Blue Tit

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi folks ... another one from the local park " set up " .
Just provided a perch and a bit of food ... sat on a bench and wait


Canon EOS R3
EF 500 IOS L II + 1,4 TC
Monopod

F 7,1 ; Iso 16.000 ; 1/3200 sec

Processed with Capture One and PSCC 2023 ; slight crop for comp

Thanx for watching and commenting to my previous postings

Cheers Andreas

[Dorian Anderson]

There's a lot to like here! Bird and perch are equally colorful, and they crack on the clean BG. Composition looks great. Details are super.
You must have been really close since f/7.1 failed to keep the flank, back, and tail in focus.

[Jonathan Ashton]

The image looks a little on the cold side to me Andreas (despite my mentioning I was experiencing some color difficulties!) I have attached a modification, WDYT?
Focus is good but the DOF lets it down, I can accpet the tail but I would expect the wing coverts to be in focus.

[Kurt Bowman]

Very nice all around Andreas! I really dig the perch too. I just wish more of the bird was in focus (due to DOF). You had plenty of SS. Not sure why the high ISO? Could have dropped that and stopped down. Unless you of course were planning for a take-off shot. I do that often too.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks so much folks ... glad you like it .

I would agree in a nice world I would have more DOF ... but what are the possible variables when shooting these not really big birds ???
You should know the DOF calculator .... it bis giving me narrow DOF of roughly 2 cm under the chosen settings and the low light that it was shot in .
So distance to subject is given , roughly 4,5 - 6 m ... focal length is given ( 700 mm ) .... shutter speed / aperture and ISO ( Auto Iso ) is chosen by me or cam . Shot in manual mode as always .
High SS is chosen to get sharp images , as these little Tits are constantly jumping all over the place ... constantly moving their head , I have tried to shoot them with 1/1600 sec .... useless when being in action . So I decided to go way faster , hence the Iso being bumped up to 51200 .
Back to the key for more DOF .... the f stop .
I have shot up to F 9 with not much more DOF ( at least not what you folks are asking for ) ... simply with F 9 I will have between 3-4 cm of DOF , again not enough to fulfill your requirements to get the bird sharp from beak to tail . At F11 it just just 5 - 6 cm .... not enough to get the whole subject sharp , when the bird is not parallel to the sensor .

From my POV there is only one solution ... go away from tiny subject and crop in harder , not sure if that is a good idea ?? !!

So i am open to your suggestions ... how to deal with it .

Cheers Andreas

[Andreas Liedmann]

The image looks a little on the cold side to me Andreas (despite my mentioning I was experiencing some color difficulties!) I have attached a modification, WDYT?
Focus is good but the DOF lets it down, I can accpet the tail but I would expect the wing coverts to be in focus.

Thanks Jon ... my cool color grading is chosen because of the cold scene I have captured. For sure possible to go a tad warmer .. if one likes it , does work as well . . Thanks for taking the time to make the RP .

Cheers Andreas