It’s Recommended to Use the Manual Mode Setting

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

The ability to shoot in the manual shooting mode is a significant advantage in bird photography.

This advice also includes the ability to focus manually, which can take some practice.

Bird photography isn’t impossible in a full Auto or one of the semi-auto (shutter priority/aperture priority) modes. However, using manual mode allows for major exposure adjustments quickly without having to search for the exposure compensation setting.

You take control rather than letting the camera guess what your goals are.

Sometimes, you may want a bit of wing blur, so you’ll lower the shutter speed to a level much lower than what the camera would have ‘guessed’ in a Full Auto mode.

Other times, you may want to freeze a bird’s action and raise the shutter speed to a level much higher than what the camera would have offered you through the exposure compensation setting while using Full Auto, Aperture Priority, or Shutter Priority.

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!)