Blue Grosbeak

[Stan Cunningham]

Just got back from 2 days of shooting in SE AZ. Was going for hummingbirds but got some nice consolation shots of passerines.
This one yesterday AM.
Canon 50D (7D at factory), 500 F4 with 1.4 on tripod with Acratech head.
F8 at 1/800 at ISO 500.
Crop about 40%, removed some branches Photoshop, nothing else.
Looking for comments on better DOF. First time using this lens and noting when close (within 7 - 8 M such as this) that even the tail can be slightly soft when I focus on the eye. I'm trying smaller apertures but tough in the best light of early morning. As always, looking for suggestions for improvement.
Thanks
Stan

[Bill Dix]

I love the lookback pose, and the head turn makes the best of the difficult side lighting. I might take some space off of the right, and do some selective pruning (don't know what was to the left, but re-cropping to take the bird out of the center of the frame might be considered). I often forget how much additional DOF you need when you're up close like this; but by going higher than f8 you would bring in more detail in an already somewhat busy BG. Tough situation and you may have made the best of it by allowing the tail to go slightly OOF. Lets see what the experts say.

[nancy hazen]

Stuning Shot! I love the blues.
Nancy

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Stan, these are very colorful and interesting birds. Great that you got a chance to photograph one like this. The issues I see were pretty well summed up by Bill, and I would add that the crop is tight at the bottom and the light was very strong, which makes the bird very contrasty.

As for DOF, I feel that it is ok for the tail to be OOF here. At the magnification and distance you have here you only had about an inch of focus to work with. Going to f/16 would help, but as Bill points out this would make the busy background even more noticeable. Exposure-wise you would have gotten a better deal at that aperture without changing the shutter speed, as there is a lot of light in this image. Agree with the thought to crop from the right.

[Stan Cunningham]

Thanks for the comments guys. You nailed my predicament Bill, and it's kind of standard here in AZ in the desert. The few trees we have (Mesquite and Palo Verde) have hundreds of branches and I have to go with a lower aperature IMO, and glad you and Kerry agree. Harsh light, well that' AZ too until this fall or later in the summer when we have the possibility of clouds. But I appreciate the comments and I'll do what I can in the future to take those things into consideration. Honestly it's nice to finally have enough skills and equipment that I can worry about things like background and light. But I think composition may be hard for a guy that thinks more like a scientist than an artist. Always more to learn and practice.

[John Chardine]

Hi Stan- Great bird, would love to see one. Good comments above. You were fighting harsh light and there's not too much you can do other than avoid it. It would be great if you could coax a little detail out of the eye. Agree with the comments on the comp. Typically you want to give more space in the direction the bird is looking than behind. A tiny bit more room under the tail would be good too. This image would be a good one to practice your masking skills and remove some of the branches.

[Stan Cunningham]

Thanks John,
I see masking mentioned a lot, especially by Art on his blog and email.
But honestly I don't know quite what it is or how to do it.
I can select things and use the clone tool well, I've removed one large branch from in front of the bird, but don't know how to "quick mask".
Can you recommend a source that I might learn about it from?
Thanks for your time as usual.