10 tips for photographing birds and nature on the mobile phone

A new category for mobile phone photography has been opened for the annual bird photography contest of the Kimet Israel Foundation, which invites you to take part in bird photography and photographs related to the climate crisis and biodiversity.

Shahar Cohen, nature photographer, gives you 10 tips for successful photography in nature with your phone and camera

Erez Erlichman, in collaboration with KKL-Junk

03/10/2022

Monday, October 03, 2022, 12:03 Updated: 12:39

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This year, the Kimet Foundation for Israel will hold the fifth Tzafarthon, in which birdwatching events for the whole family will be held during Sukkot during the Sukkot holiday, in Agamon Hefer and Yeruhem Park.

In addition to the events, the annual photography competition will be held, during which female photographers and bird photographers will compete in the categories of professional photography, amateurs, teenagers and children.

To register for the competition>>

Common hawk (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

According to Yaron Charka, the chief ornithologist at KKL-Junk, following the many responses received from participants in the previous competitions, this year it was decided to open a new category for photography with the help of the cell phone, to allow documenting the human impact on the environment.

"It is very difficult to take quality pictures of birds with a cell phone .

At the same time, we see an impact of the climate crisis and biodiversity on the birds as well, so we chose to expand the subject of photographs in the category of phone photography far beyond bird photography.

The photos in this category will be able to deal with everything related to the climate crisis and biodiversity, with lots of room for creativity," says Charka.

Shining Girl Scout (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

For everyone who wants to take part in this year's prize-winning photography competition, Shahar Cohen, nature photographer and leader of photography workshops, gives you 10 useful tips for photographing birds and nature.

"I believe that with the help of ten rules, anyone who wants to improve the quality of photography and it doesn't matter if they have an expensive professional camera or a cell phone of any kind, will be able to take a step forward in the world of photography," says Cohen.

"Learning and practice are the key to eventually producing a picture that will tell an interesting story."

Dokifat Maof (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

1. Clean lens

"Cleanliness is a basic thing in photography, even if it seems silly for a moment, but it works wonders. Similar to dirt on the lens of glasses, you can remove dirt and dust with a cloth, or even with a cloth, but not with sandpaper or glass." Cohen explains.

"As soon as the lens is clean, the phenomena of blurring, lack of sharpness, contrast and anemic coloring will disappear with them."

Cohen notes that during his photography workshops, he meets photographers equipped with expensive and sophisticated phones who fail to capture the spectacular images due to an unclean camera lens.

Yours with a fish (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

2. Stabilizing the camera

"If you move during the photo, the image will come out blurry and this is mainly reflected in difficult lighting conditions, starting with shooting at night or in a room where there is not enough light. Any small movement of the camera, whether it is on a phone or a professional camera, will create blur" , explains Cohen.

"I recommend holding the cell phone with two hands and with the help of your finger, press the volume button that will be used to take a photo, instead of clicking on the photo icon on the device itself," he notes.

"That way you will also hold the device stably and you can focus on creating a composition."

To register for the competition>>

Aids for stabilizing photography on the phone (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

You can also connect headphones with a mechanism to control the volume, starting with wired headphones as well as Bluetooth headphones.

Cohen recommends purchasing a holder that connects the phone to the tripod, where you can also install a place for lighting and allows you to hold the device with both hands and wander with it.

It can also be placed stably on a small desktop tripod.

3. Photography angle

"Photography is a language and one of the tools in creating language is with the help of photography angles. Photographing a girl from top to bottom will create a picture of a poor little girl, but if we lower the camera below the height of the subject, we will create empowerment for the subject," explains Cohen.

Shooting at a high angle versus shooting at a low shooting angle (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

"Especially if we want to photograph a bird or a person, the secret is to photograph below the eye level of the subject, to create a presence for him and flatter him."

The advantage of the cell phone is that you can take pictures even from a height of a centimeter off the ground and create an exaggerated perspective that gives empowerment.

Cohen, who has been documenting common hawks in recent years, emphasizes that "the difference between a good photo and not a good one is sometimes 20-30 cm in the photographer's angle of view.

To document the hawks, I lay down for hours on the ground, in the mud, my back was caught and hurt, but all this so that the height of the lens would be at the height of the hawk and make it stronger," he elaborates.

Common hawk (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

Cohen recommends using the cell phone especially for close-up photography of objects.

"Macro photography, such as photographing a dragonfly or another insect, gives the phone a great advantage over expensive cameras that require lenses that cost thousands of shekels," he explains.

"With any phone, you can get closer to a distance of several centimeters to the subject and it is ideal for macro photography and flowers."

Dragonfly (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

Vardit Sinai (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

4. Choosing a suitable lens for photography

It is likely that the default on your cell phone camera is to shoot with a wide lens, to allow you to capture as many details as possible, especially in selfies and landscape photography.

Calling in the desert (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

"The wide lenses make the object smaller. If you want to create a portrait, the approach from a distance of several centimeters will sometimes create discomfort for the subject or drive the animal away. That is why this is the place to use a narrow-angle lens," says Cohen.

On the cell phone, you can perform a "zoom in" movement on the screen, but in the new models, there are phones equipped with a selection of lenses, which will allow you to take photos at a wide angle and a narrower angle.

Cohen recommends that those who want to take a portrait photo of an animal and an object in nature, set the phone's camera to portrait mode to help blur the background around the photographed object.

Light is one of the most important elements in photography.

"It doesn't matter which camera you shoot with, if you don't know how to look at the light and the lighting, even if you are in the most beautiful places in Israel or photograph exciting situations in nature, you will end up with photographs that are worse than what you could have achieved," notes Cohen.

Backlighting vs. direct lighting (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

How do you know where the light should be in your picture?

"The tendency of most of us is for the light to be on the photographer's back so that it illuminates the subject, but direct lighting on a bird, tree or person may create unflattering silhouettes. With the help of backlighting, we can create a dramatic and special moment, but it is not ideal because we cannot see Details of the subject", he details and recommends to also try soft lighting when the subject is in the shadows.

Side lighting versus soft lighting in the shade (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

"Especially in soft lighting in the shadow, there is a soft and flattering light to the subject or the object. If the object moves towards the shadow, the lighting on it will be soft and the soft light will emphasize less the flaws in the subject's face."

But while photographing a person is easier to reposition, how do you do that when your subject is a bird coming to drink water or look for food?

"Ultimately, our goal is to achieve soft lighting, so that your photograph will receive the most flattering lighting," he explains.

"When I went to photograph Yael Novi in ​​the cliffs of Mitzpe Ramon at sunrise, although they did not see details of the yael, but the lighting created something graphic and interesting with the help of the saturated lighting of the sunrise. Half an hour later, the lighting changed and I could not get to this photo."

Yael Novi in ​​Mitzpe Ramon (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

Cohen points out that in the case of photographing hawks in the water, he insisted not to photograph when the light was at his back, but behind the subjects, the hawks.

"That's how I got the hawks in the water with a beautiful transparency of the feathers and the water drops that created a dreamy photo. Back light will give you an opportunity for a dramatic and special photo."

Two common hawks (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

According to Cohen, backlighting is excellent for photographing flowers and macro photography of flowers and insects or even humans in nature, to create interesting dramatic situations.

Backlighting on flowers (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

When photographing birds or animals, the recommended hours for nature photography are from sunrise to an hour and a half after sunrise, or about an hour and a half before sunset.

Besides the lighting and the light, these are the hours when the animals are more active, and go out to drink and eat, and catch prey.

During the afternoon the animals are usually in hiding and the light outside is also difficult and not flattering for photography.

Even if you are photographing the face of an animal, Cohen recommends in portrait photography to photograph the figure in front of you and not to "cut" its body parts.

It's best to shoot in its entirety, and then, in editing the photo, it will be possible to make the necessary adjustments to highlight the moment.

Red-breasted (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

Portrait photography and full body photography (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

7. Framing and background in photography

"The background is no less important than the subject of your photography," says Cohen.

"Sometimes when you go out into nature you see an interesting animal or in the case of photographing the impact of man on the environment, you came across an object that illustrates the subject, but you were enthusiastic about it and did not pay attention to the ugly background in which it is."

A centered figure compared to the golden ratio (photo: Shahar Cohen)

Cohen recommends changing your position to look for the most suitable background for the photo and also taking care of the framing of the photo, and the intention here is not for the frame you buy in the store, but for the background of the photo itself.

"The rule says that there must not be white in the corners of the image, on the upper right side, on the upper left side, since the color white attracts the eye's attention," he says.

Photography in partial framing versus photography in full framing (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

"In photography, I want to have a cloud or a branch that closes the frame well. It is possible to frame partially, as in the photo through branches at the front of the frame, in which I attached the lens, half covered by branches, which created a blur on the left side of the frame. In other photos I closed the frame With an olive tree, which created a frame for me and led the viewer's eye to the center of the mountain, or I used interesting clouds that closed the picture for me in a beautiful way."

Olive tree (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

Clouds during a storm (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

8. Exposure

The default camera settings on cell phones are usually set to automatic mode, but Cohen emphasizes that in order for you, and not the device, to control your photography, you can intervene in the degree of exposure that the light meter gives us, to darken the image or let more light into it.

"Good and ideal exposure is the ability to receive the right amount of light, in which we see the most shades from black to white," notes Cohen.

"Otherwise, in a dark photo where I photographed a girl, the details are lost in the dark areas. In the photo with an overexposure with a girl on the left, the photo is bright and details are lost in the whites."

Underexposure versus overexposure (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

How can you control the exposure on the cell phone?

Cohen recommends keeping your finger pressed on the screen until a sun sign appears.

"By dragging your finger in the plus direction, you will get a bright image and in the minus direction, you will get a dark image," he elaborates.

"This way you can see the result you will get. The direction of dragging the plus and minus changes according to the type of your device, Android and iPhone."

How can you control the exposure while shooting?

Cohen says that as soon as your finger touches the screen in a certain area, the camera will automatically measure the light in that area.

"It is recommended to keep your finger pressed on the screen, until a sign of the sun appears" (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

"In a landscape picture I took, I put my finger towards the trees, the dark places, they got good exposure and the sky became bright. In the same situation, I pointed to the sky and in the next picture the trees are dark and you can't see details, the sky got dramatic and an interesting sunset color," he emphasizes.

"Even when you go to photograph a sunset at sea, it's enough to aim at the wrong place, you get a bright and anemic picture and you don't realize that there was a beautiful sunset there."

Cohen recommends using your finger on the camera screen to sample the light measurement in the most important places in the image.

Gray cranes (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

9. Wide field of exposure (HDR)

Did you go out to photograph as part of the competition in a place where the landscape and nature will illustrate the human influence on the environment?

In extreme situations where the sky will be bright and the ground dark, our eye will notice the range of tones beautifully between the bright and dark areas, but how can the look be translated on the camera as well without losing essential details in the sky or the ground?

Exposure of photography in HDR (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

"The wide field of exposure (HDR) is one of the great advantages of phones over cameras and as soon as we make sure that this is active on our cell phone, we will discover a spectacular world," emphasizes Cohen.

"There are phones in which the function is activated automatically, but you should check in the settings that it is indeed active and not turned off."

Exposure of photography in HDR (Photo: Shahar Cohen)

10. Editing software

Even after you have taken your photo for the competition, it is worth spending extra time in processing the photo, especially in correct cropping, darkening and lightening of the photo, while maintaining the authenticity of the photo.

It is recommended to download image processing software - SNAPSEED from Google to the mobile device.

You should register for the photo contest today.

The photography contest takes place for 48 hours during the holiday of Sukkot, on October 12-13.

Shahar Cohen, nature photographer and leader of photography workshops

to register for the competition>>

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