I have been trying for ages to get a portrait of these birds from the front. This is the closest I have come to date but I am not sure if this works at all.
Should I have tried to get the beak in focus more?
North Western NSW, Olympus E500, 50-200mm, EC14
RAW, 1/1000 f4.6 ISO 400 Ap. Priority, 0 comp.
Levels, curves, smart sharpen, 65% of original.
Last edited by Ian Colley; 01-28-2008 at 05:59 AM.
I disagree. While I would love to see the bill sharper, I love everything else about it: the background, the amazing eyes, the detail in the black feathers on the cheeks and the breast, the exposure, and the composition.
At 1/1000 at f/4.6 you surely had room for lots of DOF. Have never run across f/4.6 before but if my math is correct you could have made the image at something like 1/125 at f/13. That done, the trick is to focus well in front of the eye, near the base of the beak. DOF with long telephotos at MFD is about 50/50, half in front of the point of focus, half behind.
later and love, artie
ps: What a lovely bird!
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Thanks for the advice and positive comments everyone, I tend to shoot wide open all/most of the time to maintain a higher shutter speed. Hopefully I will get another opportunity with these birds to experiment some more.
Blue-faced Honeyeater
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