Preparing for your close-up

Take control of focusing when shooting small creatures

Wildlife photography isn’t all about capturing big game through a lens the size of a cannon! Close-up shots of small critters can be just as satisfying and more technically challenging to accomplish.

A macro lens isn’t essential, as a short telephoto lens fitted with a close-up filter or extension tubes can give you an acceptable degree of increased magnification, while an ultra-wide lens will allow you to focus up close and still pull in bags of the background – assuming you can get the lens close enough to your subject in the first place, of course. But there’s no denying the convenience of a macro lens. I rely on the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8l Macro IS USM, as it’s pin-sharp, lightweight, and has an excellent hybrid image stabilizer.

Focusing is the main challenge as the depth of field is so shallow at close distances that any errors in focus will be painfully obvious. For relatively accommodating animals like frogs, manually focusing with the aid of the magnified Live View display can be an option; if you’re using the viewfinder to autofocus, choose a single AF point that lines up with the pupil rather than the rim of the eye.

If your lens has a focus limiter, use it to reduce the amount of ‘hunting’ the camera has to do to detect the subject