Advice on whale watching settings

[NTP66]

My wife and I are going back to Maui in a month during peak whale season, and I'll be bringing along my DSLR gear - Nikon D5200, Nikon 35mm f/1.8G, Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G, and Tamron 70-300 f/4-5.6 Di VC USD. While I do plan on testing out some settings from the beach, I'm curious to know what settings others have used for taking photos of whales/dolphins from a boat.

I'm hoping that it's sunny enough that I can shoot around f/8 and 1/500th @ 400 ISO (as a starting point), probably in shutter priority. Aside from a minimum shutter speed, I was wondering about the focus mode, AF-area mode, and metering.

Metering:
Most of the time I use spot metering, but I was thinking of using matrix metering while out on the boat.

Focus Mode:
I thought that maybe AF-C with continuous shutter would be a good choice due to the whales constantly moving.

AF-Area Mode:
I'm considering using either 39-point dynamic or Auto-AF.

My biggest concerns are really with the last two. I think that maybe AF-C and dynamic/auto-AF could cause the focus to shift to something like waves, rather than the whale itself. I guess if I can get the shutter speed high enough, AF-S and single point AF could work out well.

Long story short, I'm all ears for any advice those of you with many more years in this hobby (or profession) than I do.

 

[jroovers]

My wife and I are going back to Maui in a month during peak whale season, and I'll be bringing along my DSLR gear - Nikon D5200, Nikon 35mm f/1.8G, Nikon 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G, and Tamron 70-300 f/4-5.6 Di VC USD. While I do plan on testing out some settings from the beach, I'm curious to know what settings others have used for taking photos of whales/dolphins from a boat.

I'm hoping that it's sunny enough that I can shoot around f/8 and 1/500th @ 400 ISO (as a starting point), probably in shutter priority. Aside from a minimum shutter speed, I was wondering about the focus mode, AF-area mode, and metering.

Metering:
Most of the time I use spot metering, but I was thinking of using matrix metering while out on the boat.

Focus Mode:
I thought that maybe AF-C with continuous shutter would be a good choice due to the whales constantly moving.

AF-Area Mode:
I'm considering using either 39-point dynamic or Auto-AF.

My biggest concerns are really with the last two. I think that maybe AF-C and dynamic/auto-AF could cause the focus to shift to something like waves, rather than the whale itself. I guess if I can get the shutter speed high enough, AF-S and single point AF could work out well.

Long story short, I'm all ears for any advice those of you with many more years in this hobby (or profession) than I do.

I don't shoot Nikon but you may want to put your camera in AI Servo mode (not sure if that is akin to AF-C, but sounds like it). Obviously continuous shooting will be the way to go. f8 will give you good depth and opportunity to not miss the shot, but if the light is lower, may not allow you to crank the shutter speed. You may have to open it up a bit as a result. I know for BIF, 1/1600 is sort of the starting point. If you are hoping to catch a whale breaching, you're going to have to be quick and 1/500 might give you a touch of blur still. At 300, if that is your longest focal length, you may not get as close as you think. In Newfoundland, we saw a ton of humpbacks, but they were aways off... I'd use a center point focus if I were you, as you are likely to have a fairly small target in your viewfinder, and that will hopefully prevent your multi focus hit the waves, sky, birds, land in the background, etc. Good to have image stabilization, your boat will be moving around, another reason to jack the shutter up as much as possible. You may want to consider using a monopod as well. To get tail flukes and the "humps" breaking the waves, you'll easily be able to get away with the f8 1/500 type setting, as the movements will be relatively slow.

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

The guides in Maui are very good at getting you close to the whales. You will have some op's at distant whales but you will have some close encounters too. Bright sunlight is the kiss of death for good quality exposure. I would be praying for some cloud cover Even on cloudy days in the tropics there is TONS of ambient light, especially out on the water. so youll have lots of options without losing shutter speed. The problem with bright sunlight is every wet reflection is a "hot spot" and over exposed. youll lose color and contrast can get out of control.
I would use center weighted metering.
I hate continuous auto focus. The focus sensor chases whatever it wants. Use center focus. Your subject is big and relatively slow so you can follow it easily. Be advised you may encounter other wildlife like spinner dolphins. Which will be more like photographing birds and such. You can open up your aperture to f5 or f4 to get that shutter speed up for the spinning jumps. Don't be afraid to increase your iso for this kind of action. ISO 640 will hold up just fine with that camera and give you the shutter speed you need.. if and ONLY if, your ambient light is low for some reason. Otherwise, keep your ISO under 400.

 

[Misled]

Now I'm going to get into some other things. I don't know how you are shooting motion, but if you can swing it, this is what I would do. I have a couple variates of chest supports. One of them with a remote shutter would be with me. Learn not to try to follow what you're shooting at. Just point and shoot. If you chase after the shot, you'll either miss it, or it will blur from the camera motion. Relax.

 

[NTP66]

All good information. We're going out [with Trilogy] during the peak of whale season when the researchers actually do their count, and expect to see an incredible amount of whales. Based on their Facebook updates, and talks with their crew in the past, they routinely get whales that surface all around their catamaran.

My wife has threatened to throw my camera into the channel if I get too crazy with the gear, so monopods and such are out of the question. After all, I do want to spend a good amount of time enjoying the view for myself and not through a viewfinder.

With any luck, I'll come away with some good shots, and will post them up here. The last time I went, I think I took about 1100 shots in about a week, so I won't be surprised if I eclipse that trip. Either way, I'll be posting up some stuff, even if it's not aquarium-related.