Wildlife Photographer
14 May 2011 | www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 119
Masterclass
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Paul Hobson
Paul studied environmental science at Sheffield University and has worked as an I environmental sciences lecturer for 25 years. With more than 20 years' photography experience behind him, Paul was specially commended in the 2008 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition and two of his images were exhibition finalists in the British Wildlife Photography Awards 2009. Paul regularly lectures on wildlife photography and also runs workshops. Visit www.paulhobson.co.uk
The AP readers...
David is from Somerset and is a sales person for an outdoor clothing brand. His photographic interests include portraiture, landscapes. He uses a Nikon D700 with 180mm macro lens. 'To be able to photograph these small mammals ii these sets has been fantastic,' says David. It's hard work trying to
but it's a great set-up here.'
Pam Sherron
Pam is from Devon. She is retired and uses a Canon EOS 5D0D and Tamron 80-270mm lens to shoot wildlife. It has been a really enjoyable day,' says Pam. It's a great it can be to get the tof focus to accentuate your
Di Wilkins
Di is retired and lives in Devon. She has a love of shooting macro photography and uses a Canon U ■ E0S5D Mark II with 1D0-4DDmm and 100mm macro lenses. 'The location is brilliant,' says Di, 'I've learned a lot from Paul, not only about photography but also about the animals. It's made me realise how at risk our small mammals are. Photography days like this can help to raise awareness.'
BUILDING your own set can allow you to previsualise how you want your shot to look, which is a virtually impossible task when shooting in the wild. However, it's important to be disciplined when collecting material to work with.
'Don't rush out and grab the first thing that looks interesting,' says Paul. 'Spend some time researching and collecting the right props. It's crucial to ensure that the set is in keeping with the natural history and environment of the creature you're working with. You wouldn't have a short-tailed field vole in a set made to look like a forest because that isn't realistic as they live in fields. So make it visually appealing, but in keeping with your subject. Also, be careful not to overwork your set Make sure it's not too busy, otherwise it could end up looking horribly contrived.
'Make sure you previsualise your image so you can have some control over your composition and where the animal will appear in the shot. You can persuade the creature to go to certain places by placing a little food under some moss or ¡eaves, or you could even make a little tunnel that they'll hopefully move through and poke their head out of. Once you've previsualised your shot, you can ensure that everything remains balanced.
'When building the set, it's crucial to provide places in which the animals can shelter and hide. They need to have somewhere to retreat to otherwise they're going to become incredibly stressed and that's really not what wildlife photography is about. The welfare of the subject is more important than your image.'
"WITH regard to settings, I prefer to use aperture priority,' says Paul. 'Aperture priority allows you to determine the depth of field and therefore the background. Over the years, through trial and error, I've learned to understand which f-stop and shutter speed will be appropriate for each subject. That understanding is an important skill to develop. Aperture priority also allows you to produce work with shallower depths of field and therefore faster shutter speeds, such as 1/IOOsec. This is crucial to get a nice diffused background and means you don't have lots of blurred images. Small mammals don't stay in one place for too long and they can be off in the blink of an eye.
There are a lot of people who set their ISO to automatic so the speed doesn't get too low. I don't do that because I like to know what ISO my camera is set to ail the time. I'll choose a higher ISO if I want to. don't need the camera to tell me.'
Autofocus vs manual
ACCORDING to Paui, while using autofocus is a good idea, it is not without its problems.
'If you're shooting small mammals and using autofocus, there's always a risk that the lens will lock onto the animal's nose and not the eye,' says Paul. There can be many occasions when you look through the viewfmder and place the focus sensor over the eye that the focus doesn't catch. Bear in mind that when photographing small mammals the subject is quite small, but the camera's sensor is quite large. 'One way that you can tackle the problem is to hold down the shutter halfway and let the focus settle. Then you can tweak it manually and get the eyes sharp. Of course, if you're dealing with something like a voie, then it is unlikely to stay in one position for too long. The alternative is to use a tripod and set up your camera pointing at a location where you feel sure the animal will appear. Then turn off autofocus and trust your eye. Autofocus is a brilliant tool, but you mustn't let it drive your photography. It can be particularly good in "servo", otherwise known as focus tracking, where the lens will keep the subject in focus as it moves around the frame, but don't rely on autofocus. Learn when to override it and turn it off.'
Small mammals Masterclass
At eye level
ONE OF the most important things to remember when arranging a shot is to get the eyes of the subject in focus.
'It's definitely true that the viewer will look at the eyes first/ says Paul. 'I suspect it's something that's been passed down to us through hundreds of generations, something primitive and instinctive. As humans, we engage one another with eye contact because it's a part of communication. When the eyes of an animal are in focus, it creates a level of intimacy that relates to meeting their eye level. Having the eyes in focus draws you into their world.'
Something else Paul was keen to point out was how important it is to shoot from the same eye level as your subject.
'If you get down to the animal's level you see the world as the subject sees it; says Paul. 'Importantly, getting down low pushes the background a lot further away, so it becomes more blurred and that can really help to accentuate your subject. If you stand over the subject and angle your camera pointing down, then there is no background to push out of focus - there's only the ground, which can contain many distracting elements and render your image quite flat. But, if you shoot at the subject's eye level, you can keep your f-number quite low and push your background right out of focus.'
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The background
«THE FIRST thing I learned as a wildlife photographer is that your background is as important as your subject,' says Paul. 'When you're shooting wildlife, having the wrong background can destroy your image. If you're photographing a small mammal such as a bank vole, for example, it's likely that you'll want to keep the subject relatively large within the frame and create a nice portrait shot with the head and shoulders. However, if there's a white leaf or a distracting line in the background, your eye is going to be drawn to that straight away. If that happens, the quality of the image is lessened significantly.
'So many shots can be ruined by not paying attention to the details. A way to tackle these potential problems is quite simple: use the depth of field preview button. It's one of the most neglected functions on a camera. I've actually had people say that they pressed it and thought they'd broken their camera because everything went dark. It's there for a reason, so use it.'
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