Great Tit

CT

CT

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Great_Tit1.jpg
 
Lovely tit CT, looks like an inquisitve little chap :)
Looks a smidge underexposed, although I appreciate you were undoubtedly trying to retain detail in his face & his branch :D
 
I like it, maybe a little dark around the eye though CT? It could just be the brightness on this laptop though, everything else is spot on for me :)


Imagine the fun you could have had if there had been two of them?

"Pair of Great Tits"
"Great pair of Tits"

:D
 
Darksaber said:
Imagine the fun you could have had if there had been two of them?

"Pair of Great Tits"
"Great pair of Tits"

:D
Click to expand...

I think it's already been done! :LOL:

Losing the eye is a common problem with these little beggars as the eye is black and doesn't show well at all against the black head unless you have a reflection in it. This guy was in heavy shade too. That's my excuse anyway. :D
 
CT,

I like the shot...Would you care to explain how you took it and what post processing was done?

I 've tried shots like this a couple of times in the past, with miserable results so any advice would be apprceiated..

Regards,

Pete
 
Really nice image there CT, you've captured the detail perfectly but I can only imagine how much of a pain it must be to get the perfect balance between not blowing the highlights & making sure detail is still retained in the darker areas on such a small & quick subject. I think you've done a great job :clap: (y)
 
Nice shot with excellent bokeh . What aperture etc were you using ?
 
Pete E said:
CT,

I like the shot...Would you care to explain how you took it and what post processing was done?

I 've tried shots like this a couple of times in the past, with miserable results so any advice would be apprceiated..

Regards,

Pete
Click to expand...

I took this using the 100-400L at 400mm with 1.4 teleconverter which equates to 560mm on the 1D Mk2. The aperture was f8 and the shutter speed 1/200th, with fill flash as the bird was in shadow. ISO was 320.

The only post processing is slight levels adjustment and noise reduction applied to the background only.

The problems with these tiny birds are getting them large enough in the frame, even with really long lenses, and getting a fast enough shutter speed as they're incessantly twitching and moving about.... the head particularly. This shot is a moderate crop, but the tit is still much less than 1:1 reproduction.

Whilst you can get good results hand held, a tripod will increase your hit rate enormously. I seldom try these shots hand held these days, and I almost always use servo AF, to keep up with their movement, with the centre AF spot enabled, and try to focus on the eye. I have IS enabled which is OK as long as the tripod head is not locked off.

I might add I feed around this tree daily. Really good bird shots are seldom opportunistic, they tend to come from patience and planning.

Hope that helps. It's well worth persevering, so don't get disheartened. ;)
 
CT,

Thanks for that...How far was the bird from the camera? The reason i ask is that the lens set up suggests it was a reasonable distance away, but you still managed to use fill in flash?

Thanks again,

Pete
 
Pete E said:
CT,

Thanks for that...How far was the bird from the camera? The reason i ask is that the lens set up suggests it was a reasonable distance away, but you still managed to use fill in flash?
Click to expand...

It was about 20 feet Pete, but you can use fill flash at far greater distances than that.
 
Good effort CT. I have just started to do this kind of photography myself, and I am beginning to appreciate how difficult it is to get a good picture of a small, fast moving bird in low light.
 
Another difficult shot well executed CT..(y)
 
Well done! - another beauty. Envious as usual!

Like you finding fill in flash usually needed.
 
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