9 Requirements Toward Becoming an Accomplished Bird Photographer

^{Note: This tip comes from pages 7-9  in Tobie Schalkwyk’s free eBook - Getting Started in Bird Photography}

Tip #1 - A love for birds and photography. An interest in, and love for, these magnificent creatures and photography, in general, will certainly motivate you to spend the necessary money on the equipment needed to photograph birds properly.

Tip #2 - Knowledge about your subject, birds. The more you know about how the birds will act when appearing in your viewfinder, the more successful you will be. That’s a fact. For example, many species of birds advertise their intention to take off in flight by taking “a poop.” When you have that advanced knowledge, you’ll be ready!

Tip #3 – Patience is key. One of the most valuable traits for successful and enjoyable bird photography is a true spirit of patience. If you have a lack thereof, don’t worry – it’s a skill that you can develop and master just like any of the other skills applied in bird photography. All it takes is determination.

Tip #4 - A place to photograph birds. A close location to hone your skills will be a major advantage when getting started. Your backyard or gardens will have ample opportunities. It won’t do any harm to research and find facilities such as parks and botanical gardens that are also close by. These locations might even have a bird hide that offers a wide variety of aquatic and other birds that are used to the limited movement of people and, of course, where silence is enforced.

Tip #5 - You need an intimate knowledge of your gear. One thing is for sure. Birds will not sit around and wait on you. If you’re fumbling with your gear, you will lose the fantastic shot nearly every time. Practice until you can do the most important camera adjustments blindfolded.

Tip #6 - The ability to shoot in manual mode. This also includes the ability to focus manually. 

Auto-shooting modes can be helpful, but the environment and lighting can be tricky in birding photography. Any auto mode setting might work, but exposure compensation has limitations, whereas manual mode does not.

Tip #7 – You need knowledge of the basic rules of photo composition. Even the most beautiful image can fail if the composition is ‘wrong.’ The human brain simply ‘likes’ certain compositions and dislikes others, regardless of the picture's quality or the scene's contents.

Tip #8 – You must understand and have the ability to shoot using the camera RAW file format.

The camera RAW format is like a digital negative of your shot. It allows you to do more photo editing (adjustments) with higher accuracy than with the JPEG image file format.

Tip #9 – You need a quality photo editing package that you completely understand. Here are some options.

• Photoshop: The full deal but with a very high learning curve.

• Lightroom: A popular option with plenty of training videos that works well and is relatively inexpensive.

• GIMP: It’s free and well-liked by those who use it.

• Snapseed: A popular and inexpensive alternative for most editing needs.

Want more? If you want to learn more about bird photography, and capture beautiful shots of your own, we recommend downloading and printing out Photzy’s 10 Bird Photography Cheat Sheets (Special bonus available now!)