How did I take this photo?
A few folks asked about the equipment and settings I use to take bird photos. I started out to write a short simple answer. Instead I wrote a long answer with simple advice; I hope it is useful.
My best advice
Know your equipment! Spend time reading the user manual and visiting blogs that discuss your camera. DPreview.com and kenrockwell.com are two popular sites. I have missed out on great shots because I forgot how to quickly setup or change a setting on my camera.
Go to bird and wildlife photographer’s websites and blogs. Pay attention to the camera settings, time of day and how the image was taken; this is far more important that the equipment! If you read enough you will see that many great images are taken with non-professional equipment by photographers who have mastered the equipment they use. Do not use dollars to chase image quality!
Go outside and practice on leafs, pine cones, chimneys, fence posts, squirrels, bugs, kids (go shoot kids at a soccer game ~ you will learn a lot of good stuff!) Practice on all the common birds and wildlife in your yard, even your dog and cat; I have captured some great bird images while practicing.
I can't stress this enough. Most chances to capture good wildlife images come in 15 second blocks of time out of hours of waiting. You will ruin your enjoyment if you miss these shots due to not knowing your equipment and techniques. Being able to adjust your camera quickly to match a certain situation is a must have skill!
Turn off all auto settings (“P” or “pets” ) in the camera and learn to post process your images yourself. These settings can be very useful in many situations but when shooting wildlife the chances at a good image come and go quickly. The auto settings ask the camera to make all the decisions about the exposure; when the "auto" photos are not coming out as expected it is often difficult to decide what settings to change as you don't know all the decisions your camera is making.
For post processing you need only basic levels, curves, saturation, saturation and noise reduction (look for shadow/mid tone / highlight adjustment if you can’t find curve and levels.) You don’t need the latest expensive version of Photoshop. Photoshop Elements or Lightroom are less expensive yet useful programs; there are many others. Ask around. Google or search YouTube for how to’s; I find hundreds of free articles and videos on how to process images.
Equipment
I prefer small sensor cameras as these provide higher effective focal length while maintaining resolution; this was taken with a D300 which has a 1.5x crop sensor that makes a 300mm lens will be similar to a 450mm lens on a full frame camera. Many consumer level DSLR cameras (i.e. cameras that cost less than your first car) are small sensor and can take beautiful bird and wildlife images.
I used the very popular 300mm f2.8 lens. This is about the shortest (least magnification) lens I find useful for birds. I have a 70-200mm f2.8 lens but do not find it powerful enough to reach out and grab good bird photos unless I am lucky and the bird is really close. Some photographers use 1.4x tele converters to extend the length of a shorter lens but this reduces image quality and closes the aperture; a 1.4x tele converter turns an f2.8 into an f4 lens.
An f2.8 lens is twice as "fast" as a f4 lens; this means the f2.8 lens can let in twice as much light as the f4 lens. This can help a lot in the lower light of morning and evening. An f4 lens can produce great photos and be much less expensive than an f2.8 but will have a few challenges shooting in lower light. Some folks say the f4 does not produce as high a quality as the f2.8 but that can be subjective.
The 300 f2.8 is a "prime" lens; a 70-200mm f2.8 is a "zoom." I find the images from prime lens are sharper with better detail and color. This is due to the moving parts and more glass found in zoom lens. Again this is subjective but the majority of wildlife and sport photographers use 300mm and longer prime lens.
The longer the lens the higher the shutter speed required for a sharp image due to hand shake. The new vibration reduction ("VR") lenses will not help shooting fast moving objects; VR is useful for low light hand held photography of slow moving or stationary objects.
A Final word on equipment.
You don’t need the 21mp $5000 camera and $5000 lens to take good photos. And, you don’t need new equipment. Unless you’re a professional that relies on cameras to work every day (and therefore will have backup cameras) used equipment that is out of warranty can be a great value. I shot this photo with a used D300 and used 15 year old 300mm f2.8 D lens. Make sure the lens and camera can auto focus by checking the manufacturers website. B&H Photo, Adorama,
Google camera review sites and see what other have to say about cameras and lens. Don’t rely on reports from labs; read reviews by folks who actually take photographs. Go to Flickr and search photos by make and model of camera and lens. Send the owner a note and ask what they think.
Technique
A reminder to turn off all in camera image enhancement such as saturation and contrast; especially turn off in camera noise reduction and sharpening. Bird images do not respond well to noise reduction as the loss of detail in the feather structure can ruin the image. An over sharpened image can also be ruined. Noise reduction and sharpening are destructive processes; if the image comes out of the camera with too much noise reduction or too much sharpening it is hard to repair.
Shutter speed; 1/1000sec or faster; remember the longer the lens the faster the shutter speed required. Handheld requires faster shutter speed that tripod or monopod supported shots. The VR will not help shooting moving animals (and kids.) .
Aperture; I use f5.0 to f5.6; this keeps a decent depth of field to keep the bird in focus but allows soft out of focus backgrounds. Using f4 or f2.8 can cause part of the bird to be out of focus. Using higher aperture such as f8 or greater can cause background objects to be in focus and very distracting.
Aperture priority; this settings allows you to choose the all important aperture and lets the camera decide exposure. Adjust the ISO upward to get desired fast shutter speeds.
ISO, the most forgotten yet useful tool to control shutter speed; higher ISO allows faster shutter speeds. Use the highest possible ISO without too much noise. On the D300 I can go to about ISO 640 before noise becomes objectionable. But, I would rather have a noisy sharp image than no image!
Shoot max continuous shutter release speeds; this is where you press and hold the shutter and the camera click away taking photos. Most cameras can shoot 3 to 6 frames per second (fps.)
Use center weight exposure if your camera has this setting. This allows the camera to concentrate on the bird and not the background. I don’t mind of the background is over or under exposed as long as the bird is property exposed.
Use center or spot focus (test both to see which works best, I tend to stick with center weight.) This keeps the camera concentrating on focusing on the bird rather than the tree or background.
Use continuous focus; this setting allows the camera to continually refocus as needed.
Shoot JPG; shooting RAW or Tiff will slow down the camera when shooting continuous, and JPG is not a handicap in post process as long as all the in-camera post process is turned off!
Use quality CF or SD cards that allow data transfer rates of 60mb / sec or higher (mega bytes per second.) This helps the camera buffer keep up when shooting continuous shutter release mode.
Tripod or monopod; useful if you can pick a spot and wait for the bird but most often you will pick up the camera and shoot handheld.
I do a lot of bird shooting by walking along creeks; the brush tends to allow good sneaky approaches. I will also keep tract of roosts and nest and return over several days and times of day to figure out the best location and lighting. I usually want to be within 150 feet (about half a football field) or closer and this still requires a 25% to 50% crop using the D300 and 300mm f2.8.
Using continuous shutter release I shoot in bursts of 3 to 9 photos for bird at rest; I keep the camera to my eye and repeat this burst as the bird moves (and they are alwayss moving.) A certain look, sunlight in the eye, wind or ruffle of feathers; it is a lot of small stuff mixed together that will create the image that grabs you. I can easily shoot 400 frames per hour working on just one bird.
Good luck!
