Wildlife Photography How To

We regularly share videos on composition techniques because proper framing is one of the most important aspects of photography. While most of these tutorials have been targeted at landscape shooters, today’s tips are all about photographing birds. 

This is a great time of year to photograph our feathered friends, and as you’ll see in this comprehensive tutorial, with the proper skill you needn’t travel further than your own backyard to make some truly spectacular images.

Conventional wisdom is that autofocus is the best mode to use for photographing birds, especially when your subjects are in flight. But every so often manual focus is a better choice, as you’ll see in the tutorial below.

Photographing animals can be a lot like making outdoor portraits of people. Many of the same composition and lighting principles apply, as do techniques for crafting an image that conveys feelings and moods.

This is a great time for bird photography as nests are being built, with eggs soon to hatch followed by fledglings taking flight. Best yet, you don’t have to travel far to capture stunning images, and you can often find great opportunities in your own backyard.

Wildlife and portrait photographers face similar challenges when it comes to editing their images. That’s because dealing with feathers and fur requires comparable techniques to those used for processing photos of models with flyaway hair.

Have you ever returned from a shoot, expecting to marvel at the photos, only to bring them up on the screen and, ouch, they’re not sharp? Well, join the club! There are numerous reasons for soft images, and a number of ways to increase your percentage of keepers, and you’ll learn many of them in the video below.