Great Spotted Woodpecker

[Jamie Medford]

An image from a hide I created in the local woods last year. Attracted with peanuts that I placed in holes drilled into the log.

1/320 F4 ISO800
Canon 7D
Canon 500mm F4 IS
Tripod + Gimbal Head

[gail bisson]

This is very nice Jamie.
I like the soft light, great head turn and moss on the perch.
The IQ is great with lots of detail and great looking reds.
You have great DOF for F4. May I ask how much of a crop this is? I wish you had a bit more DOF as the tip of the bill and the top of the head are very slightly OOF. If this is not a large crop, I find that when you go for tight portraits like this, a good choice of DOF is F8 or my favorite F10. I see that you have a 7D and were probably reluctant to go above ISO 800 but if you make sure you are ETTR ( exposing to the right) you can go to ISO 1600 with the 7D. Daniel C is the master of the 7D and he has many spectacular files at ISO 1600.
A fine image as is though,
Gail

[Jamie Medford]

Thanks for your comments Gail. This is vertical crop from from a horizontal frame. You are spot on the fact that I don't like to push the ISO beyond 800 as I find the file quality deteriorates beyond this and I find it difficult with my processing skills to maintain sharpness. However as you righly pointed out there is some DOF loss which would have probably looked better if I had opened up a little, may be I need to be a bit braver pushing that ISO. Many thanks - Jamie

[Satish Ranadive]

Superb image with nice look back pose. Beautiful colors, nice details in whites and reds.
Rest is mentioned by Gail.

Regards,
Satish.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Great colours here, with a beautiful BG and perfect perch - good job with the setup. Personally I find the head turned a bit too much, I wish it was a couple of degrees more towards us. If you have it I'd also prefer a tad more room above and left. Yes, a well exposed file at 1600 should look good, especially with all the brighter tones featured here.