Chickadee

PixelRabbit

A naughty little bunny...
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Took this one today. It was a dreary day... again... so the light was "meh"... decided to work more on focus/DOF. This is the one I was happiest with but unhappy that the focus seems to fall off about half way up his head. Will upping my aperture a bit help with deeper DOF here since I only need it a bit deeper?
Thanks for taking a look!

Shot settings:

F5.6
1/400
ISO200


IMG_7798-1 by Judi Smelko, on Flickr
 
Nice shot! I would mabe brighten just a tad. By the way, what kind of bird is that? Cute!
 
Focus on the eyes. If you get nothing else in focus, get the eyes right. When people look at a portrait, especially a wildlife portrait, the first thing they will normally look at are the eyes. They are the windows to the soul and if they are right it's a good shot. Chickadees are tough because that black cap hides their eyes and makes them nearly invisible. You caught a nice glint in his eye though if you can bring it out.

Yes, a smaller aperture would help with the depth of field. You didn't need 1/400 for a sitting bird, 1/200 @ f/8 would have been better as it would have given you more DOF while leaving the ISO alone. I also agree that it's a bit dark.
 
Duh, it's a chickadee...you said that. I am half focused on superbowl and here....
 
+1 to SCraig. Still a nice shot though.
 
Nice. That's one bird that doesn't sit still for long.
 
Hey all, thanks for the comments :)

Focus on the eyes. If you get nothing else in focus, get the eyes right. When people look at a portrait, especially a wildlife portrait, the first thing they will normally look at are the eyes. They are the windows to the soul and if they are right it's a good shot. Chickadees are tough because that black cap hides their eyes and makes them nearly invisible. You caught a nice glint in his eye though if you can bring it out.

Yes, a smaller aperture would help with the depth of field. You didn't need 1/400 for a sitting bird, 1/200 @ f/8 would have been better as it would have given you more DOF while leaving the ISO alone. I also agree that it's a bit dark.

Thanks SCraig, I have been trying to find a happy medium with my shutter speed for birds who have roosted (for a second or two in the case of the Chickadees lol) or ones in flight and I'm finding that there isn't one, looks like I'm compromising other aspects of the shot (like DOF) for the chance I might catch him taking off or landing etc... so from now on I'm shooting for BIF's with 1/500+ or roosting and not try to mesh the two together.
 
Thanks SCraig, I have been trying to find a happy medium with my shutter speed for birds who have roosted (for a second or two in the case of the Chickadees lol) or ones in flight and I'm finding that there isn't one, looks like I'm compromising other aspects of the shot (like DOF) for the chance I might catch him taking off or landing etc... so from now on I'm shooting for BIF's with 1/500+ or roosting and not try to mesh the two together.
Yeah, they are so unpredictable it's hard to know what to do sometimes. I was shooting a Loon on a lake a couple of months ago and he would paddle along for a minute and then dive underwater. When he surfaced it was 50' to 100' from where he went under and I was trying to predict his movements. I'd set up an exposure for where I expected him to surface only to see him in a completely different location. When you get one it's a good feeling though because they are difficult.
 
I think its just a little underexposed and not out of focus. Plus you said it was dreary. This would not be an easy bird to get a good shot of in lower light conditions due to the black plumage. Still not to bad. Maybe bump the ISo up a bit
 

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