![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Bird photography should be a creative activity in which you develop your own style and, when called for, deliberately do things that would break any conceivable guideline. Guidelines or rules?īefore I present any guidelines, though, I don't want you to think that these are rules that should always be followed. ![]() The good thing is, you can even revisit some of your existing shots and crop them differently to get better results without having to leave the comfort of your home. Sometimes this can't be helped but, where it can, following some simple guidelines can help you get the most out of your shots and move your photography to the next level. Not making the bird big enough in the frame, for example by getting closer, zooming in or cropping tightly Not giving the bird enough space in the imageĪlways placing the bird dead-centre in the image, or with its eye where the centre AF point would be I see many pictures published on the Web where it's obvious that a lot of time and effort has gone in to getting a shot: sometimes the photographer will have travelled hundreds of miles to catch up with a particular bird and then spent hours capturing and processing images, but will end up with a final image that doesn't do justice to their efforts.Ĭutting off random body parts, such as the feet or tail This may seem like a narrow topic for a whole tutorial, but it is a topic that causes a lot of difficulties for new bird photographers, who often take photos that could have been vastly improved by a one-degree rotation of the camera during capture or a one-centimetre shift of the crop box during editing. Composition is a broad subject and, in this article, I'm specifically looking at an aspect of composition called 'subject placement'. I included a high-level discussion of image composition in In this tutorial, we'll look at how getting these choices right can give your images a much more pleasing and professional look.īasic composition The positioning of the bird within the frame has a huge impact on whether the image 'works'. Should you place a bird in the centre of your picture, or off to one side? What if it's facing you, or flying? What if it has a reflection, or if there are multiple birds in the shot? Home Bird Photography Tutorial 6: Basic Composition We have a whole free tutorial dedicated to getting the most out of your camera's Custom User Modes.Bird Photography Tutorial 6: Basic Composition Mike Atkinson Bird Photography Why? Because then you don't even need to watch what you're doing with that mode selection dial when you see a bird in flight - just twist it all the way around until it stops – which'll be on that end setting! If your camera lets you store multiple custom modes (such as 'C1', 'C2 etc), use the last space. You can adjust settings from these saved defaults for a particular shoot if needed, and they'll just return to those normal defaults next time. Lastly, set your camera's 'drive mode' to 'continuous' (or even 'high speed continuous') so when you hold the shutter button down, the camera will just keep taking photos as fast as it can until you let go – giving you a whole set of different wing positions to choose from.įor ease of use next time - if your camera supports it - once you've dialled-in these settings, go into the menu and find 'Custom Shooting Mode', 'User Settings' or similar and select 'Register', 'Store' or 'Save Settings'.įrom now on, in the same way you'd select 'Av' or 'Tv' mode, you can select your custom/user mode and everything will jump to these 'Bird in flight' settings.For stationary subjects, I often use just one AF point for precision, but it's impossible to accurately train one point on a bird that's flapping around, so to reduce the likelihood of your focus 'slipping off' onto the background, enable several AF points (some cameras let you use the middle five, a middle zone, or for really erratic birds or if you've had too many coffees, perhaps just turn them all on).Set your focus-mode to 'AI Servo' ('AF-C' 'continuous' for some brands) so the camera is always updating/tracking the focus on the bird.Birds against the sky usually come out under exposed, so to combat this, dial up your exposure compensation to perhaps +2/3 as a starting point.Set your ISO to 'Auto' so it'll crank just high enough to enable you to use that shutter speed, no matter how low the light.So switch to Tv mode (for Canon, S mode for other brands) and dial in 1/2000th sec. The key to a good bird in flight shot is a fast shutter speed else it's going to be a blurry mess. ![]()
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