So you want to know how to take good photos of birds? Well you've come to the
right place. In this video, I'm going to show you some hints tips and tricks for
places to go and things to do to help you get better photos of those little
flying critters. So, here's a quick rundown of what you're going to learn
check it out. The best place to start is to come to a
park like this one. The birds are quite calm, they're used to
being around a lot of people so you'll be able to get closer and you'll get
better shots. Hand-holding is best...The higher the shutter speed the better
If you're wanting that nice soft background in your photos, using the widest aperture
you will be the best thing to do...and I wanted to talk to you a little bit about
how to approach the birds, so let's go find some
the best time to come out is golden hour
to approach a bird that's not quite as chilled as these ones here, creep very slowly
love them or hate them but seagulls are a really good first subject
there's not as much distraction in the background that might confuse
your camera when it's trying to focus
Hi there. Barry Callister for Barry Callister Photography, giving you hints tips and
tricks for better nature photography. Welcome to my channel, glad you found me.
If you haven't yet subscribed, please hit that subscribe button. Make sure you
check out links in the video description of this video for any of the gear I'm
using today, or anything else I mention. It'll be linked up down below and you
can purchase via those links if you wish. Now the best place to start with your
bird photography is to come to a park like this one because obviously people
come to parks a lot, and if there's a lake or some kind of water there as well, it's
also extra handy because birds love water. And the birds are quite calm
because they're used to being around a lot of people so you'll be able
to get closer and you'll get better shots. Now as far as your lens choice
goes on your camera, obviously the longer, the better. This here I'm using is a 55
to 200mm, it's just the kit lens that came with the camera. It's all I've got
right now, so that's what I use. So I have to get quite close to the birds with
this one. Within about 5 to 10 metres I'll get a decent shot with this lens.
So, anything 200 millimetres or above you're going to be laughing. But like I said,
because you're at a park, the birds are going to get let you get a lot closer
anyway so you don't need that really long reach. So you can get by with a
smaller lens like this one. Now I don't want to dwell too much into camera settings on
this video because I wanted it to be more of a advice on where to go and what
to do to get better for bird photos and not so much about the technical stuff.
But I will quickly mention a few things here. Now most of the time, hand-holding
your camera will be ok. If you're taking photos of birds that are moving
obviously having a tripod is hard because birds don't move in exactly the
way you want them to and sometimes a tripod can be limiting in that way.
So, hand-holding is best. If you have a bird that's stationary and it looks like it's
calm and it's not going to go anywhere, absolutely use a tripod because you'll
get sharper photos that way. But most of the time - go handheld. Now when you're
hand holding your camera obviously if you're a very shaky person like me, the
higher the shutter speed, the better. But the general rule is set your shutter
speed to equal to or greater than the focal length of your lens. So for example,
if I'm shooting at 200 mm on my lens here I'd want a shutter
speed of 1/200th of a second or greater.
As I said, greater is always better. Obviously if you're wanting that nice
soft background in your photos, using the widest aperture you can will be the best
thing to do and then just do you set your ISO to get correct exposure. If you
want the background in focus obviously going to have to have a small aperture
and then adjust your ISO accordingly. I don't want to go to much more into camera
settings because quite obviously they're going to change depending on where you
are and what the weather is like at the time. Now I wanted to talk to you a
little bit about how to approach the birds so let's go find some and I'll
show you how to move up on them so that you don't scare them away.
Now, as you can see behind me here, this is the beauty of a park or a lake. I am like I'm within
three meters of these ducks here behind me and they don't even care so I could
get really great shots from here. Of course, this is not the best time to come
out and take your bird photos. It's 10:33 in the morning here, so the Sun is
quite high in the sky and it's gonna wash all your colors out. The best time
to come out is golden hour - around sunrise and sunset. It's different
everywhere you are in the world what time's it is before and after sunset but
check that...to check that, just google it and you'll find out where it is the best
for your part of the world. So...but you can see here this is the beauty of it
you can get really close to these guys and they don't even care y'know,
they're quite happily sitting there. And I can just click off the photo if I want to.
quite easily...
and they don't even...they're not even worried about the camera
If you want to get really really close to other birds that aren't quite so used to
humans. The best thing to do is to come out before dawn and find yourself a spot
and just sit and wait, because the birds, when they do show up they will think
that you're just part of the landscape. If you stay as still as you possibly can
they'll think you're a rock or a tree or they don't really know what you are so
they're going to come quite close. And I've used that technique before to get
some really great shots, so that's a really good one to remember as well.
If you need to approach a bird that's not quite as chilled as these ones here, the
idea is to move slowly but not too slowly. If you move too slowly they'll
think you're a predator and they'll just fly away.
So move...creep very slowly, but keep moving, don't stop for too long because
they think that you're waiting to pounce on them right?! So it's just creep slowly,
slowly, slowly...If they make a move as if they're going to fly off, stop...wait 'til
they settle down, move in a little bit closer. It's all a practice thing, it's
different with different birds so just experiment and see how you go.
Another great place to get started with your bird photography is of course the beach.
Obviously a lot of people come to the beach a lot of the time, so the bird
life's not going to be as afraid of you as it would be in other places. And love
them or hate them, but seagulls are a really good first subject. They will let
you get fairly close, they fly fairly slowly, they glide in for landings quite
slowly, so you can get good flight photos with them. And some of the time you'll
have blue sky at the beach too which is great for getting those bird flight
photos, because there's not as much distraction in the background that might
confuse your camera when it's trying to focus. So if you're lucky enough to live
near a beautiful beach such as this one - get down there and get started with your
bird photography, it's a really great place to practice.
So there you go, that is how you take good photos of birds. I hope the hints and tips I've outlined
in the video have helped you in some way to either get started with your bird
photography, or to improve it. If you have any problems or questions, please pop me
a comment down below in the comment section and I'll try and get back to you
as soon as I can. Also, check out the links in the video description for any
of the gear I've used in the video today. You can also purchase via those
links if you want to. I've also popped a link down in there to a PDF that
outlines all the tips that i've said in the video today, so you can download that
to your phone or print it out, take it with you when you go photographing, and
it'll help you to remember all the stuff that I said in the video. I do ask for a
small donation to download that PDF and that money goes back into my channel in
order to keep my camera equipment going and getting good videos out to you guys,
so I thank you for your donation. I'm Barry Callister for Barry Callister Photography.
Get out there, take some wicked shots
And I'll see you soon