How to shoot birds

In addition to equipment, bird shooting also has its own specific shooting and operation methods.

Focus. To shoot birds in flight, you need to use continuous focus mode, and the camera automatically selects the focus. Professional cameras will automatically judge the moving objects in the picture and find the real subject accurately. Some cameras can even set the focus mode for objects with different motion patterns and trajectories. If you use single-point focusing, you need strong following focusing ability, and try to keep the focus on the bird's eyes.

Continuous shooting. Try to use the continuous shooting function to capture the picture, leaving room for later picture selection. Birds are very fast, and the success rate of capturing a single photo by human eyes is very low. Similarly, the continuous shooting speed gap between professional cameras and entry cameras is also very large. If your camera's continuous shooting capability is insufficient, you should use JPEG format instead of RAW format, because the latter will greatly slow down the speed of continuous shooting.

Stay there. Squatting is a very useful way to shoot. When squatting, find the place where the bird you want to shoot often moves, but this requires a certain understanding of the subject. You can also feed where you want to shoot, lure birds to eat, and hide nearby to prepare for shooting. However, it should be noted that feeding cannot pollute the environment or cause harm to birds.

Strategy 1── Keep a low profile.

You can squat on the ground, or lie prone on the ground, or kneel on the ground-in any case, lower your height. If you can convince the birds that you are a stump or an oil drum, or at least less human-like, then your approach strategy is half the battle.

Strategy 2-Don't be aggressive.

In the process of approaching, no matter how hidden we are, Japan will always keep moving forward, so birds will soon feel the changes in the environment and run away alert. Therefore, we must observe birds from the corner of our eyes when moving forward. Once they show the slightest nervousness, we must stop or even take a step back and wait for them to relax before moving on.

Strategy 3- Avoid eye contact with birds

During the whole process, don't stare at the bird. Most birds and animals regard this direct gaze as a great pressure, and often run away after being stared at for a few seconds. So before shooting, all the observation of birds is done through the corner of the eye, and the dynamics of animals can also be monitored through the corner of the eye.

Strategy 4- Step by Step

In the process of approaching, don't expect to reach the ideal shooting position at once. You can take a small step forward, take one first, then take a few steps forward and take another. It is easier for us to stabilize our mentality, and we are not so eager to achieve success. Once the birds are scared away, we will not have so many regrets.

Strategy 5- camouflage

When shooting birds and mammals, you must not wear brightly colored clothes, such as red and bright blue, which are very warning colors for wild animals. Most bird photographers like camouflage uniforms in khaki, green, gray or dim colors. When the sun is strong, the reflection of the equipment in our hands will also alert animals. Wrapping the lens with camouflage cloth can prevent similar situations from happening.

Strategy 6- Use cars

Another interesting feature of birds is that they are not too afraid of cars. Take wetland birds as an example. Many wild ducks and geese, whenever they see someone approaching with a tripod and a camera, will immediately raise their heads and necks warily and run away at the slightest sign of trouble. Even if you don't run, you will paddle quietly underwater. No matter how close you are, the distance between you is always one or two hundred meters, which is difficult to shoot.

With a car, the situation is completely different. Many birds are quite tolerant of cars. Red-headed diving ducks are usually at least tens of meters away from people, and they can accept driving to a position only a few steps away from themselves and rest safely. In this case, we can shoot without leaving the car by lowering the window.

If you want to let wild birds relax their vigilance, you can consider adding a curtain to the window and sticking the lens out of the gap in the curtain to shoot. In this way, birds can't see the outline of people at all, and they can relax and present various behaviors in front of the camera as usual.

How to shoot birds?

When shooting the flight of birds, we usually recommend using the "servo focus" mode. When you press the shutter halfway, in this mode, the camera will constantly correct the focal length of the lens according to the object in focus. In this way, a bird flying in the air-whether it is near or far from you-can focus accurately as long as you always lock its body with focus. Many lenses provide a choice of focus range. For example, Canon's EF100 ─ 400 mm f/4.5 ─ 5.6 l ISUM provides two options: 1.8m~ ~ infinity; 6.5 ~ infinity. The former focuses in the whole range allowed by the lens, while the latter abandons the range of 1.8 ~ 6.5 meters and focuses only in the range of 6.5 to infinity. Because the latter lens has a smaller working range, the focus will be faster. This can improve the success rate when shooting birds.

In addition, different birds have different flight characteristics. For example, the red-billed blue magpie likes flying in a straight line, the snipe likes flying in waves, and Weng likes to return to the same branch after flying in the air. By observing the flight characteristics of different birds, we can predict their direction in the air and improve our shooting success rate.

Some lenses focus quickly and are relatively not very heavy, which is very suitable for shooting birds. For example, Canon's EF 300mm f/4Lisum fixed-focus lens is a very useful tool for shooting birds.