| 1. Blow out the background. The very first step in | | | | 5. Move your camera. Another photography tip for |
| taking beautiful bird images is to make sure the bird | | | | taking good bird pictures is to get on the same plane |
| stands out from the background. Usually, you will be | | | | as the bird you are photographing. If the bird is on |
| photographing birds in their natural habitat which | | | | the ground or in the water, this would mean that you |
| includes a very cluttered background of trees and | | | | will get your camera as low as possible. Using a tripod |
| leaves. There are two things you can do to "blow | | | | that allows you to get right down on ground level will |
| out" the background so it does not distract from the | | | | help. You might also consider using a bean bag to |
| photo. | | | | steady your camera on the ground. Taking the photo |
| 2. - The first way to reduce the clutter is to increase | | | | looking eye-to-eye with the bird will dramatically |
| the aperture. Use your widest aperture. On a good | | | | improve your image. |
| lens, that will be f/2.8 or f/4.0. The wider aperture | | | | 6. Set a single focus point. This is a technique that is |
| decreases the depth of field, meaning that the plane | | | | often overlooked by photographers. In normal |
| of focus is very narrow. | | | | situations, you can use multiple focal points to get |
| 3. - The second way to decrease background clutter | | | | the entire photo into focus, but when you are limiting |
| is to make sure the subject is as far away from the | | | | your depth of field, you want to make sure you |
| background as possible. Try to position yourself in | | | | have just the right focal point. The best bird photos |
| such a way that you increase the distance of the | | | | have the eye of the bird in perfect focus. If you use |
| bird from the closest background. | | | | multiple focus points, the camera may choose the |
| 4. Increase the shutter speed. Try to get your | | | | beak or feathers as the main focal point, and your |
| shutter speed up to at least 1/250 sec or faster. This | | | | photo will be just another snapshot. |
| will reduce the chance of camera shake and give you | | | | 7. Change your lens. Finally, use the best telephoto |
| an opportunity for a much sharper photo. In lower | | | | lens you can afford. Great bird lenses are not |
| light, you can increase the ISO speed up to 400 or | | | | inexpensive, but they are oh, so worth it when it |
| 800 in order to increase the shutter speed to an | | | | comes to getting great bird photos. |
| acceptable point. | | | | |