This one's for the birds

[Tom]

I'm often out in a small boat, running around our Delta waterways &/or fishing. There's a plethora of wildlife out there, and I'll occasionally have a camera with me, either my Panasonic or one of our small point and shoot cameras. Inspired by Tom (seilllerbird)'s bird photos, I'll often try to take shots of birds. But, when I get home, I'm usually disappointed with the results.

Next time out I'll be taking along the Canon XSi, but I thought I'd ask our photographic experts for some clues regarding what to do, how to set the camera, etc.

Some of the pictures are of our indigenous cormorant, known in FL as the Anhinga; You can tell these birds by the way they spread their wings to dry. The other pictures are of the Egret; Note the mating plumage of the female.

Any and all suggestions from our photographic experts are welcome.

Note that the images are downsized from the originals, but have had no tweaks done using any photo software tools.

[Tom]

BTW here's a picture I took of an anhinga in FL using my Panasonic. Also, a picture of a bald eagle at a nature reserve that Pat and Jim Dick took us to; This picture pales in comparison to the photo that Jim took of the same bird.

[seilerbird]

The entire reason I love photographing birds is because besides butterflies, they are the hardest thing to photograph. Scenics, portraits, fireworks, weddings, underwater, sports and babies are all much easier to photograph because most of them sit still and want to be photographed. Birds are small, far away, up high, moving fast and have no desire to be photographed, making them the supreme challenge. So first off don't get discouraged and be patient. It takes a lot of patience to capture a great bird image.

Secret number one: Plan on heavy cropping. Very rarely can you get close to a bird. A long telephoto lens is very hard to maneuver and it is hard to keep a moving bird centered in a long lens. Almost every decent image of a bird is cropped heavy. An image with a very small bird in the middle of the picture is usually never very good. Birds generally don't have a really scenic surrounding, and since the bird is the subject you will need to crop heavy in order to have an image with impact. This is where lots of megapixels come in handy. You can't crop very much with 6 megapixels, but with 12 or more you can do a pretty decent crop.

Here is an original and a crop of an image to show you what I am talking about.

[seilerbird]

Secret number two: Without the gleam in their eye you don't have a photo. Same thing applies to animals, people, fish, reptiles, insects and amphibians. You have to have the eye or you don't have the shot. And you should focus on the eye every time. The eye is the window of the soul.

[seilerbird]

Secret number three: Underexpose white birds and overexpose black birds. White and black birds are the hardest of all to get right. I use the spot metering option on my camera to meter just the very center of the image where I always put my subject, that way the exposure is usually correct. But in normal metering modes you will underexpose a black bird and overexpose a white bird. The results are you see no feather detail in either one. Look at the images you posted and you will see that feather detail doesn't exist.

[seilerbird]

Secret number four: Use burst mode. Most all digital cameras have a burst mode where it takes a series of photos, between two and ten frames per second. Every time I photograph birds (actually anything else for that matter) I always use the burst mode and take anywhere from three to twenty shots. When I wish to photograph a bird that is perched I know that a perched bird isn't that exciting of a shot so I focus on him and then keep the shutter button half way depressed and wait for some action. As soon as the bird moves I fire off a burst and then use the best one of the bunch.

[seilerbird]

Secret number five: Almost always have the light hitting you in the back of the head. Very few side lit or back lit bird photos are worth the paper they are printed on. With humans it might work, but not with birds. Compare your Cormorant shots to this shot of an Anhinga. (btw - the Anhinga and the Double crested Cormorant are two different species)

[Tom]

Thanks for the lesson and for sharing the secrets Tom. It's very much appreciated. One thing that's very clear is that I'm going to need a lot of time and patience; Grabbing the camera between (fishing) casts and clicking away to take a few shots isn't going to cut it. Time of day, in order to get the sun behind me, will also dictate when I take the shot.

I'm also wondering if bobbing around on a small boat is a bad idea when trying to take pictures.

One question about cropping; Are you cropping on the desktop? I've read prior comments here about folks "cropping in the lens", but don't understand what that offers that can't be done on a PC.

[Bob Buchanan]

Scenics, portraits, fireworks, weddings, underwater, sports and babies are all much easier to photograph because most of them sit still and want to be photographed. Birds are small, far away, up high, moving fast and have no desire to be photographed, making them the supreme challenge. So first off don't get discouraged and be patient.

Wow!! Is that your opinion, Tom, or are you stating a fact?  

You've got what you do down pat, Tom -- but it is not harder to do nor does it require a higher skill level than the other fields you menton . . . IMO . . .  

[seilerbird]

Wow!! Is that your opinion, Tom, or are you stating a fact?  

You've got what you do down pat, Tom -- but it is not harder to do nor does it require a higher skill level than the other fields you menton . . . IMO . . .  

Of course it is my opinion. Birds in flight are especially difficult.

[seilerbird]

One question about cropping; Are you cropping on the desktop? I've read prior comments here about folks "cropping in the lens", but don't understand what that offers that can't be done on a PC.

I don't know what they are says about cropping in the lens, unless they are referring to zooming in. I do my cropping in post processing. I ignore the 1/3rd rule completely and put everything in the middle. I only use the center focus point and I use spot metering. That way the subject is in the sharpest spot of the lens and the subject will be in sharp focus and exposed properly. Then I crop for composition in post processing. Most of what I shoot are in motion and composing in the camera is difficult, if not impossible.

[Tom]

Thanks Tom. That's the way I've always done it, but wasn't sure if I was missing some magic trick.

[Bob Buchanan]

I've read prior comments here about folks "cropping in the lens", but don't understand what that offers that can't be done on a PC.

That's an expression used in film days that can also apply to digital. If you were shooting, say, 35mm of one person standing with nothing of importance to their right or left, you would turn the camera so they filled frame. Otherwise, you would be later cropping not just the sides - but more importantly, the total resolution applied to the final product.

You have 12.1mp's (if I recall). When you look thru the viewfinder, that is all applied to what you see - regardless of how you zoom. If you zoom in and just shoot a head and shoulders shot, all 12.1 are there. However, if you always shoot full figure and crop the head and shoulders on the PC -- and that portion was 1/10 the size of the full figure frame -- then that final head and shoulders would only have a resolution of 1/10 of 12.1 pixels.

So a lot has to do with what you plan for the image. If I have a client that wants a 16x20 print with a lot of detail, I will put as much of the image the way I want it in the view finder, whereas if the image is for my website and will only be viewed on a computer screen, I can be carefree while shooting knowing I can crop like crazy on the computer.

That's the smoke and mirrors vendors do with this "digital zoom" thing. An optical zoom places all the pixels in what you see in the viewfinder, whereas a digital zoom is just having the camera give the illusion of zooming, but it is only displaying a portion of the image - and applying only that percentage of the total pixels available to the digitally zoomed image. So it is not a zoom -- it is an in camera crop.

[Tom]

Ah, thanks for that succinct explanation Bob. That seems to be the conclusion I came to last time this subject came up. I guess it just didn't occur to me that folks would consciously "shoot wide" (sorry if my terminology is incorrect), when they know they'll discard most of the picture later.

OTOH I've had many occasions to crop an image when I later choose to use the cropped version for something other than originally intended. That might be a good reason to take several shots of the same person, thing, or scene.

[Tom]

I found the prior discussion on cropping in the lens and digital zoom. It's in the middle of this topic which also has some other interesting comments and observations.

Our new search engine works quite well and is fast.

[ranankay]

Let me share with you how I like to shoot birds . First I agree with ever thing thats been said especially  having the light needed to get  the action needed for BIF .
Here is what I have found-- I  shoot with a Nikon D2X and 300mm vr F/2.8 lens its heavy especially for this ole boy . I have tried my Markins Ball and Wimberly sidekick on a Manfrotto tripod  but it just isn't maneuverable enough most of the time. , I have used the Slik hand grip you squeeze  on a mono pod but its to heavy and way to slow.. I tried using a straight Mono pod but  it's to stiff and cumbersome . Necessity is the mother of invention .
 So I invented the Ball and Cup and  I want leave home without it. It attach's to a mono Pod and camera and gives you complete flexibility and it's  independent of the  Mono  Pod ,it adds sturdiness and gives sharper images all the while carrying the weight of the heavy camera and lens. It's absolutely great for sitting on a boat rocking in the water while you are holding on an Osprey or Eagle waiting for it to fly giving that wide wing span we all want to capture. you adjust the mono pod to sit in your lap and the camera rest on the mono pod against your eye and you can wait for long periods of time .  For more info go to my web site and view the eagles  . (http://www.branhamphoto.com/Other/STORY-BEHIND-THE-PICTURE/osprey-lift-off-copy/696767611_SBS7U-M.jpg)
Randall

[Lou Schneider]

OTOH I've had many occasions to crop an image when I later choose to use the cropped version for something other than originally intended. That might be a good reason to take several shots of the same person, thing, or scene.

Or just save the cropped image under a different filename, leaving the original intact.  Then you can reuse it for another purpose.

[Tom]

Or just save the cropped image under a different filename, leaving the original intact.

That's what I've done for a number of years Lou. The practice isn't limited to cropping - I save any modification of the original with a different file name.

[JerArdra]

Tom,

Here's what I do with my Panasonic FZ-30 for birds with BRIGHT bavkgrounds.  Remember it's a simple solution because I'm to impatient to fiddle with lots of camera settings over and over again.

I set both the focus and the metering to spot,e.g., spot focus and single point spot metering.  This helps get the bird looking good (hopefully exposed well and in focus) and I get whatever for the sky.

[JerArdra]

Here's a new idea for birds in flight.  Take an HD video of them for 2 or 3 seconds and then choose the BEST frame and use it as a still photo.  I got this idea from the new FZ-35 because it has a button that immediately starts shooting a video the instant you press it (no menus to go to so it's always ready) and stops the instant you press it again.  One would have to see it but an HD 720P or 1080P should look okay.   Also you would have quite a few frames from which to choose.  BTW, you can telephoto more or less while taking the video.

[Jim Dick]

BTW here's a picture I took of an anhinga in FL using my Panasonic. Also, a picture of a bald eagle at a nature reserve that Pat and Jim Dick took us to; This picture pales in comparison to the photo that Jim took of the same bird.

Come on back with your xsi. I'll bet you'll be more satisfied! :-) I'll even let you use my 100-400 zoom!!

[PancakeBill]

Jim, please bring the 100-400 when we hook up.

Randall, that looks like a great idea.  Good luck with it.  I may need to buy one. 

Burst mode, works for me.  In fact one of the options in photoshop is a flip book, take your burst modes and put them in a flip book, have a nice one of an osprey landing at the nest.

[Jim Dick]

Bill,

As long as I have the coach the lens is with me.

[PancakeBill]

250mm with cropping, Osprey landing at nest, with juvie looking on.  1 of a 20 shot burst, loved the wing set in this one.

Focus a bit softer than I would like, but  with a 250 at max, at the distance I was at, couldn't expect much more.  At this distance, yuou are just set on infinity anyway.  If I had the sharpness I woould crop out a little more rock. 

Location, me at base of Lower Falls in Yellowstone, looking up at the observation point.  1200 steps down, 8986 steps back up.  The rookery was just beyond and a little lower than observation point. 

[Tom]

.. it's a simple solution because I'm to impatient to fiddle with lots of camera settings over and over again.

Jerry, that pretty much sums up why I'm almost always in P&S mode. Thanks for the tips.

[Jim Dick]

Tom,

Mine is not that much better than yours. Attached is the original and the cropped version. Still pretty soft in focus. I need more practice!!

[Tom]

Jim,

You're way too modest. Mine looks like a bird, but yours captures the detail.

I'm looking forward to taking the Canon with us this coming week; We're celebrating Thanksgiving with the kids and grandkids (they'll be in their 5th wheel) on the coast. Different scenery for us, although we might experience some fog. Chris has the rotiserie loaded in the coach, and has bought the turkey.

[Jim Dick]

Tom,

Thanks. I just keep thinking I get lucky.

Fog can create some great effects. I've attached a photo of an Egret that was taken early in the morning before the fog lifted. In the background there was a huge bush. You can barely make out a couple of branches. Really made the picture.

[Jim Dick]

In an earlier post it was mentioned that the sun should be from behind the photographer. This is true in most cases. However, sometimes one can catch a neat photo if the sun is another position. Attached is a Great Blue Heron that I photographed about 0700 in the morning when the sun was just rising. He was looking directly at it and I was off to the side. Another lucky shot!

[Ron from Big D]

Nice image Jim