Wildlife Videography | Top Tips and Go-To Settings with Sabine
As the world moves more and more towards visual storytelling, we encourage our guests to think about taking more videos. Wildlife videography, however, can be very confusing, so in this video, Sabine explains her go-to settings and techniques for taking better wildlife videos.
Timestamps:
01:45 NTSC vs PAL, which to use for videography
03:36 Choosing the correct frame rate for videography
06:20 Should you film in 4K or Full HD?
06:51 Choosing the right file format to store video files
08:06 Choosing the correct shooting mode and exposure settings
11:03 Should you use autofocus or manual focus in shooting video?
12:51 What equipment do you need to film wildlife?
14:37 How do you record clean audio when filming?
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#wildlifephotography #naturephotography #videography
Do you feel more confident now to do more filming? What other tips can you share with the community?
Hi Sabine Hope you guys are well? Awesome video something that I will definitely have a look at with my R6. Quick question what editing program are you using and will you do a video to show how you edit the videos and how you export them for instagram or any other social media platforms? Hope you have a wonderful day
Don't have a lot of those features in my DSLR.
Great tips ! Thank you!
Thank you, Sabine! I'm a stills photographer, and I've been looking for exactly this kind of information, so I can get started shooting video. Great topic, and clear, concise presentation!
Sabine, what a great introduction for us video newbies, thanks for posting.
Thank you Sabine! An excellent video packed with great information.
Sabine, this was an excellent introduction to video shooting for those of us who are still photographers and who want to capture more video. Would you consider creating another video, or even better a series of videos that would help to move us through the process of capturing video and then taking it into the editing phase. Your explanations are so well organized and clear. It would be good to get more advanced instruction from someone like yourself who is able to clearly explain the process of capturing and editing video. Thank you!
Great suggestion. I agree, that understanding the editing is also important for capture and Sabine has the gift of clear description and explanation of the workflow aspects to consider. David
Thank you for the lovely comment and I already have a follow up video like you explained in mind. I just need to find the time to make it!
Thanks for your simple explanation to give a try on VDO
Thank you very much, Sabine, for a detailed and understandable overview of video recording processes. I will be more inclined to venture into shooting video with my Canon R8 now. Admittedly, I am one of those amateurs that tends to avoid shooting video for the reasons that you expressed in the beginning of this video. That is much less of a problem for me now, because of your outlining the concepts, methods, and settings for video that I can use to more seriously get into that process. Outstanding video, Sabine. Thanks again!
That was a Master Class, you are the Woman, just like Charl is the Man👍
Fantastic video - very clear and concise. Thank you!
What a great video about how to video! Thanks Sabine, Jeremy 😊
Hi Sabine, I enjoyed the days we spent together on the Chobe. I will have to watch this video a number of times, so many great tips.
Thank you! Luckily it is always available 😉
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Thank’s for the Information 🤗
What a fantastic instructional video 👍
LOTS of info here. Thanx!!
Thank you very much for explanation!!!!! I too am afraid to video.. needs more practice. cellphone video is so comfortable !!! Ha ha ha.
My wife and I recently spent an amazing 6 days with Pangolin, 3 days on the Pangolin Voyager and 3 in the lodge. The accommodation, food, staff were all exceptional. But best of all the photo opportunities with so many bird species and wild animals amongst them a large pride of lions. I got some great photos. Sabine congratulations on this great introduction to videography which I have been waiting forward. You make it all sound so logical.
Great informative tutorial with experts tips.Thanks for sharing . Please share field techniques.Yash.
Thank you Sabine, excellent tutorial. Will shoot more videos now !
Awesome!
Very interesting Video. Keep well & stay safe 👍🇬🇧
Thanks so much for sharing another wonderful video like always 👍🤗
Awesome! Thanks!
I've been a photographer for years but never stepped over the threshold to video! This was full of clear information, some I was aware of but most I would have not really had any idea. Really perfectly edited illustrated and presented as always. Thank you.
Thanks Sabine! Fantastic tips as always :)
Thank you Sabine for this really useful presentation. It was so clearly explained and has really encouraged me to make more of an effort to record video as well as stills in future. Many talks I have seen in the past make the whole subject of recording video so confusing that it puts you off even attempting to record video. Your teaching style and organised way you have put the presentation together in such an informative manner has helped to create a really high quality resource. Thank you so much.
Wow! So much good information!
Hi Sabine. Thank you for great info on shooting videos on mirrorless or dslr cameras. It is most relevant especially when latest cameras are having great video capabilities. One request… a similar video on video editing software & editing techniques will be highly useful. Thank you 😊
Thank you! I already have something in mind.
Great video, thanks Sabine.
Sabine, another thing to add to your reminders as you walk behind us "shutter 2 times frame rate ...". Thanks for this great video!
You are welcome Neale!
Excellent video. Information I really needed. Looking forward to what you have in the works to help us pick editing software (and maybe be some starter tips?).
Thanks for your review but I didn't find any information on 2 significant factors: shooting in log and 10 bit vs 8 bit. I'd be happy to learn about these 2. Thank you!
Thank you and much appreciated. I too would welcome a beginners guide to video editing 🙂
This video was fantastic, with all the critical information in less than 20 minutes. In 2019, I realized that I was taking more video than stills, so I sold my DSLR and lenses and bought AX 11 and haven't regretted it one bit. What sold me was learning the 20X zoom is equivalent to a 560 mm focal length. The AX 11 is far lighter than lugging around a DSLR and 500 mm lens.
I just love your videos ❤❤❤ Superb channel, great team 💪 Thank you for all the knowledge you share with us 🙏
Hi Sabine So nice to see you again.. Welcome back 🙂
Excellent tips. Thank you :)
My brother is the video freak going to share this with him.He does video productions for a security company in durban
Excellent. Thank you so much.
A very interesting video which illuminates the processes required to get a good video out of a camera. However at this level I prefer a designated video camera which meets many of the settings referred to in Sabine's video. Further I have built in ND filters which were an asset in Africa plus and a number of picture styles to satisfy most recording situations. At the moment, despite trying a DSLR, I still prefer my trusty video camera. Maybe that will change one day.
Thanks for all the tips 😊
Hello Sabine, great videos. Can you please post the video settings? Thank you
I like to mix still image photography with occasional video. I wish your video was around 3 years ago. Its a great synopsis of all the main elements for video.
The video films of the animals were beautiful. Is this mostly RF 100-500 and R3? Or prime lenses also? A very inspiring instructional video. Thanks!
With regards to NTSC/PAL settings, there are a few things to add. First, if you're (predominantly) a bird photographer, like myself, chances are you are also a birdwatcher, and using the world renowned eBird portal (or mobile app). I'm shooting Sony, and ever since I bought my camera, whenever I tried to upload a video to eBird raw, unedited, the portal would refuse to upload giving me some error message about wrong format or what not. Since I'm in Europe, my camera was set to PAL as per default. One day I discovered that if I switch to NTSC, I would gain additional fps in the S&Q (slow motion video) mode, from 4x slow to 5x slow, which is very significant for fast action (tip numer 1). After I switched to NTSC, eBird would no longer show me this pop-up message with the error (tip number 2). Since they are based in the USA, I figured their servers are probably tuned to NTSC, and that's why the error had occured.
Hi Sabine, to be honest I've always been a bit baffled by videography but have often been in situations where it would have worked really well. This is a really clear and instructive video so thanks very much, I'll give it a go! All the best
Hi Sabine. Excellent tips. Please can you expand on how to film at higher frame rate and then reduce frame rate in the post processing to get the slow motion feel. Please also comment on how to combine clips with different frame rates.
Hi Sabine. Amazing video. It takes a lot of expertise to make an easy to understand video. Congratulations
Frohes Weihnachtsfest liebe Sabine und Charl. 😍
this is so helpful
Although I shoot a Sony, this was extremely helpful! Thanks Sabine, keep the information coming! What size cards do you typically use?
Thank you! I use 128GB CF express cards. They however fill up quickly when recording in 4K120
Great video thank you
Glad you enjoyed it
Sabine, Thank you for posting a very informative video on suggested settings for wild life videography. It will be extremely helpful if you can extrapolate the FPS and CODEC settings for NIKON and SONY cameras too. There could be a lot of your/Pangolin subscribers who are Nikon and SONY shooters.
Hi Sabine - I echo everyone else, great video, really clear, concise and relevant. Your timing is also brilliant as I’m just at the point of considering this and the info you presented is PRECISELY what I was looking for. 🙏🏻. My only question now will be the dilemma of when to set to still or video!!! Thanks as always, David
Hello and thank you for watching and commenting! To answer your question of when to shoot video vs photo I‘d say first get your stills and once you are happy switch to video. I also tend to do video when the background or lighting isn‘t perfect but the behavior of the animal distracts from that.
Loved your video. This will help people for years to come. I shoot stills with the R5 and the 100-500 lens like you have. I get using the touch screen to choose a subject to focus on, but what if you are using the EVF? While live recording, is there a way to change focus during auto-focus while using the EVF? TY.
Great video and very helpful - I will now try my hand at video - Thank you
Thank you, Sabine, for this comprehensive instruction! I started to take video a few years ago becasue I realised that in the dusk, when there is no enough light for good sharp photos, the video is still ok! and I often switched in the twilight or darkness to the video with 30fps. And we know how much action can happen during this time! I have a few questions: do you ever used "Picture Styles" in video? I didn't and just wonder how it could be. Do you use a second camera for B-Roll? And if you use Animal-focus would it would for birds as well?
As everyone else just said, this is an awesome video that will help many still photographers transition into video, as little or as much as desired. That said, this has been a desire of mine for quite some time and thus I upgraded my Canon R5 to the R5C recently. Because of the many more options for setting up video in this camera I was wondering if you had any specific settings/tips/recommendations for this camera. Thx Sabine!!
Hi Steve. Thanks for watching and commenting. Unfortunately I have not had the chance to use the R5C yet so I am afraid I can‘t give any advise.
Sabine, thank you so much, I learnt so much from this that I didnt know and cant wait to practise. I would like to know more about the editing program you are using for your filming.
Thanks Charmaine. I use Davinci Resolve for video editing. It is a free software and there are plenty tutorials on how to use it out there.
Wow! Thank you. I was thinking of doing some videos, but it sounds a bit more complicated than I thought. I have an R5, so I will try. I can see lots of mistakes happening. 😊
Helo Sabine, great vid! new for me is set AF area to full, I will check this, as I mostly use face detection and often lost the object. Maybe this will be better. For external mic, my little Deity still captures AF motor sound of old Sigma 150-600C, although I plan to upgrade to silent RF next year. One more thing may be interesting in situations when there is not enough optical range. In EOS R6 for example, there are 6 ways to crop frame, from ~1.05 up to ~2.5 times - using combination of video menu sheet 1 (crop/no-crop), and sheet 7 (stabilization set - off, on, enhanced). So for example if someone uses 500mm, it can be achieved ~1200mm in video settings. Of course in crop mode with stabilization On will cause some digital enhance, but still, R6 provides great results. I believe R5 or R3 or R8 have even better results with this. Cheers to you and the team :)
Thank you very much for the additional info. Very useful!
Sabine, Can you tell me what video editing soft wear you are currently using? Thanks Bill
Thanks Sabine, this is just what I needed. As for the tripod head, I see some people use a dedicated fluid head (thinks that what it’s called) as opposed to a gimbal head. Do you prefer the gimbal head?
A fluid head would be option no 1!
Very fine intro to video for less-experienced video shooters. I plan on a mix of stills and videos on my upcoming Nov 7 trip with you. Because my delivery medium will be web or stock video, I plan to shoot 4K 60p HDR on the mirrorless cameras and just keep my GoPro 4K 60p video separate or intercut when the differences are not too glaring. When already out of the SD world and displaying now primarily on computer screen or on web, the NTSC/PAL differentiation is less relevant than when displaying on one's TV. Also, because of even the micro-seconds it might take to switch to off speed recording, I will do my slo-mo in post. I am also much more comfortable with larger dedicated video and digital cinema cameras than shooting video with my mirrorless cameras and even after 3 or 4 years of moving to mirrorless for video, I still need work. So looking forward to your help both on the stills and the video shooting side of things. BTW, my editing platform of choice is PremierePro while I prefer to grade in DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Sounds like you are all set up. Looking forward to meeting you soon!
Hello Sabine, I would recommend at the beginning of this a short sentence on how to set the camera to video mode, e.g. hit the mode button and then the info button to get into the video menu...only small thing...thank you for this excellent video.
Thanks for the tip!
Sabine, thank you so much for this video! I have so many questions though, perhaps this could start a “video” video series from you! It looks like you don’t shoot CLOG3? Is that correct? I have gone down the rabbit hole of trying to understand clog3, colour grading, Da Vinci Resolve etc but it looks like you don’t bother with any of the RAW stuff and your footage is beautiful. I have invested in the R5, RF100-500, a Rode mic (Videomicro 2), variable NDs etc but I am 99% a photographer. It seems such a waste to not use my setup for video too. Would really love some more videos on this subject (and on Resolve for wildlife photogs!) Thanks again: awesome! Mark.
Hey Mark. Thanks for watching and your input. I have tried to shoot in Clog before but haven‘t figured out color grading so that it actually looks good. I also don‘t have the time to manually color grade all clips so I just use the camera profiles and for now I am happy with that. I will try and make a follow up video soon!
@@sabine-pangolinphotohost9232 thanks for the reply and look forward to your videos!
Excellent video. I just got back from a BOC with Walter last week and really wanted to try some video with my camera, but I was concerned about missing out on stills actions. Do you have advice for going from Video to Stills and back (eg dealing with ND filters). Hope to get a lot of practice in this year while waiting on a CDK next Oct. Oh, also the new studio looks great. I begged a tour while we were staying at Pangolin Chobe Hotel. Lastly congrats on the win for Best Hotel in Botswana! Well deserved.
Thank you so much Steve….cant wait to start making more content in the studio…lots in the pipeline!
Thanks for the perfect info. Is it possible to export 1 frame when filming f.i. PAL/100fps and use that instead of a normal photo ? Is there a quality difference ? My R5 only has 20fps and then I can have 100 fps (or is that whishfull thinking)
Wishful thinking for now. Especially when filming shutter speeds of double the frame rate like explained in the video the single frames would all have motion blur.
Hallo Sabine, tolles Video! Ich fotografiere mit meiner R5 fast gar nicht mehr, weil auch ein nicht so aufregender Film Tiere viel aussagekräftiger zeigt als ein perfektes Foto, dem ich womöglich Jahre hinterlaufe bis ich es im Kasten habe. Ich habe praktisch dieselben Einstellungen wie Du. Wo ich etwas Probleme habe ist wenn ich von Auto-ISO nach fix-ISO wechsle. Wenn ich nach Histrogramm fotografiere, brauche ich keine visuelle Helligkeits-Einschätzung auf dem Monitor, da ich in Post (Photoshop) die Tonwerte zurückhole. Beim Filmen würde m.E. dasselbe Histogramm zu einer Helligkeit des Videos führen, das zum Betrachten nachträglich korrigiert werden muss. Wie Du ja sagtest muss bereits bei der Aufnahme alles so gut wie möglich In-Camera gefilmt werden. Wie genau gehst Du dieses Problem an? Ich traue mir nicht zu, unter wechselnden Lichtverhältnissen Outdoor korrekt zu beurteilen, wie es nachher auf einem Studio-Monitor unter immer denselben Lichtbedingungen wirkt. Vielen Dank im Voraus! VG Ralf
Hello Sabin, Is there any way to set the red record button on the top of the R5? When I want to quickly take a little bit of footage while I am shooting stills if I press the record button, the camera switches to video with the same settings as I had for my stills, and this rarely produces any kind of good image they’re either over or under exposed. Is there a remedy for this?
I use the red record button on my R5 to record footage even when in stills mode. One thing to note is that, it uses whatever settings you have in custom mode 3 under video settings so alway make sure you have the right settings, video resolution, codec, frame rate, what have you, saved in custom mode 3. You can surely adjust ISO etc while recording. I hope this helps.
I guess Pangolin teaches a little video along with photography on their safaris? Y/N?
Am I correct that you can only record Audio at 30fps and not at 60 or 120 fps ?
Francais