Sharpened with topazs AI, sharpness quality.
Overall composition, placement of bird in frame
Canon RP, Canon 800mn F-11 @ 1/1000, F-11 ISO 1 250, Hand Held. Removed dead section using Fill Selection
(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
I think your composition is fine. Placement of the bird is fine. I think I’d do something to remove the open area in the top left corner.
Technicals: The bird just isn’t sharp. You noted that you applied sharpening, but there just isn’t any detail to speak of in the bird. I see more details and sharpness in parts of the foliage, so I think the focus point was just where it needed to be.
There are noticeable cloning artifacts below bird at the edge of the frame. Don’t know if this is what you referred to in your post about removing dead section.
Thank you for your comments. I think I need to stop trying to use telephoto lenses hand held!
Largely agree with Keith. I like the action, but I think the biggest issue is that you were too far away. The large crop has hurt the image quality.
It it were a sharper image, I’d crop from the top and right, but the IQ is already hurting. Hand holding a lens that long can make it very difficult to get the focus point right on the bird, and with a busy BG you need to have just one small point active. It also makes it very difficult to get a sharp image from the standpoint of camera/lens motion blur. It looks like you have done some strong noise reduction which has degraded the image. If noise is a common issue for you, you might want to try Topaz DeNoise. The last several iterations have been amazing. Use it before you have done anything else in PS.
I did use Topaz AI, denoise. Thanks for your comment. Will work on getting better at focusing this particular lens. I am beginning to realize that I need to work closer even with the 800mm lens.
