Photography

Topaz.

dont forget they often shoot at very high iso so this software is essential for wildlife

wildlife photos incredibly sharp how

Incredibly expensive equipment.

I can recommend Simon d'Entremont on Youtube, if you want to go into wildlife photography. And Duade Paton. And others I just forgot.

Expensive lenses, lots of practice and opportunities, good post editing skills.

In short, lots of practice. We work at it. We might not always end up with magazine quality images but it's what some of us strive for. I've only been at this for like eight years now. Still learning bucket loads. I'm pleased if some of my captures are clean shots in good light, and that I can get a reasonable composition out of something that initially wasn't at first blush, usable. Best of all, I still enjoy going out into the urban wilderness to make photos of birds and critters. ~Excelsior!~

https://preview.redd.it/ldhd4mspogzb1.jpeg?width=1363&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c23d38193007525475cf79ebe7dea8a09ad4485

It's the glass. Their expensive primes are insane. Our classic mainstream affordable zooms can't compare.

Great camera, expensive lens, years of practice, fantastic technique … and then take 1000 pictures and only show people the 3-4 sharpest ones they took

Using the same techniques to get sharp photos in any situation (shitter speed appropriate to your subject/to get the desired end result, knowing how to gauge aperture well enough to get the entirety of your subject sharp but also still isolated from the background), a long lens, a tripod with the ball loose enough to pan freely, and shooting on continuous high.

Then of course, being very patient and taking lots of shots when an opportunity does arise. Wildlife photography is more akin to sports photography than any other type of photography, only way more unpredictable. You arent going to go out and just snap one shot and get exactly what you hoped to out of it like you could a portrait, architecture, landscape, etc. And even with sport photography, you know where the action is headed/going to be. Wild animal.... pshhh... who knows what they are going to do lol.

Honestly, like 80% of the time wildlife photography guves me anxiety lol. Wondering if youve taken enough shoots to get the one you will love, worrying about missing out on an opportunity while its right in front of you, all while trying to focus and be patient enough to wait for the shot to be right... but never really knowing until it happens.

Then other things happen... like the animal just runs off unexpectedly and that moment you waited hours for is gone. Or you check a couple shots on the LCD screen real quick to see if youve got something that you like.. just to get home and look at it in LR and realize the shot you thought was a banger if fricken out of focus. Or just the monotony of looking through 100s or 1000s of pictures of the same animal hoping to find one that you really nailed... but you dont lol.

I've had trips where I spent days traveling and days at a location... only to never get to encounter the animal i was hoping to photograph.

Wildlife photography is my bread and butter. Its very exciting to nail the shot you envisioned, but can very easily be a lot of miss opportunity... even when you are prepared.

https://preview.redd.it/dp6aejj5xgzb1.jpeg?width=1896&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=767d6bbfcfa89af4f91518b5b87a27a1a9581938

It’s all about the setup and glass. Being as close as you can be while maintaining ethics. Then, taking thousands of photos until you get that 1 perfect (in your opinion) photo. Wildlife photographers spend weeks/months/years photographing specific species. When you think of a week vacation, they are spending 7 days sitting in a snowy field eating beef jerky and granola bars waiting for an elusive snow leopard, and hiring sherpas to help pack in base camp.

Good glass, fast speeds, predictability of situations, sometimes a tinge of flash, stabilized lenses and above all, a lot of experience.

That's pretty much it.

A really good lens will give you sharper results than a cheap one, but it can be hard to tell the difference between a really good lens and just a decent one unless you're pixel peeping. Some more important factors to create sharp wildlife photos:

- Get the eyes in focus. Sharp eyes lead to a sharp looking photo

- Be selective. If a shot is not sharp, consider it a missed shot. Don't edit and share it

- Composition. A poorly composed shot might be perfectly sharp, but have lower perceived sharpness. Poor contrast, busy frame, etc can make a shot feel less shop

- Get close. If your subject is tiny in the frame, perceived sharpness is lower. If you do a ton of cropping, you lose sharpness. Get close enough to fill the frame with your subject and capture detail

- Manage noise. Noise reduces detail. Pay attention to lighting so you can keep ISO down. If you do have to push ISO, use some of the amazing noise reduction software that's available to clean up your image

- Limit sharpening. Over sharpening images in post can make images look bad. If you're not starting off with a sharp image, sharpening in post won't fix that

- Post processing. Edit photos to improve contrast in key areas, bring out details that may be lost in shadow or bright areas, draw attention to the correct areas (eyes for example). These things help perceived sharpness

Good lenses definitely make a difference but I've found shutter speed is one of the most important factors. Even for something stationary I tend to try to aim for a minimum of 1/1000s as even a gentle breeze and motion from the subject breathing will cause micro movements in feathers and fur that can make the image look soft at lower shutter speeds.

This was shot at 1/1250 to stop those micro movements.

£5k+ cameras and £15k+ lenses certainly help too lol

If you've never used a supertelephoto prime then you'll have a hard time believing just how good they are. The optical designs are incredibly sharp, offer fantastic contrast and colour reproduction, as well as having almost zero distortion.

And no, their photos don't look borderline fake.

Mostly it's a mix between fast shutter speed, good AF, and taking a lot of photos. But before that you have to understand and learn how to work your AF, your camera ... So first of all it's a lot of practice too.

It is "not" that difficult, it is down to shutterspeed or tripod, or an combination of both. It does also help to take lots of photos to get the technique right.

But, some of the photos you see also have been sharpened to the point where they stop looking real.

1. A lot of Phots. 1 of a few hundret Photos is the money shot.
2. Fast Shutterspeed.
3. Very good quality glass

Good lenses and post-processing.

They are using a tripod and the Topaz Sharpen app! https://www.topazlabs.com/sharpen-ai
If you want to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDpIEMUcc18

I used to struggle with this but this year I upgraded to a camera with AI focus & animal eye focusing. This has made it very easy to get sharp images when combined with a good lens and fast enough shutter speed.

perfect light, lots of light aka luck as well

A combination of very expensive gear, considerable skill, enormous patience and the fact that you aren't seeing all of the missed shots that went before.

1. Years of experience - in most cases, decades worth.
2. Professional lenses that cost North of $12,000
3. Planning and patience so they can...
4. FILL that frame.

You think they gear up in camo from head to toe, crawl into a pup-tent at 3am to shoot through a tiny hole cut in the side whilst dousing themselves in stanky deer piss because any of that is fun?

You should watch some of the BTS for the camera operators that did the various BBC "Planet Earth" shows. What they do to get the shot in some cases is insane... but given the quality of the footage they brought back, absolutely required.

If you're just heading down to the local lake and strolling around with a $300 lens attached, well, you're not going to get what they get.

Simon d’Entremont is another good YouTube resource with lots of non-gear centric advice but yeah the answer seems to be pro body (probably mirrorless), one of the expensive prime 400 or 600’s, a shit ton of prep and forethought, and a shit ton of pictures and time waiting.

1. Skill - you can set yourself up in locations where the light is good and the angle is good and pick appropriate settings to maximize the image quality. Knowing how high of a shutter speed you need and how to track something that's moving and keep it in focus are absolutely learnable.

2. Patience - i could never be a wildlife photographer since i'm just not willing to sit long enough. I've got some good shots by chance, but you can't really wake up and decide - today i'm going to take a great shot of an eagle.

3. Equipment - long fast lens, sensors with excellent high ISO performance

4. Post Processing - digital tools have gotten really good for sharpening and increasing the resolution on images.

They focus stack. They take 4-10 shots at small apertures on a tripod with the focus set from front to back. Then they merge them, so the entire image is in focus.

Silent high speed shutter, also really sharp long focal length lenses.

You take a lot of photos.

Try and retry.

You get one with the best "moment".

It is always a skill to know "when" it is the "moment" to take the photo. One which you get by trying over and over again, then you "feel" when it is right.

That's about it.

Practice, time and skill. Gear can help too.

Get close to the subject and use a very long lens. Use a shutter speed that doesn't sacrifice sharpness. Shoot in good light where you can keep the ISO low.

I owned a Canon 400mm 2.8L IS and let me tell you that using expensive glass makes crisp shots a LOT easier. But good wildlife shooters spend many hours in the field and take many shots to get THE ONE shot.

If you are asking this because you want to do it, one good budget option is to purchase a chair and a bird feeder. You can usually sit 8-10 feet away from the feeder and they'll still come. It is good practice, and if you are quick or careful with the framing, you won't have the feeder in every shot. For camera settings, google the following and see what other people are doing:

• [your camera model] birding settings
• [your camera model] BIF settings
• [your highest quality telephoto lens model] sweet spot (you are looking for the aperture setting where the lens starts to become very sharp, and the one where it starts to lose sharpness again. If its a zoom, this may vary across the zoom range)

Just as an example, I usually photograph birds with a 300mm f/4 lens that is sharpest from f/5.6-f/8. Settings are - shutter speed a little over 1/1000s, aperture in the sharpest range, and ISO set to auto. High speed burst always.

For lens choice, you are really going to be limited if you don't have anything 200mm+ and good quality. But if all you have is a 50mm lens or something, just move the chair closer. This is for feeder photos - for actual walking around, the longer the better. But try whatever you have. I have photographed hummingbirds with a 70mm lens and a 100mm lens - some animals just don't care what you are doing as long as you aren't moving aggressively towards them.