Photographing wildlife on safari can be challenging. With the right camera settings you can focus on taking stunning photos rather than staring down at your camera settings. 

In three articles we are looking at what you need to take good travel photos on safari:

• Camer gear
• Camera technique
• Settings and configuration of gear

Safari in Southern Africa is one of our best travel memories and prints on the wall is a constant reminder of this. The right settings on your camera can make the difference between the perfect shot and you looking through the menus of the camera while the lion runs off.

Note that this is meant as a general guide to how the camera can be configured and not necessarily how it must be set up. There are numerous exceptions to all the examples below and the very best is to try the settings out yourself before travelling. If you manage to get a good shot of a bird at home you will be able to do the same on safari.

Camera modes

Most cameras come with five modes:

• Auto: As the name suggest the camera will automatically do the heavy lifting. If you are a beginner and want to ensure that the photos don’t turn out completely terrible this is a kind of safe mode. However, you will rarely be able to fully take advantage of the capabilities of the camera.
• Program mode: This mode works like auto, but you can change the shutter speed or aperture yourself and the camera will adjust the other settings accordingly. This might sound like the best option, but in our experience it is better to use the dedicated aperture and shutter priority modes as described below. Personally we never use program mode.
• Aperture priority: This mode allows you to set the aperture and the camera adjusts the shutter speed automatically. This is the mode we use for 80 % of all photos.
• Shutter priority: This mode allows you to set the shutter speed and the camera adjusts the aperture automatically. We rarely use this mode for a very simple reason: If you want a fast shutter speed it is better to set the camera to aperture priority and choose the larger aperture. In shutter priority you risk limiting your shutter speed to less than maximum because you define exactly what the shutter speed should be, not what it at least should be. One use of shutter priority is video, where you would typically want to have a fixed shutter speed of 1/50 or 1/60.
• Manual mode: As the name suggest all is manual and you have full control. This allows for much more precise and predictable results at the cost of being time consuming.

In addition to the modes above many cameras offer different automatic settings for sports, landscape, portrait and so on. If you are shooting in auto these modes might offer a slight improvement, but again the camera isn’t always able to understand what the best settings are. Aperture priority and manual mode is what we are using.

There is also an an “auto” mode in manual mode (yes, that is correct), which accounts for the remaining 20 % of the photos we take. This is how it works: You have full control over shutter speed and aperture, but by activating Auto ISO the camera adjusts the ISO automatically to maintain correct exposure for your shutter and aperture settings. This is by far the “ultimate” way of taking photos on safari, but require some practice to get it right.

Shutter speed, aperture and ISO

We mentioned some terminology above that might not be known to all. This is what it means and how if affects your photos on safari:

Shutter speed: This decides how much time it takes to take a photo. The shorter the time, the less likely the photo is to turn out blurry due to movement and vibrations. At the same time faster shutter speed means less light available. How fast the shutter speed should be depends on the focal length of your lens (how many millimeters), if your subject is moving and so on. You might be able to take a picture of a lion at close range at 1/20 of a second when using a tripod and image stabilisation, whereas a hand held shot of a bird in flight with a 500 mm lens might require a shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second The rule of thumb is that the shutter speed should be at least 1/(focal length). A 300 mm lens should therefore have a shutter speed of at least 1/300 s. Remember that this is a general rule of thumb and many factors need to be taken into account, such as image stabilisation, tripods, if the subject is moving fast (like wings of a bird) and so on. There is no one answer to this one, practice is the best way to learn what shutter speed you need. Take some photos of seagulls and other common birds at home before you travel and see what works and not with your gear.

Aperture: This decides how much light is let through your lens to the sensor. The larger the aperture, the more light. Also the larger the aperture, the shallower the depth of field is (how much of the photo that is in focus). To make this more confusing the aperture is specified as f/(number), meaning that the bigger the number is, the smaller the aperture. The division line is often omitted, writing the aperture like f4, f8 and so on. In general the larger the aperture the better (provides the most light and separates the subject from the background), but most lenses (especially the cheaper ones) are not as sharp wide open as stopped down a bit. If you have an f/2.8 lens you might get sharper photos at f/4. When we used a Sigma 150-600 mm f5-6,3 we often set the aperture to f8. Most lenses are sharpest around f8, but if you have a lens that with a much wider aperture than this you have to consider the loss of light by stepping down. By going from f4 to f8 you lose 75 % if the light, meaning that the exposure at f4 and 1/1000 s is the same as the exposure f8 and 1/250 s. That can introduce a lot more blur as the shutter speed is four times as slow.

ISO: Pronounced eye-so and “boosts” the exposure of your photo by amplifying the signal from the camera sensor. The disadvantage of this is that it introduces noise (and a few other factors such as reduced dynamic range). How much noise the camera produces varies from model to model. Take a few photos at different ISO values and see what you are comfortable with. We try to limit the ISO to 3200, but no rule without exception.

It is possible to choose Auto ISO as well, making the camera pick the ISO within certain values (that you decide, such as 100-3200) to maintain a minimum shutter speed. When the light changes the ISO will increase or decrease to maintain a given shutter speed (or higher). If you want full control of both shutter speed and aperture it is possible to set the camera in manual mode and activate Auto ISO. Not all cameras support this, but some do and it is very useful. When activated the minimum shutter speed is ignored and the ISO will change to maintain correct exposure for both the shutter speed and aperture you choose. This gives you full control while maintaining the user friendliness of auto exposure.

Autofocus

First of all: Turn autofocus on! Manual focus is a hassle and does not necessarily provide any more accurate results than autofocus.

There are two main kinds of focus as stated in part 2; single and continuous focus. Some cameras also offer an auto option that automatically switches between the two. In our opinion the automatic system is not that good and we prepare having more control ourselves. One last option is to enable continuous focus, but separate the focus from the shutter button, known as back button autofocus. This is by far the best way of focusing and we use it for 100 % of the photos we take. With the exception of the times it takes to get used to this setup we cannot see any disadvantages with this.

There is also different choices for how to select focus points, such as auto (camera selects focus points), single point, group and more. If you are photographing a stationary or slow moving subject a single autofocus point provides best control. For fast action the auto option makes it easier to get the focus in the right place. However, the auto function focuses on what is closest to the camera, which may not be what you wish to focus on. Nikon has an option known as 3D tracking, which works remarkably well. In this mode you first choose where to focus, then the camera tracks the subject and moves the focus points around automatically to keep focus in the same place.

At last it is worth noting something specifically about DSLR focusing. Since the focus is based on the mirror rather than the actual sensor the focus is not always 100 % perfect. If you have plenty of time to take a photo of a stationary subject, focusing in live view (seeing what to photograph through the LCD on the back of the camera) will provide better accuracy. The trade off is a very slow focus, so use this for stationary subjects only.

Image format

There are two main formats to choose from, RAW and JPG. The latter one provides a “finished” photo while RAW gives you a straight out of the camera unprocessed file. At the same time RAW provides much more flexibility to makes changes to shadows and highlights later on. If you have never edited photos before the safest option is JPG, but if you want to get as much as you can out of the camera RAW is by far the best option. It is also possible to choose RAW+JPG, saving your photos in both formats.

When choosing RAW you might be able to select between 12 and 14 bit quality. Under normal circumstances it is not possible to see the difference between the two and 12 bit will save you a fair amount of space. However, if you are planning on recovering a large amount of shadow detail 14 bit can provide better results.

White balance, resolution, metering and EV compensation

White balance: If you shoot in RAW white balance will not matter (apart from previewing the photo in camera). If JPG it does affect the photos, but in most cases choosing the auto option is the best. If you are shooting under special light conditions you may consider trying out other white balance options for better results.

Resolution: In general the resolution should be set to the highest option. This allows for more details and the ability crop the photo later on. However, there are two exceptions:

1. Less space: If you are short on memory a lower resolution will save you a fair amount of storage space. If the photo will be cropped later on anyway you might crop the sensor right away (which gives a lower resolution) to save space.
2. Higher burst rate: Some cameras are able to shoot faster if the sensor is cropped which might be beneficial in some cases.

Metering: In most situations the metering can be left at the default value, being matrix metering (Nikon) or evaluate metering (Canon). Dark birds against a bright background might be underexposed and selecting spot metering can solve this, but make sure you review the images to ensure that the exposure is right.

EV compensation: By default it is set to 0, which is good. If you want to make sure that no highlights are blown in bright areas of the picture you can change the EV comp to for instance -0.3 or -0.7, but remember to correct the exposure in for instance Lightroom. In other words, this is most useful if you plan on editing your photos later on. Another case is when shooting in the evening and you want to exposure to look like it does to you. Cameras sometimes tries to expose for daylight and by setting the EV comp to -1 or -2 you can get a more correct exposure.

Single shot or burst

On safari you usually want to take as many photos as possible, especially when photographing wildlife in motion. Set the camera to burst and fire away, then pick your best photos and delete the rest later on. The only disadvantage with this is that it requires a fair amount of storage and you might not want to review thousands of photos later on.

Nikon specific tips

We are using Nikon ourselves and have a few tips especially for these cameras. Note that all of these settings might not be available for all Nikon cameras:

Easy access to ISO: The video record button on top of the camera can be reassigned to ISO, making it much easier to reach than the button on the back. Note that newer cameras like the D5, D500, D850 and D7500 already have a dedicated ISO button on top of the camera.

Configure U1 and U2: The dial on top of the camera selecting camera mode (auto, A, P, M S and so on) has two options for U1 and U2. By configuring these to specific settings for action (for example manual mode with auto ISO and settings for shutter speed and aperture to most used values) one can quickly change many settings to adapt to a bird in flight or an animal showing up unexpected.

Change focus point on rotation: When the camera is rotated between landscape and portrait the selected focus point(and focus mode on some models) can switch automatically. This is very useful when changing rotation frequently and you want to save time moving the focus point back and fourth (this setting is called Store points by orientation).

OK button for zoom: Configure the camera to zoom to 100 % on photos to ensure that they are sharp and in focus. This can be selected for both image review and in live view.