Great Tit

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon 500mm f4 L IS tripod head, ISO 640 -0.67 1/640 sec f8
Another shot from my garden hide, I decided f8 so he turned and I still didn't get the tail!

All C & C welcome.

[Randy Stout]

Jonathan:

Inquisitive pose, well exposed, very nicely scaled perch, I am OK with tail being out of plane of focus. Good catchlight.

When I do a setup, I try my best to be sure the perch is parallel to the back of camera to try and keep it all in the plane of focus.

Wish the light was just a little bit closer to over your shoulder so that the flank wasn't quite so shadowed.

Cheers

Randy

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Randy, I often have the perch parallel myself but I have found that if it is at a slight angle I can sometimes get a better head angle and or light angle - as you might guess there is luck and judgement in these points - depending upon time of day and if the bird has read the rule book.

[Randy Stout]

Jonathan:

I appreciate juggling all the variables. You can sometimes control or at least influence the head angle by where the food supply is in relationship to your perch and blind. If they are perching prior to flying in to a feeder, they generally will be looking where they are going to fly to, at least part of the time.

cheers

Randy

[Chuck Fritsch]

Interesting texture on the perch. I like it a lot. I also like the perch being angled as part of the composition. It is a nice change from all the parallel stuff you see.

As long as your are using a set up you can fix the focus problems by taking several pictures without the bird and using them to stitch together an in focus perch. Some fill flash can help with the lighting problems. ( I admit I am a lighting freak.)