Finished

Bird Photographer of the Year Competition

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Bird Photographer of the Year CompetitionPrizes:

Overall Winner

  • Bird Photographer of the Year 2023 Trophy and Certificate
  • Anthropics Collection valued £229.95
  • Topaz Photo AI valued at $199
  • PermaJet voucher valued at £100
  • One year Free Professional Membership to SINWP- which includes: entry to all of our membership only competitions – unrestricted access to our members’ photography forum – access to our members only Facebook group – listing on our directory – qualifications and distinctions through submission of images – the winner will also receive our magazine Professional Imagemaker for 12 months (valued at £150)

2nd place

  • Topaz Photo AI valued at $199
  • 2nd Place SINWP Bird Photographer of the Year 2023 Certificate
  • 6 months Free Professional Membership to SINWP – which includes: entry to all of our membership only competitions – unrestricted access to our members’ photography forum – access to our members only Facebook group – listing on our directory – qualifications and distinctions through submission of images – the winner will also receive our magazine Professional Imagemaker for 6 months (valued at £75)

3rd place

  • Topaz Photo AI valued at $199
  • 3rd Place SINWP Bird Photographer of the Year 2023 Certificate
  • 6 months Free Professional Membership to SINWP – which includes: entry to all of our membership only competitions – unrestricted access to our members’ photography forum – access to our members only Facebook group – listing on our directory – qualifications and distinctions through submission of images – the winner will also receive our magazine Professional Imagemaker for 6 months (valued at £75)

A maximum of three images per entrant. Online submission of digital photographs via the website.

Image requirements: no larger than 2000 pixels wide; entrants must be able to supply a high resolution image (300dpi)
OFFICIAL WEBSITE

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PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FOR YOU:
Cropping becomes almost inevitable with bird photography. But, in reality, the quality of my pictures increases exponentially when I do not have to crop my images to 30%, 50%, or almost 100%. It is true that modern cameras like the Nikon D850 give us 48MP, and other brands are just as strong in the megapixel war, allowing us to crop quite a lot. To a certain extent, it does help. But if your subject is a tiny dot before cropping, you will end up with a low-quality image most of the time even if the image is acceptably sharp. I have found that, regardless of what megapixel camera you use, if you crop a picture more than 50% you are compromising heavily on its quality. I generally make sure not to get over the 50% crop mark. Most of the time, the cropped portion is about 20% or less, where I have to straighten the lines or get a perspective that I want. But it takes some practice to get to that point, especially in terms of learning your subject’s behavior so you can approach close enough. The reason why most photographers go for crop bodies when it comes to birding is, in part, the crop factor. The pixel pitch (no. of pixels per sq. inch) is higher in a 24 MP crop body than a 24 MP full-frame camera, meaning you can get more total pixels on your subject at a given focal length. This is certainly a good thing sometimes, but it is no substitute for approaching your subject properly and using the right lens. I would much rather be close to my subject on a full-frame camera than farther away on a crop-sensor camera with the same composition. Lastly, there is one more issue with over-cropping. Most of the time with bird photography, we are forced to shoot at higher ISOs. It literally means more noise. By cropping the image too much, we are magnifying the noise. We could use noise reduction algorithms in post-processing. But noise reduction has its own problems, like loss of details, so it is best to keep at a minimum.