A couple more birds

[icassell]

Playing with stacking my TC's. Hideously slow, but not as bad IQ as I thought it was going to be

These were with my 30D and Sigma 100-300mm f4 EX
Stacked Sigma 1.4X and 2X EX Teleconverters (840mm)

 

[250Gimp]

Nice shots, too bad they are so soft. I think you may have been better off with one TC and then crop, but I could be wrong.

The second one is better than the first, but still a bit soft for my liking.

 

[Overread]

certainly soft and you can see the effect of the TCs in the light loss = perhapse you could try overexposing a little to correct that (tricky with wildlife where you can't use a slower shutter speed.)
I think with some more pp work you can get some servicable "websized" shots from this, but I think fullsize is pushing it a little. Good to see the experimenting!

As for composition I like both in that respect - even though in the second you have cut the tail of the bird short the focused attention in its face and the little extra distance infront of him draws the attention of the eye.

 

[icassell]

Thanks, both. Yes, I agree on the soft comments. Was just seeing if I could get a servicable pic from the stack and I think I can. It will be a very long time before I can afford an 800mm lens. Would have been better on the tripod, but forgot to bring it out for this experiment. I love the lens with the 1.4x, not so much with the 2x, and the combined is pushing the limits.

I appreciate the composition comments too -- thanks so much.