Action Photography

Capturing birds in action is probably the hardest thing to photograph. It is very important to practise and be prepared, for example if you are taking photos in a open place from where you can see quite far, and if you see birds approaching although they are still far, you can already try to focus on them and follow them through your viewfinder until they are much nearer when you can start taking photos. Slow moving and large birds are also easier to photograph. The light is also a major factor and the best times to photograph is in the early morning and afternoon.

There are a few technical things that is essential to capturing action. Shutter speed is the most important, for action the minimum is about 1/1200s. Shutter speed affects ISO and aperture, so with fast shutter speed also comes high ISO which can cause noise, thankfully most new cameras handle it well. The lowest ISO speed is about 400 if the light conditions is excellent. The best aperture for birds are f/8 because it keeps almost all parts of the bird sharp, but if the lighting conditions does not allow it an aperture like f/6.3 and f/5.4 would be better for a faster shutter speed.

Panning is also an option in which the shutter speed is lower and you follow the bird constantly and press the shutter only a few times, still following the bird. With this technique the background is blurred by the motion of the camera following the bird, while the bird is sharp because it was constantly in the frame. This is hard to do, however.