Sparrowhawk what could I have done differently

[Iain Barker]

I was please to have just been able to capture something useable when I spotted this Sparrowhawk in a neighbours tree.
It was taken about 20 minutes after sunset and it was quite dark. The shot is handheld leaning on my car. I would like to know what I could have done to get better IQ in this situation. Would it have been better to increase the iso for a higher shutter speed or would a higher ISO have been more detrimental to the IQ.

Nikon D7000, 300mm F4 AF +1.4x tc. 1/30 sec f5.6 ISO2000

[Diane Miller]

Every situation is so unique -- with the light you described, and a fleeting opportunity, I'd say you did great! I don't know that camera so don't know where I would have gone with the ISO -- that's something to test in more controlled conditions so you know the limits. With my Canon 5D3 I do see loss of detail, along with noise, at ISOs (above 1600). But software is getting better and NR and sharpening can be accomplished to some extent in post processing. I'd rather risk high ISO than too low a shutter speed. If I have time, I'll bracket everything I can think of.

Critical focus on the subject's eye is also important to digging out as much detail as possible.

But I'll bet you know all that!!

Some crop from the left, to get rid of the bright area, and a little top and bottom, would make the subject stand out a little more. I'd experiment with color balance and some careful sharpening on the bird.

[Luis Patacao]

Hi Ian, fully agree with Diane and as i have a D7000 my choice would have been to raise the ISO. It can handle reasonably well the high ISO settings.

[Iain Barker]

I guess the thing to do would be to go out an do some test shots in fading light to test the different ISO settings to find an acceptable limit.

[Diane Miller]

Definitely. I'm doing that first thing with my new 7D2. Find a still subject and test with 0 EC, under and over, then adjust the over and under values to match the 0 exposure, to really see where the limits are.

I try to get an idea of the camera's idea of proper exposure by shooting an "18% gray card" the same way, but I have seen significant differences in gray cards.

[David Salem]

Yep, higher ISO and SS. 1/30th is just to slow for HH shots even if bracing on the car. The shot has to much motion blur to be fixed. Nice looking hawk though. Keep trying.

[Edward Arthur]

Nice shot and worth working on. I'd try a different crop to zero-in on the bird more. I'm not familiar with your camera and it's capabilities, but yes crank up the ISO in situations like this to get the SS at least close to your focal length number when shooting HH. Might require some denoise anyway in pp. Shake reduction filter in PS CC or FocusMagic can work wonders on motion blur.

[Mike Herdman]

It is nice image, worth keeping and working, and we take what we can get sometimes...it does suffer from what everyone else has said and I would also follow what they suggested.