Accessories For Wildlife Photographers
In this blog post, we're going to discuss a couple of extra gear gadgets and important accessories that can help you with your wildlife photography.
Stabilization While Taking Photos
Hand holding the camera and lens is a good strategy if the camera and lens are small and light, you're in a vehicle or boat, or you need the ability to move the camera quickly and decisively. Birds in flight come to mind for this situation. But aside from these exceptions, you should try to work on a tripod for the sharpest possible images and avoid physical fatigue in the arms and shoulders. Let's discuss some options for keeping your camera gear stabilized and safely supported when shooting in the field.
A sturdy tripod is the best camera and lens support for wildlife photography. Not only will a tripod help get you those tack sharp images you're after, but it will also help support those heavy telephoto lenses you will often need over long periods.
When choosing a tripod, here are the things you need to consider.
Steel, carbon fiber, and aluminum are the three choices you have with construction material. Although more expensive than the other options, carbon fiber is considered the best because of how strong, rigid, and light it is.
When using large, heavy lenses, you have to consider the tripod's load capacity in terms of weight. Calculate the weight of the heaviest camera and lens combination you'll be using and then lookup for each model's tripod manufacturer's load capacity rating. Many lightweight tripods with skinny legs won't be appropriate for the gear needed to do serious wildlife photography.
You also want a tripod that will raise your camera and lens to eye level while standing. This is important if you happen to be tall. Wildlife photography requires patience and waiting for long periods. Don't be bent over and uncomfortable looking through the viewfinder for long periods because your tripod's maximum height is too low. Check the specifications before you buy one.
You should also consider the physical size of the tripod when it's fully stowed. In the tripod manufacturer's specifications, this is called the folded length. Some tripods have three-leg segments, while others have four. Tripods with four-piece legs can stow to a smaller size, much more convenient for travel, fitting inside a suitcase, or strapping onto a backpack.
Most tripods sell as legs only, without a tripod head. The head is what fits on the top of the tripod and connects to the camera or lens. There are only two serious options for wildlife photographers: a ball head and a gimbal head.
A ball head is like a ball-and-socket, with the camera or lens attaching to a locking platform on the actual ball. It gives photographers a tremendous amount of freedom of movement for fast-moving animals and birds. They are small, compact, and intuitive to use. You can lock the ball head into a particular position for ultimate stability or leave the tension slightly loose so you can change direction at a moment's notice.
The purpose of a gimbal head is to create a perfectly balanced big lens and camera combination that easily allows both horizontal and vertical movement on a tripod with little effort.
As we now know, super-telephoto lenses are extremely heavy and difficult to maneuver. Handholding them for anything more than a few seconds at a time is impossible. Most ball heads aren't strong enough to safely hold up a 400mm f/2.8, 500mm f//4, or 600mm f/4 lens with a camera attached, so the gimbal is the only real option. Once the lens and camera are set up and properly balanced on the gimbal head, you can move the combination with only a finger.
Another camera and lens support option is a monopod. It's basically a single pole that is used to support a camera and lens. It lacks the ultimate stability of a tripod and since it's not freestanding. You can't take your hands off the camera and lens. A monopod does offer more stability than mere handholding, and it supports the weight of heavy super-telephoto lenses. A monopod also allows quite a bit more maneuverability and portability than a tripod, which is a great advantage with fast-moving wildlife.
When trying to shoot from a car or vehicle, a bean bag can stabilize and a cushion between the hard window opening and the lens material. You buy the bags empty and fill them with beans, rice, or Styrofoam beads for loft. The heavier the fill, the more stable and solid the bag will be. With the window open, you place the beanbag in the window opening and set your lens on the bag. The filling inside the bag will settle, creating a nice cradle for the lens to fit into.
USING FLASH IN YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
The vast majority of wildlife photography is done with natural light – the light from the sun and nothing else. But there are times when some extra help is needed with illumination in the form of electronic flash. An electronic flash is a burst of artificial light used to illuminate a dark photographic subject. Some cameras have a built-in pop-up flash on the camera, but a dedicated flash unit is a much better option for wildlife.
When are some situations when flash could be used to improve the light? Here are a couple of scenarios:
You might have a backlit animal - the sun is behind your wildlife subject - but instead of letting details in the animal go black to create a silhouette, you want to keep some details. A burst of flash can reveal details in your subject's darkened areas without changing the exposure anywhere else in your image. In other words, it helps balance out the light in the scene.
Later in this wildlife series of posts, we'll discuss why catchlight – think, gleam in the eye -is important with wildlife portraits. Using a flash can create an easy and natural-looking catchlight.
A dedicated flash unit sits atop your camera and connects via the hot shoe. Depending on the specific model - each camera manufacturer offers a few different options and features - it's more powerful than any pop-up flash. It provides more options for the wildlife photographer. You can also take the flash unit "off-camera" with a dedicated TTL sync extension cord for a slightly different light angle. The flash unit and camera should be of the same manufacturer for the most consistent results.
Electronic flash has limited reach in terms of distance, presenting a problem when using a telephoto lens. This is when a flash extender could be used. An extender fits onto the front of the flash unit, concentrating the power of the flash with a Fresnel lens, which extends its effective distance. If you plan on using electronic flash for wildlife photography, a flash extender is an essential item. Some good options are the Magbeam Wildlife Kit by Magmod and the Better Beamer by Visual Echos.
When using a large, super-telephoto lens, such as a 500mm or 600mm model, you should also consider using a flash bracket to mount the flash a few inches above the lens. It raises the light source just enough to prevent red eye in your wildlife subjects and provide more depth to the image. You will need an extension cord to connect your flash unit to the camera when using a flash bracket and a TTL - through the lens - sync extension cord for a flash unit.
Now that we have got you all the new photography gear you need to help you with your wildlife photography, what are you going to put it in? In the next article we are going to discuss camera bags.