Critique welcomed, here are my camera settings 1/1000th,5.6,ISO 200. No flash. Only adjustment is Lightroom was cropping and changing the Tone Curve preset to medium contrast. Please let me know how you would tweak it differently. The picture was taken on a Canon 5D3 with the 400/5.6 prime.
I really like these little Bluejays, lovely looking birds.
For me, there are a couple of issues with this shot. The main one is you seem to have missed critical focus on the bird. I don't know what you used for your focus settings, but for perched birds in general, and when shooting cluttered situations like this, single point aimed on the eye is pretty much a must. I think on this occasion your focus point has hit a branch.
Next up, if this is a backyard setup, try and look at getting your subject on a perch with a clean background. I fully accept birds live in messy and cluttered trees but for a photo, a cleaner background is generally preferable. If you're feeding the birds, maybe look to put a perch near to the food with a nice BG and wait until they perch where you want them.
Regarding your other settings, nothing wrong with using ISO 200, but I'd recommend pushing it, even when you don't think you have to. My base ISO for my 5d3 is usually 800, the available IQ is so good that I like to take advantage of either a faster shutter speed for optimal sharpness or increased depth of field for artistic reasons.
Keep posting, always good to have more members on board.
Thanks for the feedback, Mike. I can see where the eye is slightly OOF. I was using the 9 center AF points, so that is a good tip. Those birds love flying from tree to tree across the backyard.
Good comments from Mike.
I would also add that the Bg is very busy. It is always nice to see the environment that the bird lives in, but all these branches pull the eye away and compete with the blue jay.
Welcome to BPN,
Gail
Backyard Bluejay
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