Tips and Techniques Courtesy of Dave DeVore
Basics for Stationary Birds
A tripod/gimbal head helps with steadiness and fatigue when you need to be patient.
In low early morning light, shoot wide open with slower shutter speeds.
Stop down aperture and increase shutter speed as light gets better.
Shoot wide, don’t zoom in tight. You can crop later but can’t fix a chopped off wing.
Great nature pictures always have a catch light or gleam in the eye. Position yourself for good lighting with that in mind.
Try to get your subjects doing something, fighting, courting, feeding, etc.
Basics for Birds in Flight
Don’t wear a hat with a bill. You’ll miss flight shots you otherwise might have gotten.
Shoot hand-held, if possible, it gives you more freedom to track birds
Practice panning techniques. Start with large, slow-moving predictable subjects, move up to faster, more erratic subjects as your skills improve.
Don’t try to focus on a bird in flight while zoomed in, for example if you have a 150-600mm lens, acquire focus at 200-300mm and zoom in as you go along. Don’t be discouraged, learn to focus on stationary objects first to improve your aim, move up to birds in flight. Some photographers can shoot with both eyes open, it helps if you can.
Beginners should shoot at 1/3200 sec and F8-F11 in good light. I shoot from 1/500 to 1/4000 depending on intent. Experienced shooters can pan a big bird at 1/100 or slower to blur the background, to freeze a hummingbird is done at 1/2000 to 1/4000 sec.
Lead your subject a little bit, like a QB throwing a pass to a receiver. If you think your panning speed is just right, it’s probably a little slow.
Learn your subject’s behavior. Birds have “tells” that signal their next move. Birds almost always take off and land into the wind. Use this knowledge to your advantage. Most species have other “tells” that will let you know when they are about to fly, etc.
Camera Settings and Tips
I shoot in Manual mode with auto ISO from 100-25,600. Better to have an evidence photo than no photo all, especially if a rare species shows up. Denoise in post.
Helpful settings: small focus grid with bird tracking, center-weighted metering, burst shooting and back button focus.
Turn focus limiter on for birds in flight, focus acquisition can be twice as quick. It’s painful to miss a good sequence when you can’t achieve focus.
Shoulder harnesses with big zooms can help you draw faster on a bird in flight.
Carry extra batteries and memory cards. 1,000 shots in a morning is usual.