articles/Nature/birdsinthegarden-page4

Photographing Birds in the Garden - part 4 of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

by Jon Ashton Published 01/04/2012

A little discussion on apertures is worthwhile at this point. Expensive 300mm/f2.8 or 400mm/f2.8 lenses will offer lightening focus speeds. This facility is a requirement in sports photography due also to the possibly low-light conditions of floodlit games. In bird photography the action is also fast but when photographing fairly close-up subjects, depth of field is very limited - even at f8, consequently the wide aperture becomes surplus to requirements.

The old maxim of 'f8 and be there' is not a bad guideline to bear in mind when photographing garden birds, though the light available this winter has not proven too amenable. Image stabilisation is preferable, you will no doubt find different photographers have their preferences and some do not to use it when the camera is tripod mounted, even if they have the choice. I use Canon lenses and I use IS on the setting 11 - this applies to the 500mm and the 100-400L; I use this setting almost all the time, regardless of tripod-mounted circumstances.

Camera Bodies
Choice of camera body is also influential in terms of image quality. Frequently medium to high ISO speeds will be needed as shutter speeds will need to be in the region of 1/320 sec (or faster) so a camera body producing minimal noise would be advantageous and perhaps full-frame cameras would produce superior results.

Having said that, I do not think you would need to die in a ditch over this issue; if I had a 5D Mk 11 I would use it for hide photography - but it would be of less use when photographing away from the hide pursuing birds in flight for example. I currently use a Canon 50D (1.6x crop) and, provided the image is well exposed, I do not have too much trouble with noise. When taking images I tend to shoot in bursts of two frames, to ensure one image at least is sharp and if I sense the bird is about to move (not easy!) I would consider a longer burst in order to catch some action.

I do not use filters for bird photography - but I do use camera batteries! I have a twin battery pack in the camera and when using a 500mm lens they can be drained in a couple of days - it is surprising, if there is a lot of activity, just how much battery power you may use. The golden rule is always have spare batteries with you and of course have spare memory cards. As a rough guideline if you have a productive day you will need 8-12GB of card capacity.

As a guideline you will need to place the hide approximately 2.5m - 5.5m from the subject when photographing small birds using 300mm to 500mm lenses. This will provide a fairly close-up image with sufficient background space. The lens will protrude from the hide so ideally keep this to a minimum so that it will be less apparent when you move the lens from one position to another. If the lens is black, there is little need for camouflage although it is no bad thing to have because it also protects the lens from knocks. If your lens is one of the white, Canon L series I would definitely recommend camouflage material. They may be bought 'readymade' for the lens or you could make something up yourself from camouflage material.

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• Photographing Birds in the Garden page 3
  
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• Photographing Birds in the Garden page 9
  

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