Photographing Animals in Motion

Photographing Animals in Motion

Tips for Capturing Stunning Shots

Photographing animals in motion is a thrilling yet challenging aspect of wildlife and action photography. Whether you’re photographing a bird mid-flight, a cheetah sprinting across the savannah, or your dog in the park, there’s something rewarding about capturing motion in these scenarios. However, mastering these photographs requires the right combination of technical settings, equipment, and technique. In this blog post, we’ll explore the essential tips for photographing animals in motion, focusing on key factors like ISO, aperture, shutter speed and using the right equipment and accessories.

 

Shutter Speed: The Key to Freezing Action

When photographing animals in motion, using the correct shutter speedis the most important setting to control. It refers to how long your camera’s sensor is exposed to light and how much motion blur will appear in your image. To ‘freeze’ fast-moving animals, you need to use a fast shutter speed. Typically, a 1/1000s shutter speed or faster is recommended for action shots, however, depending on the speed of the subject, you might need to adjust accordingly:

  • Fast-moving animals (like birds or cheetahs): Use 1/2000s to 1/4000s or faster.
  • Moderate movement (like a running dog): Try 1/1000s to 1/2000s.
  • Slower action (like a walking animal): 1/500s should be sufficient.

Another method of using shutter speed is panning, which involves following the subject’s motion with your camera while using a slower shutter speed such as 1/50s (adjust between 1/30s and 1/80s for best results). This produces an image with a sharp subject with a motion blurred background, adding a sense of motion and speed into the still imagery.

When using faster shutter speeds your camera collects less light resulting in darker looking images, therefore you will need to use your aperture and ISO settings to achieve the correct exposure. 

 

Aperture: Balancing Depth of Field and Light

The aperture (measured in f-stops) controls both the depth of field (how much of the image is in focus) and the amount of light entering the lens and therefore the camera. For animal action shots, you’ll want a wider aperture (lower f-number) to create a shallow depth of field, allowing your subject to stand out against the background. This is also beneficial because a larger aperture such as f/2.8 or f/4 gathers more light into the lens creating brighter images.

As mentioned in the previous section, more light entering the lens allows you to use faster shutter speeds and capture faster moving action. Alternatively, a wider aperture allows you to retain a fast shutter speed in dim conditions such as sunrise, sunset or dusk. However, keep in mind that a wide aperture also means less depth of field meaning less of the image is in sharp focus. This means that you will need to make sure your focus is precise. This fine balance between shutter speed and aperture is essential when photographing animals and capturing action in changing lighting conditions.

ISO: Completing the balance

ISO controls your camera’s sensitivity to light. This control allows you to brighten your images when you cannot or don’t want to change your shutter speed or aperture. For example, if you are photographing a dog running at 1/1000s and f/2.8 because you want to capture the action and isolate your subject from the background but the image is still too dark, you can increase your ISO to brighten the image and achieve the correct exposure.

However, like aperture and shutter speed, ISO does come with a drawback. As you increase your camera’s ISO and increase its sensitivity to light, your image will contain more unwanted noise creating grainy looking images. To keep your ISO as low as possible and retain a fast shutter speed you can use a fast lens such as an f/2.8 or f/4. Best practice is to always try and keep your ISO as low as possible to allow for cleaner looking images.

 

Continuous Autofocus

After managing your exposure settings correctly, another critical feature for photographing moving animals is your camera’s autofocus mode. To keep up with a subject that is constantly changing position, use a continuous autofocus mode:

This mode allows the camera to continually adjust the focus while the animal is moving. It ensures that even if the subject is running, flying, or swimming, your camera will track the animal, keeping it in focus as you change your framing, zoom in and out or change settings.

Additionally, to capture more images per second, use the fastest shooting speed your camera can handle. This will allow you to shoot multiple frames in quick succession, increasing your chances of capturing the perfect action shot.

Finding the right lens for you

For capturing action, having the right lens is crucial. A telephoto lens is often preferred because it allows you to stay a safe distance from the subject while still getting close-up shots. A 70-200mm f/2.8 or 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens is a popular choice for wildlife and action photographers.

As mentioned in the previous sections, using a lens with a wide maximum aperture such as f/2.8 is ideal as it lets more light into the camera allowing for faster shutter speeds. Using a variable aperture lens such as a f/4.5-5.6, means that you will capture less light as you zoom in, changing your exposure, resulting in you having to keep changing your ISO or shutter speed to compensate for the loss of light. Doing this takes your attention away from the action, meaning that you may miss good shots. However, a lens like this gives you more versatility with a longer focal range.

Therefore, if you are capturing animals at a long to far away distance a 100-400mm lens may be better suited than a 70-200mm lens which gives you a wider aperture but better at medium to long distances.

 

Essential Accessory Equipment

While having a camera and lens allows you to take your images, having extra accessories can help improve your experience and gets better results:

  • Tripod or Monopod: If you're photographing larger animals or birds from a distance, using a monopod or tripod can help stabilize the lens and reduce fatigue, especially when using heavy telephoto lenses.
  • Memory Cards and Batteries: When trying to capture the perfect action shot, you may find yourself shooting hundreds of images, so it’s essential to have spare memory cards and batteries on hand, especially if you’re photographing for extended periods. A faster memory card such as a v60 or v90 speed card will enable your camera to take more images per burst.

 

Conclusion

Photographing motion can be challenging and a lot to handle, however the results are so rewarding and worth the time spent. Understanding the fine balance between shutter speed, aperture and ISO is crucial for capturing high quality images of animals in motion. Investing in the right gear, from a fast lens to useful accessories, also makes a big difference. But most importantly, patience and practice are key. So, next time you head out to photograph animals, keep these tips in mind, and you’ll be well on your way to creating stunning images which will be well worth the wait.

 

Posted by Emma Davies
2nd May 2025

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