Christian Photographers Community

I've certainly been enjoying all the great bird posts lately.  And as I TRY to remain teachable, so I've made some mental notes about what makes a good wildlife photo, and maybe especially of birds, that I hope to be aware of, when I shoot birds.

- the eye MUST be in focus (or I just delete the image)
- the exposure must not be such that the lovely details are bleached out
- the exposure must not be so dark as to not to hide all the luscious details
- good contrast enhances detail, too much can give a plastic look
- over-saturation can give nice, natural colors a not-so-nice imitation look
- over-cropped images will look grainy (in digital photography)
- a good head shot is great, but leaving out a small part of the bird (animal) always make me want to say, "Oh, I wish that wing tip, toe, feather, etc., wasn't drawing my attention away from the overall presentation!"
- never center the best part, unless it's lookin' right at the lens

I guess that's about it for now.  If you can add to this list, please feel free to share.

I forgot to mention...TIMING!

[attachimg=#]

 You're right Kevin. Some of you folks are turning out some really good bird shots. I think your list is quite a good summary without getting into equipment and lighting. Of course what you call poor timing, I call an over abundance of patience. If this becomes a bloopers thread, I'm not playing. 

From Scott Kelby's "The Digital Photography Book" Volume I (a man that can teach ANYONE to shoot like a pro in 24 hours... really!)

QuoteWhen you're shooting wildlife photography, your point of focus needs to be the animal's eyes.  If they're not in focus, it doesn't matter what else is.  Oftentimes you'll be capturing wildlife in motion (or in flight, as the case may be), and that's where is expecially important to make certain the eyes are in focus.  If you're using a panning technique..., make sure your focal point is the eyes.  Everything else can be blurred, but keep those eyes tack sharp and you'll have a winner.

QuoteIf you're shooting wildlife, when you're composing the image, don't frame it so close that the animal has nowhere to go.  In other words, give the animal some space in front of the direction it's going for a much stronger composition -- one that tells a story.  If you crop in too tightly and don't leave for the animal to exit the frame, it's almost like trapping them in your shot, and the photo will look uncomfortable to the viewer.  When you're composing in the viewfinder, leave some extra space to "run" in front of your subject, and your photo will be that much stronger for it.

QuoteThere is a phenomenon that happens when shooting wildlife that doesn't seem to happen when shooting anything else.  However close your subject looks in your viewfinder, when you see the actual photo it seems only half as close as you remember.  It's crazy, but it's consistent -- it always looks much farther away than you hoped.  So, when it comes to shooting wildlife, you want to get in incredibly tight.  That's why the pros shoot those giant 400mm and larger lenses.

These tips helped me a LOT.  I hope they help you.

I have found a lot of nature pictures have a dark background that drowns out the animal or bird.  These tips help to overcome that.  Thank you for the help!

In addition to Kelby's quotes:

QuoteBut if your budget doesn't allow for that (I know mine doesn't), you can cheat and use a teleconverter (also sometimes called a tele-extender).  These basically extend the reach of your current telephoto (or zoom) lens by magnifying them.  So if you have a 200mm telephoto (or zoom) lens (which is already equivalent to around a 300mm thanks to digital), add a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter, you can instantly have the equivalent of around 450mm or 600mm traditional telephoto lens.  Make sure you check to see that the teleconverter you buy works with your current lens.

Good advice.  I have had an Olympus TCON-17 that I have used with most of my bridge cameras.  It works wonders.  Since it's pretty heavy, I have avoided using it on my Zuiko 70-300mm because, while it DOES work, it really slows down the operation and I'm a little concerned it may damage the servos or lens itself.