The thieving magpie!

Nothing special, but I thought I would post my first ever bird shot with a DSLR. This was taken with my new 7D + 70-200 Mk II f/2.8 lens. I should have used a tripod + remote release but I'm reasonably happy with this as a first attempt.

Nice first bird shot Chris, why do you think you need a tripod + remote? the 70-200 has great IS.

Joe52 wrote in post #15181740
Nice first bird shot Chris, why do you think you need a tripod + remote? the 70-200 has great IS.

You're right, but I just thought it would be even sharper with a tripod.

What was the shutter speed, ISO etc, & how did you processing the image?

Joe52 wrote in post #15181776
What was the shutter speed, ISO etc, & how did you processing the image?

It was ISO 100; 1/40; f/3.5; 0 ev; @ 200mm. No PP apart from a crop.

Chris Hall wrote in post #15181801
It was ISO 100; 1/40; f/3.5; 0 ev; @ 200mm. No PP apart from a crop.

I shoot with a 7D also, & most of my shots are 400 or 800 ISO, so to be safe, you could have shot this one at 400 ISO at 1/160, & still get a nice results, depending on the size of the crop, you can also give it a bit of sharpening

beautiful shot Chris, detail and color are great

Thanks Rick, and thanks for the settings advice j

It's a very good, first shot. It can be tough to expose those black/white birds at first, and you did a nice job.

As Joe mentioned, this would have been a bit sharper if you'd brought your ISO up a couple of stops and then used a faster shutter speed; as you're getting started, try really hard to keep your shutter speed as close to 1/200 or higher as you can.

Great shot, nice and sharp, good first. I agree these pied birds are hard on exposure, if you are not shooting raw then look into it.

Thanks for all the great advice!