Review: Sigma 40mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens

By: Simon Ringsmuth

Sigma occupies an interesting and somewhat unique space in the photography industry. They are most widely known for their lineup of third-party lenses for Nikon, Canon, and Sony cameras. Sigma also manufactures other gear such as flashes, filters, and even their own digital camera bodies using their home-grown Foveon image sensor.
While Sigma lenses have always been quite well regarded by amateur and professional photographers, their recent series of Art lenses have really given first-party manufacturers a run for their money. With optical performance that meets, and in many cases, exceeds lenses made by most mainstream camera companies, Sigma has really started to make significant inroads in professional imaging products.
The latest example of this is their outstanding 40mm f/1.4 Art lens.

Sigma 40mm f/1.4: 1/180th second, f/1.4, ISO 720.

The story of this particular lens actually begins a few years ago with Sigma’s 18-35mm f/1.8 Art lens for APS-C cameras. That was the first iteration of what what has become a very successful strategy for Sigma: producing lenses with superior optical performance, even if it means selling them at a higher price than consumers are used to for a third-party company.
Sigma have since fleshed out their Art series of lenses with a variety of focal lengths, in both primes and zooms. Many photographers and videographers have started to take notice, and Sigma has since branched off into a line of Cine lenses specifically designed to meet the demands and challenges of video.

This lens is so big several people thought I was using a zoom.

Enter the Sigma 40mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens (Nikon, Canon, Sony) – designed with features photographers want and videographers demand.
Its optical path and lens elements fit the mold of what their other Art lenses offer, while its all-metal construction and gear-based focusing make it well suited for video. While I’m no videographer and can’t speak to how this lens functions in that regard, I can say for sure that it is one of the most astonishing photography lenses I have ever used.
The price tag is a bit high, but the tradeoff is a lens with supreme sharpness – even at its widest aperture – and virtually none of the problems that plague so many other lenses.

Nikon D750, 40mm, 1/500th second, f/1.4, ISO 100.

As I was using this lens I thought back to my first lens, the humble Nikon 50mm f/1.8. When I got that diminutive piece of glass I remember shooting almost everything at f/1.8 because it looked so cool to have my subject in focus with the rest of the shot was filled with beautiful blurry bokeh. However, I soon realized that these types of shots were a bit problematic, mostly due to all sorts of optical issues like lack of overall sharpness, vignetting, and really bad chromatic aberration.
I soon got used to shooting my 50mm lens stopped down a bit. It’s the same with other lenses that I’ve acquired over the years. While they most definitely work while wide open, there’s usually some tradeoff.
The Sigma 40mm f/1.4 is a whole different beast entirely. Using it is an absolute joy because you can basically shoot whatever you want, any way you want, with total impunity.

100% crop of the image above. The sharpness of this lens at f/1.4 is incredible.

I should point out, before getting too far into this review, that the performance of this lens does not come cheap. At nearly $1400 this lens is almost ten times as expensive as an entry-level 50mm f/1.8.
However, this lens isn’t exactly aimed at entry-level photographers. It’s designed for people who want (as near as I can tell from using it extensively) no compromises in terms of optical performance. As a result, the lens is big, heavy, expensive, and not exactly the sort that you would take out as a casual go-anywhere addition to your camera kit. Although, if you prioritize outstanding image quality above all else, then this may be the lens you are looking for.

Sharpness

I don’t want the substance of this review to get lost in hyperbole or vain platitudes, but in some way, this Sigma 40mm f/1.4 lens really does operate at a whole other level in terms of sharpness. I’ve used sharp lenses before, but nothing quite like this – especially when shooting wide open.
I took this to an equestrian show with my family and just for fun. Then I shot almost exclusively at f/1.4 just to see what this lens could do.
I was consistently impressed by the results.

Nikon D750, 40mm, f/1.4, 1/2000th second, ISO 100.

In the image above, I focused on the horse’s eye, which was a little tricky since it was constantly moving its head up and down. The resulting images were much sharper than I imagined they would be. The f/1.4 aperture also gives a pleasing foreground and background blur, especially on the man’s plaid shirt. The 40mm focal length offers a field of view that’s wide enough to get plenty of elements in the frame.
To further illustrate the sharpness, the following is a 100% crop from the original. You can clearly distinguish individual hairs and eyelashes.

100% crop of original image.

Of course, this type of result really isn’t all that special. Plenty of lenses are quite sharp in the center, but what about the rest of the frame? I was curious to see how the Sigma 40mm f/1.4 performed in a variety of conditions, so I shot scenes like the one below to see how this lens would handle trickier situations.
Normally in a shot like this, the trees in the center would be sharp while the outer edges would be significantly less so. They would also have significant chromatic aberration issues on the branches around the perimeter.

Nikon D750, 40mm, f/1.4, 1/250th second, ISO 100.

Investigating a 100% crop shows that image quality is tightly controlled even around the edges. Individual branches are tack-sharp and clearly distinguishable, with no green or purple fringing whatsoever.
Granted this wasn’t shot in broad daylight, but I found results like this to be consistent in a variety of shooting conditions.

100% crop of above image.

Overall, I was highly impressed with the sharpness of this lens, especially at f/1.4. But then again, this is a $1400 lens. When you spend this much on a lens like this, you might naturally expect these results. If you want to save over a thousand dollars on a wide-aperture 40mm lens you could always opt for the Canon 40mm f/2.8 Pancake, which is a great lens and certainly worth looking at. However, in terms of sheer optical performance, the Sigma 40mm f/1.4 is a whole other ballgame entirely. It is well worth considering if you prioritize features like sharpness and overall performance above all else.

Foreground/background blur

Some qualities of camera gear can be measured objectively, while others are difficult to fully explain or describe without delving into a more qualitative realm.
You could put the Sigma 40mm f/1.4 lens up against similar lenses in a lab and come away with charts and diagrams that illustrate various optical properties of each one.
However, at the end of the day, there’s something about some particular lenses that either grabs me or pushes me away. I don’t know exactly what it is about this particular lens, but the out-of-focus foreground and backgrounds just look, as the saying goes, smooth as butter.

Nikon D750, 40mm, f/1.4, 1/180th second, ISO 1000

The way the bricks in the background slowly fade away while the clean mortar lines remain visible, and the smooth transition across the frame from in-focus to blurry, is far beyond what I’m used to on my usual gear. I don’t know if I quite know how to describe this and I don’t want to sound like a shill for Sigma (they did not pay me for doing this review, and I have no relationship with them whatsoever) but I really, really like the photos I was getting out of this lens.
Throw in some lights in the background, and you start to see even more to like with the Sigma 40mm f/1.4 DG HSM.

Nikon D750, 40mm, f/1.4, 1/400th second, ISO 1250

The clean, clear spots of light behind this bronze statue are nice and blurry without any of the onion-ring artifacts that are so common on a lot of other lenses. It’s part of what makes this lens so fun to use – especially knowing that when you take shots wide open, you aren’t losing anything (at least, nothing that I could notice) in the way of sharpness or overall handling of chromatic aberration.
Of course, there is some vignetting at f/1.4 but nothing that I would consider out of the ordinary, and well worth the tradeoff compared with shooting at smaller apertures. For example, here’s another picture of a purple magnolia flower that I shot at f/2.8.

Nikon D750, 40mm, f/2.8, 1/180th second, ISO 1800

This isn’t a bad photo, and the flower in the center is bright and sharp, which I always like to see on any lens. The 40mm focal length let me fill the frame with branches, buds, and other elements that add a sense of context. However, the scene is transformed into something almost otherworldly when shot at f/1.4.

Nikon D750, 40mm, f/1.4, 1/180th second, ISO 400

The corners are darker due to vignetting at such a wide aperture, but the rest of the image is almost entirely obscured in beautiful bokeh. The out-of-focus areas are blurry without being muddy. While the flower in the center is now a beacon of color amidst brown and yellow. I don’t quite know how to describe just what it is about the rendition of foreground and background elements that I find so pleasing on this lens. But it’s certainly something to behold and a lot of fun to have available at your fingertips.

Autofocus

If there is one area where this lens didn’t impress me all that much it was autofocus. It’s not that it’s bad, but it’s not exactly superlative either. I suppose I could best describe it by saying it simply gets the job done most of the time. I found that it couldn’t quite keep up with my own two kids when they were running around outside, but for most normal shooting conditions it works pretty well. Autofocus is quick and silent – so quiet that I had to hold my ear up to the lens to hear the gears turning – but if you’re used to the speed of a sports-oriented lens like the 70-200 f/2.8, you might find this is lacking too much for your taste.

Nikon D750, 40mm, f/1.4, 1/180th second, ISO 360.

I shot several dozen images similar to the one above, and the Sigma 40mm f/1.4 lens performed just fine. Most shots were nice and sharp, however, the movements of the horse were a trot – not a gallop – and in a mostly predictable straight line. My go-to gear for most daily shooting is a Fuji X100F and this Sigma lens is certainly faster and more reliable than that camera.

Nikon D750, 40mm, f/1.4, 1/180th second, ISO 800. Autofocus kept up fairly well with this 

remote-control helicopter.

Perhaps the best thing I can say about the autofocus on this lens is that it works about how you would expect. It’s not going to break any records for speed, but it’s reliable, predictable, and effective.

Handling

Similar to autofocus, the overall handling of this lens is something that I can describe in terms of how it feels, but I don’t know if I can accurately quantify it with numbers and hard data. Simply put, this lens is a beast. It’s big, thick, heavy, and feels like it could withstand a beating. Sigma claims it is dust and splash-proof. While I didn’t test this personally, given the overall build quality, I would certainly expect this lens to be able to withstand being out in the elements.

Manual focusing happens with gears, not electronics, so you always have a smooth tactile experience when turning the focus ring. There are no hard stops as you turn the focus ring, but after about 160° of travel, there is a soft click indicating you have reached the nearest or farthest focusing limit. There’s a single switch on the side that alternates between Autofocus and Manual focus, which I found to be simple and effective in regular use.
Image stabilization is nonexistent. However, I didn’t miss it much. With such good image quality at f/1.4, I could use fast shutter speeds without the need for stabilization. Video shooters may have this lens mounted firmly on a tripod, so the lack of image stabilization may not be a mark against it.

Nikon D750, 40mm, f/1.4, 1/2000 second, ISO 100.

Despite being such a heavy lens, I didn’t find it difficult to carry around for general shooting. At 1300 grams, it’s almost as heavy as my 70-200 f/2.8 which clocks in at 1540 grams. The Sigma 40mm f/1.4 packs all that heft in a much smaller package. Because of this, I didn’t feel the weight as much as I thought I would, but it’s the type of lens that will certainly strain your arm over time. I really liked shooting with a battery grip on my camera to help balance things out a bit.

Conclusion

My thoughts on this lens can perhaps be best summed up with this photo:

Nikon D750, 40mm, f/1.4, 1/1500 second, ISO 100.

I don’t think I could have gotten this shot with any other lens, and it’s a testament to the quality and engineering that went into this Sigma 40mm f/1.4.
I focused on the flower just to the left of the sun as it peeked over the horizon and it’s sharp as a tack. Zooming in to 100% reveals a level of sharpness and detail, as well as an almost complete absence of chromatic aberration.
That was highly impressive.

100% crop of above image.

This is one of the best lenses I have ever used, and well worth the price if you value image quality above all else. It’s big, heavy, and not exactly easy on the wallet. But what you get for the price is a lens that is sturdy, reliable, and exquisitely sharp at all apertures – especially wide open.
If you’re looking for a lens that offers outstanding optical performance first and foremost and is designed to meet the needs of demanding photographers and videographers, then I don’t think I can recommend the Sigma 40mm f/1.4 Art highly enough.

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Have a Happy Easter

Eye Contact Smiles and More What I Learned from Shooting with Film

In this post Rachel Devine (author of our kids photography eBook Click and our new Natural Light Photography eBook) ends her series on reasons learning photography on film cameras made her the digital photographer that she is today.
Also Read previous posts on Shooting with Burst Mode, Natural vs Artificial Light, Embracing the Grain and Taking Cameras Everywhere.
One last thought to wrap up this little series of blog posts. With film, the shoots always had a limit. I needed to get my shots in a certain number of frames so I had to be pretty organized. I went in with a game plan. I would always try to get the sitting still and smiling at the camera shots first and out of the way for no other reason than I wanted to have as much film left over as possible to capture the real photos. Everyone asks for those eye contact / natural smile shots, so I do my best to get a great one, but for me, that is not what kid photography is about.

Especially if the children I am shooting are pensive or active or anything other than prone to sitting still and looking at the camera. I want to document the real childhood of that child.
Looking back on my own family photos from childhood, there are very few where we are all lined up and smiling for the camera. About one of those semi-formal posed ones a year. Usually it was shot in the summer outside the beach house with my dad’s camera on a tripod and with the self timer.
It is neat to watch the family grow up through those photos, but they are not the ones I hunger for digging through all the old slide albums. I am looking for more moments to spark a memory other than my father yelling for us to all smile and look at the camera while he did the mad dash back from pushing the shutter to join us in the line.

I want to find the images that tell a story within the confines of that little paper Kodak frame. Those images that as soon as I hold up the slide to the light suck me right back in time through those locked doors of fading memories.
And I want to leave those little future keys for my children to find in the images I am making of them as they grow. So I occasionally get the eye contact and the smiles, but often I get so much more.
The photos in this post are of my daughter were taken just a few days apart on this trip back to Virginia to visit family. I am thrilled to have the smiling shot and I will probably frame it, but the other two show how she really is on this journey. She is more pensive than the big grin would have you think.

Gemma has always been a great traveler. She has been many places in the world with us and always up for an adventure. The last time we came to the states she did not waste a minute of her thoughts on Australia. I will always remember this trip back to the states as the first one where she had been in Australia long enough to start missing her home and friends. I can see it in her face in the other photos and it is one little thing that I will remember about her growing up…a milestone captured.
For more on the topic of Kids Photogrpahy – Check out Rachel’s eBook Click! How to Take Gorgeous Photos of Your Kids.
                           
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How to Pick the Perfect Camera for Kids

By: Simon Ringsmuth

As a parent, one of the most enjoyable aspects of photography for me is sharing my love of photo-taking with my two kids. My wife and I enjoy taking pictures of our two boys, looking through old family photos with them, and involving them as much as we can when we are using our cameras.
However, when our oldest was about five years old he started wanting to get in on the action as well, and that’s when we hit a bit of a road block. We wanted to get him and his younger brother a camera, but with so many options we didn’t even know where to start. Fortunately we found a solution that has worked wonders for us and could be great for you too.

The Options

When we started looking more seriously into cameras for our kids we realized we had several options, all of which we ended up discarding for the following reasons.
Let them use our cameras. As much as we wanted them to get a real hands-on experience with photography, the cameras and lenses we use for formal photo sessions are much too expensive to hand over to our little boys. When they’re older we will certainly let them use our camera gear, but not at such a young age.
Invest in rugged point-and-shoot cameras. Some cameras made by Olympus and Panasonic are designed to take a bit of punishment and seem ideal for kids, but we didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a camera that our kids might enjoy for a few days and then put aside in lieu of something else. (As parents we have learned that our kids’ enjoyment of a particular toy or object is rarely correlated with the amount it costs, and just because something is expensive by no means ensures they will like it or use it more than once!)

I have no idea why, but my six-year-old is obsessed with taking pictures of ceiling fans. This 

has led to some good discussions about shutter speeds and also the effect of flash when
freezing motion.

Purchase a kid-oriented camera. If you search online you can find dozens of kid-oriented cameras that have big buttons and bright colors, but all the ones I have used have been quite unimpressive. Tiny low-quality LCD screens, slow response times, horrible image quality, and awful sound effects all seem like they are designed specifically to suck the enjoyment out of photography altogether.
Let them use an old mobile phone camera. This seems to make a lot of sense given the prevalence of tablets, phones, and other devices with cameras and touch-screen technologies, but we ultimately decided against it. We didn’t want the hassle of dealing with internet restrictions and app downloading, especially when our kids are so young. In the future we might open this door, but for now we’re more comfortable giving our kids an actual camera instead of a device that has many functions, including a camera.
The more we looked at choices available to us the more we seemed to hit dead ends, until we came up with a solution that seemed to check many boxes all at once: we would buy each of our kids a used point-and-shoot camera.

Old point-and-shoots can’t match modern cameras, but they’re not too shabby either. And 

when a kid can snap a picture of a sunrise with their very own camera, it’s a fun moment to
witness.

The solution

A used point-and-shoot camera hit every one of our criteria. And the more research we did, the more we realized that this plan had almost no drawbacks and a variety of benefits including…
Price. You can look on eBay or used gear sites like KEH.com for used point-and-shoots and find plenty of options for $25 to $50. That’s well within the range that we are comfortable spending on a toy, and if our kids lose interest or break their cameras accidentally, we haven’t lost a lot of money.
Selection. The sky really is the limit when it comes to selecting a used point-and-shoot, and no matter your budget you can probably find one that suits your needs – especially if the goal is to give it to a child. As a starting point search for “Powershot”, “Coolpix”, or “Cyber-Shot” and sort by price to see plenty of low-cost point-and-shoot options.

A quick eBay search for Canon PowerShot digital cameras between $25 and $50 turns up
 dozens of results.

Features. I owned a few small pocket cameras way back in college and over the years I had
forgotten how many features these old things had! Most of the ones we looked at included things
like optical viewfinders, video recording, optical zoom lenses, self-timers, limited manual controls, white balance options, various metering modes, macro/portrait modes, custom scene settings, and instagram-style filters. Some of these require digging through menus, but it’s all there for children to explore and figure out, which is part of the fun of photography in the first place.
Image quality. Can a decade-old point-and-shoot match the quality and megapixels of a modern DSLR or smartphone? Of course not. Most of the cameras you are likely to find will be in the 3-megapixel range, which pales in comparison to any modern camera. And good luck taking pictures at high ISO values. But the point is to use this as a way to get kids interested in photography, and no child I know is going to balk at having only 3 megapixel images. That’s plenty big enough to crop and print. (Remember, a 4×6 photo at 300dpi is only 2 megapixels.)

Image quality on a used point-and-shoot can’t rival a DSLR, but it can be easily and cheaply 

replaced if dropped in water when taking pictures of turtles. And that’s almost what happened 

when this photo was taken.

After all our investigating we ended up getting our boys each a Canon PowerShot DS450 Digital ELPH from eBay. We paid $27 for one and $29 for the other, including shipping. Our kids (age 6 and 3 when they received them) were so thrilled they could hardly put them down. They called them their “Professional Cameras” and quickly started taking pictures, experimenting with different options, and figuring things out in the menu screens while teaching each other what they had learned.
Over time our kids have learned a lot more about photography and how to use their cameras to get the images they want. And they really enjoy experimenting with the self timer and taking short videos too. We made albums for each of them within our Apple Photos app. Over the past year they have built their libraries up with thousands of pictures which they like looking through and sharing with others.

This picture of grandma and grandpa’s dog isn’t going to win any awards, but my son had fun 

taking it and it helps him remember this visit.

At times their interest has waxed and waned, and sometimes a month will go by without them picking up their cameras. But that’s how kids are with most toys, and I don’t think the situation would be any different had we spent $200 on a brand-new kid-friendly point-and-shoot. The situation isn’t all sunshine and roses though, and there have been some drawbacks and risks that any parent would need to take into account when buying a used camera.

The risks

Purchasing anything used, whether it’s a camera or a car, carries with it its own set of risks and parents should be aware of what they are getting into.
Gear condition. If you get a new camera, whether it’s a brightly-colored toy camera or an advanced drop-resistant point-and-shoot, you can be fairly certain that the product you pay for is the same as the product you receive. It will also likely come with a warranty, but neither of these is the case with used cameras. Reputable sites like KEH, B&H, and Adorama rate their items with a scale that gives you a pretty good expectation of their condition, but what you get in the mail might have scratches, dents, or other defects you might not expect.

Both of the cameras we got on eBay had dings and dents, but my kids didn’t mind at all and I 

would suspect most kids (especially very young ones) wouldn’t even notice.

Beware of auction sites. If you have never used eBay or other auction sites before, navigating their options can seem like a bit of a digital minefield. Look closely at seller ratings, return policies, and buyer-protection options before making a purchase. And if you come across a camera deal that seems too good to be true, it probably is. The same goes for cameras you might find on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of the seller.
Accessories not included. Depending on where you get your camera it may or may not come with niceties like a wrist strap, a memory card, or even a charger or working battery. The cameras we got for our kids had batteries that barely held a charge, so we got a pair of third-party batteries for about $15. It wasn’t too big of a deal but it served as a good reminder of the difference between buying used vs. buying new. Things like this aren’t deal-breakers and your pocketbook will be still be much happier, even if you do have to buy some of these additional items.

On a recent trip to the local botanic gardens my kids finally got to be the ones taking pictures 

of daddy, not the other way around. Simple wrist straps definitely helped them keep track of 

their cameras in the process.

The lesson here is one that has rung true for ages, ever since humans began trading for goods and services: caveat emptor—let the buyer beware. If you do a little bit of research, ask questions, and trust your instincts you will probably end up with a perfectly good camera that will be great for kids.
It’s been well over a year since my wife and I got used point-and-shoot cameras for our boys, and despite a few hiccups, the experiment has been a resounding success. It has not ignited some latent passion for photography, but our boys have had fun experimenting and exploring and creating – and thus far they haven’t broken their cameras either.

My three-year-old took this with the pocket camera we bought him for under $30. I asked him 

why, and he told me he just liked the colors of the bike.

Meanwhile my wife and I rest easy knowing that they can’t access harmful internet sites or download strange apps onto their 2005-era digital cameras. And if our kids do end up breaking or damaging their point-and-shoots it will be a very cheap problem to solve. (As a bonus, if they do break their cameras we plan to use it as a financial lesson and make them save up for replacements.)
If you or someone you know has kids who are interested in photography, I highly recommend checking out the many used cameras available to you before shelling out hundreds of dollars on a brand-new model or buying a cheap kid-friendly camera with actual bells and whistles, but limited capacity for photography. The risk is fairly minimal, the results can be quite rewarding, and you might even find yourself renewing your own excitement for photography simply by helping teach the younger generation what makes the art form so special to you.

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Here's a short video about buying cameras on Ebay:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGHpiIwUkQY&t=2s

This weeks free Ebook

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The Photographer's Guide to Copyright

Get tips to keep your work safe, plus read in-depth interviews from photographers and experts from ASMP, including Executive Director Eugene Mopsik and General Counsel and Managing Director Vic Perlman, who address:

• Major trends in copyright today.
• How to make copyright registration part of your workflow.
• The risks to weigh before posting your photos to social networks.
• What counts as “Fair Use”, plus major learnings from recent court cases.
• Copyright for motion and video.
• What it takes to bring an infringement case to court and ways to avoid it.

Also check out the guide for a long list of additional resources to learn more about copyright for photographers.

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The 4 Ps – Tips for Improving Your Wildlife Photography

By: Richard Beech

Taking photographs of wildlife can be one of the most exhilarating photographic experiences you can try. Spotting an animal in the wild can be thrilling, and being able to record that moment can be highly rewarding. However, wild animals can be a particularly challenging subject matter, so wildlife photography can often prove frustrating.
To help you get the most out of this compelling type of images, here are some tips to improve your wildlife photography.

#1 PREPARATION

No matter what type of wildlife you have chosen to photograph you will need to spend time getting to know its behaviour, routine and movements. Read up about your subject in advance, or search online for video or audio files, that can help you learn more about spotting your chosen subject. If possible, talk to experts in the field who know where, and when, to spot wildlife. If you are heading to a nature reserve or national park to take photographs, staff and volunteers are normally very willing to let you know of recent sightings, or give you some handy local advice.
Because you may only get a limited time in which to take wildlife photographs, getting to know your camera settings is extremely important. Familiarize yourself with how your camera and lens work before you get to the location so that you don’t miss an important shot by having the incorrect settings.
Before setting out, make sure you have packed all of the required gear, and you have spare memory cards and charged batteries. For wildlife photography, a telephoto lens is probably going to be essential, but do not overlook packing a wider angle lens to capture your animals as part of the landscape. Some of the best wildlife photographs show an animal in its environment and are not necessarily frame-filling portrait shots. If you are using a telephoto lens, a tripod or monopod can also form a useful part of your kit to minimize camera shake. A monopod offers greater flexibility of movement than a tripod when you are tracking wildlife on the move, but can still provide adequate stability for your camera to get sharp images.

Check weather reports for the day you are going to shoot wildlife, but do not necessarily be put off by bad weather. Animals do remain active during rainy or stormy days, and it is possible to get some dramatic shots in such conditions. You can buy special covers to protect your camera and lens in wet weather but, often, a durable plastic bag fixed in place with elastic bands can work just as effectively.
As with all genres of photography, lighting is key, and the best light for wildlife photography tends to be around sunrise and sunset. Animals also tend to be more active at these times of day, often searching for food. Therefore, make sure you get up early to be ready to take photographs in the golden light as the sun rises. Shooting into the sunset can transform a mundane subject into something special, so look for opportunities to capture dramatic wildlife silhouettes as the sun goes down (see image below).

#2 PRACTICE

As with all types of photography, composition can make the difference between a good image, and a great image. When composing wildlife photographs, remember basic compositional guidelines such as the highly effective Rule of Thirds. If your subject is looking to the left or right, leave an appropriate amount of space in the frame into which they can look. The same guideline applies if a moving animal is being captured – always leave room in the frame for them to move into.
Getting down to eye-level (or lower) with an animal can produce dramatic images. Taking a shot of an animal from a standing height looking down on it will usually lack any Wow Factor as this is the angle from which we are most used to seeing wildlife. Laying down on the ground so that you are at eye-level with, or looking up at, the animal will make your chosen subject seem large and powerful, and can add an element of drama to your final image.
A fundamental rule of wildlife photography is that the subject’s eyes must always be in perfect focus. However, the autofocus system on your camera can easily be tricked into locking onto another part of the animal. A helpful way around this is to set the camera to One Shot mode (AF-S for Nikon users), select the centre focus point in the viewfinder, lock the focus on the eyes by pressing the shutter release button halfway down and then, without releasing, recompose your shot. In addition to being perfectly focused on the eyes, the most compelling wildlife images have a catch-light in the eye. A flash, or speedlight, in your kit can be extremely useful for adding light to dark eyes when taking close-up animal portraits.

Getting the right focus becomes even harder when shooting an animal in motion. For moving wildlife, select a continuous autofocus mode such as AI Servo (AF-C) and select a single focus point in the viewfinder. Track the action by keeping the single focus point on the subject to ensure that remains in focus at all times, rather than the background or foreground.
Shooting in Aperture Priority mode can be extremely useful for wildlife photography. By using the widest aperture available (such as f/2.8) you will be able to use the fast shutter speeds necessary to produce sharp images. The narrow depth of field from using a wide aperture will also help to blur the background and, therefore, will isolate your subject and really make it stand out in the final image.
Do not be afraid to increase your ISO settings a little in order to keep the shutter speed fast, particularly if shooting in environments where lighting can be difficult, such as in a thick forest. A little bit of noise in your image is more acceptable (and easier to correct if you so wish) than an out-of-focus, or blurry image.

#3 PERSEVERANCE

While there is no denying that a certain amount of luck definitely comes in handy, the real key to taking better wildlife photographs is patience. Not necessarily the patience required for your chosen subject to appear, but the patience to capture the perfect shot that you have envisioned.
When you do find an animal out in the wild, watch it for as long as possible and not just from behind the viewfinder. Spend time with it and learn its ways. While observing the animal, try to capture some form of behaviour that is unique to that species. Documenting such behaviour can produce compelling wildlife shots. Most importantly, enjoy the experience of wildlife watching as much as taking photographs.
One quick tip is to keep all noise (as in be quiet, not camera noise) to a minimum when you are shooting in the wild. Dress appropriately, tread carefully, and possibly most importantly, switch your phone to silent mode. There is nothing worse than framing a shot and having your subject scared off by a ringing phone.

There may very well be some periods of waiting and watching. Try not to get too focused on one particular subject, take a look around while waiting for your subject to return. You never know, there may very well be something more interesting waiting just around the corner.
If you want to put in more practice with your wildlife photography but don’t have much time to spare, a public park can be a great place to visit on a lunch hour or after work. Parks attract a range of wildlife such as geese, swans or deer and often you can get a little bit nearer to the action. A duck pond can produce many opportunities for action shots and is a great place to practice your skills at close range.

#4 PASSION

To take your wildlife shots from good to great, you need to be passionate about the natural world you are photographing. Take the time to appreciate nature and wildlife in all of its forms, wherever you find it. You do not have to go to an exotic location to do great wildlife photography. For example, macro photography offers a range of wildlife opportunities including spiders, beetles and flies. As someone who was once highly arachnophobic, I can now appreciate the beauty of spiders and, since photographing them, I do find them more fascinating than scary.

You could even make a few simple changes to your own garden to encourage more wildlife to come to you. Making your garden wildlife friendly can be relatively inexpensive and highly beneficial to local wildlife. Adding a pond or wildflower patch is both good for the environment, and may provide you with photographic opportunities.
Most importantly, take great care when photographing wildlife. Do not put yourself, or the wildlife, at risk and do not disturb their natural habitats in the process of getting your shot. Respect all wildlife, get to know your subject well and you will be rewarded with some great images to share with others, to inspire them to care as much about the natural world as you do.

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7 Tips for Improving Your Wildlife Photography

By: Andrew Sproule

Creating attention-grabbing wildlife photography that makes a lasting impression is a difficult and demanding challenge. Typically you’re battling a number of uncontrollable and unpredictable elements, not least your subject’s behaviour, the weather, the environment and lighting.

But, when it all comes together it’s truly magical! To ensure you maximize every opportunity and extract the most out of your wildlife encounters, there are a number of approaches that you can adopt to help you get ahead.
Here are seven tips to help you take your wildlife photography to the next level.

1 – Know Your Camera

Wildlife’s special moments are often fleeting. Subsequently your camera needs to become an extension of you. Learning to adjust the focus point, shutter speed, aperture and other settings while continuing to look through the viewfinder, for instance, should become second nature. Leaving you to concentrate on being creative with what’s happening in front of you.

If you’re not familiar with the ins and outs of your camera, then you may not be exploiting its full potential and therefore limiting yourself. Take some time out to learn as much as you can about your camera’s features and practice, practice, practice.
If reading the user manual is too much like hard work or you’re a visual learner, search for related video resources online.

2 – Shoot at Eye Level

One of the best ways to ensure your audience is able to feel connected with wildlife through your images is to shoot at eye level with your subject. That often means getting low.
Looking down on your subject can feel unnatural and controlling. Shooting at eye level allows you to create images that are much more intimate, and because the viewer is seeing what they expect to see, there is a real sense of familiarity.

From a technical perspective, there are also a number of advantages to adopting this approach.
For instance, by positioning yourself, and more importantly your camera, on a parallel focal plane to your subjects’ eyes you will increase the likelihood of your camera’s sensor picking up, and locking focus on, the sharpest part of the image. This is partly dependent on the depth of field of course.

Another benefit of interacting with wildlife at their level is the ability to separate your subject from what’s behind the animal to achieve wonderful, unobtrusive backdrops.
So, be prepared to get down, get wet, and get dirty in order to get the best shots!

3 – Keep Backgrounds Simple

Imagine the scene. Your subject is sitting pretty; you’re at eye level and just about to capture the moment. What you haven’t noticed is a tree protruding out of your subject’s head!
The adrenaline rush is part and parcel of wildlife photography and we’ve all been there. We’ve all been caught up in the moment, but it’s important to remember to take a deep breath and look at the bigger picture. Literally!

It only takes a moment to run your eye around the edge of the frame to spot unwanted distractions in the scene and then take the appropriate action. Shifting your position by moving to the left, right, up or down, often only as little as a couple of inches may be all that’s required to craft a more pleasant scene.

4 – Know Your Subject

Research as much as you can about the animals that you’re going to photograph. It really does pay to be able to envisage what your subject is likely to do in given situations.

Animals are habitual and most lead relatively straightforward lives with uncomplicated daily routines. Once you’ve tapped into the characteristics of a particular subject such as its preferred habitat, how and when it feeds, mating displays and so on, the more likely you will be able to predict what’s going to happen next and be ready to capture it.

By becoming intimately acquainted with your subject species will result in distinctive, evocative images.

5 – Be Prepared

Some of the most iconic wildlife photography images have been captured by photographers who were able to make the most of spur-of-the-moment opportunities. By ensuring they had already dialled-in some baseline camera settings before heading out into the field, they were ready when the action occurred.

Nature’s flashes of magic are short-lived and second chances are rare. So checking the available light and firing off a couple of test shots before setting out, will ensure that you’ll be ready at a moment’s notice. As well, this will safeguard you against mistakenly using previously loaded settings from the day before.

Even the slowest animals can react suddenly. So try and set your shutter speed as high as possible given the available light and your ISO setting.

6 – Break the Rules

Understanding the fundamental rules of wildlife photography with regards to lighting, camera settings, and composition is essential. Regardless of camera brand, manual or aperture priority, back button focusing versus front, you have to do what works for you.
It’s okay to play it safe. But then again your camera is a tool, and like an artist’s brush, it’s what you do with it that will set you apart from your peers. Try experimenting with side lighting, backlighting (or rim lighting), test different viewpoints, close-up versus wide angle, look for patterns, trial alternative lenses, and settings.
Stretch yourself and you’ll grow as a wildlife photographer.

7 – Take Care

Finally, never forget that for us [photographers] it’s just about obtaining an image. But for wild animals, every day is a fight just to survive. No photograph is ever worth more than your subject’s welfare.
Share your wildlife tips and images in the comment area below.

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