Birds photos with a kit lens

[Chucaro]

Any of the members that are active on nature photography forums will know that the avian photographers are using very expensive lens which are some times on the order of $ 10000 plus.

That it is enough to intimidate any photographer with a sensible budget or a photographer who have lens for landscaping photography only ( the laters is my case) to participate on these Nature forums.

Using my Nikon D200 and an old Nikkor 75-240 I give it a go to capture a juvenile Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) using a portrait as a composition.

This lens perform reasonable well on an aperture of f/7. Surprisingly, against the common rules on cheap lens it performs very well at 240mm

Here is the result:
Exposure program: manual
aperture f/9
Shuter speed 1/250
Focal lens 240
ISO 800

Cheers

[dullbird]

nice pic

[mjm295]

Great pic mate, I only have kit lenses too and try to take wildlife pics, when the option arises.

These were taken last year, with a sony Alpha 100, +75-300 kit lens. Again it was on 300mm setting.

and :

[Chucaro]

Nice captures, the first image is the best beacuse there is light on the eye of the bird which is very important in bird photography.
Which aperture and program you have used in the camera?

[Chucaro]

This is another shot with the Nikon D200 and the same lens.
I used the following setting
Program: Shutter speed priority @ 1/640
Aperture F 5/6
ISO 640
Focal lens 220mm

[mjm295]

Nice captures, the first image is the best beacuse there is light on the eye of the bird which is very important in bird photography.
Which aperture and program you have used in the camera?

Oh right - Im sure I have 1 or 2 more of that same bird maybe with light in the eye, let me check. "aperture/program" what's that then? They were taken on Auto. I haven't had time to learn how to use the camera properly yet. That's another great photo.

Edit - the auto setting gave me ISO 400, f5.6, 1/500th shutter speed.

[mjm295]

Here's another - my other bird shots are from too far away, no detail, and blurred.

[Chucaro]

You are doing well, the last image have a good details is sharp where is important and there is not ISO noise on it.
All in all a very nice image.

For birds try to use Shutter speed priority program and have the SS set at 1/250 or more so the bird is sharp.
Play with the ISO setting so you have the best aperture for the shot. If you like to isolate the BG (back ground) from the rest of the image to eliminate distractions then the largest aperture allowed by the lens will be ideal like f/4 or so. The Kookaburra image is an example of this setting isolating the BG from the bird

When you are taken images of the birds in their enviroment then tou can use a small aperture which will give you more DOF.

Take several shots if you can using diferent apertures to see in which the lens performs better.
Regarding the focal lens in the majority of the cases the cheap lens do not perform well at the maximun focal lens and is better to use less range and crop if it is neccesary. The one that I am using (Nikkor 70-240) is an exception.
Keep posting mate and try to not use Program Auto and you will enjoy photography heaps more.

Cheers

[mjm295]

Cool, thanks for the tips. I just need some time to get out there and try it. The problem I have is I usually have my dogs with me, they are great a scaring the birds off.

[dullbird]

this pic was taken with a kit lense....It was also my first picture taken with a DSLR As I had no idea how to use it..



Taken in Aperture priority
f/5.6
1/160
ISO 100
200mm

using a tripod