Tips for Photographing Birds with a Canon 40D

 

 

Tips gleaned from other birders on the web:

 

1.    Try to stay hidden from the birds. 

·         Wear drab clothing and use natural barriers to hide behind.

·         Or, make a blind is by buying some lightweight mesh camouflage netting from a army surplus store. Cut a hole for the lens to peek out, throw the netting over you and your equipment and you have an instant portable blind.

2.    Use Canon's AI Servo mode to track moving subjects.

 

3.    Choose Av priority, to know the F stop.  F5.6 should give a fast enough film speed to avoid blur from the bird’s movement.

 

4.    Settings:  

·         a high shutter speed of at least 1/800 sec,

·         an aperture of at least f4.0 for proper exposure,

·         high-speed 3-area auto-focusing where the camera focuses on any 3 areas in a straight line across the viewfinder--this seems to more accurately track the bird's flight--

·         and the "high-burst" mode, shooting 3 frames per second for continuous flight photos.

5.    Then compose the bird in the viewfinder paying attention to background detail.  Focus on the eyes.

 

6.    Take images in RAW.

 

Note: Although it won't hurt the lens  to leave on the IS with a tripod as it may cause more blurring, you can leave the IS setting on with

EF 28-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 USM IS

EF 300 mm f/4 USM L IS