Corn, Rice, or Wheat Chex?

[Jon Sund]

Red-bellied Woodpecker image was captured at Fort Wilderness Campground, Walt Disney World, Florida on November 4, 2009. It was taken using a Nikon D-300, with a Nikon 300 mm f/2.8 lens and a 1.4 teleconverter. ISO 400, Exposure 1/160 at f/4.0, Spot metering, 0 EV, no flash.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Interesting find and food item. Could you have moved to your right for a better head angle and more uniform BG? I would run NR on the BG. Keep them coming!

[Dave Blinder]

Nice capture. Top of the bird's head looks a bit soft to me. Looks like AF may have grabbed the Chex!

[Fabs Forns]

Noise in the BG mentioned. Nice to catch him with a treat, although not a natural one :) As Axel suggested, moving to your right, if possible at all, would have given you a bteer head and body angle.

[Tony Whitehead]

Nice eye-level view of the Woodpecker, Jon. Interesting to see the opportunistic feeding. The noise at 400 suggest a fair crop or possibly under exposure at capture time. What did you meter from with the spot meter? Did you use an automated exposure mode or manual? Softness in the image may be from an element of camera shake - 1/140s may be a little on the slow side for consistent sharpness with 300+1.4x+1.5x crop factor body unless it is a VR lens or tripod mounted.

[Jon Sund]

Thank you for the critiques.

The Woodpecker was moving around a lot so position was not a choice but I can see how it would have improved the photo. Could have increased the ISO to get the shutter speed up. Photo is cropped to about 1/3 its original size. I was using aperture priority and spotted on the Woodpecker. It was shot from a tripod.

[Tony Whitehead]

Thanks for the extra info, Jon. Sounds like you had the support under control. I think the noise and softness are mainly crop related. Spot metering seems a reasonable option with a bird like this with a general midtone colour but would not be the best option for one that was brighter or darker.