How to take Great Bird Photos

Taking great photos of birds involves more than knowing how to operate a camera. Here are some tips to get striking, hang on the wall bird photos.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Digital or Film SLR camera
• Patience and Stealth
• Rubber boots or waters

1. 

   It may seem obvious but First and most importantly you need to get close to your subject. Doing this can involve a $5000 lens or just a 100-200 MM zoom lens and sneaking closer wearing waders and rubber boots. You can set up a blind in a marshy area and wait for birds to come close. I use a sit on top ocean kayak in the marsh, lots of mosquito repellent and start out early in the morning and around 4 PM before the golden light. I try and locate birds feeding downwind and slowly drift with the wind, camera out and ready and try not to make any sudden moves as I drift nearer to the birds. It may seem silly but don't make eye contact with your subject but act as if you are doing something else, perhaps with a fishing pole in the boat as if you are just another fisherman. Keep movements slow and easy and not jerky. Early morning light, providing your subjects are to the west or evening light, when your subject are to the east of you are good situations. Locate a local marsh and stake out the area beforehand, wake up early and find a good shooting location. Take lots of mosquito repellent! For the less adventurous, if you have a backyard where songbirds frequent, then set up feeding stations close to an open window or deck in an area that is back lit with good light and wait for them to come. Use a tripod and a shutter release button to minimize lens shake. If you are an experienced photographer then you will know what aperture and shutter speed to use, but if you are a novice, set your digital SLR camera's settings to automatic and your white balance setting to cloudy or sunny.

2. Good light is essential. The first few minutes of golden light in the morning and evening are great for bird photos. If you can, locate your subject with it shining on it. Photos of birds preening and good light highlighting the feathers can be spectacular. Side light is good too for highlighting feathers.

3. Honestly most bird pictures are just boring. If you have seen one bird of the species sitting on a fence you have seen all of them, unless you use an artistic touch to capture the moment and catch them backlit. Try for action as well as beautiful backgrounds, such as dew dripping on a wire that the bird it perching on. Try and photograph the bird in the act of doing something, such as preening, eating, scratching its head or catching a fish. Look for neat effects like the shadow of a standing water bird. Use your auto focus and try and get some shots of them landing or taking off as these are always more dramatic than a sitting bird.

4. Use the right lens. If you can afford an image stabilization lens for your Digital SLR (IS) then this will help your photo quality when hand holding. The longer the lens and she lower the light the more you will need a tripod and possibly faster film or a faster ISO setting. I use the cloudy white balance and auto ISO setting for most shots..

Tips & Warnings

• Move slowly and quietly.
• Open velcro closing bags ahead of time or rrrrip! and the birds fly.
• Bracket your shots plus one and minus one while on auto exposure mode.
• Use the right white balance setting, cloudy usually works best.
• Try areas such as along highway causeways and parks where birds are used to humans and noise. You can usually get closer.
• Look for docks and marinas where Blue herons and other birds are accustomed to people. Docks make a good platform for tripods.
• Keep bug repellent away from lenses. Use a towel, etc to keep it covered if you are kayaking to keep water droplets off of it. Bug repellent will remove the protective coating on your expensive lens and destroy it!!