Mr. Monkey

Thinking about entering this pic into a local photography competition. Wondering if it looks sharp enough? And if the twig and bokeh are not distracting?

It looks like the focus plane is a bit in front of his face. The sharpest thing in the image are some of the twigs.

AlFooteIII wrote in post #16297011
It looks like the focus plane is a bit in front of his face. The sharpest thing in the image are some of the twigs.

So I missed focus?
The eyes when looking on here are not tack sharp, but when looking at my original before down sizing to post, is quite a bit sharper?

I think it's motion blur. Or rather camera shake... the tree looks "smudged" too.

MavRyder wrote in post #16297025
So I missed focus?
The eyes when looking on here are not tack sharp, but when looking at my original before down sizing to post, is quite a bit sharper?

It's not just the eyes, to me the whole image looks out of focus, and as the previous poster mentioned, most likely Motion blur or camera shake. Do you have exif data for this shot? That would at least prove whether the shutter speed was too slow (especially for quick moving twitchy animals), or something else.

Why not try sharpening the eyes & face.

it's taken at 1/180 f5.6 iso 800 (checked with exif plugin).. which should prove to usually be ok unless the subject is moving fairly rapidly... :/.... the focus plane is narrower as you are quite close to the subject..
Not a bad shot per-say, but would have benefited from focusing on the eyes.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I used a Canon 75-300mm f4-5.6 with no image stabilizer. The monkeys were fairly still.
I did attempt to focus on the eyes but must of missed.

MavRyder wrote in post #16297981
Thanks everyone for the feedback. I used a Canon 75-300mm f4-5.6 with no image stabilizer. The monkeys were fairly still.
I did attempt to focus on the eyes but must of missed.

Taking a second look at it, I am 100% sure it's camera shake. Look at the tree branch... not a single feature in focus. If it was the monkey moving, the tree would not appear having motion blur like that.

For hand holding, especially at the distance, you need to bring up your speeds to about 3x FL. I am shooting exclusively handheld non-stabilized tele lenses now that I moved to mirrorless, and it's entirely possible to get a sharp shot, but you need to practice a lot, and keep shutter speed as high as possible.

Amamba wrote in post #16298380
Taking a second look at it, I am 100% sure it's camera shake. Look at the tree branch... not a single feature in focus. If it was the monkey moving, the tree would not appear having motion blur like that.

For hand holding, especially at the distance, you need to bring up your speeds to about 3x FL. I am shooting exclusively handheld non-stabilized tele lenses now that I moved to mirrorless, and it's entirely possible to get a sharp shot, but you need to practice a lot, and keep shutter speed as high as possible.

My bifocals mess me up I think. I see the flower OOF but not really the tree.
Thanks for the help.