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

Bird photography tips for perfect bird portraits: steps 5-6

05 Continuous autofocus
Switching to continuous autofocus means that the camera will keep focusing once the shutter button is half-pressed. This is perfect when shooting pictures of birds of prey, as they'll never stay perfectly still - your camera's focus will track them until you're ready to take the shot.

06 Watch the background
Before you decide exactly how to frame your shot, look for a clean and uncluttered background behind the bird to avoid it being a distraction. A shallow depth of field will blow it out anyway, but a single colour behind your subject will keep all the attention on the bird.