How to Take Beautiful Bird Photos - 5 Digital Photography Tips to Take Better Pictures of Birds

Blow out the background. The very first step in taking beautiful bird images is to make sure the bird stands out from the background. Usually, you will be photographing birds in their natural habitat which includes a very cluttered background of trees and leaves. There are two things you can do to "blow out" the background so it does not distract from the photo.
The first way to reduce the clutter is to increase the aperture. Use your widest aperture. On a good lens, that will be f/2.8 or f/4.0. The wider aperture decreases the depth of field, meaning that the plane of focus is very narrow.
The second way to decrease background clutter is to make sure the subject is as far away from the background as possible. Try to position yourself in such a way that you increase the distance of the bird from the closest background.

Increase the shutter speed. Try to get your shutter speed up to at least 1/250 sec or faster. This will reduce the chance of camera shake and give you an opportunity for a much sharper photo. In lower light, you can increase the ISO speed up to 400 or 800 in order to increase the shutter speed to an acceptable point.

Move your camera. Another photography tip for taking good bird pictures is to get on the same plane as the bird you are photographing. If the bird is on the ground or in the water, this would mean that you will get your camera as low as possible. Using a tripod that allows you to get right down on ground level will help. You might also consider using a bean bag to steady your camera on the ground. Taking the photo looking eye-to-eye with the bird will dramatically improve your image.

Set a single focus point. This is a technique that is often overlooked by photographers. In normal situations, you can use multiple focal points to get the entire photo into focus, but when you are limiting your depth of field, you want to make sure you have just the right focal point. The best bird photos have the eye of the bird in perfect focus. If you use multiple focus points, the camera may choose the beak or feathers as the main focal point, and your photo will be just another snapshot.

Change your lens. Finally, use the best telephoto lens you can afford. Great bird lenses are not inexpensive, but they are oh, so worth it when it comes to getting great bird photos.

Learning to take better pictures takes a combination of study, equipment, and practice. Practice using different techniques and keep a journal of your results so that you will know exactly how to reproduce the good results rather than guessing which set up worked best. Find the perfect learning program to suit your photography needs at http://www.betterphotos123.com. Or, if you are looking for a terrific lens that will help you take better pictures of birds and other natural wildlife, go to http://www.digital-photographic-resources.com.

Happy Shooting!

How to Photograph Birds in Flight

Being able to capture good images using a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera can be extremely rewarding and some of the best pictures that we can take tend to sometimes be the hardest. Once we have a pretty good understanding of some of the cameras functions both on automatic and manual we can focus on the job of putting this information to good use. One of the hardest images to capture tends to be of something that is moving, but there are ways to make it a little easier to master…

Photo captured by gerry morgan (Click Image to See More From gerry morgan)

Photographing inanimate objects really is the place to start and by using the same object in totally different settings and light can give us a lot of information and feedback. It is also a good idea to place some objects up high so as to see what is needed to make these a clear and focussed picture.

Moving on from static objects with more knowledge we now want to explore the world of moving objects and photography. The technique of photographing a moving object is known as panning, this involves levelling the camera with the subject, finding it in the viewfinder (This is best done by first having the zoom completely in showing the object furthest away) zooming in and then focusing either automatically or manually.

When starting out using panning photography it is best to first revert back to the automatic settings until confident that being on manual will not be the difference between capturing the shot and missing a great shot. Once you have the image firmly locked on start to follow the images motion slowly with the camera, while at the same time zooming until the image is now the size that you want for your picture. Take the shot and review.

Learning to take good pictures panning can be achieved on a gradual progressive basis like this. Find a road that you can stand a reasonable distance from and not be in any danger from passing cars. For best results you want to find a fairly long road where you will have plenty of time to locate a car in the viewfinder focus, zoom and shoot.

"Bateleur eagle flying west" captured by John Booth (Click Image to See More From John Booth)

A good result should show the car as clear as if it was standing still and you captured the image using a tripod, while the foreground and background should be blurred from camera motion and not aperture settings.

Try the same method on a motorbike, this is improving your technique as it is not only a smaller object to focus on, but also tends to be moving a lot faster. Taking pictures of anything outdoors on the ground is always made better when the sun is behind you and certainly Not in front of you, this is essential to great results for panning photography, unless you want the images to be silhouettes.

Moving on again we are now going to focus on objects that fly. With anything flying it is always best to try where possible to capture the image from a side angle and with the subject as low down as is possible. This is because whether the sun is behind you or not if you photograph something in daylight looking straight up in will more than likely have the silhouette effect.

A good way to hone your panning skills of flying objects is to visit air-shows, or even by getting close to an airport. Air-shows are good as they have a variety of aircraft that you can practise on, not only that, but you can get some really good photograph sessions from air-shows.

"Crows - Towards the sun i fly, not as Icarus" captured by Hash Milhan (Click to See More)

One of the main reasons it is a good idea to start photographing flying objects by using aircraft is due to their overall size, this in itself tends to make panning photography with them a great starting and learning point.

Now onto birds in flight, using the car and aircraft theory we want to start off with something that is not only big, but also slow and graceful. That way we will find it much easier to keep track of and photograph while also making sure we can get the timing and lighting right. One of the best birds to start learning panning skills on is the seagull; they tend to tick all the boxes when it comes to getting a great shot.

The seagull is fairly slow in flight and tends to glide more than fly, not only that but they also do a lot of low level flying when it comes to catching fish or hovering in a bay on the thermals.

Moving on from the seagull should be a natural progression, but as a rule of thumb, the bigger the bird the easier it is to capture in flight. When you move down to smaller birds it can often be the case of hit and miss many times, but one little trick I have learned is that if there is a specific bird in your area that you are trying to photograph it is well worth simply watching his/her movements a few times before you actually try and photograph him/her.

By knowing which tree he/she is going to fly to or from can often give you an upper hand due to knowing the direction or target of his/her flight. Also setting up shots for birds is a good way of getting great pictures too. Using food to entice them or even a stick strategically placed on a riverbank can reward the photographer with a stunning image of a kingfisher.

"Freedom 2" captured by Steve Ardeona (Click Image to See More From Steve Ardeona)

Panning photography is certainly an art, but if the photographer studies and learns from initial attempts the end results can be pretty staggering in a relatively short period of time. Keeping the camera steady and smooth at all times is critical to the overall results, and it is even possible to use a mono-pod in some instances for even more clarity, but panning free hand should be mastered first.

About the Author
Photography is not just a great hobby and interest that people can enjoy and share with each other, it can be seriously relaxing and in some cases therapeutic. Expressing the many aspects of some great photography is myphotographblog.com. A blog that allows visitors to explore the many boundaries and wonders of modern day photography with some amazing photographs and links for added enjoyment. So whether you are a professional or a complete novice to photography make your way over to myphotographblog.com and be truly inspired.

View the original article here