Greenfinch

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 50D canon 100-400L IS bean bag @ 360mm ISO 400 Manual exp 1/1250 sec f8, flash didn't fire ....but there was a reflector! Shot taken from garden hide, sunflower seeds as bait.

I have a series of in flight shots of Greenfinches, I would appreciate your comments on this one.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Head nice and sharp, not easy to get these guys in flight. Colors look good. Maybe a bit dark for my taste, I would like to see it a bit brighter but still a nice image! Maybe a sliver off the top and bottom. Nice one Jonathan

[Randy Stout]

Jonathan:

Excellent pose, like the head clear of merge with far wing, framing works for me.

I agree with Dumay, could go a sliver brighter for me as well.

I do wish there was a bit more DOF so that at least the near wing was sharper. Not easy to do of course and keep your shutter speed up and ISO reasonable. I might trade a little ISO for bit more DOF.

Look forward to more in your series.

Randy

[Doug Brown]

Like the wing position, eye contact, and BG. Do wish it was sharper; I would have opened up to f/6.3 and bumped my ISO to 800 to get more shutter speed. These are small fast flyers, so you need all the shutter speed you can get. BTW the 50D can easily handle ISO 800 and higher in good light.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks very much for the comments - just what I needed, I will look to see if I got any at ISO 800, and to please everyone will make it a bit brighter and one at f6.3 and one at f8-f11. Thanks again - it really helps me to read other people's comments because I find I sometimes have a blinkered view on my own work.

[Stu Bowie]

A very fast flier Jonathan, so well done on getting him in the frame. Sharp where it counts, and I like your garden BG. Another vote for some off the top and bottom.

[Daniel Cadieux]

As per Doug I would definitely raise the ISO if you are going for small birds in flight. Good pose, although I do normally prefer wings up rather than wings down poses. Looks like the face may have very slightly suffered from subject motion blur.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

For small birds, that SS is not fast enough. Hopefully you get more chances. you got real nice angle on the bird and nice BG.

[Mitch Carucci]

A hard pic to get! I like it as it is, but I wonder if a bit more internal contrast in the bird (not the BG) might make it stand out more.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks again gents for your comments - I certainly will ensure a faster shutter speed, as it turned out I did take some at ISO 800 but my focus was out by a mm or two (needless to say some great poses too!)
Regards contrast I did enhance it a little in Camera RAW, but point noted.

[Craig Brelsford]

For small birds, that SS is not fast enough. Hopefully you get more chances. you got real nice angle on the bird and nice BG.

I have this practice now of studying the image and composing my comment in my head before reading the others'. I must have read Kaus's mind, because he's already covered my main points. 1/1250 is nowhere near fast enough for little birds in flight. That's just a recipe for near-misses and frustrations. Your cutoff is probably double that, and I wouldn't feel comfortable until about 1/3200. You've definitely got something going here with your garden hide; I'm sure you'll keep getting good opportunities. Good luck.