Wildlife Photography in the Rain Tutorial 

when I first saw that cardinal photo on IG I was crushed, then when I read how many photos you took and how much work you had to do to get that incredible level of detail... I felt a lot better. It takes hard work to get those great results. Great shot.

The masking and working the raindrops was the coolest thing I have seen in a while!!

Haha, it's like you looked over at us here in Ireland and thought.. "This Video's for you folks"! :D

let me fix the title " *Wildlife Photography in the Rain Tutorial with a $13k lens* ", there here you go

Great video! I almost stopped watching when the first tip was essentially "shoot from inside your house", and that's just not a possibility given what's around my house, but the tips for Photoshop involving masking the raindrops were SUPER useful and just not something I'd have considered without this video, plus the overview of masking in action in general is always a nice refresher for someone like me who stepped back from PS in favour of LR a year or so ago.

It is surprising how good bird photographs can be in the rain ! Keeping dry yourself is key the car works as well !! Great advice 👍😍

"Make as many photos as you need, even 100s of them to make sure you get it right." And I look at my pro line ANALOG canon cameras with.... 36 frames FILM reel in them. "Yeah...sure" :) :)

This video was really useful for me. Thanks, Tony, for creating this one.

One would need to develop biceps before using that lens 😂😂😂

Love the shot ND THANKS AGAIN for the inspiration. Having trouble deciding now I’m made medically discharged and veterans pension my photography has become my escape with playing mu guitars with some nice blues or old school rock and roll. I was lucky enough to get a pro to take me under a learn sports high speed stuff with car shows, some bike shows into the odd Honda GP bike dept holding release of there race bike for the 50 Grand Prix. No public day was great lots of models sparking polished bikes and the grand one with lots of large Corp sponsors. After a couple of years applied at a college on there photography course to then go one to advanced freelance photography which allowed me to be able to obtain a Australian press Assosiaction membership and photo pass. The college checked 10 photos only of my choice and then 5 of what subject I had. Talked to John mentor. A letter arrived stating we are informing me that I’m am not qualified in the standing of the course and what is taught. I straight away went to thinking I can’t get in. New paragraph As such your prior work and sales to magazines Quantus gold wing magazine and there where 1 BMX USA and car mag that I cont rember the name. So you have earnt enough real life experience and after speaking to your photography Mentor proven to use photo and celliod film and slides with encouraging knowledge of the manual use of SLR and DSLR to go straight onto The advanced Freelance Photographers course. Which I managed to get through with an A+ and top of the class. Encouraging comment given by the head of collage on the photos handed in and especially my 3 picture slide shots. The end of role finished the shutter in my old Canon eos10a film body. Always had Canon other than one Fuji digital.. yrs to build my L and few primes as it’s keeping me sane with my ptsd. I finally reached in Australia way over price canon sticks us with yet 1DX mk2 which of course brought my L lenses a new outlook. Could not believe not long I heard mk 3 yet wifi and time lapse which canon abounded on mk2 yet wanted so Canon how about firmware upgrade on mk2. Yrs to have my dream 1 D even in film days lol. Now I see leak on chances high same body as love good grip yet mirror less with 85meg at 20 frames and 22mg upto 40. Yet all RF lenses. I still have a 7D mk 1 as second. Yet I’ve gone so much wildlife and landscape I’m thinking should I look a 90D 35meg looks hot bad no 2 cards 🤷‍♂️, which back to crop. Yet app $7000 new 45 mirror less 5 or 6 and a coupling just makes me think lenses will not be giving 100% and there prices. Then there is a sale on canon 5Dmk4 I still use in house in black white 5D mk1 which I sold my biggest. Sale using lol.it’s a second body yet a meg boost if area needed a 9D will give my 400 L f5.6 prime my surfing reach back yet 1DXmk2 let’s me auto focus it with the 1.4extension on the 400 L f5.6 non is. Still regard one of the sharpest lenses in canon. Light internal focus no in out and that great built in slide hood. I thought who else to ask I very rarely do as have your books and packs from both you and Chelsea. Just struggling as I have some fantastic 1DXmk2 photos, I’ve always run 2 bodies. First time seen Sony mirror less I swore it was a joke and real size was comoming out. I had trouble holding any those tiny cameras and have never had big whimper at shooting 2 days of F1 Melbourne using 1DXmk2 70-200 f2.8 IS with 1.4 and 2 ext. as the money owed $3000 and money stolen 2700 lucky to wake up little with meds and shit down accounts. So pretty much the last body to join the 1DXmk2 ,,,,7D and 5D will be keep sake and shooting fun with my service dog maybe even my kids might want to try something or grandkids that I’d love to help be one creative they all have it in them. Just getting it out.. understand don’t get to me thinking WTF that’s to long hitting 50 this yr so to many letters written young get lost typing. Feel strange people send 6 words with no expression could be peed off could be nothing could be fully outraged. Lol. All Bret stay strong Love your info and informative with no pushing bits but giving great knowledge. I’m always open to others knowledge, or I never become a better person. Which I’m trying to fight my mental health and music with nature that can be grabbed then taken to another vision or just shown in its beauty that we are shown and given every day. Even in the darkest places and times, if I can just see a sliver of light I must not be blocked by trivial things. But to push on and confront the Dark side to its face!!! 👌 📸🇦🇺🇦🇺

I've been using photoshop for like 6 years now (mostly for astrophotography so I know a lot of things about staking) and lightroom for every kind of photo editing ... but still, Tony, you managed to produce one of the best tutorial I have ever seen ... I would never have thought that the astro techniques would apply for birds ... Thank you a lot ! :)

Great tutorial Tony. Thanks for all the tips and workflow description.

Lovely bird shots and a great tutorial. Thanks Tony. I use large ziplock plastic bags to protect my D750 from the Irish rain. I cut a hole so the lens can poke through and seal it with a rubber band. The ziplock gives access to the back of the camera. I found that the bags that Cisco put their switch documentation in is the perfect size ( but maybe big freezer bags would also work).

Why are you tilting the Handle of the Lens upwards? Does it have any kind of use for you besides being use as a handle?

I’ve been wanting a rain/snow video recently and bam! Right on time!

okay....this was hugely educational...thanks a ton!!!!

the shot in the thumbnail is unreal

when you say "a few drops won't be an issue," is that for weather sealed cameras, or most cameras?

1:50 A rocket blower is essential rain accessory to blow water away without touching the front filters quickly and easily in the field.

I tend to do wildlife in aperture priority, but set the auto-ISO with a minimum shutter speed. I have two custom sets of settings and use one for birds in flight and the other for perched birds. I use an area AF mode for the flying ones and a point AF for perched. On cameras with fast changing of custom settings this is practical (e.g. with C1-3 right on the mode dial).

I really liked this, there are a lot of things you can do on photoshop and depending on the focus of the person there are easier or harder ways to do something. I used photoshop in the past as a digital pinter/artist but learning photoshop for photographic means is like learning the whole software again.

Nice thinking outside the box on those rain drops. Could you use a stack mode to do the same thing?

Great tutorial! Thanks!

this is the exact kind of content i love watching. i just learned a tonne of new things. thanks tony

This was a terrific video. The information was super helpful. Thanks so much Tony.

I CAN'T live without my 600mm. Must use extension tubes! Arrrggghhh! .... best video yet.

thanks tony you're giving a lot of real information, that I will not use anytime soon. but they were good lol real thanks this time

BIRBS...BIRBS IN THE RAIN i love it

Very pleased to see a photographic technique video - and, like many others in here, the UK is somewhat damp at the best of times, this is a well-timed and useful video!

Beautiful photo, although I did prefer the original background colour. I thought the blue made it look a little too harsh.

Great work!

Is there a way to take a picture of birds without cropping? What lens would allow me to do that?

Really helpful to learn how you went about getting these photos. Thanks

A great how to video and motivation to get out there an shoot more even in the rain, thanks.

@ taking pictures of birds by baiting them: At a feeder birds have an unnatural situation, readymade and immediately accessible food in unnatural quantities. Assuming an intention to photograph nature I ask: What kind of nature do you want to portray and even more important what picture of nature do you intend to create? Unless there is an extreme catastrophy of several meters thick snow and ice cover, over many months, in a region that has snow cover normally in the a few inches to a foot range for a few weeks, there is always more than enough food for birds! Since feeder food is surplus, it is not fully consumed. The surplus atracts rats and mice. The food gets mouldy (if the feeder isn't cleaned out often enough) and harms animals. If done regularly, it effects the population sizes of certain species. In my region, (Northern Germany) it results in the growth of species that decimate songbird species. That can lead to a situation in which you attract a lot of birds from your region photograph crowds of birds at your feeder, photos that leave the impression that in your region live big and *diverse bird populations, while in reality the diversity of species goes down, due to the above indicated side effects. *I mean that a lot of birds would come to you from greater distances, because of your feeder. Hence the wrong picture of diversity.

use pentax or olympus if youre scared of rain ruining your gear.

Extremely useful! Thanks Tony!

This is a wow brilliant video. The rain trick is brilliant.

Hi Tony, Did you see the out of focus branches being 'ghosted' or double? Can you make a video about these spherical abberations. Thanks

The photoshop stuff is useful. Thanks.

A highly respected wildlife photographer to many people in my area told me that the only way to make decent money at nature photography is to sell one's own professional grade gear. 🤣 I'd like to see a guide in how to build a professional wildlife photography business ... if possible. The time of marketing and relationships seems very intense. And most potential customers prefer to see landscapes on their walls.

Watching Tony hold that giant lens/camera combo by the camera only at the beginning had me like 😳.

I love rainy day shooting specially street photography so maybe I can take some knowledge

Excellent demo; GIVE us more of this presentation!

This is a great tutorial with lots of useful information. Thanks Tony!

Very good explanation of this subject , has helped immensely thank you Tony. 👍😷🇦🇺

I can go swimming with my EM1X and 300Pro :)

Excellent!

This was really cool! I can see the techniques you're using being applied to lots of other things, so you've expanded my understanding of photoshop. You do have a couple rain drops that need closer attention because the tones surrounding those particular drops don't blend with the rest of the image. I suppose it's a matter of showing the idea for the video vs taking to time to make it perfect, but I haven't seen the instagram post. That wet bluebird is such a unique shot too!

I've been thinking about this photo since you posted it on Twitter. The blue background really struck me and It's fascinating to see how it all came together.

Those bird photos are really good 👍

I love it! Thanks Tony, just what I was looking for. 👍🏾

Uh, you really wana keep that plastic lid in the hot shoe to protect the contacts from water. Thats *the* place on Sony cameras sensitive to water.

Really nice video

Fantastic photos, Tony, and great advice.😊

Great video and shot. Saving this one.

Great tips for Irish weather

that's a beast of a lens you have there Tony.

Good tip on rain. It should work on Photoshop Elements, too. Thanks.

Great vid TN! May I ask your workflow, to get your files into photoshop at this point? These were converted raw images correct?

I had no idea what a lens hood was until Toney held it close to the camera. Still a good video.

What struck me is that you are using Photoshop for Noise Reduction. Idon't use Photoshop/LR for that anymore. DxO Deep PRIME would it it up for breakfast. And maybe I would finish with Topaz Denoise with low settings.

Great Photoshop tutorial. For us folks here in the US , it should of came out in Nov-Dec regarding your winter remarks. You own the A1 now?

Good video and learning resource. However please show pictures taken with a bit more real world camera gear. Very few of us have £13000 lenses. I would be taking this with an 80d, 70-200 F4 and a 1.4x converter, thank you. Beautiful bird as well

Did you say alpha 1 and a 13 thousand dollar lens depressing I have a Sony a7ii with kit lens just purchased a tamron 28 75 should I just give up on photography I will never have the money for your set up. Beautiful photo's.

Love the color contrast with the blue and red, great shot. Do you use the color wheel to fine tune the colors, for example to make sure the red is exactly across from the blue on the color wheel?

Great job Tony

Marvelous end result on a dreary day! Thanks for taking us through the step-by-step from shooting to final photo. I just got the R6 and the RF 24-105L. It's my expectation that shooting in light rain or snow shouldn't be an issue, even if the moisture is streaming off - is that wishful/dangerous thinking?

Wait, is the hotshoe water-resistant?

the dislikes are from 72 birds who hated Tony peeping on them while they showered

Yay more weather videos please!!!

Nice but quite a busy image not sure i would spend so long ,but good tips

Dude, a thousand 50 MP shots of that dreary bird? I do a LOT of bird photography but you have gone insane (kidding). That is a LOT of photos to go thru for almost zero benefit, as cardinal images go. I find that video, as opposed to photos, is a lot more compelling during rain. Of course, I do this all the time but with the 45MP images from the R5. I am currently overloaded with images to delete. Pain is coming is coming for me. I am definitely insane. :)

Love a Tony how to video, even if he's out splashing around in the rain with 20k in gear!

This vid is a good one! Thanks for sharing.

Audio was shocking inside.

Great as always.

Really appreciate you in sharing this Tony! Really helpful and definitely not what I was expecting. I’m not a photoshop expert my any stretch but still know it far better than Lightroom. Would you say LR Classic is to “develop” and PS to finalise the shot?

I can't wait to have those lens

Wow Tony! Thanks! Very helpful for someone like me!

I'm drooling over that camera and lens combo. Are you doing a giveaway?

Tony and/or Chelsea: Could you make Camera Raw editions of your presets? I don't use Lightroom in my workflow. I'm all about those xmp files

Waawwwww Tony with sony nice

Thanks...

Did the eye af have any trouble in the lower light/ rain ?

I really wish Tony and Chelsea with get back to taking pictures with the D4s and the D5

Or use Olympus, it can handle water!

what lens are you on I want itttttttttttttt

Getting closer and closer until you disturb nature is not how I'd go about giving advice on taking wild life photography. 4:30

Who is going to buy these photos.......??

Great video, really interesting 😀👏

Where’s your binoculars? You suppose to look for birds with the binoculars, and then take your shot . (Just kidding). I enjoy these types of videos. Thanks

I think the background is too busy.

NO COLOR GOOD

Hi, Great Video as usual ..

Supremely useful and I'm only 2+ minutes in...

where is the BMW? no drinks for my game today. next time.

"Wildlife photography in the rain" and 60% is about Lightroom.... Call it "bird photography editing in Lightroom".

Nice video, Like 992 and Greetings from Italy :)

can you do the “pouring rain” in video?