One of the advantages of the leaf-less winter landscape is that small birds are more noticeable. I saw this robin hopping on sticks, then he flew onto a tree and for a brief moment stood still. Click! Picture taken.
Specific Feedback Requested
I struggled with the crop: there were several out of focus sticks creating patches of light, shadow or mess. Also, the ISO is too high and brought noise in the sky which I reduced in Lightroom while trying to retain details in the bird. Any critique is appreciated.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D750
Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6
f/5.6 @400mm ISO1100 1/4000
A very beautiful bird and great background, Esme. I also like the pose a lot. The bird does look a little soft and the out of focus branch is rather distracting, but I don’t think you had much of an option. I don’t know how this lens works with a telconverter, but it might help you get further away and thus a better angle on the subject. Somehow teleconverters never seem to work as well with a zoom as the manufacturers and reviewers say they do.
A gorgeous robin and lovely BG! The bird is lovely against the blues.
The OOF branch isn’t the best but probably not much you could have done. To me, the bird’s pose works well with it, somehow. A smaller aperture might have been better for sharpness. The beak looks tack sharp so it’s maybe a DOF issue – DOF becomes very shallow when you are close to a subject or using a long focal length. I’d think you could have gone with a slower shutter speed and had room for both a lower ISO and slower ss.
@Dennis_Plank and @Diane_Miller thank you for the suggestions. I agree with all points: this was an opportunistic shot, I was lucky with pose and colours but with a smaller aperture I could have had a better chance with the breast feathers.
