Posting Date: Saturday, July 13, 2013
Online Background Information:
- Bird photography tips and tricks roundup
- Backyard bird photography tips
- Bird photography tips - taking your close-up photography to the next level
- 8 tips for photographing birds
Additional Tips and Suggestions:
Successful bird photography takes preparation, skill, and patience. Several strategies will help you capture images of these beautiful creatures.
It may be easier to have to birds come to you rather than you go to the birds. If so, you will need to entice them with appropriate food and water. The construction of simple setups, including perches, will also make your task easier. A long lens is preferable because most birds are wary of people, but it is not necessary. If you don’t want to photograph birds in your back yard, then visit nearby parks where bird habitats are available.
On your camera settings, shutter speed is important to capture a sharp image, but a shallow depth of field is sometimes required to blur out background distractions. Adjustment of the ISO setting may be necessary to get the optimum balance of shutter speed and aperture. Exposure compensation may be needed so that the bird is properly exposed. The use of camera modes for continuous shooting and automatic focus of moving objects will help you capture any action and various poses. If you don’t know how to make necessary adjustments to your camera, it’s time to get out the manual!
The beauty about the digital medium is that you can take a lot of photos to test out your physical setups and camera settings, and then make adjustments based on your results. If you have never tried bird photography before, I hope you will do so now. Your skill level as a photographer will invariably go way up as a result of this challenge.
Instructions:
It may be easier to have to birds come to you rather than you go to the birds. If so, you will need to entice them with appropriate food and water. The construction of simple setups, including perches, will also make your task easier. A long lens is preferable because most birds are wary of people, but it is not necessary. If you don’t want to photograph birds in your back yard, then visit nearby parks where bird habitats are available.
On your camera settings, shutter speed is important to capture a sharp image, but a shallow depth of field is sometimes required to blur out background distractions. Adjustment of the ISO setting may be necessary to get the optimum balance of shutter speed and aperture. Exposure compensation may be needed so that the bird is properly exposed. The use of camera modes for continuous shooting and automatic focus of moving objects will help you capture any action and various poses. If you don’t know how to make necessary adjustments to your camera, it’s time to get out the manual!
The beauty about the digital medium is that you can take a lot of photos to test out your physical setups and camera settings, and then make adjustments based on your results. If you have never tried bird photography before, I hope you will do so now. Your skill level as a photographer will invariably go way up as a result of this challenge.
Instructions:
Prepare one to three of your own photographic images of birds. You may take new photos or use ones in your archives, although it would be preferable to take at least one new image for this particular challenge. Please include any information or tips that may be of assistance to other participants (e.g., how you took the images, post-processing details, camera settings, what you learned).
The linkup tool will be available the day before the challenge date (July 12) and a couple days thereafter. Don’t forget to set up a calendar reminder for yourself!
