Photographing backyard birds from a bird hideaway is often a great deal of fun and filled with anticipation. It is a type of photography that almost anyone can do using a few basic principles and a little patience. Using a simple blind setup allows a photographer to get within a few yards of most backyard birds and by applying a little bit of ingenuity, you can attract a great many types of birds thru all seasons of the year.
One thing that becomes noticeable over time is more often than not, you end up capturing the same kinds of birds the same ole way...over and over. After a while your photo's begin to all look alike. It can become a bit repetitious. To avoid experiencing birding burnout, try shaking things up from time to time.
Simply rearranging your feeding area where the birds are attracted can create a new look. But, even this has its limitations. So why not try something out of the ordinary...like...turning day into night and photographing your backyard birds in what appears to be a night time situation.
Turning day into night...uh, well yeah, it can be done...with a little understanding of photographic principles. Simply stated...you do it by using Speed Lights.
Let's take a look at the attached photo of a Red-Bellied Woodpecker at the top of this post. At first glance it appears to have been taken at night, but, in reality, it was taken in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon.
The idea is actually quite simple, but you gotta set your camera on Manual. Oh my gosh...the dreaded Manual Mode...I could never do that. Well...trust me...yes you can. Here is how it works.
Set your camera on a tripod locking securely. Set your camera to Manual. Set your ISO to the lowest value your camera will allow...probably 100 or maybe 200 depending on the camera. Manually select the fastest flash Sync shutter speed...most cameras are 1/200 or 1/250 of a second. Some allow for what is known as High Speed Sync...but we won't go into that because it is not necessary to accomplish what we want to do. You will also want to use a long telephoto lens, something in the neighborhood of 300mm works fine, but, if you have one, a 400, 500, or even 600mm lens works even better. Your camera and tripod should be set up so you are looking at the bird from eye level and placed about 5 yards or so away. This requires some forethought in setting up your feeder/attractor arrangement.
In just a moment we will set the Aperture, but let's do this first. When you are photographing backyard birds from a blind, usually you will obtain better results if there is a solid background several yards behind where the birds will be perching. Most of the time something that is a neutral color like a green hedge or a group of trees or something along that nature works pretty well. This provides for a soft and unobtrusive background which allows for the birds to be separated from any kind of distracting clutter. Take a look at the photo below taken on a cloudy day and you will see what I mean.
Okay...now here is where we explore an element of photography that a lot of photographers tend to shy away from: using an external flash unit. We're not going to go into the fine details of this interesting element of photography..we're just going to explain how to employ a flash to turn day into night.
After having made the preliminary setup, the next step is to eliminate as much of the ambient background light as you can. Even on a sunny day, you can do this by simply cranking up the aperture (in manual mode) to something like f/22 (a very small opening) or higher. When used in conjunction with the highest flash sync speed of the camera and a low ISO (never use AUTO ISO trying to do this), the background will simply go dark as a result. In fact, your whole image will go dark...and this is exactly what we want to do.
One more thing, you will probably want to use manual focus as well. Just simply pre-focus on where the birds will perch and by using an aperture of f/22 you will not have any issues with Depth of Field as the birds will be in focus. Auto focus can be used, but the birds drop in and out so quickly, it is sometimes difficult to get the camera to focus before the birds are gone.
So, at this point you should have your camera and telephoto lens set on a tripod. Your camera should be set on manual mode with the shutter speed set to 1/200 of a second and your aperture set to f/22 or higher. Any photos you take should be just about completely dark.
If so, now we need to add in some light...that is where an external speed light comes into play. It matters very little what brand, as long as the flash unit can be fired remotely from the camera. I use Godox flashes using a separate Godox transmitter attached to the camera's flash hot shoe.
You can do this with a single flash, but two are better where three might add in some extra lighting depth. I used two...look at the setup photo below.
One flash set to either side and slightly behind of where the birds will perch/feed. Both are about 2 feet from the perch and angled down to illuminate the feeding location. The power settings on the flash units will vary, but in this particular instance both were set to 1/2 power and zoomed to around 50mm (most flashes allow for a focused flash adjustment from 24mm to 105mm).
Now it was just a matter of waiting for one of the birds to show up...and it didn't take long. I only placed food for the birds on one location...the stump you see in the setup image. This was to insure any birds would all come to the same place plus i had been feeding them for a few weeks prior to this so they were accustomed to having food provided for them.
The introduction of the flashes on their stand did not appear to cause any problems and the flashes themselves did not seem to bother the birds.
So there you have it...it took a while to get there, but that's how you turn day into night and allow for some interesting backyard birding photo ops.
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