Siberian Jay

[Mats Honkamaa]

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/1646/img6138gd.jpg

F/5,6 | 1/500 sec | ISO1600 | Focal Length 400mm

Composition? Is it too tight? This is not cropped alot, almost staight from camera so landscape format is impossible.
Background? Is it ok or does it merge to much with the bird?
DOF? Should more DOF have been better? I would have liked the back foot to be sharp.
Noise reduction? Is it need? I havent done any (yet).
What more could have been improved at the moment of shot or afterwards?

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Mats, lots of questions but I will try to answer them all! :c3:

Composition - it does feel tight to me, especially in the lower right where the tail is almost touching both borders of the frame. A little more space on the bottom and right and even more on the left would look better to my eye.

Background - since much of the jay is the same color and similar texture I do find it takes away from the bird. The ideal situation would have been 90 degrees to the left or right so there would only be the perch in the image. Of course you would have needed a different pose from the bird in that case.

DOF - no more, it would have a negative effect on your nice blurred background. If the rear foot had been sharp, so would the tree which would not have helped the merging situation at all.

Noise reduction - I don't see a lot of noise but a light round of NR on just the bg would be nice. Especially clean for the high ISO.

I think I've said all I could think of for this shot. The main thing at the time of capture for me would be to not have the tree in the bg.

[John Chardine]

Hi Mats- Great to see this species. Reminds me a lot of our Grey Jay.

You pose some good questions. In no particular order- for me the OOF tree is fine behind the bird and I don't see much noise. The main issue as you have mentioned is that the subject is too tight in the frame. For the wall you could do something about this by adding canvas and cloning the green BG like I've done here (not a "landscape" but the subject has more room). I find the face a little dark so some dodging here brightens things up a little.

[Mats Honkamaa]

Thanks for comments and repost guys, really made things clearer! Once again I am amazed by the comments you get on this forum. Its so helpful! :5

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Mats, what type of kit did you use.

Not bad, agree it is a tad tight and the background could be better. Of all the issues I have with my photography,..it is controlling backgrounds. I need to watch for best place(s) to capture the light and plan ahead. Thanks for posting,..let's see some more.

[Mats Honkamaa]

Hello Jeff and thanks for your comment. I used Canon 7D and Canon EF400/5.6L USM.