Advanced Wildlife & Bird Photography: SHARPEST PHOTOS!!

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Tony & Chelsea Northrup give wildlife photography tips, ranging from beginning photography tips to advanced photography tips. The beginning tips include topics like selecting the correct camera mode (usually shutter priority) and autofocus mode (AF-C). Of course, you need to save your pics in the raw file type instead of JPG.

The advanced wildlife and bird photography tips include using the longest shutter speed possible in order to reduce noise and improve sharpness. You also need to program custom modes in order to reduce the possibility for human error, which has screwed up so many wildlife photographers over the years. Of course, some of the most important wildlife photography tips are about animal behavior: habits like shooting every day, keeping the sun to your back, and being patient and quiet will do wonders to improve your wildlife photos.

0:00 Introduction
0:17 KEH Promo
0:48 Shutter Priority
1:48 Autofocus & Shutter Modes
3:28 Raw vs JPG
3:46 Custom Modes
4:22 Exposure Compensation
5:54 Play it Cool / Ignore Wildlife
6:11 Reducing Noise & Improving Sharpness
8:47 KEH Promo 2
9:32 Finding the Perfect Shutter Speed
10:57 Going out Every Day
12:28 Lighting
13:20 Summary

[speakingconstitution]

Thank you Chelsea & Tony for these timely reminders as we gear up for “the busy season”.

[calabrais]

6:58 "The ISO is more of a gauge" This is an great way to think about it! I've heard ISO doesn't cause the noise, but it doesn't seem intuitive when you see more noise in your images as the ISO increases. However, when I started to get into astrophotography I realized it's TRUE, ISO doesn't cause the noise. I actually get cleaner images with higher ISO's (to a point). In daytime photography the ISO is just an indicator of how much light you are capturing, and low light photos are noisier.

[andrewkeir]

I shoot in Manual mode with Auto ISO. I keep an eye on ISO and adjust it by changing shutter speed and or FStop. Usually I am wide open or one stop closed. I have a Canon R7 with RF100-500. Great video.

[jimhenningfeld]

Thank you both. I saved this video to my library and will watch it again. I changed my camera settings for moving subjects and tomorrow to see how it works. 😊

[nafilyounnes]

Another tip: Assign a recall button to ss2000 for flying shots and overexpose to 1-2 stops.

Im using Aperture priority with Min SS. Faster to change ss with min ss feature rather than rotating the dial for ss.

[gfly]

I loved this video and every one you two have ever done ❤! Going into the archives to rewatch some of the beginning Tony and Chelsea lives! Nostalgia 🥰 Please don’t ever stop !

[georgewhitaker]

This is one your very best videos. I am making notes and will practice these techniques. Thank you for the work you did to make this video. The information is priceless. The presentation was very smooth, professional, and up beat.

[AndyHPhotography]

Great video and tips guys. After many years of landscape photography I'm getting into Wildlife in prep for a (long overdue) Safari and your insight is very much appreciated

[silentbirdhunter]

I am retired and on a fixed income here in Montana. I get the sharpest photos when the wildlife are close to me. To accomplish this I park my vehicle and wait with the passenger side window down and I sit in the shadow in the driver's seat. Animals do not know I am there when they gradually appear. Or I use a $50 pop-up blind and sit in a chair and wait for wildlife to appear close (< 30 meters). With close wildlife, even with inexpensive equipment, the background is blurred and the animal does not know I am there so has a natural look, not an alerted look. For birds, I position myself so the bird is flying into the wind (bird in flight photo). For mammals, since they have a keen sense of smell, I position myself upwind so the mammal can not detect my with it's nose.

[Topgunphoto]

Great advice on the working your way down on the shutter Chelsea, I use that same technic when trying to get props in full disk. Depending on how windy it is, I'll start around 1/250 and work my way down to 1/100-1/60

[michaelkaufman]

she does a wonderful job speaking and including the most relevant information

[paulcampbell]

Loved this 👍 Clear, practical, specific advice with excellent examples. You do a great job as a team 👏

[CamillaI]

Great video Chelsea and Tony. I use the Sony A1 on AFC, High plus, Zone focus, RAW, Manual with AWB and skill for sharp shots. Luck still plays a big role too despite the best equipment 🤔

[edj]

Hello from Brussels. Thank you Chelsea and Tony for this video. Yes please we want more like this. Short, informative enough, a little bit of settings and technique, on the ground to show what it does in real life. Just relevant. Thank you.

[eyoung]

Back button focus (on DSLR) really helped me with wildlife photography. That lets me use separate buttons for focus and snapping the image.

[robertmiller]

Thanks again have watched you for years and it's alway informative...Too really appreciate your time and effort.

[fly-pedro]

This was very helpful! Not only you make good photos you are also very good video makers👍🏼

[kimsuphan]

Great having a chatty video at a great location. location. I personally prefer manual exposure with auto ISO where I decide both shutter speed and aperture. Normally this means my aperture is as open as possible and I decide the shutter speed. I leave only the iso to the camera.

[Cafl_Music]

I was really fortunate when traveling over Christmas last year. I had just gotten the 55-210 Sony kit for my NEX 5N. when walking around looking for things to shoot, I saw a large nest. Not even 5 minutes later a large osprey landed and I rattled off some shots. Because the NEX 5N sucks, I didn't have the best photos, but they were pretty nice, nice enough to put on my wall. Now when I see it, I feel grateful for the cool experience.

[barneysaunders]

Great video, so helpful, an eye opener. Went out to experiment today with lower shutter speeds, huge improvement … thank you. More videos like this and less gear.