PET & WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY tips for beginners - the Animal Magic Photography Challenge.

in this week's video i've got loads of tips i want to share with you for taking great photos of pets and wildlife welcome to the photogenius animal magic photography challenge hi paul here from photogenius welcome to my channel where i post regular photography tutorials i share tips and tricks all designed to help you take better photos and get more from your digital camera so if you're new to the channel please consider subscribing now here in brisbane where we're based we have just gone into lockdown i hope wherever you're watching this video you are keeping safe and keeping well i want to welcome you to the photography challenge number 24. now i've been doing these regular challenges for over a year i started them at the beginning of march 21 when the world was starting to go into lockdown and these challenges are designed to help you get more from your digital cameras but they also give you something to do at home where you can stay safe for more details on the previous challenges please visit the photogenia's website link below this video now every challenge has a hashtag and this month's hashtag is photogenius24 please use the hashtag if you're sharing your challenge photos to social media we have a facebook group set up that is free to join with over 3 000 members all taking part in the monthly challenges so if you want to join that you'll find a link in the description below this video alternatively you may wish to share your images to instagram regardless if you use the hashtag that means i and others can find your images and i really do love to see what you guys come up with okay let's get started now of course not everybody has a pet at home to photograph so that's why this is not called the pet photography challenge this month's challenge is called animal magic so whilst i can't wait to see photos of your pets animals in the wild are fine as well and that could just be a bird in your garden maybe a ladybug on a leaf it's entirely up to you so coming up as usual i've got heaps of tips i want to share with you guys including recommended camera settings we're going to talk about focus modes how you can use different lenses for different effects going to touch on composition as well so i hope you enjoyed the video and if you do please hit the like button because it really does help support the channel now one of the most important things you really want to get right when taking a picture of either a person or an animal is to make sure the eyes of the subject are in focus now typically most cameras will do the work for you and this includes choosing where and on what to focus now this can be a real issue but it doesn't have to be let me explain in one of my earlier videos with the help of charlie i took a series of images that illustrate why you shouldn't rely on the camera's auto mode picture one the camera focused on the ball in the foreground picture two the second ball is now in focus and finally in picture 3 charlie is in focus now this is not unusual because most cameras will focus on whatever subject is closer to the camera so with this photo of boo zoom in and we see her nose is in focus because our nose is the closest thing to the camera but by controlling the camera's focus points you can ensure the camera focuses where you want it to focus in this instance it is of course the eyes now to control things like focus points you're really going to need to be out of the auto mode now if you have a canon camera look for a button with this symbol either on it or above it press it once and you should now be able to rotate the dial on the top of the camera or the rear of the camera to select individual focus points now with a nikon camera simply use the i button to select order focus area mode select single point autofocus and then press the ok button now you can move the camera's focus point at any time using the multi selector on the rear of the camera now choosing where the camera focuses is absolutely the first step but that alone does not guarantee a sharp image particularly if the subject is moving and with animals and pets of course this is highly likely let me demonstrate now generally cameras have two autofocus modes one is designed for static non-moving subjects and the other of course is for moving subjects and because i'm in lockdown let me show you a clip from a recent video which explains how these focus modes work so at the moment i'm using the camera's single autofocus mode which means that the camera has focused on me but locked the focus this tree here this branch is also the same distance from the camera as me so keep an eye on this branch now the problem with this mode is when the subject which is me moves if i walk backwards you're going to see that i go out of focus but the branch remains in focus if i come back to my original position of course i'm back in focus and if i move closer to the camera i'm now out of focus so imagine how difficult it could be to focus on me if i was doing sports and i was moving around really quickly this is a great focus mode but it's not ideal when the subject begins to move so to fix this when taking photos of moving subjects choose ai servo if you have a canon camera afc caf which is continuous focus for nikon and other cameras so now i have the camera in the continuous focus mode it doesn't matter if i move further away from the camera or closer to the camera the camera is going to adjust the focus in real time this is great for moving subjects and especially sports photography now of course if you're lucky enough to have a mirrorless camera with animal eye detection this is a feature you definitely want to be using because it's going to make your job a lot easier so next i want to talk about the relationship between a moving subject like an animal for example and the shutter speed that you set the camera to now this is very important because the shutter speed that you choose to use is going to affect the outcome of the image if your subject is moving now if you're watching this video and you're a beginner and a bit unsure about shutter speed let me give you a very brief overview inside your camera behind the lens is something called a shutter think of it like a door it's closed until the moment you press the shutter button on the top of the camera the job of the shutter is then to open allow light into the camera and then close again all the time the shutters open you are recording light now if you're taking a picture on a bright day what you'll want to use is a fast shutter speed because you'll want the shutter to open but then close before you let too much light into the camera otherwise your image will be overexposed now to give you another example if you're taking a picture in the evening because it's darker to take a good photo you're going to want the shutter to open but now stay open longer to let more light into the camera now this is called slowing the shutter down now typically when taking photos in poor light and particularly at night time we use very slow shutter speeds and these are given the name long exposures okay so we know now that shutter speed affects light but how does it affect and impact a moving subject well if you're taking a photo of a subject that is moving such as an animal you're going to want to use quite a fast shutter speed because you want to freeze the motion and the movement so you get a nice clear detailed image but if your subject is moving and you use a slow shutter speed there's a very good chance that your subject will blur let me show you in this image you can see the individual drops of water falling towards the grass this is because the shutter opened for just one one thousandth of a second and then closed in this second image a shutter speed of 1 160 of a second means the shutter is open slightly longer and we can now see the effect on the falling water and here using a much slower shutter speed of 1 20th of a second the water is really blurry because this is a longer exposure now blur doesn't have to be a bad thing all these images were taken using a slower shutter speed which is a great way of emphasizing movement but of course with wildlife and pet photos a faster shutter speed is generally better because faster shutter speeds help freeze movement and give us sharper images the shutter speed you need to use is largely dependent on how quickly the subject is moving for example a bird sitting in a tree is not moving nearly as much as a bird in flight so you may need to experiment a bit with this one my recommendation is to start with a shutter speed of around 1 500th of a second and maybe just work your way up from there but again you may need to experiment and try different shutter speeds depending on the subject that you choose of course with digital cameras we have that luxury with the shutter speed being such an important thing to consider when photographing moving subjects may i suggest using your camera's shutter priority mode now this on the camera dial will be the letter s or tv and what's great about this mode is you have the ability to change and select different shutter speeds but the camera will help you out by looking after the aperture it's a really cool mode it's very popular with wildlife photographers and sports photographers let me show you how it works when taking an image we have to consider three factors that will affect how bright or dark our image will be they are the shutter speed the aperture and the iso we can change these three individually to control exposure so to begin with let's concentrate on just the shutter and the aperture now using the shutter priority mode simply means we can adjust and choose the shutter speed now as i do this the camera then adjusts the aperture to give us a balanced exposure so on a bright sunny day we can choose a fast shutter speed and here i've chosen one two thousandth of a second and the camera then selects the aperture here choosing f5 this gives us a balanced exposure now if i choose to adjust the shutter speed as i'm doing here and i choose a slower shutter speed you can see the camera adjusting the aperture to compensate so the shutter speed i've selected is 1 160th of a second which means the shutter is now open longer and therefore the camera will record more light so to avoid over exposure the camera has closed the aperture down to f18 to keep everything balanced so now let's imagine it's later in the day it's a bit cloudy and because there is now less light the camera responds by adjusting the aperture opening it up to f 7.1 to allow more light to pass through the lens and be recorded by the camera sensor now if i choose to increase the shutter speed again here we can see the camera looking after the aperture but here i now have a problem i'm trying to take a photo using a very fast shutter speed of 1 2 000th of a second and the flashing f number is telling me that the camera has opened the aperture as much as it can in this case f 3.5 but that's as far as it can go and there's still not enough light entering the camera so here's where iso comes in increase the iso check it again and if it still doesn't work increase again until the f number stops flashing and that's the secret to using this mode keep the eyes so low 200 is ideal until you see the f number flashing then either increase or sometimes decrease the iso to fix the problem now next up i want to talk about lenses and how we can choose and use different lenses for effect but before i do i want to tell you about a very special offer from skillshare who have kindly sponsored this video i've always been a very creative person and i've always enjoyed arts and creative outlets be that music photography creating videos for youtube or working on the photogenius website and because i believe you never stop learning i'm always keen for new ideas and inspiration so for me skillshare is the ideal platform an online learning 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macro a telephoto lens is a lens that has a longer focal length now this is the canon 75 to 300 millimeter telephoto lens and of course this is ideal for shooting subjects that are further away they're very popular with wildlife and sports photographers a major benefit of using a telephoto lens is the way it compresses perspective and blurs backgrounds now of course you may not have a telephoto lens and if you haven't there's every chance you've got a lens like this this is the standard kit lens that comes with most cameras this is an 18 to 55 millimeter lens now it's still a very versatile and usable lens this image for example was shot using the standard kit lens at a focal length of 55 millimeters using a canon 80d and as we're in lockdown here in brisbane i shot these images just this morning in my garden with the canon t7 the first image using the kit lens at 18 millimeters for a nice wide view and secondly zooming in to 55 millimeters to get closer but also blur the background now i love macro photography but don't as yet own a macro lens myself but i still managed to get these really cool images now some were taken using extension tubes and some were taken using the reverse lens technique for more on this check out my macro photography challenge a link in the description below this video so as we've seen different lenses will affect images in different ways and there really are no rules here don't be told by somebody you can't use a wide angle lens to take a picture of your dog the best way to learn how to get more from your digital camera is to experiment and mostly have fun with your camera that's really important okay now i want to talk about composition now there's something i say a lot in my workshops here in brisbane and also on my videos here in youtube and that is composition is really important put simply it can make or break an image this is the viewpoint that many of us will shoot from shooting from above now that's okay this image of my daughter with a very tiny boo asleep on her lap is one of my absolute faves and it's the overhead viewpoint that makes it work now shooting at eye level is great for engaging portraits but dropping the viewpoint even lower gives us an opportunity to see the world from an unusual and rarely seen angle of view so for this month's challenge i really want you to experiment with composition particularly viewpoint changing the angle of view bringing the camera down really low is actually one of the easiest things you can do and make your pictures stand out from the rest so on to my final tip that i want you to play around with and consider using for this month's challenge and this is a shallow depth of field now for those of you that might be less familiar with that term what i'm talking about in layman's terms here is blowing backgrounds and foregrounds now as this video is already a lot longer than i intended it to be let's keep it simple now this is a very shallow depth of field in fact aside from the eyes everything else is out of focus if you look carefully you can see me reflected in boo's eyes to take images like these try the following three tips number one use the largest aperture available this is the lowest f number number two if you can zoom in with your lens don't shoot wide and number three where possible get close of course i've made a separate video all about depth of field where i go into a lot more detail there's a link in the description below this video so i really hope you've enjoyed this video and it's inspired you to get involved in the animal magic challenge i can't wait to see your creative wildlife and pet photos and don't forget if you are sharing your images consider joining our facebook group over 3 000 members from all over the world free to join i'll put a link in the description below this video a reminder to use the hashtag photogenius24 if you're sharing your images to social media and particularly instagram i really do love seeing what you guys come up with and if you want to support the channel the best thing you can do is give this video a thumbs up maybe leave a comment or share the video with others that may be interested hope to see you again sometime soon see ya bye

Channel: Photo Genius

Views: 9,543

Keywords: pet photography, wildlife photography, how to take photos of pets, photography for beginners, animal magic photography challenge, photography tips for beginners, pet photography tips, pet photography tutorials, wildlife photography tutorial, wildlife photography for beginners, how to control focus points, controlling focus on a camera, nikon, canon, nikon d3500, canon t7, canon Eos dslr, pets photos, dog photography settings, dog photography ideas, photogenius

Id: 35V_Zl_AMRo

Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 07 2021