Have you ever glimpsed photographs of chirping, nesting, and flying birds? That’s all that comes under bird photography. For sure, if you have landed on this article, you want to enhance the value of your bird’s photographs because either you are a beginner or a professional. At whatever stage you are, you will find amazing tips below to help you with your career.
Capturing bird photos can sometimes be highly whelming because the beautiful birds give you exciting natural poses and look to amaze you. But sometimes, capturing even a single photograph after a long wait is impossible because the bird needs to give you a chance by sitting still.
This article discusses the bird photography tips that will help you to get over all the problems that you face during capturing the best funny photos of birds.
Then why waste time? Go to the best bird photography places to shoot the most epic photos and enrich your bird photography website too. Let’s start.
Read More About > National Geographic Guide to wildlife Photography.
What Is Bird Photography?
It’s a type of wildlife photography confined to capturing photographs of different bird species. But photographers have to use faster shutter speeds with special cameras giving an advanced low light performance.
You also need to have high-quality zoom lenses to photograph the flying birds from a distance. Thus the zooming quality helps to reduce the blurring effect keeping the sharpness of the images.
A professional bird photographer needs to learn some advanced tips to differentiate his work from other photographers because the birds of the same species will look similar, but adding some secret techniques will help you get unique results.
Best 6 Bird Photography Tips
Throughout my career, I have worked on different tips and tricks to get the best photographs of different species of birds. I would love to share my experience over the years to help new photographers capture amazing photographs. Let’s begin the countdown.
06: Capture Eye-Level Perspective
The view of birds is different from humans because we are taller than the birds. Then how about capturing photographs from their eye level? It will add a beautiful touch to the photographs. For example, lying on your stomach on the floor and capturing the ducklings jumping on the ground would be cute.
Don’t worry about kneeling; capture the bird’s perspective from a lower level. This will help you make your photographs unique from others because very few photographers think about the perspective.
05: Focus On The Birds Eye
The eyes are the most important part of a bird’s body. They give goosebumps to the viewer. Remember to add eye details in your photographs to make them look mesmerizing. Capturing the eyes can only work when there’s enough light in the eye.
A bird’s eye needs more light to make a difference. Even an ordinary sparrow with beautifully captured eyes can please the viewer.
04: Use a Filled Frame
Sometimes capturing the details is more important than showing the surroundings. You can use a zoom lens to capture a beautiful shot of the bird’s feathers or its eye details. I take photographs filling the frame with the bird’s body, automatically enhancing the view.
For this technique, you must have a high-quality camera and lens to get an accurate close-up shot without compromising quality. Filling a frame is highly helpful for properly exposing the bird; that’s why professional photographers prefer it.
03: Try To Narrate the Story
It’s not like storytelling in a storybook. It expresses the bird’s mood, place, and activity in one photograph to make it the best. It includes capturing the bird and the surroundings and giving details of the place, weather, and time of the day.
Like I used to photograph birds when sitting on a tree, adding in shadows of birds or sunlight to help the viewer know the time of the day when the photograph was captured. You can also put different storytelling ideas because it’s important that you’re not only capturing a photo speaking nothing.
02: Add Action
Photographing a swan catching a fish from the water takes over the photograph of a swan sitting beside the river doing nothing. This means adding action to your photographs is a fantastic idea. For example, you can capture birds during fighting or hunting for food.
I recommend finding an action when capturing birds’ photographs to get more popularity among the clients. You will undoubtedly have to go the extra mile to photograph birds in action, but the results will be worth it.
01: Birds In Flight
The most preferred pose in capturing birds is the flying one because it adds to the beauty of the birds when they have their wings opened and fly with full liberty. Capturing the birds trapped in a cage is less pleasing than photographs of free birds in their natural habitat.
Your success can be quick enough if you focus on birds in the forest and open environments. Use the right equipment to capture the far away and fast-flying birds easily.
People Also Ask
01: What’s the best time to capture bird photographs?
Golden hour is my favorite time because you can fully capture the birds’ beauty without needing extra light. The best part? You can add dramatic effects to the photographs making the images amazingly fun.
02: Which camera works best for capturing bird photographs?
For the best bird photographs, you need a camera that works perfectly with the continuous movements of the subject. Birds are live creatures; you cannot ask them to sit still for the photograph. Nikon COOLPIX P900 Is one of my top picks because it gives accuracy even if the birds keep moving.
03: Do I need an extra lens to capture bird photos?
Yes, it’s very important to capture close-up images of birds and for that you need a high quality lens. The built-in camera lens will not give the high perfection required to capture bird photos. Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 is one of the best lenses for this purpose. Canon and Nikon also present various good lenses, so you can also try any one of those.
04: Where can I learn bird photography?
You can research on Google if any photography schools near you teach the course. If this is impossible, you can use free platforms like YouTube or an online course to learn to capture beautiful bird photographs from home.
05: What ISO should I use for shooting bird photographs?
Capturing photographs of birds in standing position using a lower ISO of up to 400 and a low shutter speed will help you get the best shots.
Final Thoughts
Those who love birds and are interested in bird photography must opt for this career. But the ones who have no interest in birds might find it difficult to capture photographs of birds. The reason is that birds are difficult to capture, and you might have to wait for hours to get a fun, perfect shot.
However, using the tips mentioned above, you can get the desired result easily, saving your efforts. So are you ready to shoot your first bird photograph?