My Camera Settings for a Morning in the Maasai Mara

A morning game drive in the Maasai Mara can begin in near darkness and, within a couple of hours, move through soft golden light into bright African sunshine. Wildlife can be resting one moment and running the next.

For that reason, I don't believe there is one perfect group of camera settings for a safari.

What matters is having a reliable starting point that allows you to react quickly when something happens.

My starting point

For most early-morning game drives, I normally begin with:

Mode: Manual exposure with Auto ISO
Shutter speed: around 1/1000 sec
Aperture: as wide as practical, often f/4 to f/6.3 depending on the lens
ISO: Auto ISO
Autofocus: Continuous AF with subject/animal detection where available
Drive mode: Continuous shooting
File type: RAW

These aren't rules. They are simply a starting point that means I am ready if an animal suddenly moves.

Modern cameras cope remarkably well with higher ISO settings. I would much rather have a sharp image at ISO 3200 than a blurred photograph at ISO 400.

Why I prioritise shutter speed

One of the most common problems I see in wildlife photography is photographers worrying about ISO while allowing their shutter speed to become too slow.

Wildlife moves.

Even an apparently stationary lion may suddenly turn its head, yawn, shake or stand.

When something interesting happens, it often happens quickly.

For a reasonably static animal I may work around 1/800–1/1000 sec.

If I think movement is likely, I may increase that to 1/1600 or 1/2000 sec.

For birds in flight or fast-moving animals, I may go considerably higher.

The exact number is less important than understanding what shutter speed is doing for you.

Letting ISO do the work

Auto ISO is extremely useful on safari.

By selecting the shutter speed and aperture I want, I can concentrate on the animal, the light and the composition while allowing the camera to adjust ISO as conditions change.

If a lion moves from open grass into shade, I don't want to be looking at the back of my camera changing settings.

I want to be watching the lion.

That is particularly important during the first hour after sunrise, when light levels can change surprisingly quickly.

Aperture

Wildlife photographers naturally like blurred backgrounds, but shooting everything at the widest possible aperture isn't always the answer.

For a single animal with some distance between it and the background, a relatively wide aperture can work beautifully.

For two animals interacting, however, I might stop down slightly to increase depth of field.

The important question is:

What needs to be sharp in this photograph?

That should determine your aperture rather than simply selecting the smallest f-number available.

Exposure compensation

Even when using manual exposure with Auto ISO, exposure compensation remains extremely useful on many modern cameras.

A pale animal against a dark background can fool a camera's metering system.

So can a dark animal against bright grass.

Rather than accepting what the camera decides, I regularly check the viewfinder and histogram and make small exposure adjustments.

As the sun rises

As light improves, I may increase shutter speed rather than simply allowing ISO to fall all the way to its minimum.

Extra shutter speed provides insurance.

If a cheetah that has been sitting suddenly begins to run, I want the camera already reasonably prepared.

The best wildlife photographs often happen before you have time to change settings.

My most important setting

It isn't ISO, shutter speed or aperture.

It is being ready.

Before the vehicle moves away from a sighting, I try to leave the camera in a sensible general-purpose configuration.

That means when something unexpected appears beside the road, I can raise the camera and photograph it immediately.

On safari, preparation often matters more than perfect settings.