House Sparrow

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Maybe not up to par with some of the others, but I figure I won't learn anything unless I post.
40D
f5.6
100-400 @400
1/125 s
ISO 800
Cropped to vertical
Tripod
BB fill flash at -2
+1/3 in AV Mode
Critiques appreciated.

[Raymond Barlow]

very vicely done Jackie! If anything just a little soft. I like the perch and pose a lot.

[Art Kornienko]

Hi Jackie, were you using the 400 5.6L? I like the perch, it gives the shot a real 3D effect, the feet look quite sharp but I find the body looks a little smooth, did you use very much noise removal? Crop is nice, I would have maybe lightened the eye area a bit, and it looks like there is a slight outline/line along the bottom of the breast area just above the bird's right foot which maybe the lighting?

[Paul Lagasi]

Jackie nice photo...Color in perch, diagonal line and ice on it, love it. I've had similar problem with focusing, I usually am so excited to get a bird in range, I don't pay attention to where my focus point is...and then body is in focus but head is slightly out of focus, in your photo, feet, perch and left wing are in focus, probably shallow DOF or slow shutter speed and bird turned his head at last minute. Try focusing on head..if I've learned one thing in here...it doesn't work if eye and head are not in focus.
Hope this helps a bit...
I am no pro but learning...lolol..goes to show (in my case at least) you can teach and old dog new tricks...Paul

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I was focusing in on the head but I think you are right Paul, I think the bird moved its head at the last minute as I try to focus on the eye. Couldn't get the SS up any more as the ISO was already very high. Art the line is the lighting (what little we had). Thanks for all your critiques, I found them all very helpful!

[Arthur Morris]

Ooops. Not done yet. It looks fairly sharp to me and the EXP is good. The biggest problem is that the bird's head is turned away from you, and as you said, this may be part of the reason that the head is a bit less in focus than the rest. lastly, the perch is pretty large for a House Sparrow.