Trogon Photo Tours

This month's newsletter focuses on depth of field issues for bird and wildlife photography and features images mostly taken in Hwange National Park of Zimbabwe.  We hope you enjoy it and feel free to email me any questions. 

Southern Carmine Bee-eater photographed January 2020 at Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.  Canon 5D4, 500F4 1/2500 F6.3, iso 800, manual exposure, handheld from safari vehicle.  This shot shows some of my default settings when I am out photographing in open areas with plenty of light.   With the 500F4 lens I will generally start out at F6.3 which is a little bit more than a stop down from wide open.  The reason for choosing this F-stop is it's a good compromise between keeping my shutter speed up and blurring the background but at the same time having enough depth of field to get most of the bird or animal sharp if it's fairly close to me.  In addition most lenses are sharpest about one stop down from wide open.  The 5D4 is excellent up to iso 800 so that is where I usually start out at in terms of iso, on this bright overcast day that combination rendered a shutter speed of 1/2500 which is plenty fast for normal wildlife photography.  Since I was handholding in a vehicle I did want to have a fairly fast shutter speed if at all possible. 

Here's another Carmine Bee-eater photographed a few minutes later with my other camera and lens.  Canon 1DX II, 100-400mm at 400mm, 1/3200 F7.1, iso 1250, manual exposure, handheld.  When I decided to start trying for flight shots of the Bee-eaters I changed to my other body and lens.  The 1DX II shoots at 14 frames per second versus 7 for the 5D4 so it's more effective for these shots.  You will notice I bumped up the iso, shutter speed and F-stop all a bit as these guys fly really fast and I wanted to have sufficient shutter speed.  You can still see a bit of wing blur even at this fast shutter speed.  Also nailing the focus is difficult so more depth of field is helpful as well, on this shot I didn't get the middle focus button on the bird but I was using the group autofocus mode in AI Servo so it was still reasonably sharp.  At iso 1250, the equivalent exposure is the same as in the previous shot which had a bit lower iso, shutter speed and F-stop.  This striking species is very common in Hwange during the summer, we had dozens of opportunities with them during game drives in the park.  One of the really cool things about Hwange is that if you are with a qualified guide, you can get down out of the vehicle if the guide deems it safe, this really increases photographic opportunities and angles. 

Marabou Stork, White-backed and Cape Vultures photographed January 2020 in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.  Canon 5D4 500F4 1/1250 F9, iso 1250, Av mode, evaluative metering at 0, handheld from safari vehicle.  I was pleased to get this nice comparison shot of the two vultures, the Cape being quite rare now.  When photographing multiple birds or animals it's usually necessary to stop down in order to get all of them sharp. This image is cropped to about half of the full frame, the Cape Vulture which is on the right was originally in the center of the frame.  The closer you are to your subject or subjects typically the more depth of field you need.  If this had been full frame I don't know if even at F16 I would have gotten all of the birds in focus but at this distance I was able to get all three of them pretty sharp at F9.   Other times that you would be more likely to stop down more (that is use a higher as opposed to a lower F-stop) are when you have a background which is a long ways off or when the subject is close and you want to get detail in all of the subject, not just the face. 

Crimson-breasted Shrike photographed January 2020 in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.  Canon 5D4 500F4 1/400 F5, iso 1250, Av mode, evaluative metering -0.3, handheld from safari vehicle.  This is a situation where I used less depth of field than I normally would with the 500F4 for a couple of reasons.  First I was shooting handheld from a safari vehicle and I wanted to have sufficient shutter speed while not having to increase my iso.  Secondly I wanted to make sure I blurred the background sufficiently.  It should be noted as well that I wasn't all that close to the bird, this is a good sized crop.  I dialed in -0.3 of exposure compensation to hold detail in the reds even though it was overcast at this point as it's very easy to lose detail in the reds if they are overexposed. 

Abdim's Stork photographed January 2020 at Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.  Canon 5D4 500F4 1/2000 F5, iso 800, manual exposure, handheld.  For this image the only reason I used a bit less depth of field than usual is I was trying to blur both the foreground and the background more than usual to give it a dreamy look.  It's actually unusual for me to open up this much when there is a lot of available light.  This was a point where we were allowed to get down from the vehicle and shoot from the ground. 

Here's the same bird a few moments later photographed with the same settings.  The Abdim's Stork took off, chased this large insect, knocked it down and went back down to the ground to eat it.  I didn't see the insect while I was shooting but I noticed it when I was reviewing images on the LCD and was very excited about catching this.  However when I got home and viewed it full screen on the computer, the front wing and body were sharp but the head of the stork and the bug were not.  If I had shot this with the F-stop that I use most often with the 500F4, F6.3 I am pretty sure the head would have been sharp.  I still would have had 1/1250 at iso 800.  These storks don't fly very fast and the added depth of field would have been sufficient to get the birds head sharp and probably the insect as well.  It went from being a potential award winner to just a pretty nice shot.  This is a lot of the reason I tend to shoot with both a pretty fast shutter speed and at least one stop down from wide open, to be able to catch action when it happens. 

Hippopotamus Battle photographed January 2020 at Chobe, Botswana.  Canon 5D4, 500F4 1/1600 F6.3, iso 800, Av mode, evaluative metering +0.7, handheld from safari boat.  These two hippos had a play fight which lasted the better part of an hour and provided us with a lot of great images.  With mammals as well as birds when I'm using the 500F4 I will usually start out at F6.3, in this case there were 2 Hippos and we were reasonably close but they were lined up in the same plane so it was enough depth of field.  I dialed in some positive exposure compensation to make sure I got good detail in the dark skin of the Hippos especially with the light water as a large part of the background.   

African Fish Eagle and Cape Buffalo photographed January 2020 at Chobe, Botswana.  Canon 5D4 500F4 1/500 F5.6, iso 2000, evaluative metering +0.3, Tripod in Safari Boat.  I thought this was an interesting shot showing these two animals together.  The light had faded in the late afternoon so I was limited as to what settings I could use.  If it had been bright still I might have tried to stop down quite a bit - say F11 to get the buffalo more in focus, as it was I was already at iso 2000 with a reasonable amount of shutter speed so I decided to focus on the eagle and let the buffalo go soft.   Some photographers like images like this with one subject in focus and one out of focus and some don't, it's a matter of taste.  But the amount of light dictated the decision for me in this case because I didn't want to go above iso 2000. 

In conclusion I usually start out about one stop down from wide open when photographing birds and wildlife.  This is a good compromise between keeping most of the subject sharp while keeping your shutter speed up and blurring the background sufficiently.   On the 500F4 lens I usually start about F6.3, while with the 100-400 when shooting close to 400mm I usually start out at F8.  Then I adjust based on the subject and the photography conditions.  The typical times I will use more depth of field (a higher F-stop) are when photographing multiple subjects, if the subject is very close and I want to get all of it in focus or if the background is very far away and thus stopping down doesn't cause the distraction of a busy background.  The typical times I will use less depth of field (a lower F-stop) are when the light is low or if I particularly want to blur the foreground and/or background. 

While this focuses on the basics of depth of field, I have also written articles about depth of field when photographing multiple birds at www.trogontours.net/newsletters/march_2019.

Also I have written about photographing multiple birds in flight at www.trogontours.net/newsletters/october_2017