Balancing Artistic Enhancement and Ethical Standards in Bird Photography Editing

^{Note: This tip comes from Audubon’s article - The Dos and Don’ts of Editing Bird Photos}

Photo editing can sometimes get a bad rap, conjuring up images of laughable Photoshop mishaps and sometimes even deliberate deception. But in reality, all professional photographers, including wildlife photographers, edit their photos.

When it comes to bird photography, the judicious use of photo editing tools can help you match your image as closely as possible to the beauty you witnessed in person in the field.

But how much editing is too much?

There’s a fine line between a well-processed photo and an image that’s been manipulated to the point where it’s no longer true to what you saw through the viewfinder.

Here we go!

Tip #1 – DO shoot in camera raw

Every DSLR camera (as well as professional mirrorless cameras) has several options regarding what format you want to shoot in.

For a professional-looking shot, you should shoot in RAW. This produces the most authentic image because it contains minimally processed data.

RAW preserves almost all of the information it takes from the scene you see through your lens, which means that when editing your photo, you’ll have lots to work with.

Because of this, some bird photo contests require you to submit your RAW files along with the final edited version.

Tip #2 - DON’T crop too much.

There’s no hard rule for determining how much cropping is too much, but your goal is to maintain the integrity of the image.

Some files will lose too much resolution once cropped beyond a certain point, and there will be a noticeable lack of image quality.

You should also consider composition. The space around the bird is important—don’t crop so much that the bird feels squished.

Tip #3 - DON’T go crazy with the sharpening

Professional photographers will sharpen their photos to bring out the details of the bird, and you can, too. But sharpen too much, and you may end up with noisy pixelation around the bird and an edge, or halo, that wasn’t in the original photo.

This can make the details on the bird look hyperreal—or “crispy.”

It’s just as bad as having an unsharpened photo. As with many things in life, a little goes a long way here.

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!)