[Photography] How to Use Framing in Your Compositions to Improve Your Photography

The post How to Use Framing in Your Compositions to Improve Your Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.

Photos look great when framed on the wall, but that is not the only way to use frames in photography. The world is full of frames, and they can be used in your photos to make the composition stronger.

In this article, you’ll learn how to find frames. You’ll also learn how you can work with frames to enhance your images. So let’s use framing in your compositions!

For this photo, traditional Korean paper, called Hanji, was held in front of the camera and used as a frame. The person in the photo is making this traditional paper, so the frame adds context to the image.

What is framing?

Framing, as the name suggests, is when you surround your main subject with a border of some kind.

The frame could literally be a picture frame you hold up in front of the camera. However, there are lots of other ways you can create frames in your compositions. For instance, you can photograph through a window frame, a doorway, or a gap in a wall. And you can always create your own frame, which you’ll learn about in a moment.

Why add a frame?

A frame is used in your image to draw the eye to your main subject. The subject could be a model standing in a doorway or architecture framed through a window.

Plus, a frame can add to your image. The right frame can add context, which creates a further narrative element.

Architecture can provide strong framing opportunities for your photos.

Where to find frames

Here’s the next question:

Where can you find a frame that will work for your photo? I’ve already mentioned a few classic ideas, but let’s look at those (and others!) in more detail below:

• Doorways: One of the easiest frames to find is a doorway. You can position your main subject in front of the door and use it as a frame. Alternatively, you can photograph through the door and use it as a frame for the background scene.
• Picture frames: Hold a frame in front of your camera or ask someone else to hold it for you. Then use this to frame something interesting.
• Windows: This is similar to a doorway, but doesn’t run to the ground.
• A wall: Here, you need to look for a gap in the wall to use as a frame. This can work well when the foreground (the wall) complements the background behind it.
• Lensballs: One of the reasons a lensball is an effective photography tool is because it always provides a natural frame, with the outside of the ball framing the inside.
• Photograph through: Look for objects you can photograph through, such as a plant pot or a tube. These will give your photo a circular frame.
• Nature: There are plenty of natural frames. A cave entrance or a tree tunnel can work well.

A wide-angle lens was used to capture the archway in front of this temple, which created a great frame.

How to photograph with a frame

On the face of it, photographing with a frame is easy:

Simply compose a photograph in front of something like an arch or window.

However, you need to consider some key compositional and technical questions. For instance, what’s the subject in the frame? And how large or small should your frame appear?

• Focal length: The focal length you choose will depend on how much you want to compress the area surrounding your frame. It will also depend on how far back from your frame you’re able to stand. For instance, when photographing indoors, a wide-angle lens may be needed to fill the photo with the frame of a window or doorway.
• Subject: Just because you have a natural frame does not mean you have a good photo, especially if the subject behind it is uninteresting. Look first for your main subject, and then look for available framing options. If you’re taking portrait photos, this will be easier than if you’re photographing a landscape; you can, of course, always ask your model to stand within the frame.
• Narrative: What will your frame tell the viewer about the rest of the photo? Is it possible to adapt the frame in some way so it better suits the scene behind it? How much of the area surrounding the frame will you include, and how will that affect the story you’re trying to convey?

There was no frame for this photo until the light was painted in!

Creative framing in your compositions

When a frame isn’t available, you have another option:

Create your own!

This creative approach to framing in your compositions can lead to the best results. That’s because you’ll have more control over the frame itself. You can control the size and shape of the frame. You’ll also be able to precisely match the frame to the image you are trying to create.

The following are some possible ideas for more creative framing:

• Card or paper: Choose the color, cut out the appropriate shape, and make your own custom frame.
• Copper piping: Placed close to the lens, this will create a flare-like effect when the sun shines off the metal, and this flare can be used as a frame.
• Plant pot: Cut out the bottom of a plant pot and use it to photograph through. A wide focal length will likely be needed to catch the edge of the pot as you photograph through it.

Always look to see how a frame can add more of a story to your photo. In this image, the fishing net is used to frame the fisherman.

Get framing!

Now that you know all about framing in your compositions, it’s time to get out and practice what you’ve learned.

Do you enjoy using frames in the photos you take? Is there another approach you use when looking for frames? Have you ever tried creating your own frame so that it matches the photo you’re taking?

Share your thoughts in the comments! And if you have photos with frames, please share them, too!

The post How to Use Framing in Your Compositions to Improve Your Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.

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[Photography] Mastering Noise Reduction in Lightroom: The Essential Guide

The post Mastering Noise Reduction in Lightroom: The Essential Guide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.

Shooting at a high ISO is a great way to retain control over other exposure parameters such as aperture and shutter speed while still getting a usable image.

However, even today’s digital cameras still produce noise and grain when shooting at values like ISO 6400, ISO 12800, and beyond. While an ISO 6400 photo is never going to look as clean as a photo taken at ISO 100, you can use Lightroom noise reduction to clean up your high ISO images.

Mastering noise reduction in Lightroom involves a few tradeoffs. But it’s a great solution for people who need the flexibility of shooting at high ISO values while still getting great results.

Nikon D750 | Nikon 85mm f/1.8G | 85mm | 1/500 sec | f/1.8 | ISO 6400

To understand how to use Lightroom noise reduction, it’s important to learn a little more about ISO.

In a nutshell, ISO is a measure of a camera’s sensitivity to light. When shooting with film, each roll has a single value and cannot be changed until you use up all your exposures and put in a new roll. Digital photography, on the other hand, lets you alter your ISO any time you want.

Higher ISO values let you use smaller apertures or faster shutter speeds because your camera produces a brighter exposure. As a result, you don’t need as much light coming through the lens in order to take a picture. This means that you can use a smaller aperture, faster shutter speed, or both. (Or you can use Auto ISO and let your camera figure out the rest.)

The tradeoff is that increasing your camera’s ISO inevitably leads to noise being introduced to the picture. (Digital noise is kind of like the static you might remember seeing on old television sets.) High ISO shots aren’t as sharp, and colors aren’t as vibrant, thanks to noise. But if shooting at ISO 6400 means you can use a fast shutter speed to avoid motion blur, then it’s generally a tradeoff worth making.

Nikon D750 | Nikon 85mm f/1.8G | 85mm | 1/90 sec | f/4.8 | ISO 6400

The best of both worlds would be a high-ISO shot that retains the color and sharpness of a low ISO shot. Unfortunately, that’s not actually possible (at least not with current technology). But mastering noise reduction in software such as Lightroom gives you a great deal of control over reducing high-ISO artifacts while keeping as much detail as possible.

A closer look

The effects of high ISOs aren’t always visible when photos are downsized for the web. To really see what happens at high ISOs, and to understand how to clean it up, you should look at images up close.

Here’s a zoomed-in view of the above image; you can now see the effects of shooting at high-ISO values:

Up close you can see the speckled background on the left and the lack of definition in the eyebrows. These are just some of the effects of shooting at ISO 6400. Noise reduction settings are at their default values: Luminance 10, Detail 50, and Contrast 0.

Lightroom lets you remedy these ISO artifacts, at least partially, through the Detail panel in the Develop module.

There are two types of noise reduction available: Luminance and Color.

Luminance is the most common form of noise in digital photography and refers to the slight speckled variations in brightness from one pixel to the next. You can see this most clearly in the brown background on the left side of the above photo.

Color noise is often obvious at very high ISO values like 25600 or greater. It looks like random splotches of color scattered around the brightest or darkest portions of an image. In modern digital photography, color noise isn’t nearly as much of an issue in most instances. Most of the time you won’t need to use the Color, Detail, and Smoothness sliders. For most practical purposes, it’s best to stick with luminance noise reduction adjustments.

To access the noise reduction sliders, click the Detail panel in the Develop module. The noise reduction sliders are grouped with sharpening adjustments because these often go hand-in-hand. Boosting noise reduction can have a smoothing effect on your images which can be somewhat mitigated by adjusting the sharpening sliders.

Getting detailed

When working with luminance noise, there are three sliders to adjust:

• Luminance
• Detail
• Contrast

Luminance is a measure of how much noise to remove, while Detail and Contrast give you finer control over the effects of the noise reduction.

You might notice that Lightroom automatically applies a small amount of noise reduction to every RAW file by default. This is generally a good starting point because RAW files, due to their unprocessed nature, inherently contain more noise than in-camera JPEG files. And it’s almost always recommended to remove some of that noise even if just a tiny bit.

To start the noise removal process, move the Luminance slider to the right. The farther you go, the more pronounced the noise removal effect will be. I generally don’t push it past 50, but your settings will depend on your image and your personal preferences.

This is the same image as above, but with Luminance set to 50. Notice how the background is much smoother, as are the cheeks. However, the eyelashes have lost much of their sharpness.

After adjusting the Luminance slider to your liking, use Detail and Contrast to bring back parts of your image that might have been lost by the noise reduction algorithm. Move the Detail slider to control the threshold at which the noise reduction starts to kick in. This can help retain some of the details in your image but end up leaving some of the noise intact.

Bumping the Detail slider up to 80 brings back some of the sharpness around the eyelashes and other areas of the face.

As you adjust the Luminance slider, you will see some parts of your picture get muddy, almost like a layer of petroleum jelly has been smeared across the shot. Use the Contrast slider to bring back some of the high-contrast parts of your image that are most affected by the Luminance slider.

Moving the Contrast slider up to 40 helps mitigate a bit more of the effects of software-based noise reduction. However, the more you use the sliders, the more processed and artificial your images will look.

As with many aspects of photography, there is no single correct answer for how much noise reduction to use in Lightroom. Some high-ISO images will look fine without too much tinkering, while others require more drastic measures. Mastering noise reduction isn’t about finding one solution that works for every image. It’s about understanding how to use the editing tools to create the best possible outcome for any given photo.

Low ISO versus noise reduction

To really understand how Lightroom noise reduction works, it helps to look at some comparisons of images so you can see the results for yourself.

The following images show different versions of the same scene; one base shot is taken at a very low ISO, while another is taken at a high ISO. I then apply varying degrees of noise reduction and display the results.

I took the first image at ISO 100:

Nikon D7100 | Nikon 50mm f/1.8G | 50mm | 1 sec | f/8 | ISO 100

Here’s the same scene shot at ISO 6400 for comparison:

Nikon D7100 | Nikon 50mm f/1.8G | 50mm | 1 sec | f/8 | ISO 6400

When resizing images for the web, some of the issues with shooting at a high ISO are difficult to notice. However, a few artifacts do stand out, such as the muddiness of the solid blue radio toy, and a clear lack of definition in the intricate parts of the ball maze on the left.

For a closer look, here are 100% crops of each image:

A 100% crop of the original ISO 100 image. Note the fine detail in the cactus and the overall clarity of the picture.

A 100% crop of the original ISO 6400 image. Colors are washed-out and subtle texture is obliterated. Note that the green paint lines at the borders of the white lines are completely gone.

When looking at these images close-up, it’s clear that the ISO 6400 photo is noticeably worse. However, if shooting at ISO 6400 or greater will give you the ability to get the shot you want, then it’s a tradeoff worth making.

High-ISO shooting becomes even more practical when you learn to eliminate some of these issues in Lightroom. Using the noise reduction options won’t fix a high-ISO image entirely, but it can go a long way toward cleaning things up.

A 100% crop of the ISO 6400 image with these adjustments applied: Luminance 80, Detail 60, and Contrast 55. While the ugly noise artifacts have been smoothed out, the image still isn’t as rich and detailed as its low-ISO counterpart.

Mastering noise reduction in Lightroom isn’t just limited to moving three sliders in the Detail panel. It’s best paired with other adjustments such as Texture, Clarity, Contrast, Saturation, etc. There is no one-size-fits-all preset to magically make your ISO 6400 images look as good as ISO 100 images. But with a little work, you can bring back some of the punch and brilliance of your originals.

A 100% crop of the high-ISO image with previous noise reduction edits applied along with the following: Contrast -15, Shadows +34, Blacks -35, Texture +42, and Saturation +22.

Noise reduction isn’t a cure-all, and it won’t resurrect parts of the image that were never captured to begin with. In the ISO 6400 shot above, no amount of software-based noise reduction can bring back the green paint along the white lines that were clearly present in the low-ISO image.

But careful use of the tools available to you can go a long way toward making a messy picture more than usable.

Nikon D750 | Nikon 85mm f/1.8G | 85mm | 1/250 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 6400. The sun was setting and I needed a fast shutter speed, so I chose to shoot at ISO 6400 and was able to adjust it in Lightroom. My clients loved the results.

Mastering noise reduction in Lightroom: Conclusion

Mastering noise reduction in Lightroom isn’t a science; each image is different and your own preferences matter most of all. Shoot some test images at ISO 6400 or higher, then see what you can do to clean them up using the tools available to you.

You might be surprised at how much latitude you have when editing. The more you experiment, the more skilled you will get.

And soon you’ll be transforming your photos from noisy messes into near-masterpieces.

The post Mastering Noise Reduction in Lightroom: The Essential Guide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.

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[Photography] ISO Settings in Digital Photography

The post ISO Settings in Digital Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darren Rowse.

ISO is one of three important settings on your camera that are used to take well-exposed photos.

The other two fundamental settings are aperture and shutter speed – and if you’d like to learn about these settings, check out our introduction to aperture and our beginner’s guide to shutter speed.

An introduction to ISO settings in photography

We regularly get questions about ISO from readers of Digital Photography School like these:

• What is ISO and why is it important?
• What is the best ISO setting?
• Should I always choose the lowest ISO?

In this short tutorial, I want to answer each question in turn.

Let’s start with a definition of ISO:

What is ISO?

ISO actually has two definitions, depending on whether you’re discussing film or digital photography:

ISO in traditional/film photography

In traditional (film) photography, ISO (or ASA) is an indication of how sensitive a film is to light.

In film photography, ISO is measured in numbers. You’ve probably seen them on film canisters: 100, 200, 400, 800, etc.

The lower the number, the lower the sensitivity of the film, and the finer the grain that will appear in your photos.

ISO in digital photography

In digital photography, ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor.

The same principles apply as in film photography:

The lower the number, the less sensitive your camera is to light and the finer the resulting grain.

Higher numbers mean your sensor is more sensitive to light, and this allows you to use your camera in darker situations. The cost of doing so is more grain – although cameras are improving all the time. Today, many cameras can use high ISO settings and still get very useable images.

Here’s a time when you might want to choose a higher ISO:

If you’re photographing an indoor sporting event where the light is low and your subject is moving fast.

In such a situation, by choosing a higher ISO, you can use a faster shutter speed to freeze the athletes’ movement.

ISO settings and grain

Choosing higher ISO settings comes with a serious cost:

The higher your ISO, the more grain or noise that appears in your photos.

I’ll illustrate this below with two enlargements. The image on the left was taken at ISO 100, and the image on the right was taken at ISO 3200.

Can you see the difference? The high-ISO photo (right) is full of unpleasant noise, whereas the low-ISO photo (left) is completely clean.

ISO 100 is a “normal” or “standard” ISO on most cameras. It’ll give you lovely, crisp shots (with little to no noise or grain).

Most people tend to keep their digital cameras set to Auto mode, where the camera selects the appropriate ISO setting depending on the conditions you’re shooting in. However, most cameras also give you the opportunity to select your own ISO.

When you do override your camera to choose a specific ISO, you’ll notice that this impacts the aperture and shutter speed needed for a well-exposed shot.

For example:

If you bumped your ISO up from 100 to 400, you’ll notice that you can shoot at faster shutter speeds and/or smaller apertures.

Questions to ask when choosing ISO

When choosing my ISO setting, I generally ask myself the following four questions:

1. Light – Is the subject well lit?
2. Grain – Do I want a grainy shot or one without noise?
3. Tripod – Am I using a tripod?
4. Moving subject – Is my subject moving or stationary?

If there is plenty of light, I want little grain, I’m using a tripod, and/or my subject is stationary, then I will generally use a relatively low ISO rating.

If it’s dark, I want grain, I don’t have a tripod, and/or my subject is moving, I might consider increasing my ISO. This will enable me to shoot with a faster shutter speed and still expose the shot well.

Of course, the trade-off will be noisier shots.

Situations where you might need to push ISO higher include:

• Indoor sports events, where your subject is moving fast, yet you have limited available light
• Concerts, which are low in light and often “no-flash” zones
• Art galleries, churches, and more, where there are rules against using a flash and the interiors aren’t especially well lit
• Birthday parties, where blowing out the candles in a dark room can give you a nice, moody shot that would be ruined by a bright flash. Increasing the ISO can help capture the scene.

ISO is an important aspect of digital photography to have an understanding of if you want to gain more control over your digital camera. So experiment with different settings and how they impact your images. And in particular, learn more about aperture and shutter speed, which – along with ISO – are a part of the exposure triangle.

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More photography tips for beginners

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The post ISO Settings in Digital Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darren Rowse.

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[Photography] Tamron 28-200mm Wins Grand Gold Prize at Digital Camera Grand-Prix 2021

The post Tamron 28-200mm Wins Grand Gold Prize at Digital Camera Grand-Prix 2021 appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

Tamron’s 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD superzoom has been awarded the Grand Gold Prize in the Interchangeable Lens/Mirrorless category at the Digital Camera Grand-Prix 2021. Tamron has also taken a Gold Prize for its 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD telephoto zoom in the Third Party/Mirrorless category.

The Digital Camera Grand-Prix honors the best cameras and lenses of the year; all gear debuted during the 2020 fiscal period is eligible, and winners are selected by photographic authorities.

In past years, awardees have included the Sony a7R IV (for Camera of the Year, 2020), the Nikkor Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct (given Editors Award, 2020), and the Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM (for Lens of the Year, 2019).

But while Tamron has frequently received prestigious Digital Camera Grand-Prix prizes – in fact, the company has been awarded in each of the last six years – the new 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 perhaps stands alone, thanks to its breathtaking combination of focal length range, compactness, and image quality.

In fact, the Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 is the ultimate superzoom. It’s built for Sony full-frame cameras, and Tamron has ensured that it can stand up to the rigors of Sony’s mirrorless lineup; the 28-200mm is effortlessly sharp on high-resolution bodies such as the a7R IV, from 28mm to 200mm, at all apertures.

In other words:

You can capture stunningly sharp landscapes at 28mm, before zooming in for some nice sharp portraits in the 50mm to 150mm range, before capturing a sharp telephoto street shot or two at 200mm.

This is unprecedented for superzooms, which are equally well-known for their overall usefulness and frequent image quality issues. You can either have flexibility or sharpness, but not both, or so lens manufacturers seem to think – yet Tamron has proved that it’s possible to keep it all: sharpness, focal length flexibility, plus solid build quality, autofocus speed, and more.

I haven’t even mentioned the 28-200mm’s maximum aperture, which varies from f/2.8 to f/5.6 across the focal length range. The f/2.8 maximum aperture at the wide end of the range further increases the lens’s versatility. For night shooters – especially astrophotographers, who require clean images at relatively fast shutter speeds – an f/2.8 aperture is a must, and the 28-200mm can provide it.

The 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 is offered for a very reasonable price:

$729 USD, which is cheaper than many native Sony lenses, and brings an incredible bang for your buck when you consider what you’re getting.

So if you’re interested in a lens that can do pretty much anything, from landscapes to street photography to portrait photography and more, check out the Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD.

(Also, take a look at our review of the incredible Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 lens for Sony.)

Now over to you:

What do you think about the 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6? Are you impressed by Tamron’s innovation? Are there any competitors that you like better? Share your thoughts in the comments!

The post Tamron 28-200mm Wins Grand Gold Prize at Digital Camera Grand-Prix 2021 appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

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[Photography] Tips for Photographing Birds in Flight

The post Tips for Photographing Birds in Flight appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Bruce Wunderlich.

This article introduces some key concepts for photographing birds in flight.

One of the most necessary ingredients is patience; you may often photograph an entire day and not get a single usable image. In most cases, there is some luck involved – you have to be in the right place at the right time, after all!

But hopefully, this article will give you the tools you need to improve your luck and capture stunning birds in flight photos.

Choosing a location

Let’s begin with how to choose the best location for your birds in flight shoot.

Near rivers or lakes is a great place to set up, because of the abundant food sources for the birds. Find a position on a hill that will put you at eye level with the birds.

And check out the position of the sun, because you should not be shooting into it. Light coming from behind you or from the left or the right of your position is preferred.

Also, birds will generally take off and land into the wind, so knowing the wind direction of your location will help you predict the flight direction of the birds you are photographing.

Lighting

Good lighting plays a key role in successful birds in flight photography.

As with any other kind of outdoor photography, the golden light of morning and evening is best. However, because you are shooting birds in the sky, these times can be extended and you’ll still get nice lighting on your subject.

Make yourself invisible

Some birds will not venture near humans, so you need to make yourself as invisible as possible. 

In some cases, this might be as simple as not wearing brightly-colored clothing. However, avid bird photographers may also want to set up some kind of blind. Blinds can be purchased inexpensively from most hunting stores.

Also, sitting down will make you less noticeable to the birds than if you are standing.

Study your subject

Study the birds you enjoy photographing to learn their habits.

How does this help?

Knowing the birds can help you predict their movements. For instance, many birds, especially the larger species like herons or eagles, will relieve themselves just before they fly. Knowing this can help you be ready to shoot just before your subject takes off.

Lens

Choosing a good lens for birds in flight photography can be a challenge. I recommend you use the fastest and longest lens you can afford.

For your best chance at a great shot, you’ll need at least a 300mm lens, but a 500mm to 600mm prime lens is preferable.

(Unfortunately, these lenses don’t come cheap!)

Tripods

A great tripod head for birds in flight, especially if you’re using a large lens, is a gimbal head. It balances your camera and lens while requiring very little force to pan left and right or up and down.

A less expensive option is a pan head, which also allows for movement in all directions on two different axes. And while ball heads can be used for birds in flight photography, they’re not a very stable solution for large lenses.

Exposure

When setting up your camera to shoot birds in flight, keep in mind how the exposure triangle of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO plays an important part in getting the perfect exposure.

• Shutter speed – You need your shutter speed to be fast enough to freeze the bird’s wings in your photo. While small birds’ wings may flap at approximately 40 beats per second, larger birds, like herons and eagles, flap around 2 beats per second. Many species of duck are fairly fast flappers, at around 5 to 10 beats per second. So the question remains: How fast should you set your shutter speed to freeze wing motion? Go for at least 1/1000s to 1/2000s. Even faster is better, if possible!
• Aperture – In order to gain as much depth of field as possible, you should use the smallest aperture you can afford. Select your f-stop (the aperture number) based on your lens’s sweet spot (where your lens focuses most clearly), which is probably around f/8.
• ISO – You want to keep your ISO setting as low as possible to avoid digital noise (graininess) in your photos, although most modern camera models do a decent job with higher ISOs.

So how do you bring all three elements of your exposure triangle together to get the best exposure? You may consider simply using your camera’s Shutter Priority mode, in which you set the shutter speed and the camera sets the aperture (and ISO on some models).

However, I recommend you try this alternative method:

1. Set your camera to Aperture Priority mode
2. Set your aperture to f/8 (the sweet spot) to get the sharpest-possible images
3. Using your camera’s light meter, check the exposure of the scene where you hope to photograph your birds in flight. You will probably find that some areas of the scene are darker than others.
4. Using the exposure reading you get from the darkest areas of the scene, adjust your ISO to bring your shutter speed up to at least 1/1000s. It follows that when your bird flies by and you are panning your camera into a lighter area, your shutter speed will increase to above 1/1000, and when your subject is in the darker areas, your exposure will still be appropriate.

Now, here’s one final step to tweak your exposure:

Have you ever noticed how, when photographing birds in flight, your image will seem dark and be missing details, especially in dark feathers? To bring out more detail in dark areas, change your EV (exposure compensation) setting to +0.3. This will add a little more light (though depending on the lighting, you may need to add a bit more exposure compensation).

On the other hand, what if you are photographing a white bird, such as a swan? The white bird’s image will tend to get “blown out,” so that you’re missing detail in the whites. To compensate, adjust your EV value to -1.0 to -2.0. This will pick up the detail in those white-feathered birds. (If you are thinking that your background will be underexposed, you’d be right – but you are photographing the swan, not the background!)

Focusing

To keep your flying bird in focus, set your camera’s focusing mode to continuous focus.

In this mode, as long as you have the shutter button depressed halfway and are focused on the bird, the camera will continuously acquire focus as the bird moves. Canon calls this function “Al Servo,” while Nikon calls it “Continuous Servo” or “AF-C.”

Also, both Nikon and Canon will allow you to expand your AF points so that your camera can identify moving subjects at adjacent points (which will help you keep your moving subject in focus).

Nikon also offers two AF area modes that can work for birds in flight:

The 51-point Dynamic Area AF and the 3D Tracking area mode.

Both of these AF area modes will search at all 51 AF points for the movement of your subject, although these modes can be a little too slow when focusing in some situations.

Composition

Composition can be the most difficult aspect of photographing birds in flight.

But all the basic rules of composition remain valid here. You always want to have more space in front of the bird than behind it; a good rule is to have a least two to three times the space in front of the bird.

One thing that helps maintain this space is to place your focus point in the center of the frame and try to keep it on the bird’s eye. This method works really well on large-beaked birds, such as herons.

Also, while most birds in flight images include just one bird, look for those occasions where you can capture two or three birds at once (for a great result!).

Technique

As the bird is flying toward you, quickly get your focus locked.

Then, when the bird is close and in a position you like, fire away. Keep panning even after you’ve stopped shooting. This follow-through motion will keep your last image in focus better than an abrupt stop.

When panning as the bird flies by, you want to match your panning speed to that of the bird. And depending on your shutter speed, this will help keep the bird in focus while the background may be blurred.

You want to keep the bird’s eye in focus and sharp; this is key. If you are handholding your camera, try to keep your left hand under the barrel of your lens and your elbows close to your body, as this will help you maneuver the camera as steadily as possible. If you are standing, keep your legs spread out to create a good sturdy base.

If you are planning to hold your location and position for a time, I recommend using a tripod. This will help keep your camera steady, especially if you are using a very heavy lens.

So stay alert and look for opportunities to capture great birds in flight images. It will take lots of practice to get that perfect shot.

But once you get it right, you will be hooked!

Also, if you’re interested in more bird photography tips, check out these articles:

• 10 Incredible Bird Photography Tips for Beginners
• A Turn of the Head – Creating More Compelling Bird Portraits
• An Introduction to Bird Photography

The post Tips for Photographing Birds in Flight appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Bruce Wunderlich.

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