At this time the most common non-sparrow coming to my backyard are starlings. I decided to photograph some of their behavior since they were there.
Just overall image quality and interest.
Is this a composite: No
Canon RP, Canon 800mm F-11, 1/500 ISO 2000, hand held. Taken through a window.
Picture quality looks all right to me. You may be able to add a bit more selective sharpening to the birds. The trick for me shooting a group of birds is to get the most foreground bird placed where I want in the frame and then focus on that bird. Here the focus seems to be on bg birds. I think getting the fg bird in focus and especially as this is only one sort of looking at camera would have helped create more interest. Nice grouping of the birds tho.
Thank you for your comments. I will work on focusing on the front bird. I will try to post more of these guys.
Hi John. I agree with David on where the focus should be, though with f/11, I would kind of expect more depth of field. If I recall, this is a fixed aperture lens, so you can’t do much about depth of field, so picking the right spot to focus in the group is critical. I think I’d use single point AF so you have control over exactly where that focus is going to be. Exposure of the dark birds against the snow looks good and they’re in full breeding plumage, which is nice.
Thank you Dennis. It is a fixed aperture lens, which does limit it in some ways. I normally use a single focus point. I think I should have dropped it down some to make sure I got the foremost bird in focus.
Hi John! I really like this image. I love Starlings, I think they’re so beautiful and funny at the same time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them sitting on the ground like this. It’s a really unique photo.
