Top Ten Tricks for Photographing Birds

29 Jul Top Ten Tricks for Photographing Birds

I have photographed many different subjects over the past 40 years. Birds, especially birds in flight, are the most challenging – because birds move fast and the light/exposure often changes when birds move.

If you are new to bird photography, or if you have been disappointed in your bird photographs, here are my top ten tip to help you get great shots.

Focus on the eye

1. Focus on the eye. If the eye is not in focus, you’ve missed the shot.

2. Make sure the eye is well lit. If it’s not, you have missed- the shot, unless you want a silhouette or if you are looking to create a sense of mystery in the scene.

Photographing Birds in Flight

3. Expose for the highlights (small areas of bright feathers).

4. Set your camera on focus tracking to track a bird right up to the moment of exposure.

5. Set the focus point in your viewfinder to focus on a small area of the frame and set that point on the bird.

Bald Eagle Fishing

6. Use a shutter speed of at least 1/1000th of a second to freeze the action fast-moving birds.

7. Set your camera to the fastest frame rate to capture subtle differences in the subject’s body position.

Photographing Birds in Motion

8. Take full-frame shots and environmental photographs.

9. When you are composing a photograph of a flying bird, leave some room in the frame into which the bird can fly.

Bird Catching a Fish

10. Look for shadows that can add interest to your photograph. Check out the shadow pn this gull’s wing.

I hope to see you back here on Adventure Collection soon. Thank you for joining me.

The following two tabs change content below.
Rick Sammon
Rick Sammon is our regular and intrepid photo columnist here on Adventure Collection. To see more of his work, and to learn about his photography workshops, check out his web site: www.ricksammon.com.
Rick Sammon

Latest posts by Rick Sammon (see all)

No Comments

Post A Comment