African Safari Photography & Safari Photography Tips

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When you go on your African safari, don’t forget your camera. But which camera or camcorder is best for an African safari? A video of your African safari experience is certainly a great way to keep the memories lasting, but also take a good camera on your African safari. The small size and amazing functionality of cameras today are perfect for African safaris. Below are a few things to consider when choosing which photographic equipment to bring on your safari.

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Lenses:  Here is an approximation of the percentage of images I have made with various focal lengths over the past few years: 17-200mm: 35% 200-300mm: 25% 300-400mm: 25% over 400mm: 15% Keep in mind that I travel with quite a bit of heavy camera equipment. But this is not necessary to get most images. I take some large lenses (like a 600mm f/4) mainly for birds. You can get excellent images of the majority of the wildlife if you travel with one or two of the wide-range zoom lenses available. If you can get one, I suggest having a zoom that will get you up to 400mm with auto-focus capability. This will allow you to take advantage of virtually every photo opportunity from your vehicle. You won't be disappointed. A 300mm lens will also suffice, but 400 would be better. Be sure to read the sections on: 1) image stabilization lenses; 2) image magnification and Field of View Crop.

Camera / Lens Purchases:  I recommend that you spend your money first on a good lens and second on a camera. By this I mean that it's slightly more important to have a quality lens than it is to have a quality camera.  Cameras are really just a box that captures light. Of course, today’s cameras include software, different sizes and quality sensors, autofocus and metering systems, and other technology built in, but in the end, it’s just a box.

Lenses, on the other hand, vary significantly in quality based on the optics. The term optics describes the glass, which may be many different elements or lenses inside, all working together. The quality of a lens' optics will vary depending upon the manufacturing process, the coatings used on the glass, etc. The point is that the quality of your images will be more affected by using "poor glass” (cheap lenses) than by using an inexpensive camera. In other words, if you put a $1500 lens on a $300 camera, you’ll likely get images of significantly superior quality to images taken with a $1500 camera and a $300 lens. 

Furthermore, the pace of new camera introduction is far quicker than it is for new lenses.  To illustrate this point, I used the same 300mm f/2.8 lens with 4 different cameras during a 10-year span on safaris. Also, the quality of the digital sensors used today is so good, that using a high-quality lens is even more important than it ever was with a film SLR.  This is because lens aberrations are much more likely to be picked up by these sensitive digital sensors than by film emulsion, which was more "forgiving" in this sense.

Filters:  Make sure you have screw-on filters attached to all of your lenses. You can use a daylight filter which blocks UV light without changing the color of your images. I used to use warming filters on my lenses when I shot film, but shooting in digital Raw mode, I just leave my white balance setting on "Auto" almost all the time and then make any needed corrections to an image's white balance using Camera Raw software. I recommend the UV or clear filter as protection for your lenses. A scratch on the filter is relatively inexpensive compared to a scratch on your lens! Use filters! You may also want to consider a circular polarizing filter. These filters cut the reflections on water or glare from the harshest light rays. Polarizing filters are most effective when shooting at 90 degrees from the angle of the sun. The filter will darken a light blue sky nicely; however, be careful as these filters can also overly darken an image if too much polarization is applied.

Camera Support:  I have taken many tens of thousands of images on African safaris and my techniques for getting the best shots have changed slightly over the years. However, my main goal (and struggle) has always been the same - to find the most effective way of taking sharp, well exposed images. The main problem you will face in shooting wildlife from a safari vehcile is finding the best way to steady your camera. The problem becomes more pronounced when using longer focal-length lenses.

I have used all conceivable techniques (I believe), including home-made mounts that affixed to the side of the Land Rovers. Today, I use a good beanbag (I take my own but the vehicles usually have extras) and a tripod. I set the tripod up on the floor beside me (2 legs on floor and the 3rd leg into the seat) and, with a ball head or gimbal (I use a Wimberley, which pans and adjusts to any angle); this gives me a wider range of sight than the fixed door mount. It works well.

For anyone not using a very large lens (ie, if you can hand-hold your camera without struggling from the weight) a beanbag will work best.  I encourage you to bring a beanbag (empty - you can fill it with sand when you arrive in the camp) or two. If you are using a small point and shoot, most of this does not apply - but again, I urge you to bring an SLR camera if you can afford one or borrow one.

Image Stabilization Lenses:  If you're considering purchasing a new lens, I would strongly advise you to consider one which offers image stabilization. Both Canon and Nikon offer image stabilization lenses covering a wide range of focal lengths.

Typically, the use of some solid form of support (tripod, beanbag, etc) is essential to hold the camera completely still while you take your shot (especially with larger/heavier lenses); otherwise you risk the blurred images which can be the result when hand-holding a camera. The rule of thumb when hand-holding a camera is to use a shutter speed that is at least as fast as one over the focal length of the lens. For example, if you are trying to handhold a camera with a 200mm lens, you will need to have the shutter speed set for 1/200 or faster in order to maintain sharp focus.

Using an image-stabilized lens (Nikon calls their version Vibration Reduction) permits safe hand-holding (ie, no tripod or other support needed) at up to two full f/stops (Nikon claims three) slower shutter speeds than would otherwise be possible, and since they make hand-holding so practical, it's easy to shoot quickly and follow rapidly moving subjects. What this really means is that some images which would otherwise turn out blurred or slightly out of focus can often be captured in perfect focus using these lenses. Two recommendations for an IS/VR lens on an African safari are the Nikon AF VR Zoom-Nikkor ED 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D and the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM.  Neither is inexpensive, but both offer a wide range of focal length and are great if you want to bring just one lens.

Batteries:  Very important -- Do not miss those to-die-for images because your batteries have gone dead. I use rechargeable battery packs with my cameras and rechargeable AA's with my flashes. First things first, the electrical voltage in Southern Africa is 220V (versus 110V in the US).  Do NOT bring a re-charger from home without having purchased and tested a voltage converter or you will irreparably damage your re-charger. The end result is NO batteries. Many of the camps do sell batteries, but DON'T count on it - bring your own!

My suggestion: use rechargeable's.  Purchase a voltage converter (they are available at Radio Shack and all over the internet by mail order), and bring several sets so you can swap them when they run out. I suggest two sets for your camera (three is better still). Most camps have recharging stations and some even have multiple plug points inside the tents - check with us to be sure for your itinerary. You always want to have a charged set PLUS a backup set for each game drive. Remember - check the recharging device you have and be sure it accepts 220V - if not, you'll need the converter.  Note that some recharge units can accept an optional 220V accessory plug with the converter built in. See our links page for our source for batteries.

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DIGITAL ISO
Digital ISO has replaced film speed, with the advantage that one can change ISO speeds at any time.  The same basic principles apply as did with film, in that the slower ISO speeds generally produce images with less noise (artifacts or other aberrations in the image) at the expense of having to use slower shutter speeds.

Regarding ISO on digital cameras...
Generally speaking, as you increase the ISO, you’ll find that the image colors tend to lose a bit of their saturation (i.e., get “duller”) and contrast is lowered. At the extreme, it can result in the equivalent of a 2-bit or higher reduction in individual color values, which is easily seen in images.  Note however that the top camera companies are using image sensors which are more and more accurate (less noise) at higher and higher ISO's.  For example, the new Nikon D3 camera, which uses a Sony sensor, is able to produce extremely accurate and low-noise images at ISO's up to 1600 and above.

Here’s how ISO values are created:
My camera (the Nikon D3) uses a “native” ISO of 200 (it’s the lowest ISO setting on the camera). All ISO values above 200 are created by amplifying the image data coming into the Analog-to-Digital (ADC) converter. In other words, the sensor always works at the 200 sensitivity, but underexposed data values coming from the photosites (on the sensor) are boosted by an amplifier to produce higher ISO values. This means that minor differences in the light values received between the many photosites on the sensor get magnified and may become visible (creating “noise”).

Further explanation:
Imagine taking a picture and let's focus only on two adjacent photosites on your camera's digital sensor.  Next imagine that the tiny part of detail in your image that is captured by these two neighboring photosites is 195 light photons by the first and 200 photons by the other. This difference is insignificant when these are near-black or very dark values and end up getting interpolated by your camera's software into, say, a pixel value of 12,12,12 (ie, Red, Green, Blue color values) versus 12,13,12. But if these values are being amplified several times and they now represent middle gray instead of black or very dark, the difference may be significant (ie, 125,125,125 versus 125,135,125).  This later difference in the pixel colors will likely be noticeable.

My ISO suggestions (to optimize image quality):
1. Use lower rather than higher ISO settings whenever possible (ie, such that you are able to get sharp images based on the light and lens combination).

2. Expose to the right (to the right refers to the right side of an image's histogram). By this, I mean lean towards OVER-exposure without actually blowing out the important highlights completely (ie, making them go 100% white, with no edge detail at all).

Here’s the reason: Digital camera sensors capture light in a linear fashion. Our eyes do not. A scene with twice the number of photons reaching the camera's sensor appears twice as bright; with our human eyes, this scene appears brighter, but not nearly twice as bright. If it did, we’d experience overload when we move from shade to bright sunlight. Thus, our eyes see light in a non-linear way... and this is what a gamma curve is intended to do... model human vision.

Most DSLR’s use 12 bits (some now 14 bits) to encode the capture, producing 4,096 levels (2 to the 12th power) and effectively capture 6 stops of dynamic range. With linear capture, this means that one-half of those levels (2,048) are devoted to the brightest stop, half the remainder (1,024) to the next brightest stop, half the remainder (512) to the next brightest stop and so on. The darkest stop, in the extreme shadows, is represented by only 64 levels. Thus, if you underexpose (to avoid blowing out highlights) you are wasting a lot of bits (image detail) that the camera can capture (as the most detailed info is in the brightest stop).

To further illustrate, if you underexpose by just one stop, you are essentially wasting 2,048 bits of data and capturing only 2,048 (instead of 4,096). You are stretching only 2,048 bits across the histogram instead of 4,096... Thus, less digital information is captured than would have been if you had used proper exposure and therefore image quality is decreased.

3. ISO 400 is actually quite close to 200 in quality; so don’t be afraid to use it. I use ISO 400 quite often just to make sure I have the extra shutter speed (to get tack-sharp images).  The slight increase in noise from 200 to 400 is usually nothing to worry about.

4. Use ISO 800 and above only when you really need the increased shutter speed, but expect a slight loss of color saturation and increased noise in large color blocks, such as skies. A properly exposed ISO 800 image is far better than an underexposed image at ISO 400. Underexposure at this ISO level will definitely introduce substantial noise in the shadows that you would not find at lower ISO’s.

5.  Using ISO's above ISO 800 will usually require some post-processing work to eliminate the noise (although the new Nikon's are pushing this level up to ISO 1600 and more). You’ll also likely have to perform color correction and contrast adjustments. If possible, opt for longer shutter speeds rather than increasing the ISO.

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IMAGE MAGNIFICATION / FIELD OF VIEW CROP
This topic may be a bit confusing, but important, especially if you are using a camera which does not have a "Full-frame sensor"...
Many of today's digital SLR's use an imaging chip (CCD or CMOS) that is about 40 percent smaller than a 35mm film frame (which measures 24x36mm). Nikon refers to its version of this smaller sensor as a DX sensor and I will use that terminology to represent all such smaller sensors in the following discussion.  The results of DX sensors being used in a digital SLR is a "field of view crop" or lens magnification factor of 1.3 to 1.6 (depending upon the camera) times the focal length of the lens being used. I will not attempt to explain the physics of the reasons behind why this is true, but suffice it to say that the smaller sensors use only the center 2/3 portion of the image created by the lens.

Therefore, the effective focal length of the lens increases by about 50% when used on a digital SLR with a DX sensor. As an example, if you use an 80-200mm lens on a DX digital body with a 1.5 crop factor, the lens will have a field of view of 120-300mm and a 300mm lens on that same camera effectively becomes a 450mm lens and so on. The effective aperture (maximum f/stop) remains the same. The effective extra magnification can be either good or bad (if you want wide angle shots, the additional focal length is undesirable), depending on your needs.

Most African safari photographers will usually benefit from additional focal length, since good quality telephoto lenses are both expensive and heavy to lug around on African safaris and we all wish we had a bit more magnification to get closer to our wild subjects.

A few final comments:
One less obvious benefit of all this is that since a digital sensor is capturing only the middle portion of the image, the image quality will (should) be better (all other things remaining equal) since camera lenses typically have better optical performance (sharpness and contrast) at their centers than at their outer edges.

For those photographers who would still like to be able to get those beautiful wide angle landscape or people shots (this includes me), the additional focal length is not always good news. A 20mm ultra-wide lens becomes a not-so-wide 30mm lens. Canon and Nikon now make ultra-wide zooms designed specifically for the smaller sensor cameras.

Finally, there are several digital SLR cameras (Canon EOS-1DS, EOS-1DS Mark III, Canon EOS 5D, Nikon D3 and Nikon D700, and others) which offer a “full frame” digital sensor. These cameras have 24x36mm image sensors (the same size as a frame of 35mm film) without any field of view crop (focal length multiplier). Simply put, a 16-35 mm lens on a “full-frame” digital SLR’s will provide the exact same field of view as it would on a “traditional” SLR with film. Note that these are top-of-the-line cameras — not inexpensive.

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(James' Equipment and James' Software)
(Video on Safari)

Eyes on Africa was selected most knowledgeable Regional Expert for Southern Africa / Safaris by National Geographic Traveler Magazine, 20th Anniversary Special Issue.

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