Waterfall pictures are some of the most satisfying subjects you can shoot with your digital camera. However, the fast moving water throws up some challenges for photographers.

Often, exposures end up disappointing – you may have set the wrong shutter speed, for instance, and won’t get the traditional blurred-water effect in your waterfall pictures. Other times the exposure ends up being too dark or light, due to having to cope with the combination of dark rocks and bright, foamy moving water.

One of the great benefits of taking waterfall pictures is that you don’t need a sunny day to photograph them. In fact, an overcast day is a bonus, as it allows you to use longer shutter speeds and reduces the contrast that’s likely to make getting a decently balanced exposure near impossible.

Making sure your waterfall pictures aren’t blown out, however, is probably the most important thing to look out for. If moving water is blown out and lacks texture, the shot is effectively ruined. Fortunately, your digital camera’s histogram should save any heartache.

Waterfall pictures: get set to capture moving water

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 01: Grey days are good days
Sunny weather is a disaster when you’re shooting waterfalls. The bright light means fast shutter speeds, when you really need slow ones for this effect. Even more importantly, a bright day means a high-contrast scene, with white areas that are in direct sunlight, and shadows that are in complete darkness.

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 02: Shoot after heavy rainfall
Overcast, grey conditions are best, but you also need to look at the weather for other reasons. In dry spells, waterfalls can turn into trickles. You need them to be in spate, a day or so after heavy rain, so that there’s plenty of water to shoot. Check locations and weather reports on the internet before you leave home.

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 03: Go slow with the ISO
We need to set a slow, or very slow, shutter speed in order to turn the flowing water into a frothy, milky foam in our shots. The first setting to sort out on your DSLR is the ISO. Turn this to its lowest sensitivity, which will be 100, 200 or L1.0 depending on the digital camera model you’re using.

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 04: Shoot raw files, not JPEGs
Even in dull weather, bright highlights can be a problem with waterfall exposure. To give yourself the most leeway when editing, you need to set the picture quality to raw. Then, so you can set the longest shutter speed available, switch the exposure mode to A (Aperture Priority).

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 05: Three legs all akimbo
A tripod is essential with slow shutter speeds. A model that enables you to splay out the legs independently is best for working on uneven, rocky terrain.

When shooting with a tripod, a cable release or remote control is also useful so you don’t jog the setup at every exposure.

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 06: How slow should you go?
Select the narrowest aperture that the lens allows – f/22 is a great starting point. With this set up, half-press the shutter button and look at the shutter speed the camera displays. A value of 1/4 second is good for fast, flowing water, whereas 20 seconds is good for babbling brooks.

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 07: Take it slower with an ND
If the conditions won’t give you a long enough shutter speed, put an ND filter in front of the lens to block out light.

An ND8 or three-stop neutral density filter cuts 87.5% of the light. An ND64 or six-stop cuts 98%. Alternatively, use a polariser to cut out up to 75%.

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 08: Avoid a whitewash
Shoot a test shot, and review the picture carefully – it’s easy to get an exposure that’s too dark or too light. Check the histogram. If the shot is too bright, with burnt-out water, set the exposure compensation to about -1EV and retest. If it’s too dark, without bright highlights, reshoot with exposure compensation set to +1EV.

Below we offer 6 of our best tips for getting yourself into position and your digital camera set up ideally to take top-notch pictures of planes in flight or on the ground.

Action Photography Tips: 6 ways to get better pictures of planes

Tip 1: A setup for success
Set your digital camera to Shutter Priority (Tv) mode and it will be easier to switch between shutter speeds and maintain focus for different subjects. For fast jets, set your shutter speed to around 1/500sec to freeze the action. For older planes and helicopters, go for 1/200sec to get smooth motion blur on the propellers.

Tip 2: Get kit clever
A sturdy tripod is essential for aviation photography, as it will increase your hit rate for sharp shots and prevent your arms from aching after carrying heavy lenses for hours. By kitting out your tripod with a gimbal head, you’ll not only get extra support, but it also enables you to move the lens up and down smoothly as you pan.

Tip 3: Remember to shoot statics
Planes on the ground make interesting subjects too, so when there’s a break in the action, be sure to grab some static shots as well. Use a wide-angle lens and get close up to interesting features, such as the nose, cockpit or tip of the wing, to get a sense of size, scale and power.

Tip 4: Figure out your focus
You’ve got the lens, you’ve chosen your shutter speed and your DSLR is fixed firmly to a tripod – the final step in getting sharp shots is choosing your Autofocus and Drive modes. If your camera has an AF tracking mode, this is great for following moving subjects and refocusing in an instant, while selecting Continuous Shooting mode will give you a burst of shots that ensure you capture the aircraft at the apex of its movement.

Tip 5: Find your nearest airshow
The best place to photograph planes is at your local air show. In the UK, the air show season starts in May and ends in October, with most events occurring over a weekend. You can find comprehensive lists of aviation shows online, but be sure to also check for details in your local newspapers.

Tip 6: lens choice
It’s hard to predict the flight path of aeroplanes as they speed across the sky, so a telephoto zoom lens will ensure that you fill the frame, no matter where the air display is heading. The Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM has an excellent focal length range that covers all eventualities and high-quality optical stabilisation that gives you sharp shots, even at the 500mm end.

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The process when shooting is simple and most cameras have a built-in Bracketing feature to aid you further. It’s crucial that one image captures the detail of the sky and the other that of the foreground – then you use Layers and Masks to blend the two.

We’ll help you tackle alignment problems with Auto-Align and use Masks for the perfect blend.

HDR Tutorial: make HDR images from 2 exposures

Step 1: Prepare in raw
Open the shots in Adobe Camera Raw, set the White Balance and adjust the exposure for each so the sky is perfect in one and the foreground in the other. Save both as TIFFs using the Save As button.

Step 2: Align images
Ensure the images are perfectly aligned, then go to File>Scripts>
LoadFilesIntoStack. Select the two images and tick the Auto-Align option. Once you click OK, both pictures will load into one document.

Step 3: Create a mask
Click the top layer to make sure it’s selected. From the Layer Options, create a new Layer Mask and Fill with Black. Switch off the visibility of the top layer and use the Magic Wand tool to select the sky.

Step 4: Reveal the sky
Refine the selection. Switch the visibility of the top layer on and click into the Mask. Hide the selection and use a large White Brush at 30% Opacity to paint back in the sky.

Step 5: Finish off
Remove the selection and use the Brush along the horizon to blend in. Create a Curve Layer, make an S Curve to increase contrast, and then boost Vibrancy and Sharpen.

HDR Images: Pros & Cons

Pros
• 
Cameras have a Bracketing tool to quickly fire off multiple exposures.
• 
Photoshop’s Alignment tools make lining up horizons extremely easy.
• 
Masks and Adjustment Layers enable complete flexibility.
• 
Not true HDR, so some detail may still suffer from exposure issues.

Cons
• 

Big differences between shots can give horizons a haloing effect.
• 
Best for basic shots; complex images will take hours to edit.

Panoramic photos are a great way to showcase sweeping landscapes. By shooting a series of overlapping images and combining them on your computer, you can take in a much wider angle of view. This technique also means you don’t need an expensive wide-angle lens – your 18-55mm standard lens is fine.

This photo stitching technique is much better than taking a wide-angle shot and simply cropping it because it produces a picture with a much higher resolution. Stitching photos together in this way might sound complicated, but it’s not. All you need is a tripod and Photoshop Elements or higher. We’ve used Elements because it has a Photomerge Panorama tool that makes stitching photos really easy.

If you’ve ever tried lining up panoramic photos manually, you’ll know there are all sorts of issues with perspective and distortion. Thankfully, Photomerge resolves these problems for you, producing seamless panoramas automatically. You may need to crop off a few untidy edges, but the process needn’t take more than a few minutes.

There are two stages to creating panoramic images. The first is to take the series of overlapping shots that are going to be stitched together in Elements. This is the most important phase because Photoshop needs the right raw materials to work with. If your starting shots are misaligned or show colour or brightness shifts, the final panorama will look odd. The second stage is to stitch the images together in Elements. This is straightforward, though you’ll need to pay attention to the initial settings.

How to shoot and stitch panoramic photos

01 Get your tripod level
First, you need to get your tripod level. You can check this by loosening the horizontal pan axis and rotating the camera as you look through the viewfinder. You need to make sure the horizon stays level from one side of your planned panorama to the other. Alternatively, if your tripod has a spirit level built into the base, you can use that.

02 Switch to manual
Now switch everything to manual. In everyday photography, it doesn’t matter too much if the camera changes the colour balance or focus settings between shots. Here, it’s critical that the settings are identical for each frame. If they aren’t, you might get unwanted colour and brightness shifts across the panorama when it’s stitched together.

03 Play with settings
Choose a small aperture, then pan the camera across the scene, adjusting the shutter speed while checking the exposure indicator to find a good overall exposure. Pay attention to the sky to avoid burned-out areas. Now pick a Manual White Balance preset, such as Direct Sunlight.

04 Focus manually
Use autofocus to focus on your subject, then slide the switch on the side of the lens to focus manually. Make sure you don’t just turn the focus ring as far as it will go and assume that’s infinity – some lenses will actually focus past infinity.

05 Shoot your frames
Take a shot at the left end of your panorama. Make a mental note of what’s at the right-hand edge of the picture. Now pan to the right. Stop when the detail you’ve committed to memory is about a third of the way from the left-hand side, then take another shot. Repeat for three or four frames.

06 Launch Photomerge
On your computer, launch Elements, open all the shots in your sequence and select File > New > Photomerge Panorama. In the full version of Photoshop, use File > Automate Photomerge. The process is the same from here on, as are the panorama options in the next step.

07 Pick your panorama
Under Source Files, click Add Open Files. On the left, in the Layout area, select Cylindrical. This creates the panorama inside a virtual cylinder, which is best for landscapes. The Auto and Perspective options are more optically correct but create a ‘bow tie’ shape that requires a lot of cropping.

08 Filling the edges
Photoshop Elements does an amazing job of correcting perspective and merging frames, but it will leave irregular blank spaces around the edges. Elements 10, though, can automatically fill in the problem areas using surrounding details. The alternative is to crop your panoramas manually.

If you use a point-and-shoot camera or cameraphone, it’s often almost impossible not to get everything from your feet to the distant horizon in focus. But the large sensors built into DSLRs means it can be surprisingly difficult to get everything in the frame looking sharp.

That’s because the bigger sensors used on DSLR cameras mean less depth of field (DOF). While blurred backgrounds can be a real bonus for subjects such as portraits, the limited zone of sharpness can be a problem for other types of photography.

Outdoors, you need to set up your camera carefully if you’re going to get the boulder in the foreground and the mountain in the distance both appearing in focus in the shot. However, the same difficulties present themselves when shooting subjects that are close together, such as still life photography in your kitchen.

This is where you need a proper understanding of depth of field. In theory, only the object you focus on will be sharp, but in practice there’s a zone of apparent sharpness that extends behind the point you’ve focused on and in front of it. So you need to start thinking in terms of zones of sharpness rather than fixed focus points, and plan your camera settings accordingly.

Several factors affect depth of field, including the focal length you’re using, the lens aperture, your distance from the subject and where you focus.

Our photography tutorial below shows how it’s done. It’s a tricky subject, because our peppers are at different distances from the camera – so we need to make sure that we have enough depth of field to cover all of them.

Still life photography: master depth of field

01 Choose Aperture Priority mode
To control depth of field, you need a mode that enables you to choose the aperture setting directly. Aperture Priority (A) mode is best for this because the camera will then set the shutter speed automatically to produce the correct exposure. This leaves you free to concentrate on focusing and depth of field.

02 Select a small aperture
You can now use the command dial on your camera to close down the lens aperture to the smallest available setting. For most lenses, this is likely to be about f/22, although some macro lenses will stop down even further. This will increase the exposure time, which goes up to 1.6 seconds for the shot we’re taking here.

03 Use a tripod
You can’t get shake-free handheld shots with exposures this long, so a tripod is essential. It will also fix the camera position so that you can focus precisely. This is crucial for careful control of depth of field, because any slight shift in the camera position will affect the focus point.

04 Choose the focus mode
You also need to take control of the camera’s focus point, so open the menus to check the AF-area mode setting.

In Auto-area mode, the camera sets the focus point according to what’s nearest, so make sure you swap to ‘Single point’ mode.

05 Set the focus point
With landscapes, you should aim to focus about a third of the way into the frame, but with close-ups such as this, pick a point nearer to the centre of the frame. You can use the four-way controller to move the focus point, which shows up in both the viewfinder and on the LCD.

06 Use Live View
You might find this much easier to do in Live View, where you can position the focus point more precisely. Here, for example, we’ve placed it right over the stalk of the second, orange pepper. This is the perfect position to maximise the available depth of field, almost halfway up the frame.

07 Precise manual focus
The alternative is to zoom in on the LCD in Live View mode, and swap to manual focus using the switch on the side of the lens. Turn the focus ring manually, judging when the area you want looks sharpest on the screen. This stops any tendency for the camera to refocus between shots.

08 Depth of field calculations
You can look up precise distances with online tables, or use an app such as Depth of Field Calculator. Here, we type in the focus distance, focal length and aperture, and it calculates that the depth of field will be 6.5cm. If you need some help to work out hyperfocal distances, the ExpoAperture2 (£30, $40, www.expoimaging.com) covers a range of sensor sizes, focal lengths and apertures.

When managing depth of field, you need to think in terms of the zone of sharp focus as a distance range, from the near limit (the closest object that will appear sharp) to the far limit (the farthest). With hyperfocal focusing, you place the far limit at infinity, and this automatically maximises the depth of field available.

The hyperfocal distance will depend on the focal length of the lens and the aperture setting. However, once you’ve worked it out, and as long as you don’t change the settings, you’ll know that everything from a fixed distance in front of the camera right up to infinity will come out sharp. The near limit for depth of field works out to be exactly half the hyperfocal distance.

Hyperfocal distances
You’ll need a lens with a distance scale. Or, for instance, if you shoot with Nikon DSLRs and have a D-type lens, you’ll see depth of field markers on either side of the main focusing index. Align one of the left markers with infinity and set the aperture to f/22 or f/11 – that’s your hyperfocal distance sorted!

Handheld calculators
Some lenses and zooms don’t have depth of field markings, so you’ll need some help to calculate hyperfocal distances here. The ExpoAperture2 (£30, $40) covers a range of sensor sizes, focal lengths and apertures.

Phone apps
If you’ve got a smartphone, you’ll find that using an app such as Depth of Field Calculator (£0.69, $0.99) is much easier than juggling dials and lining up numbers. Once you’ve selected the camera, focal length and lens aperture, it tells you the distance to focus on.

In practice
Once you know the hyperfocal distance, you don’t need to worry about focusing. This shot was taken at a focal length of 31mm and an aperture of f/8, so the hyperfocal distance works out at 6.2m. When we focus on that, everything from 3.1m to infinity comes out sharp

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But often you only get one attempt at getting this. Below we’ve offered 6 essential train photography tips that will help you be ready to capture stunning rail pictures the next time you go out to photograph steam trains.

6 Tips for Tremendous Train Pictures

Image shot at 1/30sec

Tip 1: Control your shutter speed
Try experimenting with shutter speeds when you’re commuting. Fast city trains look particularly striking with slow shutter speeds (1/60sec or less), because this adds motion blur to the shot, making it more dynamic.

Image shot at 1/320sec

However, fast shutter speeds (1/200sec or more) that freeze the train in action can add detail and realism to an image.

Tip 2: Shoot steam trains on cold days
Photographing older trains without any steam makes shots look very flat and dull. Photograph steam trains on cold days with the steam engine at a gradient so the exhaust is emphasised.

You may also want to defy conventional composition rules and position the train further into the frame, so the trail of steam takes on a more prominent position.

Shot as a JPEG.

Tip 3: Shoot in raw for the best results
Whether you’re photographing fast-moving electric-powered trains or steam trains chugging slowly towards the station, you’ll want to choose the raw file type to get the highest-quality train pictures.

Shot as a raw file.

If the lighting is poor when you’re shooting or you find that you’re losing detail in the train’s black metal finish and billowing white steam, then the advantage of raw is that you can easily improve these colour, contrast and exposure problems later in post-processing.

Tip 4: Fix your focus manually
Unlike other forms of transport photography, capturing pictures of trains is a little more predictable.

To get sharp shots every time, visualise the point where you want the steam train to be in your composition, and focus on that area of the tracks using one of the autofocus points.

When you’re confident you’ve got the focusing spot-on, switch to manual focus to lock on this position and just wait for the train to arrive.

Tip 5: Use telephoto zoom lenses for top shots
You may be forbidden from shooting train pictures inside stations for security reasons, so you’ll want to position yourself along the steam train’s planned route in order to get the shot.

Try finding a bridge that goes over the tracks to get powerful front-on shots. To fill the frame and capture a train from side-on, use a telephoto zoom lens and shoot from a public pathway or road that runs parallel to the tracks.

Tip 6: Which lens?
A midrange zoom lens, such as the Canon EF-S 18-135mm above, enables you to capture close-ups – as well as wide-angle pictures – of trains.

To give a sense of location, be sure to zoom out and include as much of the scenery as possible, but if there are a lot of signs or pylons cluttering the landscape, zoom in for a tighter, cleaner shot.

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Why should you learn how to use manual focus (MF or M), especially with all the amazing advances in autofocus (AF or A) technology? Well, there’ll be times when all the AF points in the world won’t help you get sharp shots. Often, activating MF is the only way of beating the dreaded blur.

Macro photographers often use manual focus to dictate their focus point. So do low-light shooters and photographers working in tricky situations, such as shooting through glass, or perhaps focusing on a distant horizon on a misty morning, when autofocus may struggle to get a lock. Sports photographers benefit from pre-focusing in manual focus, especially if they can predict exactly where the action is going to take place.

So don’t ignore the little AF/MF (or A/M) switch on your lens barrel, and remember that when the focusing gets tough, using manual focus might just get you going.

How to use manual focus

Step 1: Flick the switch
Locate the AF/MF switch and move it from AF (autofocus) to MF (manual focus). The switch might be in different locations depending on the camera system and lens you’re using, but typically, it will be somewhere on the lens barrel.

Step 2: Do the twist
To manually focus a lens, you simply twist the focus ring. You’ll be able to see when the image is sharp through the viewfinder. You might have to twist the focus ring back and forth, moving through and beyond your chosen point of focus until you see that focus is spot on.

Step 3:: Get some help
Different shooting situations will call for different focusing techniques. In really low light – when you’re shooting at night, for example – try using the distance numbers on the lens to judge your subject’s distance from the lens. Most lenses will have this feature.

Step 4:  Review your shots
To double-check that your shots are pin-sharp, use your D-SLR’s LCD screen for a close look. All you need to do is zoom in and navigate to the specific area you focused on. This way you should get a good idea of whether your image is sharp. If it’s not, just refocus and shoot again.

All images copyright Brett Harkness

Babies, toddlers and teenagers (oh my!). They might just be one of the most challenging portrait photography subjects you will shoot. Below we’ve spoken to leading lifestyle and portrait photographer, Brett Harkness, who does this day in and day out. These are 13 of his best portrait photography tips for getting more creative pictures of babies, toddlers and teenagers.

Tip 1: Shoot when baby’s happy
Babies make few demands, but those they do are important: food and sleep. If you want to catch a baby at their best, try to time your portrait just after a nap or feed. In the hour after eating or sleeping, babies will smile and coo for your camera. likewise, babies are at their most active first thing in the morning after they’ve woken up. The later in the day you try to photograph a baby, the more of a gamble you’re taking.

Tip 2: Be patient
Babies are best shot once they can support their own body weight. They’re still easy to pose, but more likely to retain their position. What’s more, a baby will be more expressive when they’re a little older, because they’re more aware.

Tip 3: Let teens choose their wardrobe
When you photograph a teenager, you should pay careful attention to what they’re wearing. people at this age are very self-conscious, so to make them comfortable, treat it like a mini fashion shoot. encourage them to bring as much of their wardrobe as they’d like. Some guidance is necessary, though. Teens are typically fashion conscious, but for the best images you’ll want them wearing neutral clothes. Anything more will distract the viewer or date your shot.

Tip 4: Get teens away from their parents
Adolescents always behave differently when their parents aren’t around. If you can remove them from the equation you’ll make a teen more comfortable. “Start indoors and quickly ditch the parents,” Brett says. “go for a walk and look for interesting backdrops. You get a different response from an older kid when his parents are away, and they end up being some of the best subjects you can have.”

Tip 5: Don’t use flash
It seems obvious in retrospect, but we never think about it until we’ve done it. And then we’re left with a baby screaming bloody murder and a shoot cut short. Flash frightens babies, and often spooks toddlers and young children too, so always use available light if possible. If not, and you really do want to use flash, another option is to use a flash diffuser: the bigger and softer the diffuser, the less noticeable the flash burst will be. you could also try using off-camera flash, as the child will normally be looking at you and the camera lens.

Tip 6: Use props
Kids respond well to props, whether they’re toys, clothes or something else entirely. they give them something to connect with, and take a bit of the fear away from your clunky equipment. Brett, who shot the images used in this article, tells us: “I like to tell kids my reflector is a magic carpet, then put it on the ground for them to sit on. This makes them less afraid of it when it’s being held next to them.”

You can also put teddies and stuffed toys on your lens when taking a child’s picture, which gets them to look at the camera without looking at you.

Tip 7: Make a game of it
Kids have too much energy. Because of this, they’re not going to want to pose for you. Besides, you can better depict a child’s spirit by following them around and capturing them in action. Of course, a moving subject is always more difficult to photograph. To ensure the child is in focus, make a game of it.

Concentrate on one tree in particular, say, then take the kid down to the tree you want them to touch and tell them to run as fast as they can to it then stop. This makes it a little more fun for the child, and you’ll be sure to get the picture you want.

Tip 8: Under-expose for unusual baby photos
For a surreal effect with babies, turn the lights off and use only natural light. move a sofa next to a window and put a dark towel on one of the cushions, then lay the baby on the towel. By under-exposing two or three stops, the top light will throw the background into black and the baby will look like it’s floating.

Tip 9: Show them your pictures
It’s not always advisable to let your subjects see the shots you’ve taken on the rear lcD; people can get self- conscious about their appearance or try to take over the photo shoot and get you to take more shots. This is not normally so much of a problem with kids, however, and letting them see the shots can be a good way to get them engaged.

Tip 10: Bring toys!
Kids get bored easily, so turn your photo shoot into playtime – bring along favourite toys for them to hold an delay with. This occupies them, keeping them still for a few seconds, plus you’ll get some interesting expressions on the little angels’ faces.

Tip 11: Mum & Dad
It’s essential when photographing babies and young children that mum or dad is on hand. This will keep the kids feeling comfortable. Get mum or dad to stand behind you and attract their child’s attention with silly faces, dancing – whatever it takes – so that they’re looking in your direction.

Tip 12: Find the confident one
If you’re shooting a group of children or teens, whether siblings or friends, their collective nervousness is going to manifest itself in reluctance or stubbornness. You can combat this by singling out the most confident kid in the group and shooting him or her first. When they show that they enjoy it, this will demonstrate to the others that you’re not there to humiliate them.

Tip 13: Trust the older kids
With older children and teenagers you might have to be a little bit of a psychologist, as well as a photographer. While in baby photography your main subject is quite happy to let mum or dad run the show, older kids have their own self-identity and vision of how they want to be seen. As a child photographer you need to tread a delicate line of how their parents want to see their children, and how the children see themselves.

Be patient and trust the kids to show you their true nature. Ultimately mum and dad will love your photos because you’ll capture their child acting in a way they might rarely get to see!

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Image copyright Ian Evenden

Are you having trouble taking decent photos of birds in flight? Don’t worry, it’s a common problem and doesn’t mean you’re not a talon-ted photographer (although if you want to see some talon-ted bird photography, we’ve got a great post on that too).

From getting an accurate exposure of your subject against all that bright sky to simply being in the right place at the right time, one of the more challenging genres you’ll ever attempt will be bird photography. Tips and techniques abound, but we’ve put together what we believe are the 10 most fundamental rules you should follow when taking pictures of birds in flight.

Tip 1: Go big
Birds tend to be on the small side, and this, combined with their awkward habit of flying high and fast, means you often have to use a long lens to photograph them. It’s hard to find a lens that’s too long for photographing birds in flight, and 400mm and 500mm lenses, both primes and zooms, are common choices.

Tip 2: Not so wide
A 400mm lens at f/5.6 and a subject 10m away gives a depth of field of 13cm. Using Av mode and stopping down to f/8 will give you an extra 5cm of depth and increase the sharpness of your image, as lenses are rarely at their best when they’re used at maximum aperture.

Tip 3: Speed is of the essence
A shutter speed of 1/800 of a second or faster will help to capture feather detail on moving wings without blurring. A more artistic approach is to deliberately blur the wings using a slower shutter speed, giving an impression of movement, especially if the bird is just taking off.

Tip 4: Set high ISO
Keeping your shutter speed high and maintaining enough depth of field to keep a bird sharply rendered can mean using high ISOs. Don’t be afraid of this, as noise reduction software, including the Digital Photo Professional that came free with your camera, can do an extremely good job.

Tip 5: The raw deal
In order to use this software to its maximum effect, it’s a good idea to shoot in raw. The tweaks you can make to contrast and saturation can make a vast difference to your images, bringing out the intricate patterns of birds’ feathers and the brightness of their eyes.

Tip 6: Captive audience
Captive birds look remarkably similar to their wild counterparts. Shooting at an organised flying display will allow you to get close to species you’d never find in the wild, and they fly lower, slower and more predictably. Better still, some centres hold special photographers’ days.

Tip 7: Use AI Servo mode and centre point focus
AI Servo mode constantly adjusts the focus on a moving target, while using only the centre focus point minimises the chances of focusing on the background by mistake. Keep your central focus point over your target and constantly half-press the shutter button to keep it in focus as it moves.

Image copyright Ian Evenden

Tip 8: Spot meter
To avoid silhouetting against a bright sky, try using the camera’s spot meter. Keeping the bird in the centre of the spot, which usually surrounds the central focus point, ensures that the feathers are properly exposed. For a deliberate silhouette, spot meter off the background and engage exposure lock.

Tip 9: Use a monopod
Handholding a large lens all day can be tiring, but using a tripod is often not practical when trying to photograph something unpredictable and fast-moving. A monopod is a good compromise, supporting the weight but enabling you to pan and follow-focus quickly, and can even be lifted entirely off the ground if needed.

Tip 10: Pick your targets
Know which species of bird to look for and you’re halfway to great photographs. For instance, a peregrine falcon can fly at 242mph, while in a ‘stoop’ dive to catch prey while vultures, geese, woodcocks and owls move at a more camera-friendly pace. Likewise, an eagle’s wings beat much more slowly than a hummingbird’s.

Image copyright Ian Evenden

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