How to photograph birds
Now that you know what you need to photograph birds I will now make a guide for you to get sharp good exposed pictures.
Get sharp pictures
Nowadays, sharpness is something you can get, the days when you need to focus yourself and after taken pictures finding out that the pictures you took where not as sharp as you thought they were (MF) are gone. You have auto focus (AF) and more than that, AF motors build into the lens, USM for Canon and AF-S for Nikon which is great, In less than a second your focused on the bird (s) and you are ready to take shots.
You could go for a slower lens, most Nikon and Canon lenses are good enough. But do note that you don't want to use a lens (mostly off brands) which are not fast enough because you get far less opportunities to take shots because you are to late to take the shot, this especially counts for small birds who are always on the move.
Next, if you are thinking about buying a Canon IS or the Nikon 80-400 mm VR lens, do it!! After you take pictures with these lenses and get them developed, you most likely will be surprised to see how many pictures are sharp.
Even if you have a VR or IS lens I advise you to buy a tripod. Nowadays there are tripods which you can set up quickly and the results will be that (in case of a IS or VR lens) you always have sharp pictures, even in a storm force 9 or 10 with a shutter speed of 1/50 sec. When you don't have an IS or VR lens a tripod is a necessity. Go for a professional Gitzo / Manfrotto or something like that, not for a cheaper Slik, Giotto. As always when you buy a cheap product you end up buying/ wanting to buy a more expensive one because you find out that the tripod is not good enough for carrying a large telephoto lens.
So far about the hardware, now some technique. Getting sharp pictures, is easy. Most important factor is your shutter speed, it should not be to slow. You can take a good shot at 1/2 sec. 1/8 second or more than a second but your result will be that the background is sharp (when mounted on a tripod) but the bird itself cannot be sharp because of its movements which is causing motion blur which we don't want. That's the reason why I mostly shoot at an aperture of 5.6 (maximum aperture) (your maximum aperture will result in the fastest possible shutter speed). If you are very close to the bird you might want to select a different aperture because the depth of field is very important in that case, on more expensive camera's you will find a depth of field preview button which will help you select the right aperture. Don't select a to small aperture like f/22 though, because then as I explained earlier your shutter speed will be to slow. I never needed to go beyond f/13.
Get well exposed pictures
Okay, Now that you have learned to get sharp pictures we go on to Exposure settings. The first most important thing about getting good exposures is that the birds are keeping there natural color and second the feathers must keep there detail. I am not going in to exposure settings in different kinds of weather, and photographing birds in the snow and so on because I haven't got much experience with that. What I do tell you is that depending on your light metering system (spot, or center weighted metering) you need to over or underexpose your birds except when the colors of the bird are of a middle tone. For example, house sparrows colors are middle tone colors. Keep in mind that your build in camera meter wants to turn everything in grey (middle tone). If you select the center weighted light metering system as your base setting (I would advise you to do that) and your (small) subject is not to close to you, taking up less space than your viewfinders center. You will be best to follow this scheme
| Subject is Black (a crow) | Overexpose 1 to 1 1/2 stop |
| Subject is a middle tone | Use the metered exposure time or + 1/3 stop |
| Subject is white (a gull) | Underexpose 1 to 1 1/2 stop |
| Subject is Black and White (Puffins, Avocets) | The best would be to expose for the highlights and take care that the whites and blacks are both detailed, Over- or underexpose only 1/2 or 2/3 stop |
If the bird is getting more close to you, taking up more space than half of your viewfinder screen extending the borders of the center you have a different scheme. Select the spot metering system and expose for the colors of the bird. Because your in camera metering system wants to turn everything into a middle tone grey you must follow this scheme:
| Color is Black | Underexpose 1 to 1 1/2 stop |
| Color is a middle tone | Use the metered exposure time or stop down 1/3 stop |
| Color is white | Overexpose 1 to 1 1/2 stop |
I know this is very confusing. If only the bird would remain still for more than 10 seconds so you have that time to think about shooting your exposures, I guess your best quick option would be to set your camera at the spot metering system and go bracketing for under and overexpose one full stop so you might at least have one good shot, set your motor drive to full speed. The disadvantage of this technique is that you can only have one good shot and throw away the rest and hope that the well exposed one is also a very sharp one. Go photographing birds very often and you will learn it fast enough if you have the time.
On the next page you will find information on how to get close to birds and how to use a portable bird hide. Go on and click here to read on!