Blue Tit

[John Robinson]

Blue Tit through the kitchen window. Not done much for a while. The Autumny back drop is in fact beech leaves which have stayed on the hedge. Not to everyones taste but I don't particularly like the plain background jobs
D7100
Nikor 70-300

&0% of full frame.
800 ISO
125th @f9
Neat Image, post-processing in Paint Shop Pro 7

All the best to all for 2014 and the future. A lot are far worse off than us worrying about a few pictures.
Thanks for your comments
John

[Henry Domke]

All the best to all for 2014 and the future
And to you too!

The face-foreword pose makes it tricky to have enough depth-of-field to keep the bill in focus.
Have you every tried shooting these tiny birds with a higher aperture?

If the softness of the bill is due to the bird moving rather than a shallow depth-of-field then a higher ISO might allow you to use a faster shutter speed.

[John Robinson]

Thanks Henry
Taken under terrible light conditions so not much I can do. I couldtry a bit of selective sharpening I suppose.
Cheers
John R

[Henry Domke]

Taken under terrible light conditions so not much I can do
You shot this at ISO 800. The D7100 has a regular ISO range of 100-6400.
With careful attention to noise reduction surely you could use a higher ISO.

Just food for thought...

[John Robinson]

Just found a one with a different head turn.
JR

[Don Lacy]

HI Johnny, I much prefer the second image over the first from the vertical comp to the looser framing of the subject. I do wish you had a better head angle and I also feel the image is a little flat and the subject colors look dull. I played around with it i n PS and using curve adjustments and a few layer mask I did the following
Adjusted the white point for the entire image
Brighten the whites on the Tit only
applied NR on the BG only
Selectively sharpen the Tit only

[Jonathan Ashton]

Johnny I like the background and the second shot is sharper than the first. I would suggest head angle somewhere between the two images would be optimal, just a slight head turn being ideal.

[Holger Leyrer]

Hmm, in this case i think the softness of the bill works well. The eye is sharp and perch and BG are great.
I like this Image.

[catalani giovanni]

A bit soft.
Equally beautiful.
The third version is the best

[adrian dancy]

I prefer your second image. I think however, because the day robbed you of light, your working of the image is nearer to the truth of the scene. I think the happy medium may be somewhere between yours and Don's.

[John Robinson]

Thanks all. I am not much of a pp man but I feel the third one is a little too much. The Blue Tits around here certainly are not that bright.
Interesting view though.
Cheers
JohnR