Zitting Cisticola

[Kamal Hari Menon]

Captured this guy in last summer on a bright and sunny morning..

Background was not good with lots of vertcal lines of the reeds in background which I tried to clean up a little..

EXIF
Camera Nikon D7100
Lens Nikkor 300mm f4
Exposure 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 420 mm
ISO Speed 220
Exposure Bias -1/3 EV
Exposure Program Aperture-priority AE
Date and Time (Original) 2013:06:09 09:31:36
Approximate Focus Distance 3.16

But Im not happy with this photo..I don't know the reason why it is not tack sharp...There was lot of light and subject was very close..

Any suggessions that would help me to understand and do it better next time.

Thanks in Advance
Kamal

[Randall Farhy]

Kamal, what an adorable little fella you captured here! This is a wonderful image. I think you did a solid job cleaning up the BG-only thing there I might try would be to burn slightly the bright area to the right and above head, soft brush.

I see a minor amount of movement blur, branch to right side shows it the most-shutter speed is marginal for the lens/sensor combo, opening up to to f6.3 and increasing shutter would've helped there.

Did you apply selective sharpening on the bird? Lot's of detail that can still be brought out. Finally, did you output sharpen the file? Reducing files for Web posting often softens them quite noticeably.

I've used a local brush in LR5 to sharpen the head and rump of the bird- (in fact I overcooked it a little to show what's there) and applied output sharpen for screen, standard. Hope this helps-R

[kevin Hice]

Hi Kamal nice image I really like the green background Would agree with Randall above I wonder where the focal point was because even with the over sharpening it is still soft. Look at the top of the head. One other thing the iso might have been a little low.

[Diane Miller]

What a gorgeous catch of a really cute bird!! And you did a great job on the BG! Randall makes a good point about the lighter area, though. His sharpening is also a great improvement. But I assume you are saying the Raw file wasn't tack-sharp, which is something I always want to see.

As to the softness, it could be the focus point was a little off, but maybe more likely slight camera shake. If my triopd isn't on very firm ground I will get softer images. The SS is on the low side -- does the lens have IS? Did you wait a split second for it to kick in completely before hitting the shutter? Was it right at the close-focus distance? Lots of possible pitfalls.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Kamai, OP looks good to me, there is detail, clarity and sharpness, all looks good from my perspective. Techs also work and using the 300 HH is never an issue, with this lens it gives you flexibility. BKG also looks good, not sure about your reservations? Having more space between subject & BKG is ideal, but quite often is sadly not achievable in real life, well certainly for wildlife.

Nice work.

TFS
Steve

[Kamal Hari Menon]

Thanks for the Inputs Randall,Kevin,Diane and Steve,

I did slight sharpening on the bird alone.. but no output sharpening. will keep this in mind next time..

Focal point was near the eye of the bird, but still the raw file is not looking tack sharp. The lens im using doesn't have VR/IS. I'm using a monopod + ballhead combo. This bird was too close for the autofocus to work porperly.. So I was trying to move little back to get It in range..That coud be the reason for unbalanced shot.

[Diane Miller]

With long telephoto shots, seemingly small things can degrade sharpness, and they can all be cumulative.

[Steve Kaluski]

With long telephoto shots, seemingly small things can degrade sharpness, and they can all be cumulative.

Haven't noticed any loss in IQ/sharpness shooting with 200-400f/4, 300f/2.8, & 500f/4 MKI or II, absolutely spot on IMHO.

[Randall Farhy]

I think Diane was trying to make the point that even minor deviations, be it camera shake, subject movement, ground shake etc. are magnified with the use of longer lenses, and become more of an issue as the focal length increases. CBW.