Long-lens skills

Get in close enough to let your subject fill the frame

Given the typically long distances between the camera and your subject, wildlife photography is an area that requires a lot of magnification. Popular lens choices will therefore include

telephoto lenses (a 100-400mm, for example) or fast prime lenses (a 500mm or a 600mm), but the latter command hefty price tags. Again, it may be wiser to hire one to see which type suits your needs best.

We used two lenses to shoot this feature’s images: a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 IS USM and a Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sport. Weighing just 780g, the Canon can easily be carried in a small camera bag and hand-held, even with an extender. (See below.) The Sigma tips the scales at 2.7kg, but its 10x magnification means that this one lens will pretty much do it all.

Long lenses (anything from 200-600mm) use a ring for attachment to a tripod – but make sure the tripod and head can take its weight. The feature set on long lenses will typically include autofocus or manual focus modes, image stabilisation and focus lock. This means you can pre-focus on a point that’s about to be entered by the subject, lock the focus on it and fire the shutter. This method will stop the autofocus straying and locking on to unwanted focus points.

Long lenses have a limited depth of field.

Using them with near wide-open apertures, so autofocus is more consistent, is ideal for throwing distracting backgrounds out of focus. The narrower angle of view when using a full-frame lens with a crop sensor increases the effective focal length of the lens, making a 50mm lens a 75mm one, resulting in tighter image compositions.