This forum has taught me to be much more careful with focus on bird pictures. With my other pictures focus is not such a big deal but with birds it seems that precise focus is everything; the eye has to be sharp!
On this Dickcissel when I zoom in to 100% on the full-size image it is not quite tack-sharp. It will be fine for smaller prints but it won't look good printed big. I’m not sure what the problem with focus was. Perhaps it was the older 2X TC? More likely is user error; I probably did not get the AF point precisely placed.
The other thing I've learned on this forum is that with birds front lighting is a safer bet than other kinds of lighting. With the strong side lighting there are hot spots on this bird. I tried to compensate with my processing in Lightroom but if I had photographed the bird with the sun behind me it would have been better.
You are certain to hear Dickcissels singing if you take a walk through the restored prairies of the Prairie Garden Trust in the summer. They are one of the most common birds in the grassland areas. This bird was standing on top of a wild hibiscus shrub in a wet spot.
All comments and suggestions on how to improve are welcome!
Canon 1D4
600 + 2X TC
f/11
1/800 sec
ISO 1,600
Tripod
Processed with Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC
A beautiful bird, since you mentioned focus, (once again, a newbie here, so I hope my comments are ok) but with your ISO so high and at F/11, I can see the loss of focus in what I think is NR use. Maybe at f/8 and lower ISO with what looks like plenty of light might help keep your focus sharper.
I agree with your assessment, a bit soft. At 1200 mm, with the 1d4 (1.3x crop?), your shutter speed may have been the culprit - even if on a tripod. Did you have IS on? I haven't shot with this combo, but I've seen plenty of images to know what it's capable of (Arash has posted some great stuff). Keep using it and keep sharing!
I'm not a fan of the oof portion at the bottom of the frame. That said, I like the pose and head angle quite a bit!
Dickcissel
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