Great tit feeding

[EzhilSuresh]

Of late, I've been trying to capture small birds feeding. Had a decent wintry day to try out photographing small birds that come by the feeder. This great tit was captured feeding at the feeder.

Comments are welcome.

Canon 7D, 600 F4 IS, 1.4x III, AFMA +3, ISO 1000, f5.6, 1/2000, used DPP to do noise reduction, add sharpness and convert from RAW to JPEG.

[Joel Eade]

You captured a good pose and head angle resulting in good eye contact. The exposure looks pretty good too.

I am not seeing the amount of feather detail I would expect with the gear you are using and the shutter speed you used. I don't know if it's due to harsh lighting or maybe the image needs a little more sharpening.

Was this a very large crop?

[EzhilSuresh]

Joel, many thanks for your feedback. I cropped about 30%-40% from the original. The original was quite noisy and noise reduction could very well have diminished the feather details.

[John Chardine]

Nice portrait. Agree with Joel that the IQ is not what you would expect. However, it is no easy task to make sharp images with a 600 and 1.4tc attached, but it comes with practise. I think a little looser crop and another round of sharpening might just do it.

[nancy hazen]

Nice pose on a very cute bird. I agree about the focus, but enjoyed seeing this bird. Have fun working on it. I sure am jealous of that long lens.
Nancy

[Kerry Perkins]

Ezhil, a nicely framed portrait indeed but there is a lack of detail overall. It seems like the camera didn't pick a focus point at all. What focus mode did you use on the capture? The ISO seems really high for full sun - did you lower the exposure in DPP?

[EzhilSuresh]

Kerry, many thanks for the feedback. According to the camera, the focus point is just below the eye. Used AI Servo, Rear-focus (Artie's technique), Low Speed Continuous, Evaluative metering, Single point manual selection focus.