STEP BY STEP / Nail majestic-looking big cat portraits

1 Lens choice

We used 70-200mm f/2.8 and 200-500mm f/5.6 telezooms – but as you can get very close to the animals, you could get away with a standard zoom too. Longer focal lengths and faster apertures enable you to achieve a tighter depth of field – important for that ‘on safari’ look.

2 Exposure and aperture

Shoot in Aperture Priority or Manual mode and start with an aperture of f/5.6. This’ll ensure the animals’ facial features remain sharp with their body dropping gently out of focus – and distracting backgrounds, such as fences that give the game away, will disappear into a blur.

3 ISO and shutter speed

The animals won’t be hunting gazelle, so you won’t need a particularly swift shutter speed – just enough to avoid camera shake. Aim for at least ‘one over’ the longest focal length of the lens – so 1/200 sec for a 70-200mm. Increase the ISO, if needed, to achieve this.

4 Spot metering

It’s crucial that the animal is properly exposed, so set Spot metering so that the exposure is weighted towards the selected focus point, which will be on the animal. The default Matrix metering mode would attempt to expose the entire scene, but the subject is far more important.

5 Go Continuous

Set Continuous autofocus (AF-C) mode to track the animals combined with Continuous Low shutter release mode – rather than Continuous High, to avoid filling up the memory card unnecessarily. You really don’t need to be shooting at 10fps!

6 The eyes have it

Set Single Point AF mode and position this at one side of the frame so that there’s negative space for the animal to move into. Keep focus on the animal’s nearest eye so that it’s sharp as you follow it around. Zoom in and out to capture a variety of body shots and close-up portraits.