Tree Swallow

[Gary Esman]

Hello, shot this last evening at the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery near Kalamazoo Michigan.

All comments appreciated.

50D, 500mm + 1.4 tc, 1/1600, f/8, ISO 400. tripod.

Thanks for looking! Gary.

[Randy Stout]

Gary:

Perfect head position for look back pose. Well exposed, nicely scaled perch, clean BG.

DOF is the main concern, and I had exactly the same problem on this shot. Might have tried even smaller f/stop, certainly was plenty of light for it. ( I should have too!)

Maybe a touch more USM on the head?

Cheers

Randy

[Arthur Morris]

The head angle is almost perfect; it could be turned towards you a bit more so as to be square to the back of the camera. And the plumage is interesting. Way more d-o-f is needed for these over-the-shoulder poses and yes to selectively sharpening the head. In addition it looks as if there were some movement in the tail.

[Arthur Morris]

ps: Taking a second look the bird's right wingtip (on our left) looks funky as if you cloned over it...

[Gary Esman]

The head angle is almost perfect; it could be turned towards you a bit more so as to be square to the back of the camera. And the plumage is interesting. Way more d-o-f is needed for these over-the-shoulder poses and yes to selectively sharpening the head. In addition it looks as if there were some movement in the tail.

I am learning that these longer lenses need a very small aperature even for the small birds. As Randy will confess it was very windy while shooting but for some reason the tail just looks blurry to me. No the wings were not touched only a out of focus limb was removed. Have a great one. Gary