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The world of digital photography can be overwhelming, and The Bird Photography Field Guide is designed to help birders take flight creating beautiful bird photos. A start-to-finish handbook by experienced bird photographer David Tipling, this compact guide covers the basics of choosing equipment, taking bird photos and digital editing to make the most of every photographed feather, using both concise text and illustrative photos for comprehensive instruction.

While too basic for professional photographers, birders just getting into photography can improve their images enormously with this helpful guide.

Pros

• Images illustrate discussed techniques and descriptive captions include each photo's technical data.
• Conversational tone uses layman's terms and anecdotes, ideal for novice photographers or birders just getting started with photography, but may be too general for professional photographers looking to expand into the bird photography niche.

Cons

• Tiny font can be challenging to read, but does help keep the book compact and portable.
• Does not use poor photographs as teaching examples, which could be doubly useful to illustrate some technical concepts.
• Before and after photos in the Digital Photo Editing section are inadequate to show the necessary changes, but accompanying text explanations are useful.

Description

• Title: The Bird Photography Field Guide: The essential handbook for capturing birds with your digital SLR
• Author: David Tipling
• Publisher: Focal Press

• Publication Date: March 2011
• Format: Softcover
• Page Count: 191
• ISBN: 978-0-240-81776-7
• Price: $15.95 (USD)

Review - The Bird Photography Field Guide

"The best bird photography narrows the gap between the human and avian world." Many birders choose digital photography to get closer to birds by visually recording their life list, sharing their sightings with others or just getting more enjoyment out of birding, but if you don't know the lens from the viewfinder on a digital camera, how do you get started? The Bird Photography Field Guide can be the perfect tool either for birders interested in taking their own bird photos, or for beginning photographers interested in including bird images in their portfolios. Despite its name, this compact book is more of an instructional manual than an in-the-field tool, but it does provide all the basic instruction any fledgling photographer needs to get started making pictures.

Author David Tipling has been photographing birds around the world for more than 25 years, and his experience shows in the quirky anecdotes and off-the-cuff tips he shares, as well as in the compelling photographs that illustrate the text.

The book is divided into three equal sections: Equipment, Photographing Birds and Digital Photo Editing. The Equipment section covers the basics of what to look for in a digital camera and accessories that will be suitable for photographing birds, as well as how to work effectively with that equipment to capture high quality images. Tipling's approach is relatively unbiased toward specific brands or manufacturers, but instead shares his personal preferences while giving readers the general information they need to make their best choice

Tipling's tips in the Photographing Birds portion of the book cover specific techniques that can be useful in the field, whether that field is one's own backyard, an isolated habitat, a local park, national preserve or even a zoo or aviary. He also includes tips relevant to specific types of birds, such as how to photograph raptors, shorebirds or seabirds, and discusses the unique challenges of each group. Using blinds, changing angles, birding travel for photography and other field craft information is also covered as it relates to taking pictures of birds. Proper ethics are stressed, and Tipling repeatedly emphasizes "don't allow your enthusiasm or desire for the perfect picture to override either the honesty of your photographs or the welfare of your subjects… The welfare of your subject should always come before the photograph."

Digital Photo Editing is the final section of the book, and while not every photo may need retouching for personal enjoyment, Tipling acknowledges that the majority of published photos – in print or online – do have some type of editing applied. He covers a wide variety of basic techniques that can help enhance or improve photos, as well as encouraging bird photographers to properly store their work and to experiment with different processes to achieve the results they desire. The instructions are kept relatively simple so as to be applicable to different photo editing programs, even as those programs continue to evolve.

Tipling goes beyond just the process of taking and editing bird photos, however. In addition to basic techniques, he shares insights for publishing and selling photos as well as how to choose specific birding travel options that can offer exceptional photography opportunities, whether for profit for personal enjoyment.

Taking pictures of birds can add a beautiful dimension to birding, but no birder enjoys taking blurry, unrecognizable photos. The Bird Photography Field Guide can help birders develop new photography skills while keeping the welfare of the birds in mind, and while this one book won't turn even the most enthusiastic birder into a professional photographer, it will help any birder create pictures they can be just as pleased with as their latest lifer.



Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.