Capture Every Feather: Fill the Frame for Perfect Bird Photos

^{Note: This tip comes from Digital Photography School’s article - How to Capture Amazing Bird Photography Compositions}

Fill the frame! - This one tip can make you a better bird photographer.

No one can enjoy a bird image where the bird is too far away and small in the frame to appreciate their beauty.

Here are some ideas on how to fill the frame.

1. Purchase a super telephoto or a super telephoto zoom lens. This is the most expensive option, but there are a few third-party options that are less expensive and more in the affordable range. Look to Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina.

2. Attach a shorter telephoto lens to an extender. Tele-extenders come in several varieties, but most increase the focal length by 1.3x up to 2x. With a 2x extender a 200mm lens becomes a 400mm lens. There are drawbacks. The extender absorbs some light so you may have to increase your ISO. Some extenders are notoriously soft in the corners of the frame, so do your research.

3. Buy a mirror telephoto lens. These lenses are quite affordable. Tokina offers an entire lineup from 400mm up to 900mm that is well received and all cost less than $400. Again, there are drawbacks. A mirror lens has a fixed aperture that is not fast, usually in the F5.6 up to f/11 range. However, with a modern camera, especially a full-frame one, raising the ISO to counter that shouldn’t be a big deal. An advantage to a mirror lens is that they are lightweight and small in size compared to their optical equivalent.

4. Finally, work on your skills to get closer to the birds. Stealth and camouflage are your tools for this method.

A word of warning…

You may find an advertisement for a ‘manual’ super-telephoto lens at unbelievably low prices. Do not buy one of these! They are cheaply made and do not take sharp pictures. On top of that, they are called ‘manual’ because you must manually open and close the aperture yourself instead of the camera doing it, which slows picture-taking down considerably and will not work for bird photography.

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!)