How to Photograph Small Birds - Setting Up Perches for Bird Photography
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 มิ.ย. 2024
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How to Photograph Small Birds: Set Up & Perches for Bird Photography. In this tutorial I show you my tips and techniques for photographing small birds, and how to get them onto attractive perches.
Filmed with Canon M50 and 15-45mm lens.
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The results that you get from this feeding station are incredible! Beautiful pictures
Great tips! Definitely going to give this a try. Thanks for sharing! 👍🏻👍🏻
Very good. Thanks for the great tips Paul.
Hi Paul! Another great video. Thank you!
Excellent and specific advice. Thank you for your generous insight!!
You are welcome. Thanks Lisa.
really enjoyed this i am on the bird watch with it being lock down
Lots of great tips. Thank you and wonderful images!
Really kind of you. Thank you Pat.
Spot on information. Very comprehensive Paul. I think its all about the gesture in small bird images. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for that Steve. More to come! I know what you mean - the pose is really important, and the perch very much so as well.
excellent presentation - well thought out - thank you Paul !!
Much obliged kind sir!
Thanks for the tips! I'm gonna have to modify the setup I did at my parents' house after watching this. Thank you.
Good luck!
Very informarive... Thanks 👍
Good suggestions and information.
Another great video Paul. Yet again re-enforcing what yousay in other videos and workshops and guess what? It WORKS!!!!!!!
Cheers Graham. Some more to come on this topic!
I watched your video with one eye watching my own backyard bird feeders... We have about 8 inches of snow on the ground right now. I find "my" birds are especially tolerant of my presence when its really cold outside. Thanks for the fun videos. Cheers!
Hi Jeff. Wow, I wish we had any damn snow!! Yes, they can become so tolerant in cold weather - I once had a long tailed tit land on my bird feeder... as I was putting it up. No joke!!
great shots paul
Another great video with fantastic advice... Really appreciate your efforts Pau.... Keep them coming..👌
Thanks Matthew. Appreciate your comments too. I will do my best..!
Another great video Paul ,thank you.
Cheers Rod.
Fantastic video. So helpful and informative.
Thank you Gary.
Great tutorial for a non birder, thank you again
Many thanks !
Always appreciate the settings!
You’re welcome Fernando.
Mantap bosku..pemandangan nya sokses terus🙏👍👍👍👍👍
Great tips and images as always
Thank you James.
Informative and well done!
Thank you very much indeed Michael.
Hi Paul great video with your tips and tricks and some brilliant images I enjoyed it, until next time take care my friend.
Thanks Clive. Nice of you to say indeed.
Some really great tips on small bird photography helped me no end. I purchased a 100-400mm lens and got some reasonable shots on my first outing.
Great to hear, I'm pleased for you. The 100-400mm Canon is a great lens if it's the Mark ii?
@@PaulMiguelPhotography It was actually a Fujifilm 100-400mm which is really good and I also showed some samples.
Paul I watched a video of a bird photographer and was amazed to see that he had set up a 4" diameter branch and hollowed the end out and stiffed it with suet and nuts and it worked very well, I tried it too and yes it's good!
There's so many tricks. These days I try to just let the birds perch naturally as much as possible.
Nice one buddy 🤙
Thanks Paul for a great informative video. I am just in the process of developing my garden for the birds during the lockdown and although it is not rural as your location the same principles should apply. Bit of a TH-cam project for me during the stay at home period. Cheers Keith
Sounds great. Good luck my friend.
Love the shot of the Nuthatch Paul! I had a nice treat the other day, I managed to take some photos of a Goldcrest in my local park! Unfortunately it was quite a way away and the photos aren't brilliant, but if I wasn't in the right place at the right time I wouldn't have spotted it at all!
Goldcrests are lovely - I often hear their thin calls. Hope to photograph them properly some day.
Another great tutorial, Paul, with some lovely images. Especially liked the one you shot with the 50D. (Sorry, not sure of the bird species!). Great stuff.
I guess it's a Jaybird (Garrulus sp.), at 4:25. I agree it's really a beautyfull shot!
This guy is awesome...
Thanks Tony. Yes, a Jay, one of my favourite birds.
it is the Eurasian Jay, yes. And thank you for the kind comment!
Great video mate..
The hide seems to be producing well..
Well the exciting thing is - last two times I filled up food: Bullfinch. And Goldfinch!! Itching to get in just unfortunately I've been out of action with a nasty virus.
@@PaulMiguelPhotography Hope your back to full fitness now mate?
There queuing up for you....
@@craigmaisfield3247 I have to take it easy for a bit. I'll be ok though.
Paul, thx for all the good info. I have a question regarding setting up my perch. With a 7dii and 5.6 400 mm lens, what is the ideal distance from camera to subject when the subject is a small, sparrow sized bird?
New subscriber here, you have some great videos is there one about what time of year for different species and top tips on attracting different types?
Thanks for subscribing Mick. I haven't made a video on that but thanks for the suggestion. Hoping to include more wildlife knowledge in future videos.
You take beautiful shots. For how long do you feed the birds? what happens if they get used to receive food and then you are not there any longer?
Thank you. Yes, personally I try to tail off the food so they get less used to it.
I'm also going to make a feeding place in the forest I think or should I choose an open field?
If for birds, you really need some cover nearby - so a forest edge could be ideal.
At one of my local wildlife reserves, they haven't put any perches in, and the water is a long
way from the viewing point. What I did was similar to what you have done. I got some small
branches, drilled some holes in them to take some bird seed. Then screwed them to a couple
of fence posts. It makes photography look more natural.
Fantastic! This can be done on some reserves. I wouldn't recommend everyone to do it though - it totally depends on the specific reserve and other birders etc. Sometimes it can cause friction - but if it's fine then keep doing it!
@@PaulMiguelPhotography As you say, there can be some animosity between birders and photographers, but bringing birds closer in to view should benefit everyone. Some reserves do put natural looking perches in, but many don't. Which I think is a shame.
Hi, maybe a newbie question as I am a newbie. Why do you use extension tube on telephoto lens on certain photos? does it similar to using teleconverter? thanks. :)
It is not the same as a teleconverter. It simply allows the camera to focus if the bird comes closer than the lens' minimum focus distance. I don't use it all the time.
Hi! Do you think the m50 autofocus is good enough for bird photography? Cheers
I haven't tried for bird photography yet. I don't have the adapter.
Paul, may I ask - what benefit does the 25mm extension give you when using a 400mm lens?
Hi Jim, it just allows closer focusing. I use the tube if photographing very small birds to get them bigger in the frame.
@@PaulMiguelPhotography , many thanks for the reply. I can see how that works, I was just unsure you were using the technique with a long lens. Excellent. Thanks for all the videos and tips. Learnt a good deal particularly regarding exposure with Birds in flight.
it looks as if you used a flash with some of your shots, could you make a video explaining how you use flash
Hi Gary. No, there isn't any flash on any images here. I did make a video on fill-in flash though: th-cam.com/video/tx0u2-YHDm0/w-d-xo.html Forgive the annoying music..
Thanks for the tips Paul. The biggest problem I have is that our garden is only small. I do have a hawthorn tree and lots of bird friendly shrubs and climbers that we planted to try to attract the birds and it has worked. The birds flock to the garden feeders all day and that is great to see them , however my main problem is the garden is mostly in shade !!!! So try as I might it is so difficult to capture decent images :D Teddy
Would it not be possible to throw a speedlite (and modifier) onto a stand (weather permitting) in order to help with that?
That's very possible - to use a little fill-in flash maybe.
Yeah, that is difficult. Just have to do the best you can and try slower shutter speeds.
@@PaulMiguelPhotography Would flash not frieghten the birds ? I don't want to scare them away !
@@PaulMiguelPhotography Yes thats what I do , Thanks for your reply :D
Hi Paul. I noted on the pictures shown, some were taken with an additional extension tube, others with a Tele-Converter. What are the reasons, as I'm assuming all were shot from your hide, so the distance would be constant?
The extension tube seemed to be on shorter lenses, but Im also curious about the extension tube. I was under the impression they have minimal effect on long lenses and yet you were using one on the 500mm lens. Was this for magnification or focus distance reasons and how much effect does it have?
Hi Roger. Not all the images were from this set up, some are older ones - just to illustrate my points. My current set up, and what I would always aim for, is the 500mm with extension tube.
@@PaulMiguelPhotography Thanks for the reply Paul. Why do you use an Extension Tube rather than a TeleConverter? Is it because of your lens minimum focusing distance (3.7m)? Your set-up looks further apart than that.
Yes it reduces minimum focusing distance. It might only be a few inches but it does help.
Hi Barry. It just allows me to focus closer. I haven’t measured it. Basically it allows me to fill the frame more, with small birds, than I could without it.
In your opinion - when should I enter inside the tent hide? before sunrise or whatever time during the day? How does it influence birds behaviour?
Entering a hide before sunrise is only usually necessary with very wary subjects such as birds of prey and mammals. With hides like this, some of the birds will actually come whilst I am standing outside the hide.
@@PaulMiguelPhotography Thank you so much, I will try to do my best:)
the depth of feild.is it intentional. thr photos focus trails off at the tails etc
Yes, you always tend to get shallow depth of field like that, particularly if the bird is very close. I often used around F8 to help, but sometimes I don't mind the shallower effect
Hi Paul.
Are you using extension tubes because your within the lens minimum focus distance, and if so, do you retain auto focus ?? I do something similar to this but with less perches, 1 to be precise, so I need to move the lens about less.
500px.com/photo/1007693091
Here's one shot, I put this mossy branch on a flat feeding table and snapped away. I put the branch on the back end of the table and sprinkle seed on the table between myself and the branch. That way, the bird lands, looks at the seed ( which is when I take the shot ) drops down and picks up seed then flies off.
Good set up and video.
You are using good technique there. Yes you are absolutely right about the minimum focusing distance - with other lenses it's not as much as a problem but my minimum is about 4 metres. Yes I get auto focus no problem.
Great video. If you can't do this sort of set up yourself in your back garden, visit a woodland hide like the one Camilla & I visited in the New Forest UK . "the Only Vlog with a bog" shows the perfect set up all for £75 per day includes free tea and coffee making and an electric fire.
Any chance of a link, please?
There are some good hides of this sort in the UK. £75 all day - that's good.
@@christinepepper4053 Just click on Camilla & I link attached to video
@@PaulMiguelPhotography Yes will be going back soon, should be redpoll and Brambling around now
How did I get here I was watching hunting videos 💭
Well, I hope you got something out of it!
Your pics are clear but you would normally get a lot of noise at those very high ISO's. You had to remove that in Photoshop or light room.
I’ve not done any noise reduction on those images.
Shoot their natural habitat with lot of challenge ... feeding birds / animals are unethical practice... but in a summer we can keep only water...
I don't agree that feeding birds and animals is unethical, but each to their own.
@@PaulMiguelPhotography yeah agree, each have own thoughts. have a great day.