Yesterday was my first day out in a long time. Hopefully I can get more active again. I saw this song sparrow while hiking the Roy Arthur Storm Water Park near Knoxville Tennessee.
Specific Feedback Requested
Anything critique to improve is appreciated. Should I go more vertical instead of square?
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon 90D
Sigma 150-600 C Hand Held @ 562mm.
ISO 640 (auto ISO) due to changing light and trying to keep my shutter speed at 1000 minimum
F 6.3
This is a 50 percent crop to eliminate distractions,
Cleaned up using Topaz Denoise
Slight vignette applied to emphasize the subject.
Nice to see you back. This is a good pose and set up. I like the second OOF branch as it makes a nice frame. Wish the bird was in focus though. It’s just too soft, but small birds can be so hard. The background is super. Revisit this spot if you can. I love the small, new leaves.
Glad to see you back. Your autofocus keyed in on the bramble rather than the sparrow. For this type of bird shot , try a smaller aperture like f8 and crank up the ISO and let the camera do the work. The crop is fine and perhaps a more vertical crop on might be better on another image in the series if available. Work on your focusing technique and am sure the song sparrow will oblige you with another series of photos…Jim
I like the composition. There is a painterly feel to the image that I like. The OOF branch works, but I could also see a more vertical crop, removing that branch.
Hi Allen, Thank you for the feedback. I definitely need to get back out to learn and keep my sanity. I am not living unless I am learning. Is this how you imagined the crop? I can notice the softness in the photo now.
Maybe a tad more room on the right for the sparrow to look into, but I like the combination of the bird and the perch and the painterly feel of the image.
That’s a much better crop, to me. The OOF limb in the first felt unbalanced. More canvas on the left would have helped.
I always view image at 100% to evaluate sharpness – far better than the loupes we had back in film days! The focus issue here may not have been due to hand holding,as the leaves don’t show any camera shake. It looks like the focus sensor may have just found the leaves more interesting. A tripod does help nailing focus on the subject, for sure.
