Stellar Jay Perched

[John Platt]

Shot this camping the other day. Trying to use spot meter mode in order to get better detail in shadows and a lower aperture for more isolation. Still learning PS so feedback is always welcome.



Nikon D700
Nikon 80-200mm EDIF AFS

Exposure Info:
F4
1/1000
iso 2000
exp -.03ev
200mm
spot meter mode

[Alfred Forns]

Hi John

Would highly advise to stop using the spot metering but its your call !!!

Bird is in a goo position in frame, looks like a good size crop and over sharpened Tech wise would lower the ISO a lot if you are using a tripod, there is loss of IQ at that high setting !!! Not sure if you could have moved around a bit but getting separation from the dark oof branch would have been good !!

You did a good job overall, just some tweaks here and there !!! ... by the way your lens should perform well with converters !!!

[Lance Peters]

Hi John - the d700 is a very capable camera - would not hesitate to use the higher ISO when needed - use it to keep your shutter speed at a reasonable level - could have dropped it here shutter speed wise you should have been right down to about 1/200th handheld.

I also would advice against spot metering - just to hard to be sure what the spot is metering and useless for action.
Does look over sharpened - maybe worth posting the original with no changes just a straight conversion to JPG and we can help with how it could look.

[Harshad Barve]

Agreed with Alfred and Lance here , excellent advise , If I were you I would have dialed down ISO , for perched birds lower SS should work ,
TFS

[Dave Mills]

Hi John, good advice above. All I have to add is I would have liked more room to the right of the subject than on the left...

[John Platt]

Thanks for the feedback, I will try to go back and rework it some. I cannot recall adding much sharpening, but it was a substantial crop.

I know that when I resize in PS I am choosing bicubic sharper, perhaps that is adding to the sharpening issue.

Either way I do appreciate the feedback, it takes advice to learn and that is why I am here.

JP