Bird Silhouette Photography Tips

When many people think of bird photography, they think of tight cropped, detailed pictures of birds.  Using silhouettes in photography can provide beautiful and artistic photos.  Birds photos created using silhouette photography techniques can produce stunning silhouette images especially at sunrise or sunset.

In this blog, I’ll show several examples of bird silhouette photography and provide tips for photographing bird silhouettes.  These photography tips can also be applied to creating silhouette images for subjects other than birds.

The crane photos are of Sandhill Cranes at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area in Indiana.  The photos were taken at sunset as the birds fly back into a specific field in the evening. It’s important to understand the bird flight patterns and the direction of sunrise and sunset.

Bird Silhouette Photography Tips

• Choose a Recognizable Subject
• Research the Area You Want to Photograph
• Shoot at Sunrise or Sunset for Colorful Backgrounds
• Partly Cloudy Skies Work the Best
• Keep Your Shutter Speeds High
• Shoot in Continuous High Shutter Mode and Take a lot of Photos
• Underexpose Your Image
• Composite Birds from Multiple Images

Bird Silhouette Photography Tip Details

Choose a Recognizable Subject

Silhouettes tend to work better when the subject is still recognizable when it is a silhouette image.  Sandhill Cranes, Great Blue Herons, and Canadian Geese are examples of birds that are still recognizable as silhouette images.

Research the Area You Want to Photograph

Check where the sun rises and sets.  You may need a scouting trip to the area to check out the flight patterns of the birds in the morning and evening?  For a silhouette, you want the subject back lit so the birds need to be positioned between you and the sun.  Use The Photographer’s Ephemeris or Photo Pills app to check the location of the sunrise and sunset at your photography location.

Shoot at Sunrise or Sunset for Colorful Backgrounds

Shoot at the ends of the day (sunrise and sunset) for striking, colorful bird silhouette photographs. You can also photograph bird silhouettes during the day for a more black and white look.

Partly Cloudy Skies Work the Best

The best weather conditions for silhouettes are partly cloudy skies.  The clouds add character to the sky and also reflect the warmth of the setting or rising sun.

Keep Your Shutter Speeds High 

The best sky color is the closest to sunrise or sunset when the light is very dim.  Even though the birds are silhouettes, you’ll want to keep the shutter speeds high (1/1000^th of a second or faster) to keep the bird’s wings from being blurred.  Higher ISOs will be required for fast shutter speeds in the low light.  The noise can be removed during post processing.

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Shoot in Continuous High Shutter Mode and Take a Lot of Photos

The birds can overlap each other into oddly shaped silhouettes.   Also, the wing positions can make the shot.  I prefer shots where the wings are a mixture of pointing up and down.  If the wings are mostly straight out to the side, the shot is not as interesting.

Underexposure Your Image

Underexpose your image by a stop or two using Exposure Compensation. This will darken the bird silhouette and add more saturation to the background.

Composite Birds from Multiple Images

If want to combine birds from multiple images into a flock or you don’t like the wing positions of some of the birds, it is easy to composite the images in Adobe Photoshop. Tools like the Object Selection Tool or Select Subject, can easily select the dark bird silhouette.

Related Blog Posts
Jasper-Pulaski Sandhill Crane Migration
Walking the Towpath at CVNP – Tips for Wildlife and Bird Photography
How to Blur the Background of your Bird Photographs using Photoshop