Titmouse

[Al Lemieux]

Taken with Nikon D70
Sigma 50-500mm at 500mm
1/500 F14 exp comp -1/3
ISO 200 with fill flash

[Jim Fenton]

Overall the bird appears plenty sharp enough but to my eyes, it definetly needs more room on the right side of the frame. The catchlight is nice, but perhaps a little whistle would have gotten a better head turn?

My last comment would be, why f14? The background is sufficently OOF due to it's distance, but unless you were really close, I'd think that f8 would have handled this fine.

[Al Lemieux]

When using fill flash the fastest sync speed is 1/500 which needs f14. Using a larger aperature caused the sky to be blown out and the bird too dark.

[Daniel Cadieux]

When using fill flash the fastest sync speed is 1/500 which needs f14. Using a larger aperature caused the sky to be blown out and the bird too dark.

I'm not familiar with Nikon gear, but you could use Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) to reduce flash outpout and then in turn use a larger aperture. Photographing in manual mode also works wonders with flash...much more than automatic or semi-automatic settings.

As jfenton mentions sometimes a small whistle or other noise with your mouth is just enough to get the bird to turn its head more towards you (albeit most of the time very momentarly) :)

[Jim Neiger]

Nice image of this titmouse. I like the pose and the oof bg. I agree that it's a bit tight on the right and the angle of the head is not quite perfect. It must have been very bright out to get 1/500 at F14 and ISO 200.

[Jody Melanson]

Welcome aboard BPN! I agree with the Jims. It also looks a little oversharpened on my screen?