Taking pictures of Birds! Feedback please?

[tommmkelly]

Feedback and advice welcome!

 

[sm4him]

What kind of camera and lens do you have? Really good bird photography can be pretty tough.

There are some on this forum who have some awesome bird photography skills--watch for their threads and ask questions!

Here's just a few of my initial thoughts:
1. I *try* not to take pictures of birds on manmade articles, like feeders. Nothing "wrong" with it, I just prefer a natural environment. One thing you can do to achieve this is to create a natural landing area near the feeders or birdbath--a bush, a tree limb (I've even been known to stick a big, dead tree limb down into the ground, to give them something to perch on).

2. Watch your exposure and your focus. That first one looks a little underexposed overall, and in the second, the birdbath exposure is okay, but the bird is a bit too dark. Meter on the bird to make sure you get it exposed correctly, use single-point focus and try to get the focus right on its eye.

3. Are you shooting from a window, or outside somewhere? Work on getting as close as you possibly can. I have a little "blind" that I use outside; it's less than 15 feet from my feeder and gives me a great view of the birds. I also sometimes use my CAR as a blind--I have a feeder set up intentionally to be right in my line of sight, about 10-12 feet from where the car is parked. Birds are so used to cars that they pay you no attention at all.

4. Did I mention you want to get as close as possible? Cropping these might help some as well, if the image quality doesn't suffer too much.

5. Keep shooting! Bird photography is addictive.

 

[KmH]

A basic photographic concept is 'fill the frame'.

If you don't have a long reach telephoto lens, you can always build a simple DIY blind.
A blind will let you get closer to the birds.
The camera can be turned 90° to frame vertical subjects, like the first photo you posted.

Learn about ETTR • Expose-To-The-Right • and how to interpret a histogram.
Understanding Digital Camera Histograms: Tones and Contrast
Understanding Digital Camera Histograms: Luminosity and Color
Optimizing Exposure
ETTR
Exposing to the right - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have not yet chosen an edit preference My Photos Are OK to Edit or My Photos Are Not OK to Edit for your profile. So let me know if you want me to remove the following edit I did.

 

[tommmkelly]

What kind of camera and lens do you have? Really good bird photography can be pretty tough.

There are some on this forum who have some awesome bird photography skills--watch for their threads and ask questions!

Here's just a few of my initial thoughts:
1. I *try* not to take pictures of birds on manmade articles, like feeders. Nothing "wrong" with it, I just prefer a natural environment. One thing you can do to achieve this is to create a natural landing area near the feeders or birdbath--a bush, a tree limb (I've even been known to stick a big, dead tree limb down into the ground, to give them something to perch on).

2. Watch your exposure and your focus. That first one looks a little underexposed overall, and in the second, the birdbath exposure is okay, but the bird is a bit too dark. Meter on the bird to make sure you get it exposed correctly, use single-point focus and try to get the focus right on its eye.

3. Are you shooting from a window, or outside somewhere? Work on getting as close as you possibly can. I have a little "blind" that I use outside; it's less than 15 feet from my feeder and gives me a great view of the birds. I also sometimes use my CAR as a blind--I have a feeder set up intentionally to be right in my line of sight, about 10-12 feet from where the car is parked. Birds are so used to cars that they pay you no attention at all.

4. Did I mention you want to get as close as possible? Cropping these might help some as well, if the image quality doesn't suffer too much.

5. Keep shooting! Bird photography is addictive.

I have a Canon 300D with a Canon 90-300mm zoom lens.

Yes, I was shooting behind a window.

Thanks for your advice!

 

[tommmkelly]

A basic photographic concept is 'fill the frame'.

If you don't have a long reach telephoto lens, you can always build a simple DIY blind.
A blind will let you get closer to the birds.
The camera can be turned 90° to frame vertical subjects, like the first photo you posted.

Learn about ETTR • Expose-To-The-Right • and how to interpret a histogram.
Understanding Digital Camera Histograms: Tones and Contrast
Understanding Digital Camera Histograms: Luminosity and Color
Optimizing Exposure
ETTR
Exposing to the right - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have not yet chosen an edit preference My Photos Are OK to Edit or My Photos Are Not OK to Edit for your profile. So let me know if you want me to remove the following edit I did.

Thanks for your reply!

I never really thought about making a blind, I will look into it!

I tried to crop the photo like you have in the edit but it seemed to lose a lot of quality!

That's absolutely fine to edit, I shall change my preference on my profile

 

[sm4him]

Okay, with a 300mm lens, you should be able to do pretty decent with the backyard songbirds. You want to work at getting to where they simply don't pay attention to you.

For instance, here's a couple I took this past winter:


This one was shot from inside my house, through an open window. When I opened the window, the birds all flew off, of course, but then I get comfy and sit patiently and wait and eventually, THIS happens. Well, sometimes.


Jan_19_2013 (17)editweb by sm4him, on Flickr
This one was shot outside, using a "blind" of sorts. But even then, it took a LONG time--weeks--to finally get this jittery little Towhee comfortable enough to hop out from the inside of the bush where I could get a decent picture.

My "blind" for my backyard is simply some PVC pipe stuck in the ground, which I then threw camo material over, so it makes a sort of camo "wall"--I cut a few holes out big enough for me to see through and stick the camera lens into, and then I sit and wait. And wait. And wait. Bird photography takes LOTS of patient waiting.

Another place I sat that worked incredibly well was to get a camo blanket and lay it on the ground, RIGHT in front of my car. Again, they really just don't care about the car being there, and by being so close to it, they paid me no attention whatsoever. Got this shot, from a nice low angle from that spot:

Jan_6_2013 (50)edit_web by sm4him, on Flickr

There's more on my Flickr page; you're welcome to look through them. My longest lens currently is also a 70-300, so these should all be achievable with the lens you already have.

 

[tommmkelly]

Okay, with a 300mm lens, you should be able to do pretty decent with the backyard songbirds. You want to work at getting to where they simply don't pay attention to you.

For instance, here's a couple I took this past winter:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24369838@N07/8396032895/
This one was shot from inside my house, through an open window. When I opened the window, the birds all flew off, of course, but then I get comfy and sit patiently and wait and eventually, THIS happens. Well, sometimes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24369838@N07/8397113970/
Jan_19_2013 (17)editweb by sm4him, on Flickr
This one was shot outside, using a "blind" of sorts. But even then, it took a LONG time--weeks--to finally get this jittery little Towhee comfortable enough to hop out from the inside of the bush where I could get a decent picture.

My "blind" for my backyard is simply some PVC pipe stuck in the ground, which I then threw camo material over, so it makes a sort of camo "wall"--I cut a few holes out big enough for me to see through and stick the camera lens into, and then I sit and wait. And wait. And wait. Bird photography takes LOTS of patient waiting.

Another place I sat that worked incredibly well was to get a camo blanket and lay it on the ground, RIGHT in front of my car. Again, they really just don't care about the car being there, and by being so close to it, they paid me no attention whatsoever. Got this shot, from a nice low angle from that spot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24369838@N07/8358437977/
Jan_6_2013 (50)edit_web by sm4him, on Flickr

There's more on my Flickr page; you're welcome to look through them. My longest lens currently is also a 70-300, so these should all be achievable with the lens you already have.

Wow they are really good!

Did you crop any of them at all?

The blind sounds good but may have to leave it until summer as it is rainy and cold here at the moment!

Ill make sure I have a look on your Flickr and add you as a contact!

Thanks for all your help.

 

[KmH]

I did more than just crop.
I increased the exposure, capture sharpened, did a Curves adjustment, adjusted the mid-tone contrast, vibrance, and added a thin black border.

 

[tommmkelly]

I did more than just crop.
I increased the exposure, capture sharpened, did a Curves adjustment, adjusted the mid-tone contrast, vibrance, and added a thin black border.

I realise that you did more than crop it!

I know a fair amount about photoshop as I had to do a lot of editing in the first place to that image to make it look acceptable.

I know how to use most things on photoshop but I'm just unsure how good images should look if you get me haha.

Ill have a look at the links you gave me and I think I need to look at a tutorial for sharpening images.

Thanks again.