TECHNIQUES
Stay sharp
Get to know your camera’s auto-focus functions and learn how to shoot sharp urban wildlife images
The wildlife genre is seen as one of the most difficult to master for good reason. Along with other genres, such as action or sports photography, the biggest difficulty is getting sharp results. Both the speed of the subject and its unpredictable movements make it a challenge to get sharp images. Here, having some technical knowledge of AF functions and AF points is essential to fine-tune the performance of the autofocus so you don’t miss a moment of the animal’s action.
Cameras have three different AF function modes: AF-S – one shot where the camera just focuses one time; AF-C – Al-servo mode to continuously keep the focus on the animal as long as the shutter button is half-pressed; and AF-A/AI focus AF, where the camera automatically chooses between AF-S or AF-C. Many wildlife photographers report that AIservo mode gives the most accurate results.