In Today’s Photo Minute, Brian Osborne discusses what he feels is the key question we should ask when composing our images both in the camera or cropping them later in the software. What is our main subject? What should we include in the image and what should we be willing to leave out of the photo? Deciding this for our images can greatly improve our compostion and thus the impact of our shots.
The Assignment:
Pick your camera up and before taking a specific photo, ask yourself, “What is my subject?” Then compose an image that includes just the subject you named. To carry this a step further, decide to actually not include the whole subject but just part of it. Repeat this with different subject matters always making sure you are clear about what your main focus is and that you try to remove as many other “distractions” from your composition as possible.
More and more of us are discovering the fun of photographing whatever animals we can find around our homes or nearby during this time. Key to getting sharp images of any wildlife is having the appropriate minimum shutter speed. If the picture is blurry because of either subject movement or more likely, camera movement; your image might be a loss. Therefore, below are some helpful guidelines for what the minimum shutter speed should be for certain scenarios.
General wildlife telephoto images – When photographing any animal, most photographers are concerned about the shutter speed they need to stop the animals motion. While this can be an issue, the great majority of our images, are not sharp because the shutter speed was not fast enough to stop our motion (of trying to hold our lens and camera steady). This becomes even more critical when using a lens that is heavier than we are familiar with in terms of weight and bulk (100-400mm, 150-600mm, etc.). However, the more common problem is that because the telephoto lens is magnifying our subject (a 300mm lens is about 10X power) it is also magnifying our shake. Even with image stabilization turned on (see our other post on this feature), a little movement while we are hand-holding our camera lens is a ton of movement in the actual photo; resulting in image blur. Therefore, the general rule is that the minimum shutter speed for any situation should be one over the focal length (1/focal length) of the lens. So, if you were using a 300mm focal length, the lowest shutter speed you should even consider is 1/320th. The reality is there are a lot of variables here including the weight of the lens, your strength, the skill to be steady, etc. So while this is our absolute minimum, we often suggest that most photographers try to do one over 2X the focal length (1/focal length x 2). In the case of the same 300mm example, this would be a minimum shutter speed of 1/640. Here are a few examples below to illustrate this.
1/640th at F6.3 and ISO 1400 Focal length: 600mm
1/640th at F6.3 and ISO 1250 Focal length: 600mm
Moderately moving subjects – In a situation where you have a bird chirping, a squirrel moving, or a deer running, the above guidelines may not be quite fast enough to stop the motion. In these situations, you may want to create a panning effect where you move the camera at the same speed as the animal to show some move of the wings or legs, etc. and give some background blur. It is very challenging to do panning in any type of photography but wildlife panning is even more unpredictable. However, a shutter speed of 1/500th or so if you can keep the camera at the same speed as the animal, may be a starting place (see the deer photo below). It is more likely that you do want to freeze all the motion and in this case 1/640th is bare minimum and being closer to 1/1000th or faster is ideal. Just from experience, do not underestimate how much shutter speed it takes to freeze even a moderately moving subject.
1/500th at F6.3 and ISO 280 Focal length: 400mm I was definitely not at a shutter speed that was going to freeze the deer but they started running suddenly so I decided to try to pan with them. This result is not bad for getting some motion blur in the tail and in the background.
1/800th at F6.3 and ISO 4500 Focal length: 600mm The shutter speed was fast enough in this case to stop the bird’s chirping movement
1/2000th at F6.3 and ISO 3200 Focal length: 600mm The faster shutter speed used here stopped the water droplets in mid-air as well as the movement of the duck’s head.
Birds in flight – Stopping the motion of a bird flying is another whole layer of difficulty. However, for the average song bird, duck or hawk, 1/2000th usually is sufficient. See the image below of the hawk who was really moving fast but where I was able to stop the motion.
1/2500th at F5.6 and ISO 400. Focal length: 230mm This might have been a slightly faster shutter speed than what was needed to freeze the motion but I am glad I got it nonetheless. If the hawk was soaring higher in the sky, I would suggest the minimum shutter speed could be 1/1000th.
1/800th at F7.1 and ISO 400 Focal length: 370mm While the shutter speed was fast enough to photograph the duck while he was sitting in the water, it was not fast enough to freeze the wings when he took off in flight.
Hummingbirds in flight – Many of us are already seeing hummingbirds at our feeders and so the real excitement of wildlife action photography is gearing up. There are lots of ways to shoot hummingbirds in flight including using high speed sync and flashes, etc. However, in general, if you want to really have a chance at freezing the wings of these little guys, I would be look at 1/3200th or faster. It takes some really fast shutter speeds to do this and so often the best chance is when the feeder is in the sun so you have enough light to get those shutter speeds without maxing out your ISO.
1/3200th at F9 and ISO 5600. Focal length: 400mm While the shutter speed was fast enough to freeze the body of the hummingbird, it was not quite fast enough for the wings.
The Assignment:
Beyond getting out and trying all of this while gaining more wildlife experience, I would also take a look back at some of your telephoto animal photos (this could be backyard shots or ones you have done at the zoo, on a wildlife trip, etc.). Really look at the sharpness of these images while referring to the camera information for each photo in terms of the shutter speed that was used. If you can perceive any motion blur, than this is an important indicator that given another opportunity (like the ones you are hopefully having now) a faster shutter speed than what you used is likely called for. As a final note, keep in mind, to get a faster shutter speed under the same lighting condition (from our lesson on ISO) you will often be using much higher ISO values even in the bright sun or shade than you would have expected. Have fun and stop that motion!
Framing is a great compositional tool that we can use in some of our images to help draw the viewer’s eye into the subject more effectively. In Today’s Photo Minute, Brian Osborne not only discusses how framing can be used for better compositions but also shows onscreen examples of this in actual wildlife images. Check out the video to see how this is applied to images that will be displayed (all of backyard wildlife subjects).
The Assignment:
When photographing animals, we love to say, “get the shot and then get creative” Certainly when capturing images of wildlife, the chance can be fleeting. However, if the animal gives you another chance, see if there are any framing elements in your scene that you can use to better highlight your subject. This could be the bottom tray or roof of a bird feeder to frame up the bird, a simple tree behind or beneath a squirrel or any other number of things. You can also look back at some of the photos you have captured of wildlife on your computer (does not have to be those in your backyard) and see how different cropping might highlight a framing element in the image in relation to your subject. Give framing a try and see how your compositions will benefit!
Today’s Photo Minute is a unique behind the scenes look at how our challenge of macro this past weekend took on new meaning for me. I will show you what my original idea was and then how it morphed into something I think is pretty cool (pictured above).
The Assignment:
I hope that seeing what went through my mind and how I kept trying different things to see what I liked best will be inspire you to new creativity and practicing the concepts you know. Below I will show you the progression of shots from the first concept to the final result.
My original idea was to simply photograph this small fountain in the birdbath
I started to hone in on the actual water spurting out of the bath. It was here that I noticed the reflection of the bubbling water but because it was polarized, I did not like how the surface reflections looked .
I decided to turn the polarizing filter so that it did not cut through the reflections on the surface of the water and liked this abstract look even more.
While I started with the fountain of water being my original subject batter, my attention was then drawn to the cool look of the water swirling back into the pump. I decided I actually liked this better than than my original idea.
While I shot almost 250 images (was firing at 5 frames a second to catch the water bursting up, swirling back down and everything in between), this was one of my favorite frames because of the offset circle and then the color and the pattern in front and in back of it. I shot this in A mode at 1/1000 shutter speed to stop the motion and F14 to try to get even a little depth of field. The resulting ISO was 9000. I actually did this in manual focus mode as the autofocus system struggled to know where to focus and to adjust as the pump moved closer and further away from me. The camera lens was only about 8 inches away and was just above the surface of the water.
This is the final cropped and edited image. I used dehaze to make the patterns in the water stand out more and then upped the vibrancy of the colors. What I really like about this is that is actually looks like it is part of a river or natural scene you would see near a waterfall in the mountains. Who would guess it was just created in my front yard and started off as a fairly boring subject.
This is our weekend edition of Today’s Photo Minute which we call Shoot and Share. The purpose of this is to encourage all of us to get out with our cameras, do some shooting and then to share our results with others on our Facebook page (do it as a reply to this post). It has been neat to see how these challenges all help us to start to “look” for photographic opportunities so hopefully this weekend will be the same.
The Assignment:
Challenge 1: Macro We have been talking about macro or close-up photography this week in some of our segments and it only made sense to give this our best shot in terms of practice. Find a small subject of any type and create a close-up image of it. Extra points to those who find subjects that are almost abstract because it is not obvious what the subject is.
Challenge 2: Spring It is that time of year so find something that represents “Spring” to you and shoot it. Now for those of you who want to push their creativity a little, it would be great to use a different type of subject for each of these two challenges. For example, if you photographed a flower for your macro, see if you can photograph something totally different for “Spring” or vice versa. You do not have to do this but it is a good challenge to get creative.
When you get your images ready by late this weekend, please share those with the rest of us who are participating as well. If you are on Facebook, please post them as a reply to this particular post. If you are not on Facebook, feel free to email your entries to brian@thephotoclassroom.com and I will be glad to post them with your name. Happy shooting and have a blessed Easter as well!
