Jumping Salmon

HighOutput · Jun 27, 2014

So I went to the Island (Newfoundland, Canada) to visit las year and we went to a place called Big-falls on the Upper Humber River, to see if the salmon were going up river. So when i got there, I was so excited to see that there was one jumping about every 3 minutes (around 5pm), so I setup my tripod nice and low at the beginning of the falls.
I initially setup my camera on manual setting, ISO 400, F5.6, Exp. 1/640 at a focal length of 35mm (using a Canon EF 24-105mm, f4 L, IS USM lens). I used a remote shutter button on the camera (Canon 6D) in multiple frames, so I could see the salmon jumping before it got to the camera. I then tried using a higher IOS (800) at exp: 1/1328 still at f5.6. So with all that said, here are a few questions and things I noticed. The first picture was at ISO 400 but was focused on the white water, so was the metering. The salmon is a little dark and not in focus. The rest are at ISO 800 with the metering and focus toward the middle of the rapids, but the Salmon are still not in focus and they are too dark compared to the rest of the scene. So what would you pros do here? Should I have went with a lower aperture? I also noticed that I should have removed my polarizing filter, it limited the light and shutter speed for a proper exposure...rookie mistake i guess.

The reason I'm asking is that I'm going there again this summer and would like to re-attemp theses shots. Any suggestions?

lambertpix · Jun 27, 2014

Were you set up to autofocus or did you prefocus where you expected the fish to be? In a case like this, you'd have to be careful that your camera didn't select the water on the bottom or right of the frame as its autofocus target -- this might be what happened here. Is there any change you could man the camera yourself to make sure you're focusing on the fish? If not, I'd try prefocusing and maybe shoot at a smaller aperture to increase DOF a bit.

robbins.photo · Jun 27, 2014

My suggestion would be to do center weighted average metering and select the dark rock wall as your center point, then stop down the lens - how much to stop it down will depend on how far away you are, but F8 would be a good starting point, F11 would be better if you can manage it without your ISO going through the roof. Thing about a shot like this is your going to have a tough time trying to get the fish to be what the camera chooses as it's focus point reliably, it's possible but you'd have to be pretty quick on the draw to pull it off. So instead try stopping down the lens to increase the depth of field.

One other thing you can do if you have photoshop would be to use the selection tool to select the fish, copy them to a new layer, then use the shadow/highlights tool to decrease the amount of shadow on just the fish, which will lighten them up without really affecting the shadows in the rest of the picture.

HighOutput · Jun 27, 2014

Good tips. Some also told me to setup further away and use my Ef70-200mm lens, as more would be in focus with a zoom lens on a mid Aperature...like 7.0-11? Low gets me at fish level, so focus down low for me is an issue. Would AFTER Servi the key here? Center weight on the darker rock is what I was thinking as well for metering. Would you use the 70-200 F/2.8 L Usm? Or the 25-70 f/2.8 l II Usm? Further back the longer focal length would be better. I also have the 16-35mm f/2.8 L USM. Would you use flash at5pm with a few hours of son left?

Derrel · Jun 27, 2014

I would try that: Back the camera away and try to get a decent band of depth of field. The salmon will usually try to scale falls at a place where the is a good volume of falling water; the EXACT place they will jump will be very predictable at a small waterfalls like this one. At a MAJOR waterfalls that is say, 30 meters wide, there might be multiple "chutes" where the salmon migrate upstream at. THIS falls, at that water level appears to have a fairly narrow Best spot. Salmon scaling falls typically favor MORE water volume areas than they do ones with less volume. But yeah, the idea of moving back and shooting with a better depth of field zone is a good one.

You COULD use flash that late in the day, yes...