Wildlife panning technique - catch the tiger

[simonkit]

As mentioned in another thread I've just visited the South Lakes Wild Animal Park & thoroughly enjoyed it's unique experience.. whilst I managed some decent shots I was also left "wanting" when it came to catching the wildlife in motion & would really appreciate some pointers from more experienced wildlife shooters...

Here's one of the tiger which unfortunately wasn't 100% successful..

probably should have used "continious focus" ??

Any tips appreciate as I'm used to my subjects being motionless !!

thanks

simon

 

[BellyBoy]

Hi Simon,

I like the tiger's expression, it's a good image - even better if the tiger was completely in focus.
It would probably have been good to put the camera in continuous focus but sometimes, the camera can 'hunt' a little bit too much with a fast moving subject (depending on how good the camera's and lens' autofocus' are).

A good method is to focus at a certain point and wait until the subject moves into this focused point and then press the shutter.
It takes some practice though

 

[Alison]

Something I've been trying which (if you can get it right) might work quite well with a head-on shot like this is zoom blur. I hasten to add that my attempts have been disastrous - no examples here as they'd make your eyes bleed!

Anyway, I'm new to photography full stop and haven't a clue what I'm talking about so it'd be better to ask someone with experience whether this effect would work. The bit in bold below is the key to where I'm getting it wrong I think - I'm not keeping the subject in sharp focus. Zooming the wrong way is not helping much either!

"Film photographers have used zoom-blur for decades. They simply slide or twist their zoom lens at the moment of exposure, blurring the image because the focal length of the lens is changing radically during the exposure. It takes some practice and, truth be told, it is something of a hit-or-miss affair. It's genuinely difficult to keep the camera steady while you're throttling the zoom, and it's also challenging to keep the subject in sharp focus when the rest of the image is blurred."

Link to source of above quote

Re. your tiger, it might be worth starting a thread in the Image Editing section here. Although I know you want to get shots straight from the camera, I'm certain that someone might be able to do something with this shot for you.

edited to say that if you go to the article above, the link to the shot of the bagpiper best explains what I mean - had the bagpiper been sharp and the rest of the image blurred that is.

 

[apkent]

Personally, the image has a too distracting background.

Sticking the camera into portrait to highlight the shape of the tiger, more zoom and a faster shutter speed to carefully capture the walking without blur. Faster shutter would also mean wider aperture so would have thrown the background out of focus a little more too.

Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing!

 

[arronbarnes]

Personally, the image has a too distracting background.

Sticking the camera into portrait to highlight the shape of the tiger, more zoom and a faster shutter speed to carefully capture the walking without blur. Faster shutter would also mean wider aperture so would have thrown the background out of focus a little more too.

Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing!

I am with the above but would also like to add that if it is possible to get nearer eye level then that also helps. I know its not always possible, and probably not in this shot but if you can get down a bit it reduces the amount of background clutter you get and puts the focus on the animal. Good effort though, a nice capture of a beautiful animal.

Arron

 

[simonkit]

Personally, the image has a too distracting background.

Sticking the camera into portrait to highlight the shape of the tiger, more zoom and a faster shutter speed to carefully capture the walking without blur. Faster shutter would also mean wider aperture so would have thrown the background out of focus a little more too.

Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Thanks for the tips...

The trouble here was that the tiger was quite a distance away & the lens I have is F4 at widest, not sure at 190mm FL that I can achieve F4.

Not sure if I could have achieved much better Bokeh, unfortunately, although actually more like fortunately, I couldn't get any closer to the tiger I suppose I could always add some of this in PP. I should definitely have used higher iso for that bit more shutter speed.

I think my main problem is my technique, landscapes normally stay still so it's a little unusual for me to take shots of moving objects & I'm not 100% confident with my panning/focusing technique

thanks

simon