear button in (now called the AF-On button by Canon) without letting up on it. Keeping the activated autofocus point on the face of the lion instantly tracks the animal, so I continue to capture sharp images. Back-button focusing is enormously effective for both wildlife and landscapes. It is fast and precise once you get used to it. Barbara and I teach this method in our field classes and most of the students love it. It does take a while to get used to, though. In the beginning, many students forget what button initiates autofocusing, but usually they reprogram their brains after awhile, so they don't keep going to the shutter button to make the camera focus.

There is a time when I do prefer having autofocus on the shutter button. If I know I will be photographing only action, then I do have my camera set on continuous autofocus and controlled by the shutter button. Photographing flying birds such as snow geese leaving a refuge at dawn is easier if you track the bird with the autofocus activated by the shutter button. Once sharp focus is achieved, it's a simple matter to press the shutter button all the way down to shoot a series of images. If the camera is set on back-button focusing, you have to hold both the back button in while pressing the shutter button all the way down at the same time. It is no big deal to do it this way, but it is easier to photograph action if the shutter button controls everything, rather than pressing two buttons at the same time.

Shutter Priority

While reviewing my digital images of Kenya wildlife that I shot in 2005, I noticed I often was using more shutter speed that I really needed. Frequently, the metadata with my digital image showed my shutter speed had drifted upward to 1/500 second and faster as the ambient light levels rose in the morning. I used aperture priority in 2005 (we don't do this today) which maintained the aperture setting by allowing the shutter speed to vary. It seems pointless to shoot my 300mm/4 lens with an exposure combination of 1/500 second at f/5.6 at a giraffe that is not moving at all when the lens is solidly nestled in a firm bean bag and the IS is turned on. I could easy get by with 1/125 second, so why not use a bit more depth of field that is available at f/11 to fully cover the subject. I tried to keep an eye on the shutter speed to stop down more if the shutter speed became faster than necessary, but often failed to notice excessively high shutter speeds in the excitement of photographing the wonderful wildlife of Kenya.

I tried a completely different tactic on my 2006 Kenya wildlife safari. Rather than use aperture priority, I switched to shutter priority. I am confident I can get sharp images when using lenses in the 200mm to 400mm range with a shutter speed of 1/250 second, especially when the lens is supported by a bean bag. Therefore, I set the camera to 1/250 second and shutter priority at ISO 200 and was willing to go to ISO 800 if necessary. When the ambient light became brighter, the camera automatically adjusted the aperture by stopping down to maintain proper exposure. This method worked well. Of course, it is important to notice when the light levels fall, so proper exposure can be maintained or you suffer serious underexposure problems. For example, suppose proper exposure is 1/250 second at f/8 when using ISO 200. The lens is a 300mm/f4 lens. If a dark cloud obscures the sun, the ambient light could easily drop by three stops or more. A three stop drop is a problem here because the lens can only open up to f/4, a two stop increase in light from f/8. The picture is one stop underexposed. I kept an eye on the exposure and made adjustments when ambient light levels dropped out of the lenses f/stop range. I could solve the problem by choosing 1/125 second as the shutter speed or boosting the ISO up to ISO 400. Some cameras have a feature, as mind does, that is called by Canon the safety shift (custom function #16 on the Canon IDs Mark II). By enabling this feature, the camera automatically lowers the shutter speed when proper exposure can no longer be maintained.

(Important update)

I left the preceding discussion in this article because it does offer some strategies for those who prefer to use aperture or shutter priority. However, as of December 2009, I rarely use any autoexposure mode. I much prefer the precision and speed of manual exposure for all of my photography!

When photographing wildlife, I always set my camera to shoot images as fast as possible. With my Canon 1D Mark III, that means 10 shots-per-second. Shooting this many images per second makes it far more likely you'll catch the decisive moment when photographing action.

Action Only Wildlife Photography

I use a different strategy when I know I will be photographing only action such as flying birds or swimming ducks. To freeze action, I like to use 1/1000 second or slightly faster if possible. This speed will freeze most wildlife action, but not hummingbirds, of course. The main difference in the way I use my camera is I set the focus on the shutter button and take it off back-button focusing. If I know I will only be photographing action, there doesn't seem to be any reason to use back-button focusing since you must hold the back-button focus button in while tracking the subject and tripping the camera with the shutter button. This means you have to deal with two buttons simultaneously. It is easier to track the action with the camera and make the camera autofocus by just holding the shutter button down half way. To make the exposure, push the shutter down all of the way. Continuous action is the only time I ever keep the focus on the shutter button. For everything else, I use back-button focusing or sometimes manual focusing. Even for wildlife, sometimes manual focus is the best way. Autofocus does poorly trying to focus an animal peering through grass in the foreground or snow falling all around.  (Barbara doesn't agree with me here. She prefers to use back-button focusing for everything!)

If I need the shutter speed, I don't hesitate to push the camera to ISO 400 and would use ISO 800 if I really needed to. As long as the histograms data is where it should be, touching the right edge of the histogram without clipping, noise problems are quite minimal. I want to stress that it isn't always desirable to make sharp images. I also like impressionistic images of birds in flight where the birds are fairly, but not completely sharp, against totally blurred backgrounds. This is possible by panning with the bird while using shutter speeds in the 1/8 to 1/60 second range.

By the way, I always use manual exposure for wildlife photography and dynamic or matrix metering. I know this is not the common practice for most wildlife photographers because most use some form of autoexposure. However, I find using automatic modes for action where the subject moves against different backgrounds leads to plenty of bad exposures. Especially for flying birds, I always use manual metering. Here is the problem! Suppose you are photographing white gulls or pelicans that are flying past a rocky point. The background could be dark rocks along the edge of the surf, dark blue ocean water, light blue sky, or white clouds. All four backgrounds have different reflectance values. If you are using automatic exposure and have the camera set to properly expose the bird against the blue sky, you will do fine anytime the background is the blue sky. However, if a large area of white clouds appear in the picture, the camera detects the brighter area and reduces the exposure which underexposes the bird. If the background is the dark sea water or the black rocks, you'll have the opposite problem. The camera averages out all of these new tones and you overexpose the bird. If you use the camera on manual and properly set the exposure, no matter what the background is, or how large the subject is in the image, the camera maintains proper exposure as long as the ambient light lighting the bird doesn't change.

If you are wondering how you have time to meter a flying bird, it is rather easy if plenty of birds are flying. When the first gull flies by, give it you best guess and take a shot. Now check the histogram to make sure some data is close to the right edge without clipping. If it isn't, manually adjust the shutter speed or aperture and try another shot. When you get the histogram you are looking for, you are in business. Now continue to use that exposure combination for all the other birds, but do check the histogram and highlight alert from time to time, just to make sure the ambient light levels haven't changed.

A highly effective metering technique I use all the time is what I call, "pre-metering". Suppose a male lion is walking toward my Land Rover through the golden grass. It is too far away when I first spot it, but the lion closes the distance quickly. I set my exposure ahead of time, so I won't lose any time when the lion is finally within good photography range. Keeping in mind the worst sin you can do to a digital image is to overexpose important highlights with detail, I look at the situation. The brightest element that will be in the image that I wish to keep detail in is the light yellow grass the lion is walking through and also grows next to the vehicle. So, before the lion ever gets within photo range, I meter the grass and make exposure adjustments, so the rightmost histogram data is just touching the right edge of the histogram. Now I know my exposure is fine for the scene. When the lion approaches closer, I concern myself with focusing and composition, knowing the exposure is already fine no matter how big the lion is in the image.

While it seems that digital cameras can do everything you want them to do, they are not perfect and some new features are desirable. I think my Canon cameras are terrific, but here's something I would like to see in future Canon cameras. I wish I could set a series of buttons and custom functions that could be grouped together, so selecting a single function would immediately set up the camera for the situation. While it is possible to do a custom function group registration, it is not comprehensive enough. Many of the settings I need to change such as ISO, Metering Mode, AF Mode, and Drive Mode are set with buttons on the camera body, not custom functions. While I normally like having these settings on the camera body because they are quick and easy to find, it would be enormously helpful to have custom functions that can also set these values. If everything could be controlled by a single custom group registration for various shooting situations, it would save me a lot of time and button pushing when I go from one type of shooting to another. Once the group registration is invoked, then I still must be able to change an individual setting with the buttons on the camera. For example, while ISO 200 might be my normal ISO speed for wildlife, at times I might want to go to ISO 400 or perhaps something else.

C1 Mode Choice

File Format: Raw

ISO Speed: 100

White Balance: Cloudy

Histogram: RGB

Highlight Alert: On

Color Space: sRGB

Stop Intervals: 1/3

Metering Mode: Evaluative

Metering Method: Manual

Focusing: Continuous

Drive Mode: Continuous shooting

Back-button Focusing set

Aperture: F/16

Mirror Lockup: On

Self-timer: Activated and on two-second delay

C2 Mode Choice

File Format: Raw

ISO Speed: 200

White Balance: Cloudy

Histogram: RGB

Highlight Alert: On

Color Space: sRGB

Stop Intervals: 1/3 stop

Metering Mode: Evaluative

Metering Method: Manual

Focusing: Continuous

Drive Mode: Continuous high speed shooting

Back-button Focusing set

Aperture: F/5.6

Mirror Lockup: Off

Self-timer: Not-Activated

Action Only Wildlife

File Format: Raw

ISO Speed: 400

White Balance: Cloudy

Histogram: RGB

Highlight Alert: On

Color Space: sRGB

Stop Intervals: 1/3 stop

Metering Mode: Evaluative

Metering Method: Manual

Focusing: Continuous

Drive Mode: Continuous high speed shooting

Back-button Focusing (not set, so focusing is on the shutter button)

Aperture: F/5.6

Mirror Lockup: Off

Self-timer: Not-Activated

Please consider my choices as a guide to setting up your camera for different types of subjects. Most cameras are capable of doing far more than you might think. Be sure to learn what every button and dial does on your camera. If your camera has custom functions, examine each one carefully to see if it can help you capture the images you want. Custom functions are critically important and greatly underutilized! I use several all of the time. Be aware that the default settings on your camera when you first get it are designed to help someone who knows little about photography and plans to shoot hand-held. If you know the basics of photography and use a tripod, you need to change many of the default settings to obtain the best results from your camera.