Essential Field skills for Bird Photographers

Once you have mastered your DSLR camera, its settings, various shooting techniques etc you are mostly covered as far as the technical side of bird photography is concerned. However the difference between getting good shots and great shots is not just getting your exposure right, it depends on many factors including your understanding of the birds, their behavior, the way you approach them etc. In this article we will discuss some tips that will help you get close to the birds, read their body language, understand the various clues that they give away, sharpen your reflexes and thus vastly improve your success rate by being able to anticipate what the bird will do next.

Photo by: David Cook

1. Know Where to Look

The most important skill any birder should possess is the ability to spot the birds; one should have a basic understanding of the habitats of various species of birds. If you are visiting an area do a primary research of the lay of the land, the various habitats present etc

Photo by: John & Fish

For example

If there are lakes in the region you can watch the lakesides for gulls, wildfowl, coots or other water birds. If there are beaches chances are you could find many species of shore birds, do an online search to find out more about the type of birds one could find in any particular location, there are many birding groups in the internet and you could easily find many helpful information like where to look for, what to expect, best times to visit, if needed where to get permits, weather conditions etc.

2. Study Your Subjects Well

Photo by: John & Fish

Do spend a lot of time watching the birds, observe their behavior, find patterns, for example if you look closely you could see birds repeating certain things over and over like a bird coming to a flower for nectar, hovering-feeding-hovering- feeding - flying back then repeating this or birds when they are feeding chicks, the parents will fly off from the nest – come in with food – land on a nearby branch – observe the surroundings for a while – go to nest and feed the young – fly off – repeating the same sequence, coming back to land at the very same spot from which it observed the surroundings earlier. So if you observe closely you’ll know what’s going on and will be able to get much better shots.

3. Dress Appropriately

It is advisable to avoid vivid colors and wear dress that camouflage you well with the surroundings. The same goes for your equipment, camouflage covers like LensCoat work well to make your long lenses blend in with the scene.

4. Carry Plenty of Water and Food

Birding could extend much longer than you have initially planned; it is also very taxing on your resources, so it is important to remain hydrated. Carry some food and water with you, if needed you could throw some food to the birds to either earn their trust or to make them come closer for better shots.

5. Take Your Time

Photo by: Danny Perez

Once you get to a location to photograph birds don’t be in too much of a hurry to start shooting. Do spend some time watching and assessing the scene; do take in details like the lay of the land, wind direction, which direction is the light coming from etc. also observe the birds behavior what species are present, are they active or are they resting, if they are active are they feeding, engaging in territorial fights, are they relaxed or agitated etc.

6. Approach Carefully

Photo by: Ali Arsh

Your success rate is directly proportional to your ability to get close to the birds without spooking them. Plan your approach, move slowly, smoothly, avoid erratic movements, conceal your long lenses (don’t hold them out in plain sight the birds feel threatened) take your time, move few feet then rest  give the birds some time to get used to your presence and then move. Whenever possible use your car as a mobile hide, birds are not threatened by the shape of a car but they will immediately fly off if you get out of the car. The human form is much more threatening than that of a vehicle.

7. Pay Attention to the Direction of Light and Wind

Photo by: FMJ Shooter

Ideal conditions for shooting birds are when the sun in behind you illuminating the birds, it is also important to consider the direction of the wind as it effects the birds flight behavior. Large birds in particular tend to take off and land into a head-wind for maximum lift. You can use this to anticipate the direction in which they will take off and land. Birds also turn into the wind even in midflight (either briefly or for longer periods – hovering).

The ideal birding condition is when you have the best combination of light direction and wind direction; meaning the bird which faces in to the wind is also facing in the direction of the light. Even though this seldom materializes it is good to know so you could aim to achieve it and be aware of any compromises you make.

8. Listen to the Birds Sounds

Photo by: Stuart Williams

Birds like geese and wildfowl call out loudly to each other before them all take off; similarly you could easily be aware of the approach of larger birds such as swans by the sound caused by their wing beats which is very loud.

9. Understand Various Signs

When birds are agitated or when they are about to take off they give off many signs, for example birds lift their tail if they get agitated (may be by your approach) also most perching birds defecate before they take off. So if the bird you are approaching lifts its tail it’s a warning sign for you to stop your advances. Rest a while, give the bird time to relax and then move forward. And if the bird defecates, it is your signal to get ready for the flight shot.

The more time you spend observing and studying your subject the more you understand about them and the better your pictures will look, practice regularly and your skills will improve steadily enabling you to capture some great images.

Related Reading

1. Getting Exposures right while Photographing Birds in Flight
2. Bird Photography Tips - Using Monopods, Tripods and other types of supports
3. Photographing Birds in Flight – Master Focusing Technique
4. Photographing Birds in Flight – Master Focusing Technique Part II
5. Tips for Photographing Shorebirds

Read more »

Getting Exposures right while Photographing Birds in Flight

Before we get to setting the exposure part let us first discuss a few situations that lets you capture beautifully lit pictures of birds in flight.

Photo by: Allan Hopkins

As a general rule pictures of birds in flight turn out great when shooting on sunny days than when shooting when there’s lot of cloud cover (read cloudy days).

Select days with bright blue skies for shooting. Ideal conditions for shooting birds in flight are when there is a bright blue sky; the sun is behind you and is low in the sky (during early mornings and late evenings).

During those times the birds are lit from sunlight coming more from the side than directly from the top which somewhat silhouettes the birds. Sun being low in the sky also cures one another problem; of having not enough light on the underside of the birds wings. Try to shoot your birds with wings up which allow the sun to illuminate the underside of the bird beautifully.

Photo by: Pat Gaines

Another important thing to remember is that birds look great when they are illuminated from the front. Pictures in which the tail of the bird is brighter than its head are rather unappealing. In some cases the wings even cast a shadow on the head completely ruining the shot. Therefore whenever possible photograph the bird when it is illuminated from the front.

For example.

If a bird is flying from left to right of your frame the sun should be behind you and more towards the back of your right shoulder.

Tips for Setting Exposure for Shooting Birds in Flight

Photo by: Ken Slade

When photographing birds flying fast against varied background elements, exposure settings could change dramatically and it could easily confuse your camera. Best solution is to use spot metering mode to take your reading off the bird and shoot in Manual Mode. This allows you to expose your birds correctly every time irrespective of the changing backgrounds. Remember the illumination on the bird actually does not change much with changing backgrounds.

Now for those of you who primarily shoot in semi automatic metering modes; you will need to set adequate exposure compensation settings depending upon the scene in front of you. Here we will discuss some of the most commonly encountered situations.

Photographing Birds flying against a Bright Sky

Photo by: Ken Slade

When photographing birds against a bright sky, you will need to set a positive (+) exposure compensation of 1 or 2 stops to prevent the bird getting underexposed. The amount of exposure compensation needed will vary depending on many factors.

 First consideration is how large is the bird in your frame, is the bird almost filling your frame or is it just a tiny dot. If it mostly fills the frame then you need only make minor adjustments to the exposure that your camera suggests and if it is only fills a small percentage then you need to dial in more compensation.

Second consideration is the color of the bird; if you are photographing a white bird against a bright sky you will need more corrections than when photographing a black (or any dark shade) bird. Also take into consideration the first point (How much of your frame is occupied by the bird).

Photographing Birds Flying against a Blue Sky

Photo by: Isidro Vila Verde

When photographing white birds flying against a blue sky (which is a mid tone value) you will need to dial in some negative (-) exposure compensation to prevent blowing highlights on the bird.

Breaking all Rules

Photo by: Nathan Rupert

Photography is an art and as artists photographers have full creative freedom. Feel free to experiment, break all the rules, try capturing your birds backlit (shoot towards the sun) you could get some very interesting pictures of backlit birds or going further silhouetted bird images against colorful skies.

Related Reading

1. Bird Photography Tips - Using Monopods, Tripods and other types of supports
2. Photographing Birds in Flight – Master Focusing Technique
3. Photographing Birds in Flight – Master Focusing Technique Part II
4. Tips for Photographing Shorebirds
5. How to Photograph Birds in Flight Using Manual Focus Lenses

Read more »

Photographing Birds in Flight – Master Focusing Technique Part II

Use Only the Center Auto Focus Point

Center auto focus point on most cameras is the strongest cross focus point, enabling it to detect both vertical and horizontal subjects easily. It is also the fastest and the best performing one in low light, also using only one focus point minimizes focus errors.

Photo by: Kenny (zoompict) Teo

Shift to Continuous Auto Focus

Photo by: Vinoth Chandar

Modern DSLR cameras use advanced subject tracking systems which also has a predictive AF function in which the camera continuously tracks the subject and anticipates where it will be by the time the shutter is pressed. This takes care of the slight shutter lag which is present in varying degrees in all cameras. This mode is called AI servo by Canon and AF-C by Nikon. Using this mode once you acquire focus on your subject you could continuously track it by simply keeping the shutter button half pressed and click at the right moment.

Pre Focus Your Lens

Photo by:  Stuart Williams

If you know the bird to be at a certain distance, pre focusing on an object which is a similar distance away will make it easier for you to initially find the bird in your viewfinder and allow your auto-focus to lock faster. This is very similar to the technique we discussed in the first part of the article, which is to manually focus first and let auto focus make micro adjustments to fine tune the focus.

Pump the Focus

Photo by: John and Fish

One technique that works well is to pump the focus (press and release the button and tap it at intervals to update focus) rather than keep the shutter button pressed waiting for it to find the subject and lock on to it. if you keep the shutter button half pressed chances are the lens auto focus will keep going back and forth the minimum focusing distance and infinity draining your battery but not attaining focus.

Practice Focus Tracking

Photo by: John and Fish

Locking and maintain focus to click at the right moment is a skill that requires much practice to master. Start out by practicing on birds that fly from one side of the frame to another rather than the ones flying towards or away from you. It is better to select larger slow moving birds as your practice subjects.  The farther away the bird is the easier it is to track it. One technique that some photographers find helpful is to keep both eyes open when tracking birds, this enables to quickly regain focus if they lose track of the bird in the viewfinder but whether this work for you or not you should find out yourselves.

Related Reading

1. Photographing Birds in Flight – Master Focusing Technique
2. Tips for Photographing Shorebirds
3. How to Photograph Birds in Flight Using Manual Focus Lenses
4. How to Photograph Birds of Prey
5. Bird Photography Tips

Read more »

Tips for Photographing Shorebirds

Article by: Biju PB

Shorebirds are mostly long and slender birds with large flat feet, thin long legs and elongated beaks. The Oxford dictionary defines shorebirds as those birds that frequent the shore. Their diet consists of fish, crustaceans, insects and other small organisms found along a shore, in mud or shallow water. So they are mainly confined to the narrow strips of shore that lines the dams, lakes, rivers, wetlands and oceans where their food is plentiful.

shore bird photography

Shorebirds irrespective of the species; and regardless of whether they're alone or in massive groups, make excellent photographic subjects. Photographing shorebirds going about their business of running back and forth with the waves, rummaging through seaside debris searching for food, just sitting in a group asleep with their heads tucked in and a leg pulled up etc is very rewarding and could give you some wonderful shots.

In this article we will discuss how to photograph shore birds, like any other wild subject photographing shore birds also has some challenges and knowing the right method could help you skip most of the mistakes beginners make in their first few unsuccessful attempts to photograph them.

Tips for Photographing Shorebirds

shore bird photography tips

They are typically larger birds, are easier to find and are often found in large groups.

Unlike many other wildlife subjects, shorebirds are very predictable and thus knowing a bit about them will help you get much better shots.

Find the direction the wind is coming from, as birds tend to take off and land into the wind.

The toughest part in shorebird photography is to get close enough to them to have them large in the frame and not appear as a mere dot in a vast landscape.

Only include the full reflection of a bird in the water in your photo when the water is clear and when you have a perfect reflection.

bird photography tips

 It is better to get into position before the break of dawn. The angle and quality of light makes a huge difference in your photographs. The beautiful palettes of colors of any bird are best appreciated in soft light, when the sun is at a low angle, and with the sun directly behind the photographer. The soft light will reveal subtle detail in all the color tones while the front lit light will illuminate every part of the bird visible in the photo. Also during that time, there is less chance of strong winds and currents.

Try to isolate a single bird or group of birds from the rest. This will create a strong focal point in your photo.

Avoid having other birds in the background behind the bird you are shooting. This might be difficult when there are many birds like is often the case along a shore, but if you wait patiently you will be able to get individual shots as the birds move in and out of the group.

coastal bird photography tips

Capture Action/Behavior shots. Wait for the bird to do something interesting. They often stretch their wings, or indicate that they will take to flight.

Only include the full reflection of a bird in the water in your photo when the water is clear and when you have a perfect reflection.

Don't photograph birds facing away from you. It's best when the bird is tilted slightly towards you.

You generally want to arrive when the tide is out (and the birds are off feeding) this will cause less stress if you are in position and waiting for the birds to return as the tide starts to come in than arriving when the birds are already at the roost.

Tips for Approaching Shorebirds

how to photograph shore birds

For a bird photographer, approaching the subject poses the greatest challenge. At the same time, he has also to keep the background in mind. While photographing the shore-birds, it is not that difficult to spot the birds, as there is virtually no hindrance between the photographer and the birds. But, this in turn creates another awkward situation. The birds too detect us easily and feel quite threatened as we approach them. The birds are quite wary about the height of the approaching threat. The taller the object, the greater will be their uneasiness.

Wear clothes that camouflage you well with the landscape.

Wear clothing that you can afford to get dirty :-).

The birds are more wary of camera equipment, especially large / long lenses than the humans.

bird photography tutorial

Instead of walking straight to them, try getting down on one's belly and kind of crawling towards the birds. This not only makes approaching the birds easier but also lets you shoot from the bird’s eye level producing much more pleasing compositions.

Approach slowly, don’t make any sudden or jerky movements, move few feet at a time, rest and then move.

When you get close to the birds say approximately 30 feet or so, you could sense the first wave of uneasiness in some of the birds. If this happens, stop all movement, stay low and wait till the birds settle down, it might take 5 to 15 minutes for this to happen. But if you wait patiently you will gain the birds confidence and they won’t fly off when you approach closer. The closer you get the greater will be the waiting time it takes the birds to settle down.

shore bird photography tutorial

Shorebirds are more leery of creatures approaching from the shore than those which might approach from the water. Photographers have had success actually getting into the (shallow) water and approaching shorebirds from that side.

Once you manage to get close enough to them to shoot, slowly set up your camera, compose your shots and take pictures, there is no need to hurry, if nothing unnatural happens the birds are going to be at the same spot the whole day.

tips for photographing shore birds

If you gain the confidence of the birds they will always return and land near you even if they are disturbed by a passing person a jogger or a cyclist. Also in some cases the birds might even move closer to you during the natural course of their feeding.

The best advice would be to have fun and be patient. Enjoy creating beautiful pieces of art!

Related Reading

1. Photographing Birds in Flight – Master Focusing Technique
2. How to Photograph Birds in Flight Using Manual Focus Lenses
3. How to Photograph Birds of Prey
4. Bird Photography Tips
5. Tips for Photographing Birds in Flight

Read more »

Photographing Birds in Flight – Master Focusing Technique

Camera shake and inaccurate focus are the major reasons that cause soft or blurry images when photographing birds in flight. While camera shake could be handled by using image stabilized lenses, shooting at higher speeds and by better stabilizing the camera, achieving accurate focus consistently requires the use of right focusing technique and a lot of practice.

Photo by: Andy Morffew

Modern DSLR cameras and lenses with advanced auto focus features greatly increase the number of accurately focused images. However to make the most out of these technological advancements, one must fine tune his/her shooting technique to perfection.

Tips for Acquiring Fast, Accurate Focus Consistently

Best Focusing Technique:- Focus manually and then let Auto Focus kick in and lock on to Target.

Photo by: Ken Slade

There is a reason why most advanced lenses feature a full time manual focus feature (it lets you focus manually even if the lens is set to AF mode). Most lenses perform well and lock on to a subject in a fraction of a second if the subject is almost in focus.

For example:

If you are trying to focus on a bird flying about 25 meters away with your lens pre-focused to say 20 – 30 meters range, the lens will attain focus very fast. As the lens only need to search a small distance and not go through its entire range to find the subject. However if you try to focus the same bird which is 25 meters away when your lens focus is set to 5 meters chances are the lens will take a really long time searching the entire range and by the time the bird will be long gone.

You might have experienced this when you take a picture of some nearby object and then try to shoot something which is very far.

Photo by: Irene Grassi

The trick to overcome this issue is to focus manually on the bird, you need not try to attain exact sharp focus, but focus on the general direction of the bird and then let the auto focus do the rest of the job of fine tuning the focus and locking on to the subject. So do the major focus changes manually and let auto focus do the micro adjustments needed. This technique works all the time with all sorts of equipment; from the most basic of zoom lenses and camera bodies to the most advanced gear ever produced.

Focus Limiter

Many of the modern lenses allow the photographer to limit the range of focus. They have a button dedicated to this usually called the Focus Limiter.

Most cameras when they can't lock on focus will have the lens search through the range of focus distances until some detail is detected; this is sometimes called "hunting". A focus limiter simply restricts the range of distances the camera will attempt to focus at. Because auto-focus isn’t very good at quickly searching the entire focal range for the subject, limiting the focus range improves both the speed of focus and the accuracy (assuming you are only interested in subjects within the range you have selected).

For example:

If you are shooting birds that are very far away from your position, you can safely set the focus limiter to ignore the closer range and thus improve the auto focus speed and accuracy.

However photographers are divided in their opinion whether it is a useful feature or not. There is no doubt that limiting focusing range will improve focusing speed and accuracy in the set range. But there are a couple of drawbacks to this approach.

Photo by: Tambako The Jaguar

Firstly if you use your lens with focus limiter set to distant focus, say 20 meters to infinity. You will find yourselves helpless if a bird suddenly moves/lands very close to you or flies towards you. Unless you are not able to quickly locate the focus limiter button and switch it to focus at full range, your lens will not be able to lock focus and you will miss the shot.

Photo by: Tambako The Jaguar

Secondly letting the lens do the range searching and finding the bird in the scene is not the ideal way to focus quickly on birds. Searching the entire focal range is not what lenses do best, instead as we mentioned earlier in this article, do the major focusing manually and let the auto focus do the micro adjustments. Adopting this technique not only makes your focusing more fast and accurate but also lets you use your lens with focusing range set to full at all times.

Focus Confirmation Signals

Photo by: Isidro Vila Verde

Most cameras give two types of focus confirmation signals, one visual and the other audible. The focus confirmation light in the viewfinder will give a visual confirmation while a beep sound will give you an audible confirmation. Wildlife photographers are often advised to turn off the beep sound as it is an artificial sound and can easily spook the animals. But in case of bird photography the soft noise will only bother the most shy of birds. Sometimes it could even work to your advantage as the birds when hearing the sound become curious and turn their head in your direction to investigate. So it’s mostly a personal choice, if you find it annoying, or if it seems to alert the birds of your presence turn it off else leave it on.

Related Reading

1. How to Photograph Birds in Flight Using Manual Focus Lenses
2. How to Photograph Birds of Prey
3. Bird Photography Tips
4. Tips for Photographing Birds in Flight
5. Bird Photography Tips - Getting Close to Birds

Read more »

How to Photograph Birds in Flight Using Manual Focus Lenses

Manual focusing is not one of the strong points of many photographers who took up photography in the digital era. With the advancements in auto focus systems manual focusing has been completely ignored and many have never even tried it once. But to a wildlife photographer mastering manual focus has many advantages:

Photo by: Bill Gracey

1. It lets you work with very high quality lenses (MF lenses which are now discarded and is available for very little money) if you are on a budget.
2. Manual focusing works better in certain situations, especially when there are many elements present in the scene (when the bird is in a cluttered environment) which the camera may try to focus.
3. Then there is the advantage that practicing with manual focus will vastly improve your eye-brain-hand coordination which will result in vastly improving your success rate with both manual focus and auto focus lenses.

In this article we will discuss couple of techniques for shooting birds in flight that have been used by photographers for ages, even before AF lenses were first introduced.  These techniques could be practiced on manual focus lenses or with auto focus lenses set to manual mode.

Photo by: Gary Sutherland

Before we get to the actual technique there are few things you should know. Manual focus lenses traditionally had larger (broader / wider) focusing rings with a smooth motion. The cameras during those periods also had focusing screens optimized for manual focusing. So trying to do it with cameras and lenses designed for auto focus will be a bit more difficult, but with practice it will become much easier.

If you plan on using manual focusing on a regular basis, then it will be wise to invest in a precision focusing screen for your DSLR like the Canon Eg-S Super Precision Matte Focusing Screen For Canon EOS 5D-Mark II Cameras. Different cameras make use of different focusing screens so buy one that matches your camera make and model.

Technique of Photographing Birds in Flight Using Manual Focus Lenses

Technique 1

Photo by: Scyrene

When photographing large birds which have a relatively slow flight one could simply use the focusing ring to manually focus on the bird as it flies. This technique is not practical for some flight shots but perfectly usable for certain others like a hovering raptor or a heron flying horizontally across the frame.

Technique 2

Photo by: Johnny9s

The second technique is to anticipate the distance through with the bird would fly and setting your focus before hand by focusing on any object approximately the same distance away from you. This technique works very well even with birds which have a fast flight if the birds fly through the point of focus. But the catch here is that you should know a little bit about the birds and their behavior so as to anticipate the movement of the bird and set focus accordingly. Continuous shooting combined with the use of relatively narrow apertures to increase depth of field will help improve your chances of getting your perfect shot.

One major advantage these techniques have is to completely avoid one of the biggest problems in flight photography; camera locking on to some background element rather than the main subject.

Related Reading

1. How to Photograph Birds of Prey
2. Bird Photography Tips
3. Tips for Photographing Hummingbirds
4. Tips for Photographing Birds in Flight
5. Bird Photography Tips - Getting Close to Birds

Read more »

How to Photograph Birds of Prey

Birds of prey ranks among the most exciting subjects in wildlife photography. They are fierce, powerful, aggressive, fast, agile and very precise.

How to Photograph Birds of Prey

Photographing them is quite a challenge; first one needs to get close enough to get them large enough in the frame, they are wary of humans and take off at the slightest hint of trouble. One requires a lot of understanding about the birds themselves, a lot of patience, should be good at stealth and possess long lenses in order to photograph them in their natural habitat.

Equipment Recommendations

To capture wonderful photographs of birds of prey, one requires a telephoto lens, at least of 400mm focal length. The longer the focal length the better as your chances of getting the shot are directly proportional to the distance from which you can shoot. The further away you are from the bird the comfortable it will be with your presence and vice versa.

Photo by: Jeff S. PhotoArt

Image stabilization / Vibration reduction is a very useful feature to have when shooting with long lenses. A tripod with a gimbal head, camouflage clothing for both you and your equipment etc could also be very useful.

Recommended Settings for Bird Photography

1. Shutter Speed

First and foremost consideration when shooting birds of prey should be the choice of shutter speed. Firstly a shutter speed fast enough is necessary when shooting handheld to prevent camera shake. Then comes how you wish to capture the movement of birds, you can either choose to shoot them with fast shutter speeds of say 1/500, 1/1000 or even 1/2000 to completely freeze any movement and capture the bird sharply. Or choose slower shutter speeds in the range of 1/60 to 1/200 to capture movement especially in the wings.

2. Aperture priority Mode

Photo by: Eric Begin

Aperture priority mode is the best mode for shooting birds as it lets you control the depth of field and let the camera choose the appropriate shutter speed to properly expose the shot. One commonly used technique is to set the aperture at the maximum of the lens, for eg. f/5.6 for a lens that has maximum aperture of f/5.6. The longer working distance ensures sufficient depth of field to render the bird sharply where as the background will be a smooth blur. Choosing the widest aperture will also make sure the camera chooses the fastest possible shutter speed possible for the prevailing lighting conditions thus helping you keep up with a very active subject.

3. Continuous Autofocus

Photo by: Koshy Koshy

Use the continuous auto focus mode in your camera to make sure the camera continuously tracks the subject and stays focused, this will let you capture them even if they suddenly shifts position or takes off without warning.

4. Use Back Button Focusing

Photo by: Tambako The Jaguar

Back button focusing is one technique that is very useful for photographing birds, read more about this technique here:- Back Button Focusing.

5. Use Single Point Auto Focus

Photo by: Steve Garvie

Switch to single point auto focus and choose the center auto focus point in your camera. This ensures faster and more precise focusing.

6. Use Continuous Drive Mode

Photo by: Tambako The Jaguar

Continuous drive mode enables one to take multiple shots in quick succession by keeping the shutter button pressed. Doing so will enable you to capture a sequence of images when the bird moves or flies away.

7. Get Over Your Fear of Using High ISO Settings

When it comes to photographing birds of prey one will realize that high ISO settings are not just for low light conditions. You will find life to be much easier using an ISO of 400 or 800 even in relatively bright situations as it gives you faster shutter speeds to work with.

Bird of Prey Photography Tips

1. Focus on the Eyes

This is perhaps the most important tip when photographing living animals (including humans). Make sure you set your focus on the eye that is closest to the camera. if it is not in focus the entire image is perceived as out of focus by the human mind.

2. Get To Know Your Birds

Photo by: Shutter Fotos

Do a quick research and find out as much as possible about the birds you intend to shoot. You can refer books or do a quick search online to find information like the birds that you are likely to encounter in the area you plan to visit, their feeding habits, a bit about their habitat and lifestyle etc.

3. Familiarize Yourselves with Birds Sounds

The easiest way to know the presence of a bird of prey is by its distinct cry. Birds make many distinct noises and knowing which bird is making the sound and under what circumstance will help you locate your subject very easily. This is how experienced bird watchers know the presence of the birds even before they see it. There are many websites that explains about the birds of prey and the many sounds they make. You can also purchase field guides for your Android Phone, iPhone, iPod, or iPad.

4. Find Young Ones to Photograph

By young ones I am not referring to the ones that are still in the nest and have not fledged. It is better not to disturb them as your presence near the nest will certainly agitate the parents and chances are they might abandon the chicks.

Photo by: Martin Teschner

But fledglings and older birds are more co-operative than adult birds of prey. Younger birds that have just learned the art of flying are often very curious and will let you get much closer to them. Some might even show off enabling you to get great shots.

5. Direction of Flight

When photographing large birds of prey it is a good strategy to stand downwind from them as they like to take off into the wind to make most of the uplift it provides. By staying downwind you will get shots of the bird flying towards you if they take off.

6. Watch Your Background

Photo by: Bill Gracey

One of the most common problems when shooting birds of prey is the bright sky in the background. Always watch what constitutes the background of your picture. Often a slight change of shooting angle could get you a completely different background. Another important point is the distance from the bird to the background. The more the distance the better as it will render the background as a smooth blur making the bird stand out.

7. Use a Blind / Hide

Photo by: Holley And Chris Melton

It is not much fun to sit and wait in a hide especially during hot humid days. But the strategy pays off well if you are close to a breeding area or some spot where the birds of prey frequently hang out (like a favorite perch).  Undoubtedly the best hide for bird photograph is your car as most birds are used to seeing vehicles all the time and they know it is not a threat to them. But the major limitation of using your car as a hide is that you will be limited to photographing birds of prey perched on trees or poles that are close to the roads.

8. Approach Slowly

Photo by: Brendan Lally 

When approaching a perched bird on a vehicle, make sure you have rolled down your window completely before you reach near the bird. Approach slowly, do not make a sudden stop if you suddenly notice a bird instead drive by and make a second pass, this time slower and gently stop the vehicle where you have a good view and also a nice background.

9. Tell Tale Signs – Bird Raises Its Tail

taking photos of birds of prey

If a bird raises its tail it means they are getting ready to take off. It often happens when you get near the bird and have breached its comfort zone. So if the bird raises its tail slow down your approach or better stop and wait a few second for the bird to calm down.

10. Tell Tale Signs – Bird Poops

Birds of prey almost always defecate before flying away when they are bothered by humans. If you see the bird pooping it means that the bird is agitated with your presence and thus it is giving you a visual “warning”. Stop immediately and wait a few minutes, take your eyes off the bird and pretend not to pay attention to its presence and chances are the bird will calm down.

11. Best Time to Photograph Birds of Prey

Photo by: MalNino

The best time to photograph diurnal predators is during early mornings and late evenings when the birds are out hunting.

12. Photographing Nocturnal Birds of Prey

Photo by: Steve Wilson

Nocturnal predators are extremely tough to find and photograph, most only start appearing an hour or so after sunset and disappear before sunrise.  This brings with it a lot of different variables and so we will cover the topic in a detailed article on a later date.

Related Reading

1. Bird Photography Tips
2. Tips for Photographing Hummingbirds
3. Tips for Photographing Birds in Flight
4. Zoo Photography Tips - Photographing Wildlife in Captivity 
5. Bird Photography Tips - Getting Close to Birds

Read more »