Bird watching last weekend. C&C Please

[RichardsTPF]

All this pics were taken at 1/400s. Wondering if the shutter speed is fast enough.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

 

[Dagwood56]

These are at best, snapshots. You need to pay more attention to your composition. The photos may be of birds, but the birds are lost in the busy and vast background; to be honest, I had trouble finding the bird in the first photo. Use a telephoto lens to get "close" to your subject and re-shoot. Keep trying.

 

[Ron Evers]

You might try cropping to make the birds more viable in the frame.

You need a long lens to shoot birds, I have been using a 300mm prime @ close range (under 50') & it is barely adequate.

 

[helloyo53]

You might try cropping to make the birds more viable in the frame.

You need a long lens to shoot birds, I have been using a 300mm prime @ close range (under 50') & it is barely adequate.

Agreed with both of these. I use my 100-300mm lens for birding, and many times the 300mm isn't quite enough. I use a tripod for almost all of my birding photos, however, so I can usually get some good focus on the birds and then I can crop the photos. You may just be able to crop these photos a little bit. Try it out and see how it looks!

 

[RichardsTPF]

Agree. I use my Nikon 18-200mm. The 200mm is not long enough to pull the bird closer. I have cropped all these pics. May be I should crop out more space.
There was low light under the shade. My pictures were underexposed. I added saturation, contrast and brightness. Do you think I over did it? And any tips?
I switched to single point AF mode to get better focus. However my tripod is not good. When I tried to focus at bird's head, my camera tilted down little bit and point at feet. I had to hold the len.

Crop more on #1:

It's kind blur.

 

[helloyo53]

Do you happen to have a remote control for your camera? If not, I strongly suggest you buy a remote. That way, you can reduce camera shake because you aren't touching anything on the camera when you take the picture.

And I think you should maybe save up for a better tripod. Earlier this year, I was getting so frustrated because I could not get decent focus on the eyes of the birds that I was shooting. I always try to focus on the eyes, but they were always kind of blurry/out of focus. However, I mounted my camera on a tripod and used the shutter remote to focus and to take trip the shutter, and I have to say that I noticed a HUGE improvement.

So try to see if you can buy a remote control and then a better tripod. With those, you may be able to get the birds more in focus, allowing you to crop it without it looking blurry.

 

[bells]

I didn't really notice most of the birds but I really liked No.4