Advice Needed - Bird Photography

tshaddick

Hi All, There are some of you on this forum that take amazing bird photos, so I am looking for some advice. I seem to get good photos when I take pictures of birds that are on fence posts, or close to the ground. But I find whenever I take pictures of birds up in the sky or on top of trees they are washed out, and I can't even get them to look sharp in post process editing.

Am I using the wrong camera settings? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

This is a sample of what I am talking about:


This was shot with a Canon 7D 300 2.8L with a 2x TC attached, F 5.6 ISO 400.

kdog

That's a tough shot. When taking pictures of birds against a bright sky, you typically need EC between +1 to +2 so that they're not underexposed (assuming evaluative metering). However, this bird is lighted by the setting sun on the short side, and that side would have been blown out if you exposed for the bulk of the bird which is shadowed. It would have been a stunning shot if you'd shot from the sunny side. In general, one needs to react pretty quickly to changing light when shooting birds.

Can't really comment on your other shots until we see 'em.

pathfinder

The image displayed above shows the shaded side of the bird mostly, with a blue sky behind it, with just a touch of rim light along the bottom of the bird.. If you expose properly for the bird in the shade, the sky will be woefully over exposed, and may be completely fried. You also run the risk of losing detail in the sunlit feathers.

You could add flash to help light up the bird's shadowed areas ( if you have a Better Beamer or equivalent ), or just let the sky blow. Or you might try a rapid 3 or 5 frame HDR, but that is just difficult to do shooting wildlife.

The better approach is to simply move around to your left, and shoot the bird with the sun behind you, which is where the bird would be getting more even lighting, and the sky would no longer be over exposed.

When shooting wildlife, especially birds, one has to pay close attention to how their head is positioned, as a small 10 or 15 degree head turn will convert a sunlit face to a shaded face, and the exposure just changed three whole f stops. Shooting Manual Mode may help some if you watch your lighting closely, although most wildlife shooters ( myself included ) shoot Av with a close eye on the lighting to avoid under exposure with back lit subjects. Shooting birds in flight this happens a lot, as the bottom of a bird is shaded, not sunlit, while the sky is bright blue... Your meter reads the area of the sky, not the small portion of the birds shaded belly, and under exposes your bird without + EC.

Like a lot of subjects, birds are easier to capture on overcast days, than in bright, direct sunlight - at least with regard to highlights and shadows. Shoot RAW, and recover highlights in the Raw processing engine.



Here is an image from 2006 with an Osprey against the blue sky, shot with + 1 stop of exposure compensation, with sunlit and shaded feathers on the bird, and a blue sky behind it



As I look at it, I think there may be a few blown pixels in the tali but this was edited in 2006, and I wonder if a modern CS5 Raw engine would do an even better job today. I wonder if I can still find this RAW file. Maybe when I have a little time I will try to find out.

Icebear

You might also look into a "Better Beamer" type of flash focusing device. A powerful speedlight might be your friend.

TheGoondocks

A Better beamer is very useful as others have said, but if you are using a handheld long tele lens, you may not wish to shoot at sub 1/250 speeds to use flash. For instance, when I am shooting handheld with my Canon 400mm f/5.6 I never use flash unless I am using some sort of support ( tripod, beanbag, railing ) to steady my shot.

The best tip when shooting birds ( and really with any type of photography ) is to always know where your light is, and in the case of bird shooting, always keep it at your back or no more than a 90 degree angle. You can get creative with backlighting and all, but this is more of a general rule of thumb. If you would have been on the other side of this bird, you would have had a great shot if you waited for the bird to turn its had so that the light catches its eye.

Sometimes the hardest part is knowing when to pass up a shot. When I go out for a long walk or hike to shoot at a bird preserve or something, I don't bother wasting my energy, batteries, or memory card space by taking shots that aren't going to be very fruitful. If you see a cool bird and you don't have the lighting, move on. Unless its some once in a lifetime type of shot, you will be better off putting your efforts towards a shot that is set up to produce a quality result that will not only make you happy, but also be the most encouraging thing to keep you getting back out there to shoot.

For instance...I shoot at one local preserve that has multiple ponds and paths weaving around them. Depending what time of day it is, determines which path I take and which side of that path I shoot off of. Make those decisions as soon as you step out of your car or door or whatever.