TOP TEN TIPS FOR BETTER BIRD PHOTOS
1 Revisit locations
Go to your favourite local wildlife spots regularly and over time you’ll work out where the best position is to be to get the best light, particularly helpful at sunrise or sunset.
2 Invest in ‘fast’ glass
Having a ‘fast’ lens with an aperture of f/2.8 makes all the difference, allowing you to shoot at rapid shutter speeds and also create wonderful shallow depth-of-field effects.
3 Improve your fieldcraft
It’s easy to think you need a 600mm lens to get frame-filling shots of far away birds, but if you practice your fieldcraft you get can close and get good shots with a 200mm focal length.
4 Visit bird shows
The flying displays at birding wildlife centres are ideal for perfecting your panning and can be well worth visiting to improve your skills.
5 Wear old clothing
It’s worth wearing old clothes or bringing a bin bag to put on the ground to take better eye-level or low-angle shots, without worrying about your clothes getting dirty.
6 Birds in your back garden
If you have a garden, try topping up your bird feeders with seeds and fat balls and photographing back garden birds to improve your focusing on our feathered friends.
7 Let the wildlife come to you
Rather than getting closer to your subject and risk scaring it off, it’s nearly always better to stay put, hide yourself as well as possible and remain motionless, letting the wildlife come closer to you.
8 Go to a bird hide
There’s a fantastic amount of bird and wildlife hides that you can visit where certain species are known to be and you’ll improve your chances of getting a great photo.
9 Keep your editing simple
It’s best to keep your editing as realistic as possible, so I tend to limit myself to simple Raw adjustments and the odd bit of cloning if there is something distracting in the frame.
10 Stock up on food and drink
If you plan to shoot in a hide all day make sure you come prepared with some food and a hot thermos to keep you going, so you don’t have to leave early before you’ve got decent photos.