5 common wildlife photography MISTAKES.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Tell us about other mistakes you have made or seen?

[@sarelalberts8890]

Thanks Charl for sharing .One off the biggest and most costly mistakes I made was "Not to check how full my memory card was".I lost out on some really good action on two birds of pray fighting in the air .And I did hire'd a lens for that.

[@PangolinWildlife]

That is an excellent one! Happens to the best of us.

[@rhodesia1578]

As I am a pro photographer I would highly recommend anyone wanting to get into wildlife photography is to firstly do landscape photography first as this will not only compliment your wildlife photography but give you a better understanding of what and how composition impacts your finished images . Great wildlife images are always complimented by its surrounding landscape , it’s a match made in heaven when executed correctly . Too many photographers in their early days of wildlife photography focus far too much on portraits of the animals and not thinking outside the frame of the camera . It’s all about experience which does take years to perfect .

[@adedotunajibade]

Great counsel

[@emmanuelscreationsbyjibu5983]

Good tips.waiting for your new videos

[@NikCan66]

Again another educational tutorial and its a pity some other people don't have the dedication to helping lots of people

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thanks again. Happy to help.

[@NikCan66]

@@PangolinWildlife each of your presenters are the oracle's of photographic knowledge

[@PangolinWildlife]

@@NikCan66 That is very true...and they are still learning new stuff themselves every day!

[@NikCan66]

@@PangolinWildlife we all learn from the oracle's that surround us in different ways

[@johnpearsesafaris9524]

Great video Charl, thank you

[@philradoslovich4377]

Thanks for this video Charl. Great advice. Doesn't seem like 2 years since we were on the Chobe with Pete, Vicki and yourself!

[@charl-pangolinphotohost970]

Hi good to hear from you. Wow that long ago it feel just like the other day.

[@stycheus]

Great pointers! Especially regarding composition.

[@charl-pangolinphotohost970]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad it was helpful!

[@davidclode3601]

Thanks Charl!

[@michellestewart7494]

I love all the shares on this channel. Awesome thank you for all you shared.🇨🇦😉

[@ro3843]

Great tips dude

[@johannlouw7347]

Hi Carl.. Nailing it again! Thanks for a very informative video.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thanks Johann. Much appreciated.

[@bro7269]

I have a habit of not resetting my exposure compensation between photos. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been surprised by an animal. I quickly start shooting only to find all the photos are over or under exposed.

[@PangolinWildlife]

You are not the only one, it happens to all of us.

[@chandreshjoshi9661]

Very important and useful hints. Thank you very much.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad it was helpful!

[@72JPP]

Thanks for sharing your best experiece, often i use low iso

[@PangolinWildlife]

Great to hear!

[@scrptwic]

Forgetting to turn off exposure compensation and wondering why my pictures are dark .I reset my camera when I use to Apature Priority and set my Apature to F11 so I know everything is in focus and set from there.

[@charl-pangolinphotohost970]

Think so many people forget to put there exposure compensation back to default, especially after a exiting sighting and your mind is at a different place.

[@dilanjayawickrama2469]

Tks for the tips, what metering you would recommend??

[@ghlocal1]

Using too slow of a shutter speed for low light because I’m trying to keep my ISO down. So frustrating to have a blurry image. Hopefully it will never happen again!

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thank you for your comment lets hope this will change your photography. Charl

[@gianmariarosso]

Grazie 1000

[@lestrewinnard2607]

Great video again, Charl. Do I get the T-shirt for making all of those mistakes? How often have I picked up the camera, taken a few shots then wondered what settings I was using! Would you recommend ISO auto with maximum setting of 2000 - could be one less thing to think about if in a hurry. Stay well.

[@charl-pangolinphotohost970]

Hi Les good to hear from you. Yes that is a good idea try M with Auto iso, that is also if you can do exposure compensation with that setting. Some cameras do not allow that. If not then you can set you camera to Aperture priority or Shutter priority with auto iso. That should make it easier if something happens fast, and if your subject gives you enough time you can then do your fine tuning. In most cameras from today you should be able to cap your iso at 3200 with descent results, depending also on full frame and crop sensor and personal taste, but if you feel its to noisy for your taste and prefer 2000 then yes that is a good suggestion.

[@PangolinWildlife]

I like the idea of a t-shirt for those who messed it up at the crucial moment....

[@erikbeckius9231]

Always check your camera gear before leaving home so you don't forget for example memory cards, I forgot that and after a two hour hike it was painful to realise that I hade left that at home :)

[@PangolinWildlife]

Gutting!

[@jrnmiranda1]

👍👌 your comments are very pertinent ✌

[@NealeWard]

More than just the camera body settings - I wasted 5 minutes on the first day trying to work out what was wrong with my diopter offset.. wondering if I'd bashed the body or lens somewhere in transit... had the guy who cleaned it wrecked the mirror.. was it set for back button.. not back button.. My lens was on manual 🤦🏻‍♂️ My other favorite is leaving image stabilization off when I've been using a tripod. Thanks for the reminders, I need to come back and practice more

[@faaiqk]

I feel your pain. I've been there as well. :)

[@charl-pangolinphotohost970]

Hi Neale good to hear from you, yes we all learn through our mistakes as long as we not keep on repeating it. Would love to have you back by us.

[@charl-pangolinphotohost970]

@@faaiqk I think we all have at some point, as long as we learn from it.

[@slowlyrusting4044]

I have missed far more "action" photos than I care to admit because I forgot to turn off exposure delay mode. Nothing worse than correctly anticipating the moment of action, pressing the shutter release and a couple of seconds later "click" !!! 🤬

[@maemu_matshete]

HI CHARL ,I AM USING THE CANON 7D MK II ,HOW DO I CONTROL THE EXPOSURE COMPENSATION IF I'M SHOOTING ON MANUAL MODE ?

[@charl-pangolinphotohost970]

If you shoot full M then you have to use your 3 exposure tools, Either ISO, Shutter speed or Aperture. Regardless what your setting is, just change one of them. I assume you do your exposure reading depending on what you see on your exposure meter. Normally to get perfect exposure you will have to do your reading so the dot that moves on your exposure meter is in the middle. So if you have it in the middle and you want to under expose you can either make your shutter speed faster or close your aperture or bring your iso down. By doing one of this changes you will see your photos will get darker depending on how much changes you do. If you want to over expose then you do the opposite off course. Hope this explain it well enough for you. Other alternative is shooting M with auto iso and make use of exposure compensation. This way is much easier in wildlife photography

[@NikCan66]

I shot in jpeg because I set my camera to a family member to get more shots on the card. I forgot to reset to raw. I only shoot raw now.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Generosity backfiring!

[@ElenaHanak]

I’d like to tell you about my experience with some Auto mode. And it concerns the Focus mode: AF-C, Area Auto. I always thought that Auto-area is only for beginners and I never used it… Usually, I use a single point or 25 points dynamic area. But some time ago and tried to use auto-area to shoot flying birds and it did work very well with my Nikon D500. When 3D-tracking or 25-points sometimes had a-little-bit-not-sharp photos, the auto-area either had it blurry or nailed the focus absolutely. This mode focuses the closest subjects and keeping that in mind I managed to photograph flying bee-eaters on a busy background like the sandy wall or trees because the birds were closest subjects... It seems to me that focus is also quicker than with 25-points, it grabs the closest point faster. I learnt that some auto-modes in some cases are worth to try ;-) And now I have a question for you, Charl. I like to photograph birds and they are sometimes in the sky where I need to raise my exposure compensation for +1.3/+2 EV stops und then they are against the trees or grass where I need to go to minus compensation sometimes. Spot-metering helps but not always and it is not really very precise when the exposure changes rapidly. How do you manage the exposure in such cases? Especially in tracking situation where you really don't have much time to change exposure compensation? Can one button be so programmed that you press and hold it and it is +2 EV, and by release it is 0.?

[@PangolinWildlife]

Charl? What say you?

[@charl-pangolinphotohost970]

Hi Elena thank you for your reply. First you have a really nice camera the D500 is one of the best crop sensor DSLR cameras out there with very good focusing and tracking system. Its good to try all focusing modes on your camera to learn and know how and where to use them, and in some cases the auto areas can help especially if your subject has strong contrast vs your back ground. The problem for me is that your camera doesn't know where you want to focus and so often it focuses on the wing and not the head or eye. I use single point focusing so I can be more precise on where I want to focus. It still is challenging but with a bit of practice my keepers are more. I'm glad it worked out for you and you got some sharp ones. This is a very good question and a lot of people struggle with that. I'm not sure of a button that you can program for that to be truly honest I have never thought of it that way. I personally stay away from dull or blue back grounds with birds in flight unless there is a behavior involved. In this case I would do my exposure for when the bird will fly in front of the green bushes, grass or trees to have the bird pop in front of a blurry or buttery green backdrop. For me this is a much more appealing image. The only way to expose correctly for a bird in flight with changing background conditions would be shooting in full manual mode so that your camera doesn't adjust the exposure once the background changes. However, you need to keep in mind that your bird has to have the same light on it. If it flies from sun into shade then spot metering will still be your best bet.

[@ElenaHanak]

@@charl-pangolinphotohost970 Hi Charl, thank you very much for a such extensive answer! Sure, I do shoot in the manual mode (with auto-ISO). And I absolutely agree with you that pictures of birds in scenic environments like grass, trees are more appealing! Except when they feed each other in the air or when they fight so, as you mentioned, when behaviour is involved. My partner uses Sony A7R IV and he mentioned that it is possible to customize the button for exposure compensation. Not so for Nikon... Theoretically I can try with AE-L (exposure lock) options (on burst, half pressed) or a flash to lighten the shadows. There is an option on Nikon to customize the button for flash on/off: by pressing it - the flash is off, releasing - on. But can we flash on birds during the day with reduced power? I am looking forward to seeing a video from you about photographing flying birds. I am sure there are many interesting aspects like each bird flies differently, how they start and when, etc.., if we low shutterspeed for some bigger birds when light conditions are pure. You have different birds in Africa than we in Europe (except migrating) For example, I ask myself if African Skimmer moving its wings when it slides above the water with open bick? Or it just planes? Once more: many thanks and looking forward for new videos!

[@oliverschurholz9712]

@@ElenaHanak Hi.I do not know about your camera. But may you can check the behaviour of AE LOCK while shutter button is half way pressed.Some camera hold AE , sometimes depending on AF mode , like AF-S / C . May you can set it to mesure for every single exposure ! (AF LOCK with Shutter) evtl no matrix metering) KR OLLI

[@RAJMAN181]

Do you'll sell Pangolin shirts that you'll are wearing?

[@dazsly]

Wish I was there right now.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Yip that would have been nice hosting you.

[@richardruda267]

Being too lazy to bring the bigger full frame (even thought it’s mirrorless) with all the lenses. Brought along my very compact Sony 1” sensor rx100 which takes fantastic pictures with a 24-200mm zoom. However the full frame sensor is just so much better in every aspect especially in getting the best out of RAW in post, especially crop. My advice is to always bring the biggest sensor camera you have and say 2 lenses that can cover most situations to keep weight and space down.

[@ashj1979]

Remember to turn off 10 second timer mode when you're done using it 🙈

[@PangolinWildlife]

Good one!

[@ashj1979]

Pangolin Wildlife Photography thank you

[@helmut7878]

👍👍👍

[@bhalchandrakapatkar1710]

👍👍

[@CamillaI]

Nikon D850 I changed to Jpeg when I first had it, same lucky I nailed the exposure rare mating Small pearl bordered fritillary butterfly in my sights. Still not a great feature happened once more before I changed to Sony! Rookie mistake I would add, "too far from the subject, animal too small in the frame!"

[@PangolinWildlife]

Tricky indeed!.

[@Disturbed666METAL]

So many people shoot in full Automatic and I don't understand. I think after 1 Month of shooting I switched to RAW and full Manual.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Good decision. I guess when people lose confidence at the beginning (as we all did) it's easy to just revert to Auto.

[@Disturbed666METAL]

@@PangolinWildlife yeah I also think that too. Photography is not so easy, especially Wildlife😅

[@rugbylion6714]

I've been shooting in JPEG :( Will shoot in RAW & JPEG from now on! :)

[@PangolinWildlife]

Welcome to RAW!

[@saxon1177]

"Other mistakes I have made or seen??? Ok ... I often make the mistake of not having a cold swig of beer in between shots and my last few swigs are warm. However, when I'm shooting in Germany, warm beer isn't a problem. 🍻

[@PangolinWildlife]

Warm beer is an issue...everywhere! We like to call cold beer...image stabiliser!

[@nabarunmajumdar7197]

the last one is the most common i guess :P

[@PangolinWildlife]

Indeed.

[@bluejays5660]

Forgetting to turn off my camera at the end of a shoot only to find a dead battery when I go to use it again!

[@jaceklagodzinski8075]

Who doesn't make mistakes? :)

[@lachlangraham1062]

Putting the camera away only to find a bird you have been looking for next to the car in the car park :).

[@PangolinWildlife]

A classic mistake!

[@Just_because998]

Make sure you charge your batteries and carry a spare!