Bird Photography is a type of photography where it’s not easy as that of capturing other creatures through a camera. A person who studies about bird is called the ornithologist. And the field of study is known as ornithology. But people who have basic knowledge of bird photography can do it quickly. But still, birds are creatures where they fly erratically, and it’s challenging to take such shots, and it would not be essential while seeing through your naked eyes. People interested in bird photography must use a DSLR camera so that while they capture with it, the photos show much life. But the snaps which are taken with it only don’t need to be worth it.
A person who is passionate in such field they make worthier even with a camera which is found in mobile phone. Besides it, while photographing birds, three modes work best. If you want to control the aperture (depth of the field), choose the Av mode. For controlling the shutter speed (when the birds are in their flight), select the Tv mode. And if you exactly know what mode you require, then select the M manual mode. And you should make sure if you want to take photographs in the dark areas, then set the positive exposure compensation value, whereas if you’re going to avoid overexposed areas, set the negative one.
Are you ready for bird photography if you are interested, then? If you have little skill behind it, you can hang your photography towards the beautiful creature in the world. If you are a beginner in bird photography, then I would share some of the tips which make you valuable.
Tips of birds photography
1.Don’t get obsessed with the equipment used to start your tour in bird photography.
Most of the beginners are troubled and confused about which equipment they should use as a starter. From my perspective and research, I could get an answer for this. Cameras and lenses indeed make a difference in the view you are capturing, but you should be able to know its specifications and to create beautiful compositions too. It is that there occurs different ideas should also keep in mind while capturing anything with the camera that the light should come behind the picture, learning to expose correctly and to track the fast-moving objects clearly and spontaneously. You should use a longer lens if your subject is inconsistent, but instead, you can use a shorter lens too, either you use stalking strategies or by capturing environmental bird views.
To be precise, it’s better to use a decent APS – C camera body; adding a telephoto lens of 300mm along with it will be able to capture bird photos as a beginner. This makes you capture truly great bird photographs at the stage of beginning. As I said, even if you don’t have a longer telephoto lens, you can still take stunning pictures of birds like geese, gulls, mallards, and other approachable birds.
2.To enhance bird photography, lighting and composition is essential
Light and composition are the two major leading factors that enhance and, if it’s not adequate, can break your bird photographs. So both should be equally found while taking a bird view in an open space. You need to be extra vigilant and pay careful attention to both of you get in your favor, and it does not fluctuate. So you may now think of which is the suitable time to take bird photography or is there unique as that time? The convenient time to capture bird photography is that the early morning and late afternoon light is otherwise known as golden-hour lighting. Golden-hour lighting is a quiet time, and as a bonus, the birds tend to be very active.
As a result, let’s look at the characteristics of golden-hour lighting.
- Prevents torturous shadows that surround the bird
- Enhances to get the glow over the plumage of the bird
- Develops a catch light through the eye of a bird.
Now let’s see the composition in birds photography.
If you have good composition, you can convey the photograph most simply. For example, the composition is pretty easy if you follow certain principles.
- While capturing, use the rule of thirds composition technique to place the bird off-center.
- To get a complementary background, use the color contrast.
- The bird should fill in the frame while focusing
- Always use a clean background.
While focusing on a picture of a bird, make sure about the guidelines to your mind so that your photograph stands at golden.
3.Get down towards the birds level to capture the photo of a bird from your camera
It’s well known that we see the world from five to six feet high, while the birds see the world from few inches to few feet off the ground. If you want to become a bird photographer, you should come to their level to get professional-looking and low perspective images. For that, you should squat, crouch, crawl, or climb the tree with the camera. It’s not necessary to use a tripod to take their pictures, and it’s not able to take photos of birds with a tripod since birds won’t be able to get at the level of a tripod.
4.Focus the eye of the bird and shoot a snap
While taking a photo of a bird, the photographer must always focus on the bird’s eyes. Have you ever noticed a white color in the picture of a bird? What does this mean? And have you ever seen the difference while there is no white color or light in the bird’s eyes? This resembles the catchlight, and it means the if this catchlight is found, then the picture of the bird is filled with life. And the other resembles a lifeless photo of a bird. So concentrate on the eyes of a bird while taking a photograph, or if not and you take the body of a bird and the eyes look blurred, then you are not skilled enough for bird photography.
5. Make a story by capturing the bird
A photographer must provide a story behind while shooting an image of a bird through their camera. They should fill the frame with the scenery behind or the flowers behind the bird while capturing it. So that if the bird is flying in the sky, the photographer must be capable of taking a wider image of the frame so that if it is placed in the movie or book, the people can narrate a story. For taking such kinds of photos, they should keep some tips in their mind. They can be
- Shoot the weather conditions whether if it is rainy, snow, misty, etc
- Capture the silhouette like the sunrise or sunset
- Indicate the seasons like a flower blooming, autumn, spring, etc.
- Use reflections for a surreal result.
