Blue Tit

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon 500mm f4 L IS tripod head, ISO 250 1/1000 sec f5.6
Shot taken from garden hide, sunflower seeds as bait.

[Randy Stout]

Jonathan:

Well exposed, fun perch, good background.

The head looks a bit soft. The perch seems sharper to my eye, as does the chest. Despite the shutter speed, wonder about a bit of motion blur softening the head.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Cool perch Jonathan, and just love that tiny wing. I like the multi colours on the little guy. May I ask why you use a low ISO, as even pushing it up to 640 would have given you much more ss, thus having a sharper image. Im not familiar with the 7D, but with my 50D, ( a lesser model than the 7D ) Im not afraid to shoot with ISO 800, and still produce a decent image. Killer BG.

[Peter Dexter]

Great pic and neat little bird. I'm seeing many photos where people have used F5.6. I've been charry about using that aperture with my 400 5.6 but maybe I'll give it a try. I could sure use the light.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for the comments , I agree I should have used a higher ISO to give better SS & aperture. I am always trying to go for a lower ISO when I think I can get away with it. I agree the results can be good at higher ISOs but there is a better picture quality at the lower ISO. I have recently been doing quite a lot at ISOs 800 up to 1250 and experimenting with noise reduction and the amount of sharpening. Although there is less detail in the higher ISO images I am finding that the sharpening can be tricky, often the images are looking oversharpened. I generally use a two stage sharpening process for the web. Briefly I resize to about double image size - say 2048px, then I apply Smart sharpen at 160 -180 at 0.3, resize to 1024 px and finish off with Smart sharpen at 60-80 at 0.1.
BTW I have a 50D also and I agree good results are perfectly achievable at ISO 800, I think unless the light is excellent (which is unlikely from now on!!) I need a minimum of ISO 400 and more likely 640-800. If there is an element if sunshine I find I need to underexpose by 1/3 to 2/3 stop to prevent blowing out the highlights if the light is more muted a straight exposure usually works well. Depending upon magnification I try to get as near as possible to f8 to give a reasonable DOF but to be honest there is not a great difference in DOF between 5.6 and f8.
I would be interested to read if you have similar or dissimilar views.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jonathan, thanks for your feedback, and I dont disagree with anything you stated. Yes, a lower ISO will render better IQ, but only in good light, as you will then have the ss too. I have heard of your sharpening process, and did try it a few times with success. i just find it a bit bothersome with the double resizing. Im sure there are many members on the site that have their own way of sharpening, and as long as it produces the results, it should be fine.
With regards to DOF, the closer you are to your subject, I agree, F/5.8 - F/8 will not make much difference to your DOF.

As you have a set up there, Im sure you are having fun experimenting, and thats what it is all about, for you to produce the best results. Its also great to capture different visitors to your setup. Looking forward to more. Cheers.

[Robert Holguin]

Great shot. I really like the perch, real great light and background.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice light and BG, the critical focus is on the perch leaving the head a bit soft which hurts the otherwise interesting image. you also need more shutter speed for a shot like this, my min ISO for bird photography is 400.