How do they get those bird pictures to look so good? As a member of a few bird and wildlife pages on Facebook, I am amazed by the sharpness and quality of some of the images. I have...

Greenguy33 Loc: Rhode Island

As a member of a few bird and wildlife pages on Facebook, I am amazed by the sharpness and quality of some of the images.
I have been trying to take photos like that, but I am not there yet.
Can anyone give me any tips? I think that sometimes I over process images in order to compensate for the poor out-of-the-camera image.
Are there any good websites or tutorials? Can you recommend some advanced books?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Greenguy33 wrote:

As a member of a few bird and wildlife pages on Facebook, I am amazed by the sharpness and quality of some of the images.
I have been trying to take photos like that, but I am not there yet.
Can anyone give me any tips? I think that sometimes I over process images in order to compensate for the poor out-of-the-camera image.
Are there any good websites or tutorials? Can you recommend some advanced books?

Practice and very good equipment. As much as people say that it's the photographer, not the camera, you can't get a top quality image - the kind you are describing - with mediocre equipment. You need perfect focus from a very good lens and camera - and then good processing. A format larger than 35mm would help, too.

Capn_Dave

A couple of tips I have picked up over the years.
Put your camera on manual and set the ISO to auto.
One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when shooting with a telephoto lens is camera shake softness introduced by not being able to hold the camera steady for the duration of the exposure. One of the easiest ways to overcome this is to make sure that the shutter speed you select is faster than the reciprocal of the focal length. For example, in order to minimize the effect of camera shake with a 300 mm lens, a shutter speed faster than 1/300th second is recommended.
Don't forget to take the crop factor of your sensor into consideration.

Shutter speed selection, as mentioned above, was all about considering shutter speed in relation to freezing motion. Aperture selection, however, is two-fold:

a) Image softness wide open this is generally a rule for all but the top of the range telephoto lenses, but shooting at the widest aperture (smallest f/ number) your lens allows will often result in image softness. Therefore, if you choose a slightly smaller aperture, e.g. from f/5.6 to 6.3 or 7.1 (known as stopping down) you will minimize this effect and see an increase in the sharpness of the resulting images.

b) Ensuring you have enough depth of field a key component of wildlife and action photography is depth of field. Often, you shoot as wide an aperture (small f/ number) as possible, to try and isolate the subject and give a soft diffuse background. However, at long focal lengths, with a close subject, the depth of field (i.e. the region of the image which will be captured in sharp focus) can be as small as a few millimetres, meaning that tiny errors in focusing accuracy will mean that the crucial part of your wildlife shot that needed to be in focus, will be soft. There are plenty of mobile apps or websites that help you calculate the depth of field for your given camera, aperture and focal length, so make sure you have an awareness how small an aperture you actually need in order have enough depth of field.
Praying helps also.

Greenguy33 Loc: Rhode Island

jerryc41 wrote:

Practice and very good equipment. As much as people say that it's the photographer, not the camera, you can't get a top quality image - the kind you are describing - with mediocre equipment. You need perfect focus from a very good lens and camera - and then good processing. A format larger than 35mm would help, too.

Thanks Jerry, I always appreciate your feedback.
One photographer on Facebook that I follow is Jeff Clow. I love his work. He uses the same gear that I use (D800 with Tamron 150-600). I guess I just need to put in hundreds of more hours of photography in.

Greenguy33 Loc: Rhode Island

Capn_Dave wrote:

A couple of tips I have picked up over the years.
Put your camera on manual and set the ISO to auto.
One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when shooting with a telephoto lens is camera shake softness introduced by not being able to hold the camera steady for the duration of the exposure. One of the easiest ways to overcome this is to make sure that the shutter speed you select is faster than the reciprocal of the focal length. For example, in order to minimize the effect of camera shake with a 300 mm lens, a shutter speed faster than 1/300th second is recommended.
Don't forget to take the crop factor of your sensor into consideration.

Shutter speed selection, as mentioned above, was all about considering shutter speed in relation to freezing motion. Aperture selection, however, is two-fold:

a) Image softness wide open this is generally a rule for all but the top of the range telephoto lenses, but shooting at the widest aperture (smallest f/ number) your lens allows will often result in image softness. Therefore, if you choose a slightly smaller aperture, e.g. from f/5.6 to 6.3 or 7.1 (known as stopping down) you will minimize this effect and see an increase in the sharpness of the resulting images.

b) Ensuring you have enough depth of field a key component of wildlife and action photography is depth of field. Often, you shoot as wide an aperture (small f/ number) as possible, to try and isolate the subject and give a soft diffuse background. However, at long focal lengths, with a close subject, the depth of field (i.e. the region of the image which will be captured in sharp focus) can be as small as a few millimetres, meaning that tiny errors in focusing accuracy will mean that the crucial part of your wildlife shot that needed to be in focus, will be soft. There are plenty of mobile apps or websites that help you calculate the depth of field for your given camera, aperture and focal length, so make sure you have an awareness how small an aperture you actually need in order have enough depth of field.
Praying helps also.

A couple of tips I have picked up over the years. ... (show quote)

Thanks Capn Dave! I will follow those guidelines. I just bought a monopod. I am wondering if I should use that right away for some bird photography, or is it necessary?

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Capn_Dave wrote:

A couple of tips I have picked up over the years.
Put your camera on manual and set the ISO to auto.
One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when shooting with a telephoto lens is camera shake softness introduced by not being able to hold the camera steady for the duration of the exposure. One of the easiest ways to overcome this is to make sure that the shutter speed you select is faster than the reciprocal of the focal length. For example, in order to minimize the effect of camera shake with a 300 mm lens, a shutter speed faster than 1/300th second is recommended.
Don't forget to take the crop factor of your sensor into consideration.

Shutter speed selection, as mentioned above, was all about considering shutter speed in relation to freezing motion. Aperture selection, however, is two-fold:

a) Image softness wide open this is generally a rule for all but the top of the range telephoto lenses, but shooting at the widest aperture (smallest f/ number) your lens allows will often result in image softness. Therefore, if you choose a slightly smaller aperture, e.g. from f/5.6 to 6.3 or 7.1 (known as stopping down) you will minimize this effect and see an increase in the sharpness of the resulting images.

b) Ensuring you have enough depth of field a key component of wildlife and action photography is depth of field. Often, you shoot as wide an aperture (small f/ number) as possible, to try and isolate the subject and give a soft diffuse background. However, at long focal lengths, with a close subject, the depth of field (i.e. the region of the image which will be captured in sharp focus) can be as small as a few millimetres, meaning that tiny errors in focusing accuracy will mean that the crucial part of your wildlife shot that needed to be in focus, will be soft. There are plenty of mobile apps or websites that help you calculate the depth of field for your given camera, aperture and focal length, so make sure you have an awareness how small an aperture you actually need in order have enough depth of field.
Praying helps also.

A couple of tips I have picked up over the years. ... (show quote)

These are good suggestions and in addition if you want your bird pictures to pop use a flash with high speed sync and a flash extender.

It also helps to have a high mp, low noise camera for cropping since you can never have enough lens to fill the frame with smaller birds.

Elliern Loc: Myrtle Beach, SC

Capn_Dave wrote:

A couple of tips I have picked up over the years.
Put your camera on manual and set the ISO to auto.
One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when shooting with a telephoto lens is camera shake softness introduced by not being able to hold the camera steady for the duration of the exposure. One of the easiest ways to overcome this is to make sure that the shutter speed you select is faster than the reciprocal of the focal length. For example, in order to minimize the effect of camera shake with a 300 mm lens, a shutter speed faster than 1/300th second is recommended.
Don't forget to take the crop factor of your sensor into consideration.

Shutter speed selection, as mentioned above, was all about considering shutter speed in relation to freezing motion. Aperture selection, however, is two-fold:

a) Image softness wide open this is generally a rule for all but the top of the range telephoto lenses, but shooting at the widest aperture (smallest f/ number) your lens allows will often result in image softness. Therefore, if you choose a slightly smaller aperture, e.g. from f/5.6 to 6.3 or 7.1 (known as stopping down) you will minimize this effect and see an increase in the sharpness of the resulting images.

b) Ensuring you have enough depth of field a key component of wildlife and action photography is depth of field. Often, you shoot as wide an aperture (small f/ number) as possible, to try and isolate the subject and give a soft diffuse background. However, at long focal lengths, with a close subject, the depth of field (i.e. the region of the image which will be captured in sharp focus) can be as small as a few millimetres, meaning that tiny errors in focusing accuracy will mean that the crucial part of your wildlife shot that needed to be in focus, will be soft. There are plenty of mobile apps or websites that help you calculate the depth of field for your given camera, aperture and focal length, so make sure you have an awareness how small an aperture you actually need in order have enough depth of field.
Praying helps also.

A couple of tips I have picked up over the years. ... (show quote)

Thank you, Capn Dave. As someone else who aspires to one day take "great" shots of birds, I appreciate your specific suggestions. I have also noted how awesome some of the photos are on some of the bird sites. A few years ago I only shot in manual, but somehow gradually switched to using shutter mode. I will try going back to manual for awhile.

And as Jerry said, practice, practice, practice.

Greenguy33 Loc: Rhode Island

joer wrote:

These are good suggestions and in addition if you want your bird pictures to pop use a flash with high speed sync and a flash extender.

It also helps to have a high mp, low noise camera for cropping since you can never have enough lens to fill the frame with smaller birds.

:thumbup:

ptcanon3ti Loc: NJ

Greenguy33 wrote:

Thanks Jerry, I always appreciate your feedback.
One photographer on Facebook that I follow is Jeff Clow. I love his work. He uses the same gear that I use (D800 with Tamron 150-600). I guess I just need to put in hundreds of more hours of photography in.

Provided your equipment is functioning correctly, and calibrated properly, you will eventually get great results with your gear.

I assume you are NOT talking about birds in flight, but rather grounded birds.

Try to shoot birds in good hard sunlight and move to a position where the birds are front lit.

If you are hand holding your camera try using the VC on the lens. Then try without the VC. Yes it's practice and familiarity with your set up.

Most of all...be patient. :)

Greenguy33 Loc: Rhode Island

ptcanon3ti wrote:

Provided your equipment is functioning correctly, ... (show quote)

Thanks ptcanon! Well, I'd love to capture birds in flight as well as grounded.
I'll try to shoot some images with the sun over my shoulder for front lit images. Thanks for that advice. I didn't think of that.

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Why do you get poor out-of-the-camera images?

#1 Unwanted camera movemnt?
A mono pod may help. Shutter speed too slow. Lens stabilisation meay help.

#2 Unwanted subject movement.
What shuuter speeds are you using.

#3 Soft images due to focussing problems.
What focussing methods are you using, for stationary birds and BIF.

#4 Soft images due to flare. Use a lens hood and remove any un needed filters.

#5 Soft images due to shooting wide open (lens dependant).
Try shooting a couple of stops down from wide open.

#6 Soft images due to high ISO - if possible try to shoot in "better" light.

#7 Are you filling the frame with the subject?

#8 if shooting RAW are you sharpening during post processing?

Greenguy33 Loc: Rhode Island

Why do you get poor out-of-the-camera images? I don't know.

#1 Unwanted camera movement?
A mono pod may help. Shutter speed too slow. Lens stabilisation may help.
I will try a monopod.

#2 Unwanted subject movement.
What shutter speeds are you using.
minimum of 1/500 second.

#3 Soft images due to focusing problems.
What focusing methods are you using, for stationary birds and BIF.
Single point autofocus.

#4 Soft images due to flare. Use a lens hood and remove any unneeded filters.
No flare issues.

#5 Soft images due to shooting wide open (lens dependant).
Try shooting a couple of stops down from wide open.
I will try that. I generally use the widest opening at f/6.3

#6 Soft images due to high ISO - if possible try to shoot in "better" light.
I will keep an eye on lighting.

#7 Are you filling the frame with the subject?
Whenever possible.

#8 if shooting RAW are you sharpening during post processing?
My problem (I think) is that I slide the Sharpening too far to the right causing a glowing effect.

Thanks for the checklist!

:thumbup: :thumbup:

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Green, the biggest mistake I see being made is NOT being close enough, then cropping!
Green, it doesn't matter how good your gear is or how good you are, if you are too far away, it's never gonna happen!!
Green, you can have an entry level camera with a $100 nifty 50 on it. If you can fill your frame with the bird, it will be the best bird shot you'll have probably ever taken. Good luck. ;-)
SS

Greenguy33 Loc: Rhode Island

SharpShooter wrote:

Green, the biggest mistake I see being made is NOT being close enough, then cropping!
Green, it doesn't matter how good your gear is or how good you are, if you are too far away, it's never gonna happen!!
Green, you can have an entry level camera with a $100 nifty 50 on it. If you can fill your frame with the bird, it will be the best bird shot you'll have probably ever taken. Good luck. ;-)
SS

Thanks SS! I am always afraid that I will scare the bird away by moving closer.
I guess the best zoom are the legs. :lol:

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Try to get close.
Spray and pray.
Don't need to spend a fortune. I put a $250 nikkor 55-300mm VR AFS lens on an $80 used Nikon J1 camera to get an 810mm focal length on the J1 CX sensor. I also needed the $220 Nikon FT1 f-mount adapter to auto focus.
Crop and use subtle PS enhancements.
Have lots of patience. I've been at it for about a year. My best shot is attached, taken with the above mentioned gear, shutter priority, handheld at 1/640 sec, f5.6, auto iso at iso 125, center point auto focus, VR on. Taken from about 20 ft. away.

(Download)