Various Birds (Warning: Quite a few images)

htid

htid

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Chris
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Whoops, this should be in birds. Mods feel free to move.

Hi,

I've had my camera for about half a year now so I'm quite confident with the basics and got a 300mm f4 for Christmas. The other day I took it out for my first attempt at birds, so I'm looking for comments on how to improve in any way, from colours, to composition. I don't think they are bad (and am very impressed with the detail!), however there are still areas I can improve on, which I'll explain as I go.

So first I'd just like to know what this one is, as I haven't a clue:



I'm not sure if this is a female Chaffinch or not, but anyway, here is my main problem. The eye and the feathers around are beautifully sharp, however the focus seems to drop off already around the beak and especially the feathers on the right edge. I was told by someone else that at effectively 630mm f5.6 isn't enough so I take it that's what caused this, however in a further picture I've used f8 and still have such a shallow DoF, am I doing something wrong?



I just really like the composition of this shot, probably my favourite of the day from that point of view.



Another of my favourites from a compositional point of view



Here's a Chaffinch at f8 and still not got the beak in focus..should I up the f stop even further in future?



Another example of the dof being too shallow, however I love how beautifully rendered the feather detail has been. This is an actual pixel crop.



Anyway that's all, I realise that's quite a lot of photos! Full sizes, along with a few others are of course on my flickr.
 
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Are these handheld or tripod mounted Chris?
 
CT said:
Are these handheld or tripod mounted Chris?
Click to expand...

Some handheld, most resting on the "windowledge" of the hide. I've ordered a beanbag which will be arriving soon, so that should make it more stable.
 
htid said:
Some handheld, most resting on the "windowledge" of the hide. I've ordered a beanbag which will be arriving soon, so that should make it more stable.
Click to expand...

It's rare for me not to use a tripod and most other serious birders too.The tripod with a suitable head just makes it so much easier to keep that AF point on the eye or at least the head of the bird. DOF is a problem as you've discovered but it's vital to get the eye sharp even if you cant always get the whole bird in focus. Stopping down to get more DOF is a luxury our climate doesn't always allow us and often getting a fast enough shutter spoeed to freeze subject movement means a large aperture anyway.

I can't see much point in critiquing your images because they all look technically good. I think you're worrying unduly about sharpness with the beak of the female Chaffy (No2) It looks OK to me.

Your last shot- the 100% crop shows how you've just missed the focus on the eye of the bird which is so easily done.

All in all a promising start. The only thing I'd say is that I think you may be running your colour space in Adobe RGB. If you want your images to look the same on the web as on your monitor after you've uploaded them you need to be working in sRGB.
 
CT said:
It's rare for me not to use a tripod and most other serious birders too.The tripod with a suitable head just makes it so much easier to keep that AF point on the eye or at least the head of the bird. DOF is a problem as you've discovered but it's vital to get the eye sharp even if you cant always get the whole bird in focus. Stopping down to get more DOF is a luxury our climate doesn't always allow us and often getting a fast enough shutter spoeed to freeze subject movement means a large aperture anyway.

I can't see much point in critiquing your images because they all look technically good. I think you're worrying unduly about sharpness with the beak of the female Chaffy (No2) It looks OK to me.

Your last shot- the 100% crop shows how you've just missed the focus on the eye of the bird which is so easily done.

All in all a promising start. The only thing I'd say is that I think you may be running your colour space in Adobe RGB. If you want your images to look the same on the web as on your monitor after you've uploaded them you need to be working in sRGB.
Click to expand...

Thanks for teh advice :) Would you really use a tripod when in a hide? At the hide where these were taken, everyone had beanbags (and I don't think they were amatuers, a few of them had 300mm f2.8s). Unfortunately my current situation doesn't allow for buying a tripod and good head, so that will be something I'll have to look into in future. I would say though, isn't it even easier to use a beanbag to keep the focus right on the eye? It looks to me as though it would give more flexibility than a tripod.
 
htid said:
Thanks for teh advice :) Would you really use a tripod when in a hide? At the hide where these were taken, everyone had beanbags (and I don't think they were amatuers, a few of them had 300mm f2.8s). Unfortunately my current situation doesn't allow for buying a tripod and good head, so that will be something I'll have to look into in future. I would say though, isn't it even easier to use a beanbag to keep the focus right on the eye? It looks to me as though it would give more flexibility than a tripod.
Click to expand...

I do use a tripod in every hide I've ever been in, although the degree of awkwardness in setting one up can vary certainly. There's nothing wrong with using a beanbag in that situation, in fact I know many people do, but a tripod and gimbal head enables the most fluid movement of the camera in all directions and therefore the easiest tracking of the bird. It's also a lot safer to be able to take your hands of the camera and lens and know that it's stable.

In any sort of pop-up hide it would be virtually impossible to use a beanbag anyway. About the only time I use a beanbag is shooting from the car, which I don't do very often.
 
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