Bird photography tips: how to shoot pin-sharp pictures of birds of prey

Bird photography tips for perfect bird portraits: steps 3-4

03 Aperture priority
Get out of auto mode and switch to aperture-priority as this will put you in control of your depth of field. An aperture of f/4 or f/5.6 will blow out the background for a stronger shot, meaning you can shoot at a faster shutter speed and keep up with a restless subject.

04 Stop the shakes
Crank up your shutter speed to at least 1/500 sec (we chose 1/1000 sec) to avoid camera shake and make sure you can keep up if there's any sudden movement. We chose an ISO of 400, but remember that you can always increase it if conditions change.