Some bird photos from Ohio.

[Homeboy_Matt]

This is my 1st post! I am from Ohio. Just started taking wildlife pix with my new fuji finepix s4500 I won for free. I am new to bridge/dslr type camera's. Here are a few pix of the last 2 weeks! Keep in mind I am no pro at this but would love to learn all the tips and tricks I can! Enjoy!!
Black capped chickadee!




Crow


Cardinal




Common grackle


Great blue heron

 

[pab]

I like the last one. The first few including the cardinal photos appear to be out of focus, or just zoomed way to much for the cameras capabilities to take a clear shot. Keep shooting!

 

[Homeboy_Matt]

Thanks. I am usually so happy to finally see a bird I probably shake to much when I snap the shot!! lol. The heron stayed still for like 10 mins so it was way easier to get and I took about 50 pics of it. I have a tripod and used it then but noticed these other birds don't like to sit still long enough! I was trying to just use my hands today with the chickadee pics and thought those came out pretty decent and clear for just using hands and no tripod. The cardinals I took were about a half hour after dawn a week ago and zoomed in to the max. (About 30x) Also they are my 1st ever pics I took of a bird up close so I didn't expect it to be that great. I just want to catch stuff on cam so I can identify them and share with my friends on FB or whatever. I will keep trying for clearer pix! I tried using manual mode but its hard to change all the options and by then seems the bird is already moving around to another branch so I just been using auto mode. I also noticed I had my picture size set way to big at 4288 x 3216!!! What size should I be using? Some of these pics were 3-5 mbs each!!

 

[sm4him]

In my opinion, you *should* be using the largest size possible. Storage space is CHEAP, and it's way easier to take a really large, high-res photo and crop it to end up with something decent, than it is to take a medium or small file, low-res photo and do anything with it. Keep the large file size!

Your bird photos: If *all* you want to do is snap pics that identify the bird and post them on FB, then you've done that. But if you want to go beyond that at all, you've got some work ahead of you. Bird photography is TOUGH, and honestly, I'm not sure I'd recommend starting there. I'd start with things that don't move so fast.

If you don't want to shoot manual, does your camera have a shutter-priority mode? Set your shutter speed pretty high, then change your aperture and ISO until your exposure is good (meter on the bird so it'll be exposed correctly, even if the background blows out a little). I know nothing about your camera, so I don't know how high you can go on the ISO and still get decent images...but I generally start with a shutter speed of at least 1/1000. Aperture setting around 8, but I might go wide open if I have to for exposure purposes, and ISO...I start at 400 and go up until the exposure's right.

The higher shutter speed will help a little with the blur, but you also need to make sure you try to get the focus on the eyes. Does your camera allow for single-point focus? If so, use that and aim straight at the eyes.

Some other things you can do to improve:
--Get closer. We bird photographers use a lot of methods to do that (some more reasonable than others, lol) but if you'll just wear neutral colors (brown, black, dark green), find a good spot and sit or stand still, the birds will come to you, especially song birds. I set out feeders, next to natural habitat. Then I try to catch the birds "staged" on the natural elements near the feeder.

--Watch your composition. In all of these except the last one, your subject is placed smack in the middle of the frame. There's nothing compelling about the composition that draws the eye. Just about the only time I center my bird photos is if the bird pretty much fills the frame.
In the last photo, the bird isn't centered, but the bird is over on the left, LOOKING left and it draws the eye right out of the frame. The entire right side of the picture is useless, because the eye is going to focus on the bird, then follow the direction the bird is looking, to the left. I realize that you can't just ask the bird to turn and look the other way (though God knows, I've tried!!), so you have to try to compose differently. In this instance, I would either have taken the shot to allow more room on the left in the direction the heron is looking, or cropped in post to eliminate most of the right part of the picture.

--Lighting. Best way to get decent lighting on birds? Make sure that you are between the sun and the birds. Situate yourself so that the sun is behind you, then shoot in front of you toward the birds. You'll get better exposures, better catchlights, and the birds will just stand out better.

There's only so much you'll be able to do with that camera, in terms of bird photography. But there IS definitely room for improvement, if you're interested in working on it!! Keep shooting and keep posting!

(And lest that all sound like I'm bashing: these are better than most of MY first bird pictures...)

 

[SCraig]

^^ Listen to her. She's pretty good at catching birds in their natural element.

 

[Aloicious]

Some of these pics were 3-5 mbs each!!

Most of the time I'm hitting 40Mb per image file, don't worry about the file size too much unless you're trying to process them on some computer from the 90's, data storage space is cheap nowadays...definitely shoot at the highest size and quality you can, if your camera allows you to take the picture in a raw format (and you have some way of processing the raw file), then do it.

I agree with everything that Sharon mentioned.

 

[Homeboy_Matt]

Wow thanks for all the tips! I will put it back to the highest quality asap!! My camera does have all those modes. I have used shutter priority on the crow to try to stop the wings while in flight and manual with the cardinals but those were in very low light so maybe thats why they are kinda out of focus. I did zoom and crop them with photoshop software also so maybe that also adds to the fuzziness? I will keep trying and use your methods this time! I do want to go to the next step! My camera is only a $150 fuji finepix s4500 bridge cam. Its no $1000 setup or anything but better then the point and shoots I had b4. The only thing I notice is when in manual or aperture mode it seems you can only pick 2 diff apertures? I noticed the 2 sometimes change tho when I am zoomed in or out? I have seen people complain about this as I searched the net to find out why? They say its a bridge cam and not a true dslr. There is a f stop button tho? I never messed with that. Also iso goes up to 1600 I think but I always tried to use the lowest setting possible like 100 cause I heard it added noise? I do have single point focus I think. Its either single or center point that I was using. Today it poured rain so I couldn't get out and try and I got to work tomorrow so I will try to get some new birds asap! Might hit up sandy ridge reservation cause it has lots of waterfowl and wetlands! plus they are slow movers!! Thanks again! Btw, Do you use tripods or just hand hold the camera? I do have pix of the heron all the way to the right side instead of left. Just thought the rocks might add more then open water? maybe not! I will post one!



Here is another I liked but bird is more center again. I like how I caught other birds in the background and the sunset through the clouds tho.

 

[sm4him]

Yeah, your edit is an improvement I think; if it were mine, I'd crop it even further, like this:

That rock on the right is really not adding that much, imo. I cropped more of it out, and also cropped some of the water on the left out, moved the bird so that it is *approximately* on the bottom third quadrant line (read up on "rule of thirds" if you haven't already--know the rule, even if you don't always USE the rule). Your horizon was also just a teeny bit crooked, so I straightened it, and I adjusted the exposure and saturation in the sky VERY slightly.

I know NOTHING about the Fuji Finepix, but it seems like in manual or aperture-priority, you definitely *should* be able to choose more than two apertures. Read your manual, and especially the sections on manual, shutter-priority and aperture-priority, and try things as you read them to get a feel for what you can do.

As I said, there will definitely be a limit to what you can do for bird photography on that camera, but you should be able to see some distinct improvements as you work on it.

Personally, if that were my camera: I wouldn't even bother to attempt bird photography on cloudy, low-light days. You're just gonna end up with blurry photos or way too dark photos or way too noisy photos. Stick to nice sunny days--if it's cloudy, take pictures of things that don't move!

Experiment some; go ahead and set your shutter speed to 1/1000 and then set your aperture, maybe f/8. Now take some shots at different ISOs and see what happens. Learn at what point your ISO renders the photos unacceptably noisy and set that as your upper limit. I'd try the experimenting on things that don't move though, just so you know that everything was the same except your ISO.

I sometimes use a monopod when I shoot birds now, because I just bought a Sigma 150-500. But with my 70-300, I almost always shot handheld, and I still hand hold the Sigma more than half the time. Some people like using a tripod--personally, I would never use a tripod for bird photography, unless there are special circumstances (I plan on standing in that one spot for a long time and all the birds are going to be in one direction, out in front of me). Mostly, using the tripod just frustrate me, and I end up taking the camera off and hand holding anyway. I've only had the monopod for a few weeks but so far, I'm liking it much more. Lends a little steadiness without getting in the way. But with your camera, I can't imagine it's heavy enough to really NEED a tripod.

 

[Homeboy_Matt]

Thanks for all the tips! The sunset picture looks great! I will try to test out your settings on my camera!! I will keep ya guys posted! Might try to get some birds tomorrow. If they are not the best of quality that is ok to me for now cause I just try to more or less identify birds and like the hunt of finding new species and getting a picture for fb but I do want to improve my pix of them and will try all your tips to see if they come out better! I might add a few feeders to my yard in the sun and see if I can get some decent pix that way. Mostly I am on the edge of the tree line or inside the woods so its not always the greatest light especially with the trees filled in with leaves now but I will see what I can do! Thanks again!

 

[ryanparker]

Nice set, I like what you've done.