Africa Imagery – Photography in Africa

I am a member of the Pix Magazine photography forum (have a look here: http://pixmag.ning.com) and from time to time members ask advice. Here’s a recent one and I’ve posted it here because I think that it could be useful to you. Here’s the question:  “Hi. I hope you are well. Roger can you please help me. I obviously must be doing something wrong on the aperture priority. I have noticed that when I try to blur the backgrounds of some of the photos it doesn’t always work. I adjust the aperture to minimum (3-5) the minimum that the camera allow”.

The depth of field is hugely influenced by your choice of lens (also by the aperture of course) and indirectly by your choice of camera. The reason I say by the camera is that if you are

This image was shot with Nikon's 200-400mm f4 lens at 400mm and at f4 resulting in a nice smooth background.

using a small sensor camera like the Nikon D300 or a Canon 7D then your “standard lens” (50mm on a full frame camera and somewhere around 35mm for the so called DX format cameras) is longer on my full frame D3x, for example, than on my wife’s D300. What this means is that in any given situation, you will be using a longer focal length lens with a full frame sensor than with a DX camera to achieve the same framing. And wide angle lenses, as we know, show more depth of field than telephoto lenses.

If you want out of focus backgrounds use the longest lens you can with the largest aperture you can and in your case it seems to f4.5. This aperture will limit things a little especially if the lens that you are using is fairly short. All those wonderful animal portraits with completely blown out backgrounds that you see are usually shot with lenses like the 300mm f2.8, 400mm f2.8 and the 600mm f4 – expensive glass to be sure.

There are 2 other things to consider:

The first is that the closer you are to your subject the shallower the depth of field – just try shooting macro. Number 2 is that the further the background is from your subject the more out of focus it will be. So the recipe for out of focus backgrounds is to use a long lens with a very large aperture (f2.8 or f4), get close to your subject (obviously within the limits of the lens that you are using) and make sure that the background is as far away as possible.

Hope this helps

Wow! What a Photo Graphic Safari that was! We had 5 people join us at Jaci’s Camp in Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa’s North West Province – Lousie Donald (Publisher of Pix Magazine), Tim and Yvonne Driman, Hilary Baak and Mike Rickard out from the UK. The idea was to try to photograph the African Wild Dogs that Madikwe Game Reserve is so well known for but, as so often happens with wildlife photography, the dogs were not quite as cooperative as they could have been. We did see them a couple of times though and we did get some pix. Everything else  seemed to be doing their best to be photographed – we had great times with elephants (and had a couple of charges to keep out attention going), lions and

Lilac Breasted Roller at Madikwe Game Reserve

general game and also managed to play with some scenic after sunset.

We followed the usual format of early morning and late afternoon shoots with image analysis and other photographic discussions in betewwn and the VERY attantative and helpful staff at the lodge forced deliscous food and drink down our throuts a regular intervals. While the standard of photography at the start of the workshop was pretty good, I must say that after 4 days of intensive work on images, techniques and Photoshop, some very fine images we starting to appear. Have a look at some of the images we shot here:

This workshop was so successful we’ve scheduled some more with 2 people having already booked onto the March one. Book you place now. Have a look here for more details. Louise Donald of Pix Magazine very kindly put this video together.

When I mentioned to a friend recently that we were heading out to 88m high Karkloof Falls in the Kwazulu Natal Midlands to do some pix of the falls, all he said was, “what? In this @%*$ weather – it’s overcast and raining!” Well, in many instances, this is the best time to be shooting waterfalls and water. If you photograph a waterfall in sunlight, very often the whites of the falling water blow out completely and if you try to hold exposure on them then the rest of the images is really very underexposed. Best of all though, in the low light of the overcast conditions you can shoot at very long shutter speeds resulting in those soft, fluffy waterfalls.

Here’s the first Image – shot from the viewpoint as you arrive. As you can see from the exposure data the long 2 second exposure has allowed

Karkloof Falls. Exposure Data: 2 Sec at f16. Iso 100 + Polarising Filter

the falling water to blur completely and a polarising filter  cuts the reflections on the rocks, foliage and water resulting in more saturated colours.

We then moved to the area above the falls to the much smaller waterfall called Woodhouse Falls (you see them above the main falls). Here I experimented with different shutter speeds to change the effect of the blurring. The choice of shutter speed depends on your personal preferences and on what you are trying to portray but have a look at the exposure data below each image and use what you think is best.

WoodHouse Falls. Exposure Data: 1/4 Sec at f16. ISO 100 +Polarising Filter

WoodHouse Falls. Exposure Data: 1/30 Sec at f5.6. ISO 100 +Polarising Filter

WoodHouse Falls. Exposure Data: 1/60 Sec at f4. ISO 100 +Polarising Filter

WoodHouse Falls. Exposure Data: 1/250 Sec at f2.8. ISO 400 +Polarising Filt

I wasn’t quite happy with my pic of the main falls and we scouted around for another view point. Eventually we discovered and tiny, indistinct little path through the thick bush that led to a rock overhang with a stunning view of the falls. The problem was the sky. The contrast between the rather dark gorge and trees and the sky was just too much for the camera to handle. I decided to use a fairly new (well it’s actually been out for a few years now) technique called High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging. What you do is shoot a number of different images at different exposures. I used what the camera metered and then +1, -1. -2 and -3 stops. I then run these images through some software called Photomatix which, to cut a very long story short and to oversimplify it, blends all the images together and compresses that range of tones. The last image is what you get.

We are running a Photo Workshop in Howick in early January and then again in March and will be working these falls as part of the experience. Have a look here for more details: http://www.africaimagery.com/workshops_midlands.php.

Karkloof Falls. HDR image from 0, +1, -1, -2, -3 exposures.

A famous photographer (and I cannot for the life of me remember his name at the moment :-S) once said after being asked how he got such great pix answered, “f8 and be there”. I’ve been thinking about that recently… There are 2 absolute essentials to photography: The first is that you need a camera and the other is that you actually need to be on location. I remember a boss of mine saying once (and remember I was employed as a wildlife photographer at one stage), “Roger, you need to spend some time in the office — we never see you around the place!?”. Now, you’re not going to do much wildlife photography in the office and all I was trying to do was my job.

Lately I’ve taken to carrying a small compact camera around with me. Depending what I’m doing, it’s either the Nikon P6000 or the Olympus E-P1.

The Sun Coast Casino. Durban. KwaZulu Natal. South Africa.

Both are capable of producing the MOST spectacular results and both are capable of shooting raw images, and essential part or creating beautiful images.

Pat shot this first Image on the right using the Nikon P6000 while be were working on a small book on Durban and Surrounds. It was made in the early evening and hand held (Vibration Reduction is an awesome invention). Pat has very steady hands (I HAVE to use a tripod) but even so hand holding a camera at 1/11 sec at f3.7 at ISO 200 is no mean feat! One doesn’t want to upload huge files but if you were to have a look at the image at 100% on the screen, the detail and low noise levels are way beyond anything one could realistically expect from such a tiny camera.

Then there is the Olympus E-P1. I’ve taken to carrying this around with me on our motorbike rides (we have a BMW 1150 GSA Anventure Bike) in a tiny camera bag over my sholder. The great thing is that you do all your viewing on the LCD screen on the back  – no need to hold it up to you eye so you can shoot with your helmet on. It is a DSLR but looks like one

Michaelhouse. KwaZulu Natal. South Africa

of the old rangefinder cameras of yesteryear and takes interchangeable lenses. I use it with the standard 14 to 24 mm. I got this image of Michaelhouse one Sunday afternoon on one of our rides around the KwaZulu Natal Midlands. Hand held, I took 2 adjoining exposures and after adjusting settings in Adobe Lightroom I stitched it together in Photoshop CS4. What could be simpler?! And the image quality is astounding!

We’ve had the most appauling weather here in Howick over the past weeks. Rain, mist and temperatures in the low teens, and this in the middle of summer. We did get a small patch on Sunday when it looked as though we may escape the rain (we were mistaken by the way)

Karkloof Falls, My 1150 GSA and Tony Keytel's 1200 GSA. KwaZulu Natal. South Africa

and headed off to the Karkloof Falls. These are pumping at the moment and grabbed this image of the falls, the bikes and friend Tony Keytel.  I used a longish focal length to bring the falls closer to the “action”.

The wonderful thing though is that in all these cases, I had a camera with me and so was able to get some very useful (and saleable) images. To lug a full size DSLR around in these situations is not practical and in reality I probably wouldn’t!

And then there is one last thing about these tiny cameras: There are times when the last thing that you want is to look like a pro photographer and when you haul out a Nikon D3x that’s exactly what you look like! The answer is one of these little “pro” compacts.

Remember: f8 and be there!