My Wildlife Photography: 2014

When I started photographing wildlife, I wasn't giving much attention to the background against which I would be placing my subjects. In fact the excitement I had, whenever I pressed my shutter release, was so overwhelming that I could hardly think about it. Few years later I realised that my popular wildlife photos are where the subject stands out against a beautiful blurred background. I started giving more attention to the background ever since.

To direct the attention of the viewer to the subject, it is important that the subject should not be lost in the background clutter, however beautiful it is. This can be achieved by limiting the depth in a scene that comes in focus. If the planned depth-of-field for a particular shot is carefully chosen to envelop just the subject, everything else in front and behind the subject will be out of focus or blurred.

© Retheesh Kalathil Rajkumar - All Rights Reserved

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens is set at 105mm and f/4. The large aperture that is visible in this left image produces a very shallow depth-of-field, just enough for the red pin.

© Retheesh Kalathil Rajkumar - All Rights Reserved

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens set at 105mm and f/16 shows the octagonal shaped opening. This small aperture produces large depth-of-field that covers almost all the pins.

Out of focus background blur in photography is called Bokeh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh) which is technically and aesthetically(?) different from blurring the background using image editors like Photoshop or GIMP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_blur). I have seen guys at my local wedding studio do the selective blurring in Photoshop by using "Adjustment layers and Layer Masks". You can learn about it here, http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/masking-layers.html. I am not against someone using an image editing software to replace backgrounds, combining different images to create a single image or any other manipulation. I just don't use it for wildlife or nature photography and I am unaware of any wildlife/nature photographer who does that.

Creating an out of focus background blur or bokeh in photography is not difficult, especially when shooting in a controlled atmosphere like a studio or in a situation where you can move the subject around. A good lens certainly produces pleasing bokeh.

Two lenses I would recommend for the beginners are here.

1. http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-100mm-f-2.8-USM-Macro-Lens-Review.aspx

2. http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-50mm-f-1.8-II-Lens-Review.aspx

Setting the lens to its largest aperture (f/2.8 or f/1.8 for the above mentioned lenses as an example) increases the out of focus area in a picture or in other words produces a shallow depth-of-field. A longer focal length also reduces depth-of-field. With a zoom lens, taking photo at its telephoto end while keeping the aperture wide open will give the best possible chance of achieving a nice background blur.

I currently use Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM for my wildlife photography. It can produce nice bokeh if you are fortunate to locate yourself close enough to your subject in relation with its background.

To make things clear, please see these three photographs below, all taken with same camera and settings, f/5.6 at 400mm (Remember, bokeh is unaffected by ISO and shutter speed).

This Red Fox was walking on the other side of the River Kelvin in Glasgow, subject is far from camera.

It stayed close to the vegetation, background distance to the subject is small.

Result: Absence of bokeh

Reason: Distance between subject and its background is very small compared to the distance between camera and subject.

I waited in vain anticipating that the fox would walk further down to a clearing where the vegetation was only on the sloping river bank, far from the waterline.

I spotted this beautiful Painted Stork at Bharatpur in Rajasthan, taking off from its nest and flying towards me. I waited patiently while tracking the bird through the view finder. When it came flying low over the lake I started taking pictures. Subject was not vey far from camera

The background was a small islet, not very far from the bird.

Result: Bokeh, just good enough for the subject to pop.

Reason: Distance between subject and its background is similar to the distance between subject and camera.

One of the most unmistakable birds, Atlantic Puffin, comes to the same breeding place every summer. These bird colonies are huge and breathtakingly beautiful. I took this picture in Isle of May in Scotland.

It was towards the end of the season and this particular individual landed on a rocky outcrop near its burrow with 2 Sand eels in its beak. It was less than 5 meters from me.

The lichen covered cliff was the background. Distance between subject and its background is very large.

Result: Nice clean bokeh

Reason: Distance between subject and its background is very large compared to the distance between subject and camera.

Finally, composition also plays a big role in creating interesting images.

© 2013 Retheesh Kalathil Rajkumar - All Rights Reserved

I took the picture of this Common Greenshank while lying flat on the beach. It was important to use a very low angle to place the bird against the vast expanse of the nice blue sea. As you can see, it resulted a clean image and the subject stands out.

Now compare it with this image of the same bird at same location but taken in my early years of photography, April 2007. I was naive, I stood high on an elevated sandy bank and looked down at the bird, invariably eliminating any chance of getting the bokeh!

Further reading:

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field

2) http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/dof2.shtml

My Wildlife Photography

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Bokeh

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